Sometimes it's good to take a moment to examine your faith and where it lies. Where does your faith lie?

One way to examine your faith

Could you be tortured over what you believe in and still stick with your belief?

I think about this sometimes and I don’t like imagining being tortured, but even more, I hate the idea of denying Christ for comfort. Yet, it’s something I find myself doing oftentimes. For example, not telling someone about Christ because I don’t want them to think adversely of me. Or even not giving towards the Gospel because I am saving up for some worldly comfort.

Could you be like Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, Abendigo, Jeremiah, Isaiah, the Apostles, Stephan, Or even Jesus himself? Could you suffer those things and still say, “yet my God is faithful”? Do you believe in God just for the worldly comforts that He might bring? Or are you laying up your treasures in heaven where nothing can get to it and destroy it? Do you seek worldly praise? Or do you wholeheartedly seek God's praises? These are some questions I often ask myself and challenge you to ask yourself as well.
<h5>Prayer</h5>
Oh Lord, I pray that we, as your dear children, never take what you have done lightly! I pray that we may never take for granted all that you went through to give us this life that we live. I pray oh Lord that we would also pick up our crosses when and where needed. I declare this day that you reign and rule over my decisions, my mind, and my life. I rebuke all fleshly desires that war against the nature of the spirit you have given me. I declare that all my actions are working towards building your kingdom. Thank you for choosing me to help with your work. I give you all the praise, honor, and glory.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

It can be difficult sometimes to stay calm when feeling anxious, depressed, or distressed. But if you do this regularly, you'll find yourself being more in control.

Reduce your negative thoughts by doing this every day

How often do you find yourself thinking about something negative that either causes you to be depressed or anxious? I know I still do, though not as much as I used to. One thing that helps me is meditating on scripture. Because scripture is how I fight off the lies that come to my mind.

Meditating is ruminating on or muttering something to one's self until it permeates one's spirit. Meditation also means to premeditate on an image, to ponder on a topic for the purpose of putting it to practice. So the main point of meditating on scripture is to permeate our spirit with the word of God as well as to ponder his commands to put it into practice.

Now that we know what we mean when say meditate, how does one do it? First things first, you must know why you want to meditate. What is troubling you? Are you anxious, depressed, or distressed? Whatever it is, think of a verse that deals with it. If one doesn't come up right away, stay in silence for a few minutes or speak in tongues if you are able and let the Holy Spirit lead you to a verse. However, you can always do a web search to help you out.

Once you have a verse selected that deals with your situation, it's time to go through the different levels of meditation. The first step is to set aside some time, at least 30 minutes, each day to meditate. During that time you will start by pondering quietly on the verse or verses you selected. Read it to yourself, think about what it says, think about what it doesn't say, consider how it applies to you. As you do this, you will start to understand that verse more and new revelations will come to you on the character of God and what role you play.

After pondering on the verse it's time to start muttering it to yourself. Your lips weren't moving before, but they should be now as you recite the scriptures over and over to yourself. This process helps it reach your spirit, it helps you to take it to heart. Even if you don't remember all the words of the verse, you will remember the character of God revealed in the verse when you face similar situations.

Once you've fully accepted the verse or verses to your spirit, it's time to roar it out. By this, I don't just mean scream it, but saying it loudly, confidently with a note of victory! There is victory when you understand who God is, and what role you play because in Christ we are always more than conquerors (Romans 8:37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.), hallelujah! There is a reason why the Word of God is the only offensive weapon given to us in the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-18Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.).

As you grow your repertoire of scriptures in your heart and on your lips, you find that you can easily identify a lie being planted in your mind vs. the truth of God. The devil comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy (John 10:10The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.). So resist him and he will flee from you (James 4:7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ). How do you resist? The same way Jesus did in the wilderness, with scripture (Matthew 4:1-11Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’” Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the LORD your God.’” Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the LORD your God and serve only him.’” Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.)!

Check out my previous post <a href="https://overcomewithchrist.com/posts/renewal-of-the-mind">Renewal of the Mind</a> for more on this. Also, let me know if you're interested in me providing some (more) scriptures that I like to go to for certain thoughts! Stay encouraged, and keep overcoming!
<blockquote>Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
<cite><a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JOS.1.8.NLT" rel="noreferrer">Joshua 1:8</a></cite></blockquote>

What's the difference between confessing our sins and confessing Christ?

