Not Ashamed

Do you consider yourself to be a Christian?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you felt as a Christian, you should speak out for God? Did you?

It can be difficult to "stand out" from everyone around you and stand up for your beliefs. I have been in situations like that a number of times and if I'm honest with you and with myself, I have to admit I have "sat back" in some of these situations and just kept quiet.

What did I achieve by staying quiet and not sticking up for God? Shame and disappointment! Yes not only was God disappointed in my, I was disappointed in myself and felt ashamed I did not have the courage to "be different" from everyone else and stickup for God.

So how do you make sure you do stick up for God the next time you find yourself in one of these kinds of situations?
Answer - First and foremost you pray! You ask God to give you the strength and the courage to "stand out" and "stand up" for Him. God will give you the strength you need, and He will give you the right words to say to.

So don't be ashamed of being a Christian, praying is our greatest strength in our times of need. Don't let God be ashamed of you!

Rescue Me

When the future looks hopeless, and you're strugging to find a reason to continue, there is one person can gave you the strength to carry on. When you're in so much pain that you just want it to stop now, there's one person who can take all your physical and emotional pain away.

So who is that person? That person is God. God can rescue you from your darkest days and help give you a reason to carry on.

I have been through some very dark times myself and often felt I couldn't face another day physically or emotionally, but God kept telling me to hang on because he was there for me. It's several years on now and I still have some days when I find it difficult physically and emotionally, but I have no doubts that God is with me will rescue me from my darkest times. He can rescue you too, if you'll let Him.

Came To My Rescue by Hillsong United


Came to My Rescue
Falling on my knees in worship
Giving all I am to seek Your face
Lord all I am is is Yours

My whole life
I place in Your hands
God of mercy
Humbled I bow down
In your presence at Your throne

I called You answered
And You came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where You are

In my life be lifted high
In our world be lifted high
In our love be lifted high

All There Is

Yesterday I talked about how much we want/need God in our lives (All I Want - http://thedistinctdot.blogspot.com/2009/08/all-i-want.html), and today I'm going to ask you another two questions:

How much of you does God want you to give Him?
How much of your life have you given to Him?

If your answer to both these questions is not "Everything", please ask yourself why.

There is no doubt that God does want you to give your whole life to Him. He wants all of you. So why have you not given God your all? Are you scared of what he'll ask you to do? Do you feel you're not worthy of God's love? Are you scared of what your family or friends might think?

Whatever your reasons, God can and will help give you the strength and encouragement to do all He wants you to do.
Psalm 199:76-77 (NIV)
May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant.
Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight.

The following are the words of a beautiful song "All There Is of Me" by Sydney Cox, which I find expresses my desire to give "all there is of me" to God:

All there is of me, Lord,
All there is of me.
Time and talents, day by day,
All I give to Thee.

All there is of me, Lord,
All there is of me.
On Thine altar here I lay,
All there is of me.

For time and for eternity,
Take all there is of me.

A Bad Day

Have you ever had a day when everything seems to conspire against you?

Well today's been one of those days for me. From the moment I got out of bed, everything just seemed to not go a smoothly as it could or should have. Here's just a few of today's "issues":

• before I started getting washed I dropped my towel in the bath...when the bath had water in it
• a button fell off my blouse - though fortunately that was before I left the house!
• kicked over the cat's water bowl and got water everywhere
  left the house to go to work, got to my car, no car key, so had to go back into house to get my car key

So that's just some of the things that happened before I go to work today. As for my day at work, it wasn't much better.

What really made my day really bad was the fact that I wasn't feeling very good either - I really just wanted away from work so I could find a nice wee quiet corner where I could curl up and release all the emotions that seemed to have built up inside me.

What kind of day have you had? I hope it's been better than mine!

Either way, how did you get through your day?

When you woke up this morning, did you pray that God would be with you in everything you did today? I did.

When things started going wrong for you, did you pray for God's guidance to see you through? I did.

When you felt the day couldn't get any worse and you felt at your lowest, did you pray that God would give you the strength to carry on? I did.

Just because we pray to God to help us, doesn't mean we'll never face any difficult day. It just means that if we put ourselves in God's hands during those difficult times, He will be by our side guiding us through those difficult times.

Be strong. Let God be your strength.

1 Chronicles 16:11 - Look to the Lord and his strength