Forged By Faith

Deuteronomy 1:31 NIV We've made it. Worn, weary, scared, and more than ready to move on, but we've made it. For many of us this past year will serve as a memory of just how wrong life can go sometimes. It will live in our minds as this time when life changed in many ways. But it should also be remembered as a perfect example of how faithful God really is. He got us through this and we shouldn't forget that! I've spent the past couple of days looking back and thinking about some of the things that we've seen and faced this year. It's hard to put into words everything we've felt these past months. It's hard to wrap our minds around everything that's happened. Like I said this past year has changed things for many people. And to be honest that may be a very good thing! For me personally I look back and see all the times that God kept me going when everything was seeming to crash in on me. I see all the moments that He took my hand and led me through the

Psalm 46:10 NIV Running ahead with this string of hope and peace as we head toward the new in front of us. Nothing we ever face will change who God is or what He has planned. None of the challenges we face up ahead will ever catch Him by surprise or force Him to alter His plans for us. The future He has in store will be fulfilled no matter how hard life or this world tries to change it. He is King. He is Lord. He is out Father and He always will be. We need to gear our lives to living for Him by following Him. Spend your time thinking about who you are in Christ and not who you may be in the eyes of anyone else. Devote time to reading His word and humbly accepting the truth found in those pages. Make your faith a priority and never let anything change that. As this verse is teaching us He will reign victorious when all is said and done. The world might not care about Him or His ways. Some people may mock our faith and laugh at our desire to live good and wholesome lives. We may not fit

Proverbs 3:6 NIV Kind of continuing yesterday's post. While we may have no idea what lies before us in the days and weeks and months ahead, we do know that God will get us through it. It doesn't have to be easy. Doesn't have to be fun. Doesn't even have to make sense. We're here to live out God's will for our lives and that's all that matters in the end.  When we commit ourselves to following God's paths then it just doesn't matter if life makes sense. It doesn't matter if we understand what's happening or why it's happening. We can simply keep walking forward knowing that whatever happens is just meant to happen. No more trying to force things. No more foolishly fighting to make things go our way. No more worrying about trying to understand the whys and reasons for things.  A life spent trusting in God is one of true peace. There have definitely been times this past year where peace has been nearly impossible to find. That's exactly

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV Here's another lesson that I've taken away from this year that will live in infamy: we don't have any idea what the days to come have in store. Every single year as we celebrate New Year's Day we're all filled with hope and excitement that the new year will be better than the one before. Think it's safe to say that this year didn't quite pan out like that! It's been one thing after another pretty much this whole year. Pandemics, food and supply shortages, violence and riots, natural disasters, wildfires, and the list of rough circumstances continues. Gotta be honest, really feel like Yellowstone missed a golden opportunity to cap this year off by erupting! All jokes aside we've faced a lot this year and most of it nobody would have ever seen coming. That's how life goes. We don't have the luxury of seeing the future. Shoot, sometimes we don't even have the luxury of understanding the present. Thankfully we have a God wh

Hebrews 10:23 NIV If 2020 has taught us anything it's that we need something extremely powerful to hold onto in life. No matter how much wishing and hoping we try, we will never be able to eliminate the uncertainty and surprise from life. We will always be faced with things that are beyond our control. So we need something that is unmovable inside of us to keep from getting rocked when life inevitably hits again. Our faith brings us this hope that is unending and unwavering. Sure we still get hit by the things that life brings our way. It's one of those facts of life that nobody can escape. But even though we face things that are beyond our control we don't have to be at the mercy of emotions or the frustration that comes with trials and tribulations. I wanted to share this one today because we're less than a week from a new year. This time more than ever before we're all ready to ditch the old and hopefully welcome a new year that is lightyears better than this las

Psalm 118:24 ESV There's always this huge build up to Christmas day. All of the shopping, planning, cooking, and celebrating. Then the day after it's like this crash back to reality when all of the celebrations are over. We start packing up the decorations and find places to put up all the gifts that we received. While Christmas has come and gone, our rejoicing and celebrating the gifts we've been given should never stop! I felt the need to share this one today to remind everyone that this is a great day too. It is another remarkable gift in itself. Every day is. Holidays get this extra excitement with all of the festivities, but in reality, we should celebrate every single day that we're given. Not because they're all full of parties and too much food but because God chose to open our eyes one more time. One of the biggest lessons that my parents have always taught me is to be happy in the small things. Not every day is going to be perfect. We won't wake up eve

