How does God treat my heart?

That question should evoke a passionate answer, should result in my heart singing praises to Him because He has always only given love to my heart. Problem is, I'm way to busy trying to get my heart 'ready for God' to realize the kindness He has embraced me with, I'm so focused on myself that I don't ever hear the question.

There is a story in the old testament when David and his men were on the pursuit of the Amalekites who had raided their homes and kidnapped their families. In their journey two hundred of David's men reached a point of exhaustion and could no longer travel, they stayed behind while David and the remaining four hundred men went on to find the Amelekites and rescued their families along with all the stolen goods that had been taken.

On their way back they met up with those left behind, David's first words to them are - How are you doing? - A few of the men who battled and rescued the families were angry with those who stayed behind and said that because they did not go with them, they would not receive any of goods they retrieved from the Amalekites. David steps in and says "My brethren, you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us." 1 Samuel 30:23. From that day on, the share was the same for the man who went to battle and the man who stayed with the supplies. More Here...

By Tom Zuniga

Several years ago I watched my younger siblings do it. I’ve often wondered whether I would ever follow in their footsteps. Been questioned about it plenty of times.

But I already have Jesus in my heart. I love Him dearly. He is everything; He’s the only thing.

For nearly 25 years God’s will has superseded mine, despite countless stumbles along the way. I’m certainly not perfect, but I strive to do the right thing. To love people like God has inexplicably loved me. I believe in Him as sure as I do oxygen or the intoxicating smell of cinnamon buns baking in an oven. When all else fails, He never has, does, or will.

I’m already assured of living with Him forever someday. What else is there? More Here...

I'm realizing that I have a lot of fear in my life. It's been around for so long, and I'm so familiar with it, that I think, in a lot of ways, I've become accustomed to it and I just let it be there. Fear can be a hard thing to get around or get rid of; I mean, how do you just stop being afraid? Hard, right? It's a very basic human emotion and often, one of the strongest. You can choose not to react to it, but how do you just stop feeling it?

I'm a regular human being; just an average Joe on the street that many people wouldn't take notice of. And even if you did, I'd probably walkaway from our conversation without you thinking that I'm weird. My friends know I'm weird, but to the causal conversationalist, I'm just a normal guy. But, whether like a lot of people or unlike them, I'm afraid of a lot of things. Afraid of what people might think of me, afraid to stand out, afraid of confrontation, afraid of the future, afraid of unhappiness.

I'm also afraid of giving my life totally to God, because I won't be able to control what happens to me -- even though, ultimately, I can't control that anyway -- or how I become in that future. This is a silly reaction because I am confident in God's infinite love for me, and because of that love, I can be confident that any plans God has for me are great plans. This is what He means in 1 John 4:18, when He says, 'perfect love casts out fear...' Because of God's love, and because of our love for Him, we shouldn't fear His plans for us. Our future as a disciple of God may not be easy, but it will be alongside, and drawn nearer to, our God, whom we love. So it should always be good. More Here...

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This post was originally going to be about our love for God, sort of a second side to the previous post about God's love for us, but something else has intercepted my thoughts, and I want to talk about it. The thing I want to talk about is Fear.

Fear is something with which I am very familiar. I had terrible nightmares as a child, and I occasionally still do. The kind of nightmares that follow you into the daytime and feel like a creepy presence around you. My little sister has them, too, and we both agree that these nightmares are inspired by demonic forces with the intent of making us afraid, and making us believe that they have some kind of power over us.

When you fear something, you are, in a way, subject to it. Fear comes from your knowledge of something or someone's ability to inflict itself on you. If that thing can have no ill effect on you, there is no fear. Our fear of demonic forces comes from our belief, however unfounded, that they can do something to us. Demons do have a certain amount of power in this world, as seen in Acts 19:11-20, where the demoniac overpowers seven men who falsely claim the power of Jesus, and in Ephesians 6:10-12, where God tells us plainly that our struggle is against demonic powers. But, as Christians, our Father is greater than the spirits in the world. In 1 John 4:1-6, John is talking about demonic spirits and why we don't need to have any fear of them. We've already overcome them; our God is greater than they are. More Here...