FollowingJesusUS.com

The world, indeed our nation, can seem a scary place. The news headlines are enough to worry anyone. And as if that was not enough, we, each one of us, have our own share of family or health issues. Of job problems and economic ones…

But there is a way to stop these challenges from overwhelming and worrying us. If we truly Focus on Jesus, if we look at Jesus with an almost tunnel vision, we won’t see all the problems around us.

But sometimes, even as we fix our Focus on Jesus, we become distracted and loose our Focus. But Jesus understands 🙂

Remember the story of Peter and the boat. As long as he was focused on Jesus, he was able to walk on the water in the storm. But when he looked away, he began to fear and started to fall. But even so Jesus saved him. Just as Jesus will Saves us 🙂

We need to keep our Focus on Jesus and Pray 🙂

We hear this word, “transformed” so often. But like many things, this phrase has a simple meaning, but it is hard to do. It simply means: to live a life pleasing to God.

Simple, but hard.

So what kind of life is pleasing to God? It is one in which every single thought and action is governed by:

“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:47-40

Keep Praying, Prayer changes things 🙂

So often, we forget to really think about some of the basics. And one of the basics is that Jesus truly Saved our life. And it’s not just the lives we look forward to in Heaven, it’s our lives here on earth.

And because Jesus Saved us, we live with great purpose. We get to live a life that pleases God. A life we can be happy with, instead of ashamed of. A life we can offer to God and know that God is pleased 🙂

No matter what we face, no matter how difficult the times, Jesus always walks with us. When our faith seems weak, when our fears seem to overwhelm us, when the world seems in chaos…No matter what happens, no matter how alone we feel, no matter how hopeless our situation seems, Jesus stays with us.

And Jesus loves us in a way we can not comprehend. More than we can comprehend. And Jesus loves us with a love that we can truly count on!

Because Jesus loves us always and never, ever leaves us 🙂

^“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”-Psalm 51:10-12

As we begin this New Year, we need to begin it with a “Clean Heart” 🙂

We can make this our year of Breakthrough with Jesus. As we all make our resolutions for this upcoming year, perhaps this is the resolution we should make: That this year will be our year of Breakthrough!

The year that we actually live as we believe. The year that we pray more! The year that we ask the Holy Spirit to help us not only believe more, but live the life that Jesus taught us to live! Loving God and all God’s people-all of them!

We are not here to help Save the Saved, we are here to help Save the Lost. How can we do that if we are not even friends with them? The first step to Saving the Lost is loving them, really loving them. Genuinely caring about their happiness and welfare. Their health, their hunger, their future…

For if we do not genuinely love them, and like them too, why should they listen to us about anything, much less Jesus.

This year, Pray for and Love the Lost…

There are many types of illnesses. There are physical ones; there are emotional ones. And there are Spiritual illnesses!

And of all of them, the Spiritual ones are the most important. Physical ones may be more obvious ones. Emotional ones may make us sad. But it is the Spiritual ones that may have the most lasting of impacts, and the most important ones!

Because Spiritual ones can last forever if they are not Healed.

But thankfully, all we need to do to have a Spiritual illness Healed is to ask Jesus to Heal it! And He will!

So before we enter the New Year, let us ask Jesus together to Heal any Spiritual illness we have!

So let’s ask Jesus together to Heal us and to be our Savior and Follow Him Home 🙂

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being” – Acts 17:28

Please let this next year be a gift we give you Jesus and let it be a gift we give those You love 🙂

In Jesus’s Name, Amen 🙂

None of knows what awaits us in the New Year. But we do know one thing, the most important thing:

“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”-Deuteronomy 31:8

We need to know and meditate on that. Because no matter what happens next year, God’s Got Us 🙂