Matthew 1:21 NIV A Son. A Friend. A Teacher. A Healer. A Guide. A Rock. A Savior. Today we celebrate the greatest gift ever given! No matter what we have or don't have we always have Christ. No matter what we face in this life we always have the assurance that He's with us. Even we don't get our way we can rest peacefully knowing that things will always go His way. Nothing we face, nothing we do, nothing we feel will ever send Him running! I don't know about you but this Christmas just feels a little more special for some reason. Maybe it's because of all we've seen and experienced this past year. Maybe it's because of the hope that Christmas always brings for a brighter tomorrow. It could be that these past months have taught me just how blessed I truly am. Whatever the reason today is one that we should all spend celebrating and being thankful for the gifts in our life. Family, friends, shelter, clothing, food, water, security, peace, happiness, hope, free

Matthew 2:10 NIV If you don't love this time of the year I don't know what's wrong with you! No matter what's been happening or how weird any year has been, once we get to Christmas time it all just seems more peaceful. And the more that I prioritize faith and focus on growing in Christ the more special all of this feels! Christmas is the fulfillment of a promise. It's the ultimate proof that God is faithful to who He claims to be and all He says He has planned. We're down here going through the day-to-day journey of His will and we can't possibly see the bigger picture. We get to open this thing called life one day at a time. But God sees it all. He knows what's ahead, what's behind, what's happening right now. He knows how we're feeling, what we're struggling with, and what we need to learn and grow into who He made us to be. And the most amazing part is that He will always pull through on His promises for us. We never need to doubt or

Proverbs 16:9 NIV Here's another little brutal truth that hit me the other day: stop thinking that this world or anyone in it is going to cater to you. I think selfishness is one of those things that is almost instinctual in most of us. We get caught up living our lives the way we want to live them and think that everyone around us will understand and accept that. Not really the way it works though. I was sitting in a drive thru the other day thinking about how my normal schedule was being interrupted. I tend to follow a pretty normal routine, and when things happen that force me to adjust it, well it usually leads to frustration. But then I heard this voice pop in my mind that reminded me to stop taking everything in life so seriously all the time. So what if our routines get interrupted? Who cares is we have to push things back a little bit? Does it really matter if we end up having to skip something that we had planned? No. We get to this point where we think things have to be d

Jeremiah 1:6 NIV I'm too young. I'm tired. I'm scared. I'm worried. I don't feel good. I don't know how. I can't see how it will work out. I don't understand. I can't see the reason. I think someone else may not like it. I'm afraid that I might fail. Excuses are some of the easiest things in life to find. But we can either make excuses or we can make progress. Very rarely do those go hand in hand. That idea hit me yesterday when I finished a workout that I had all but talked myself out of doing. Had a headache, felt tired, just really preferred the sound of sitting on the couch to doing more pushups. But through this life-changing journey of getting healthier and taking better care of myself there's this fire that refuses to let me quit. It's easy to find an excuse to not do something that's hard, but I know that not doing it will never help me get better. So instead of listening to all of those comfy ideas telling me to skip it, I ch

Matthew 16:25 NIV In just a few short days we'll be celebrating the birth of a Savior. It's always been one of my favorite holidays, one of the most peaceful times of the year. And the more I've started focusing on my faith and really making it a priority in my life the more meaningful it has become. Just the idea that the Son of God would give His life to save mine is something that's beyond words. I've been reading through Matthew for several days now and I am always amazed by all the lessons that the Gospels share. They say that the answers to pretty much all of our questions are written in red and I have to say that's dead on! This is one that kind of popped in my mind when I was thinking about today's post. Jesus showed us the power of dying to sin on the cross. His gift has truly set us free from our broken pasts. He carried all of our sins to that grave so that we could live for something more. One of the biggest things that I've learned in this j

Hebrews 10:35 NIV Today is my mom's birthday and not to sound all cheesy but she really is one of the best people I know. She's been through so much and keeps going. No matter what she's dealing with or how rotten she feels some day, she always manages to find a way to keep finding the good in life. Always there to lean on, get advice from, and definitely a huge source of inspiration. She fits this verse perfectly. It's so easy to get discouraged in life when things get a little rocky. We've been talking quite a lot about listening to God, focusing on Him, and never letting go of our faith in Him. He is our Rock. He is the reason that we're able to keep going. He is the strength that keeps us walking. And He is the confidence that helps us face life and all of its challenges. There's so much uncertainty in life. We don't know what any one day is going to bring. We don't know how our feeble little plans will go. We don't know the changes and growt