I Must Confess!

Last month I committed to memory 1 John chapter 1 in the King James Version. As I was meditating on this chapter, I received so many revelations and wanted to share some parts of it. As you read this, keep in mind who John is addressing; babes in the faith.

Salvation starts with confessing Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9-10). Confessing Christ comes as a result of understanding where we stand, who Christ is, and what Christ has done. One thing that happens is we are translated from darkness to light, in other words, we start walking in the light. 1 John 1:7 says “But if we walk in the light as God is in the light then we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Christ cleanses us from sin”.

Notice it says sin as singular and a noun, and not sins as plural and a verb. This shows that we are changed, we no longer have a sin nature. We have been cleansed from sin which we were a slave to. Sin is defined as disobedience (to God) or lawlessness in 1 John 3:4, so we are cleansed of our disobedient nature, cleanses of our lawlessness. John then continues in verse 8 "if we say we have not sinned we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us". If we haven’t confessed Christ then we would be deceiving ourselves to say we have not sinned, after all, because of Adam's disobedience we are slaves to sin until we are set free of it.

Another thing that happens when we confess Christ is we are confessing our sins because we acknowledge that we were living in lawlessness. By declaring that we need Christ as Lord and savior we declare our repentance, thereby confessing that we have been in sin. 1 John 1:9 says "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". Glory to God, what a gracious God he is! Not only does he forgive us for our disobedience, but He cleanses us from all unrighteousness! No wonder Paul says "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17)!

The first chapter finishes at verse 10 with "if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us". Anyone who isn't born again is calling Christ a liar if they say they have not sinned, which makes sense that his word is not in them.

Based on 1 John chapter 1 anyone who isn't in Christ is walking in darkness, doesn't have the truth in them, and the word is not in them. But for all who confess Christ, 5 things follow them: they walk in the light as God is in the light; they have fellowship with the Father and his Son, and the brethren; the blood of Jesus cleanses them from sin; Jesus forgives their sins and cleansed from all unrighteousness; their joy is filled.

There is so much information packed in the first chapter of 1 John alone. I tried to keep this short while still getting my point across. I'm so amazed at all that Christ has done, and truly he deserves all the honor, praise, and glory forever!

If you aren't born again what are you waiting for? Check out my post: <a href="https://overcomewithchrist.com/posts/ready-to-claim-your-salvation">Ready to claim your salvation</a> to join the kingdom of God today! You may not get another chance.
<blockquote>If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
<cite>Romans 10:9-10</cite>

</blockquote>

I had to sit down recently and think about what it means to have (a) life. 

What does it mean to have life?

<blockquote>In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

<cite>John 1:4</cite></blockquote>
What does it mean to have life? This is something that I recently started to think about after I found myself thinking “I have no life”. Of course, when I was saying that, I didn’t mean that I had no physical life, I thought of it, as most of the world does, as not going out and doing “fun” things. You know, those things the world has made us believe are the benchmarks of “having a life”. As I was thinking this, the Holy Spirit asked me: “so why am I here”? It really threw me for a loop, so I sat down and thought about it: what does it mean to have (a) life?

The first verse that popped into my mind was 1 John 5:12 which says; He who has the Son has life, he who has not the Son has not life. Then Deuteronomy 39:19 followed suit: I have set before you life and death… chose life. So I took a moment and meditated on this. Later as I was doing my daily Bible reading, other verses started sticking out to me, like John 3:16, “…so that anyone who believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life”. And John 14:6 “.. I am the way, the truth, and the LIFE”. Wow, I was really amazed at this revelation.

Why would I ever say I have no life? How could I so blatantly disregard the Holy Spirit that dwells within me and gives me life? How could I show so much disrespect to Him who has done so much for me? Before writing this, I did some research and came to find the term Zoe (greek: zwhv) which is pronounced dzo-ay. One of its definitions was; life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever. That is the life that Christ is! Not only that, but that is the life that Christ gives! And I have this life! Glory to God forevermore!

Never again will I declare such a lie as I have no life. If you are in Christ, I urge you to do the same! Speak truth about yourself, don’t repeat the lies of the enemy. If you are not in Christ, then I urge you to read my post Ready to claim your salvation? And give yourself to Christ so you also can gain this life!
<blockquote>I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].

<cite>John 10:10</cite></blockquote>

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