2 Kings 18:6 NIV We were just talking about something and I think it's one of those things that just needs to be shared. We have to hold tight to our faith no matter what it costs. Our faith will lead us in directions that seem strange to us. Faith in God changes us. It changes our lives. It changes how we look at things. And friends, that's a very good thing! If we believe strongly enough in something then we will hold tight to those beliefs no matter what. If we're not willing to cling to those beliefs then we should ask ourselves just how important they really are to us. Our faith should be the very basis of everything else in our lives. Before we do, say, or think anything it should be filtered through our faith and the truth of God's word to ensure it's right. So it's inevitable that our faith will lead us away from things and perhaps even people that we thought were good and right for us. It will lead us to questioning and evaluating everything to see if i

1 John 4:1 NIV Every single day we're peppered with a thousand different messages. Pay attention to this, worry about that, you need this, stop doing that, do this instead, here's a better way to live. And the list goes on and on and on. With so much being offered we have to be extremely careful about what we actually listen to. To be honest, most of what we hear in our world today is just nonsense! We talked a few days ago about how important it is to listen to God. We have to keep our minds as in-tune with Him as we can get. Like I said in yesterday's post, if we're not rooted in Him then we're at the mercy of whatever the world wants to do. We can so easily get bounced back and forth from one thing to the next. We have to stay focused on Him so that we know what's real, what's right, and what's important. It may be one of those things that we don't like to think about but there's an awful lot of people with some really bad motives. I think man

Matthew 15:13 NIV Reading through Matthew chapter 15 last night and I just couldn't help but feel like Jesus is bringing the heat! So many amazing messages and lessons in one little chapter. When you stop and think about all that's in the Bible, it's a truly mind-blowing gift! To think that God managed to use all these different people, in different places, across the span of so many years to write a book that still teaches and guides is indescribable! Going and reading through it again just now, verse 13 really caught my attention. This has been yet another one of those weeks. You know those weeks. So many ups and downs that you're not really sure if you're upright or upside down. Just seems like it keeps bringing uncertainty and things that we feel compelled to worry about. But it got me to thinking about how important it is to be rooted in Christ. Life hits hard. It's loaded with uncertainty, things we can't control, thinks we won't enjoy. It brings t

Romans 8:2 NIV There is freedom in Christ. What's weird is that we live in one of the most free countries in the world, and yet this worldly freedom cannot come close to God's version. Down here we've taken on this idea that freedom means doing or saying anything we want. But freedom is bigger than that. Sounds kind of weird, but freedom means more than doing whatever we feel like doing. We've been talking about how important it is to listen to God, to follow Him alone, and to keep Him in the forefront of our lives. It's easy to get caught up in this world and its broken ways. We're here every single day, constantly bombarded with the messages that are being shared. We're always being told about this great new thing that someone has found that is just amazing. And all of us at some point have fallen for it. We're told that's where freedom is. But freedom is only found in surrendering to Christ. It's only found in letting go of trying to hold on t

Psalm 91:2 NIV Our last several posts have been talking about not listening to the world. We hear so many messages telling us that so many different things are important. And throughout the course of our lives we've fallen for it countless times. We've bought the lies and paid the price for it. That is why we have to stay completely focused on God at all times. Only by following Him are we guaranteed to never end up lost again! We have to remember that He is our God. Not the world. Not the leaders of this world. Not the money and possessions that so many chase after and prioritize. Not the titles, the fame, the following. He is our God and we can't allow anything else to take His place or push Him aside in our lives. If we do, well that's when the problems start popping up. The truth is that as fun or enjoyable as all of this worldly stuff claims to be, none of it can give us what He does every single day. Money can't buy us peace. Being famous or powerful doesn'

Psalm 81:11-12 NIV We talked yesterday about not listening to the haters. Truth is that we can't possibly please everyone. There are so many people down here that have so many different requirements and expectations. They want us to be like them, to agree with whatever they say is right, and go along with what they tell us to do. But we need to be focused on listening to God alone because He is the only One that knows what's right. Easy to see that this messed up world rarely does! People are so comfortable in their sin and selfishness that they just stop listening to reason. They only hear what they want to hear because it helps them keep convincing themselves that everything they do is okay. Justification of poor choices is easier to find than the courage and strength to do better. And the world will always choose what's easy over what's right. Here's the problem, God will let us. He will let us choose what's easy over what's right. He will allow us to lis

Matthew 11:19 NIV We've been talking about our mission to carry Christ's message to the world around us. It's needed. It's crucial. It always will be. But our world isn't all that big on taking things seriously. Not everyone will appreciate the truth of the Gospel. What we need to always keep in mind is that opinions will never change the power of the truth. People don't have to like it or like us. Our only concern needs to be sharing what He's given us to share. There will always be plenty of naysayers. Always easy to find people who disagree or don't approve of who we are and what we're doing. That's okay! We are not here to please people. We are not here to serve the wants and wickedness of a broken world. We are here to share the life-changing and soul-saving truth of the Gospel for those that listen and take it to heart and are changed for the better because of it. Reading through Matthew again last night and this one just connected. We all

Matthew 10:27 NIV Kind of continuing how I ended yesterday's post. This is another one that I read last night that really jumped out at me. Our faith is life-changing. It's done some amazing things in our lives. Faith has broken the chains of sin and shame that once held us captive. It has given us a good purpose to fight for. And above all, it's given us the chance to tell others about the freedom that's found in Christ. We have to share that. The things that we have witnessed and felt in our walk of redemption are the very things that can help others. That radical shift in our lives is needed by everyone who is still lost following all the crooked paths of darkness this world has laid down. The love and mercy that we've been shown is big enough to change this world for the better. But only if we share it. All of our past tests are now testimonies of God's faithfulness. All of those messes that we once made are now messages that tell the world about God's h

Matthew 9:37 NIV Reading through Matthew the past couple of nights and it always just amazes me how many amazing lessons and truths are in the Gospels. It's always like you're just reading along through these stories in the Old Testament and then the Gospels start off and it all just becomes personal. So many things to take in that are meant to build us up and help us become who God made us to be. Amazing how Christ's teachings so long ago are still teaching us today! I read this one last night and thought it fit pretty well with what we've been talking about lately. The need for kindness and compassion will never go away because people need to know that the world isn't some hopeless place. So many people around us are desperate for hope to help face all that they're dealing with in life. So many are hungry for the truths that God's word teaches us. So many are searching for something that helps them feel loved and accepted. WE HAVE THE ANSWERS!!! We have th

Acts 20:35 NIV Yesterday I talked about the importance of remembering to be kind to others. Kindness is one of those things that will never go out of style and it will never not be important. If we've should have learned anything this year it's that we're all here together and we should be doing everything we can to help one another along the way. Being all separated, divided, and angry doesn't help! My family and I sat down the other night and did something that's been on my mind for quite a while. This time of the year we've always tried to do something to give back and help those who may be feeling forgotten or alone. But this year we went a little bigger and did something that I think I'll always be excited about and thankful for the opportunity to do. And while I know that it's going to make a difference, the feeling that it's given me is something that not much else can compete with. It's this true joy that is a seriously rare thing in life

Matthew 25:35 NIV If you haven't heard Matthew West's song Give This Christmas Away then you're seriously missing out! One of the coolest newer Christmas songs I've heard! But it's also a really important message that I think all of us can use to make a difference. This year's been rough, on some more than others, and I think that we should take any opportunity we get to end it on a great note. I think we often under estimate the power of a small act of kindness. We forget that we really can have a massive impact in the lives of those around us. Sadly I think that fact gets lost behind worrying about our own troubles and focusing too much on our own desires. But I just think that there comes a time when we need to start thinking outside of ourselves. Why not start today? Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year. Seems like everything slows down and everyone gets ready to celebrate and spend time with loved ones. Growing up it was the excite

Ephesians 4:32 NIV I think our world has forgotten what's truly valuable in life. It's not a massive bank account. It isn't a fleet of sports cars. It isn't some mansion with a bunch of maids. It isn't some fancy job or powerful sounding title. The things that have the most value in life don't have a price tag. They come from the heart. That's where value is found. So in case you're in that group that has forgotten this very crucial fact: kindness is priceless! Everyone is going through a battle that you know nothing about. That lady that cut you off in traffic may be trying to get home to spend some time with her family. The guy that yelled at you could be dealing with a broken relationship at home. The person that never smiles or waves might be extremely shy and hesitant to let anyone get to know them. The little kid that threw the fit at the grocery store might be starving for attention that they don't get from anyone else. You see, so many times

1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV So MercyMe dropped their newest single last Friday, and it's one of the coolest and most powerful songs I've heard in a while. I'll drop a link below for you guys to go check it out, please make sure you do because it's absolutely incredible! It's about never giving up even in the face of truly difficult circumstances. It's one of those songs, music videos, and messages that just makes you think. I've been thinking about it all weekend. It's so easy to get it in our minds that our problems are horrible. Some of them really are. But the thing that I've been thinking about is that there are people in this world that would love to have our bad days. They would find our inconveniences to be huge blessings compared to their normal. What we find hard would be a gift to someone else that is facing something that we can't imagine. Everybody is dealing with something, but everyone also has amazing blessings to be thankful for. So

Proverbs 24:16 NIV We've been taught to live in fear of failing. We shudder at the idea of messing up and falling short. We sit around and watch all these people around us living their highlight reel lives and think that we should have ourselves a little more together than we are. But the truth is that nobody is perfect and no life is perfect. That's just the way it is. Perfection is this human ideal that we've created to judge things by. It's this spotless dream that's unattainable. It's basically nothing but a stumbling block that keeps us disappointed and ashamed of ourselves. We have to ditch this idea of never failing because it's going to happen. Every single one of us have made more mistakes than we can remember. But not a single one of those mistakes was ever the end of the story! Living in fear of failure can lead us to stop trying. It can force us to hide in our comfort zones where we think we have everything under control. That's a fine idea,

James 1:5 NIV This one seems like an almost rhetorical message, like one of those questions where the answer is so obvious that it doesn't need to be thought about. All of us lack wisdom. All of us have questions and worries that we spend countless hours thinking about. All of us need to turn to God and learn from Him. Problem is that we've accepted this idea that it's all on us, and so we do everything we can think of first before asking for help. I was talking to a good friend of mine about this a little bit yesterday and it's pretty clear that this is one of those issues that nearly everyone deals with. Overthinking is a big problem that I have personally. I sit around and consider everything from every angle. I look at every side, imagine every outcome, and usually make things into much bigger issues than they really are. I think a lot of us do that. We allow our minds to run wild and end up imagining the worst or creating mountains out of little bumps in the road.

Psalm 91:1 NIV I love when I wake up with a very specific verse already in my mind. It's like God's trying to help me get focused on something good before the day even begins. Today this verse from Psalm 91 was one of the very first things that I thought of, so I reckon I should share it with you all too! Don't know, just that thought of rest and peace sounds like something all of us are looking for these days. We've been talking a bit about following God and living a life of faith in Him. We've talked about trusting even when we don't see a way through the mess we're in. We've talked about not worrying about what we see or understand as much as staying focused on His will and the hope that it brings. We've talked about letting go of this false sense of control that all of us have. What I think we'll find is that the more we learn to let go of trying to figure things out and stay in control, the more peace we have. The more we place our hope and

Hebrews 11:1 NIV We may not see how God can possibly make a way moving forward. We won't always see progress. We may not even see how what we're doing makes any difference. But none of that matters. We have to break this worldly desire for gratification. Everybody wants to see how everything is going to work out, but life doesn't always work like that. That's why we have to just keep going forward in faith. Faith is without a doubt one of the most powerful and important things we can have. It helps us remember that we're working for something far bigger than ourselves. It helps keep us going even when we're not seeing any progress. It gives us this hope that what we're doing does matter even when it starts to feel like we're just spinning our wheels. It fills us with this peace knowing that God will always be in control even when it seems like everything is chaotic. The only way to assure that we succeed in anything is to keep going. It might feel like w

Job 8:7 NIV We often judge the outcome by how something starts. If it starts off rough then we assume that it's going to stay that way. If it begins slowly then we figure it's going to take forever. If it's hard then we assume it's going to stay hard. But assumptions aren't really the best things to lean on. Often what we assume turns out to be completely wrong. So we ought to stop jumping to conclusions and just see where and how things go. It's easy to get discouraged whenever we set out to do something. Say you've finally made up your mind to make that change you've been thinking of making. Or maybe you decided to walk away from something that you know isn't right for you. Perhaps you want to pick up a new hobby. Whatever the case may be, don't set yourself up for failure and disappointment from the start. We get it in our minds that things are going to go a certain way. We sit around brainstorming how it's all going to line up just right,