WHY YOU SHOULDN’T COMPROMISE, EVEN IN THE SMALLEST WAYS

It can be really easy to begin to compromise. Many times, you don’t even realize that you’ve compromised in an area. Compromises can happen in big areas of your life, but they also happen in the smaller ones too.

Usually, compromise happens in small things. You wouldn’t probably go out and kill someone because that would be really WRONG. But you might tell a lie or cheat on your homework. It’s easy to justify small compromises.

If left unchecked, small compromises will eventually lead you down a path that you never intended.Those small compromises can easily grow and before you realize it, you’re compromising in bigger areas too. Do you tell a lie to look better to others? Perhaps you decide to go to a party that you know your parents wouldn’t approve of. Do you date that guy in math class that is really cute, but who you know isn’t a good influence? Each day these small decisions that you make set the tone and direction for your life.

Small Choices Matter

Those small choices have gotten you to where you are at so far. Do you like the person you’ve become? Do you make godly choices even in the small things? Have you begun to compromise your beliefs?

The good news is that if you have been compromising, Jesus offers us forgiveness and a fresh start. You can stop compromising and begin living a life full of character.

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we’ve done wrong. – 1 John 1:9  – (look it up!)

You Can Choose to Not Compromise

He’s ready to pick you up and help you get started on the right track. You can choose to make good decisions every day. Even though it isn’t always easy to choose to not compromise what you believe, you will be really glad that you made the choice to follow God and not compromise…even in the smallest areas!

How Do You Break Free From Compromise?

One of the best ways to break free from compromise is to spend more time with God. Instead of watching Netflix until late at night, switch that for some Bible time. If you don’t like to read, watch a Biblically solid preacher on YouTube or listen to Bible verses being read to you.

To break free from compromise you’ve got to really get into God.

If you love me, obey my commandments. – John 14:15 – (look it up!)

It’s so much easier to stay free from compromise when you’re into God. If you really seek God, you’ll find that you don’t want to compromise. You find that you just want to get to know God more.

The more you get to know God, the less you want to compromise!

The more you get into God, the less fun the compromise is. So if you’ve struggled with compromise, determine to make changes in your life. Choose to take a look at the books you’ve been reading, the friends you’ve been hanging out with, and the things you’ve been watching. Ask God to show you what to say no to so that you can say yes to Him!

I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. – Proverbs 8:7 – (look it up!)

DAILY B IBLE VERSE AND DEVOTION – EPHESIANS 4 :32

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. – Eph 4:32 (NIV) – (look it up!)

If you’re stuck at home right now due to the Coronavirus, you’re probably getting a little sick of your siblings. Maybe your

mom is driving you crazy and you honestly don’t know if you can take another day of it.

We get it! Dealing with family all under one roof for a long time can be a lot to deal with.

Today’s Bible verse tells us to be kind and compassionate and to forgive. That means forgiving your brother who just ate

the last of the chips. That means being kind to your mom even when you want to yell at her.

Family relationships aren’t always easy. But Jesus challenges us to treat others with love and kindness.

So today, look for ways to help your family. Maybe you can help your mom by throwing in a load of laundry without being

asked. Perhaps you can talk to your brother and find out if he’s scared about Coronavirus and you can share a Bible verse

to help encourage him.

Ask God for His help too. He might show you a way you can help your family. Your kindness will go a long way to helping

your family get through this scary time together!

What should a Christian look like outside of church?

How do we live like Jesus when everyone around us is … not?

Feeling out of place?

It's easy to pray and talk about God at church, because everyone there is doing it. That's where the whole gathering is about Jesus. But when we get outside the church, everything changes and we're all of a sudden in the minority, or at least we feel like it. 

When we are not at church, and not around “church people”, it’s sometimes tricky to live out our faith. It's not the norm, it's not expected and therefore it's not easy. So, many of us just give up. We live one way at church and one way when we aren’t at church. We start to feel guilty. We get confused about who we really are. 

Good news! It doesn't have to be this way! We can live like Jesus anywhere we go. 

What does it mean to be a Christian?

I think the problem is confusion around the term "Christian". 

Does the term 'Christian' just describe what type of church you go to?

Is being 'Christian' only about the God you sing and pray to on Sunday?

Or is living as a Christian something more? 

Someone becomes a Christian by repenting of their sins and putting their faith in Jesus alone. Jesus is God, he died for our sins, he rose again, he's our only hope. So we're following him!

What Christ does, Christians do. What Christ says, Christians say. Where Christ goes, Christians go.

This hit me in a huge way when I was in college.

Being a follower

I had been in Christian schools all my life, but still could not tell you what it meant to follow Jesus. Then, it dawned on me … what happens when I follow someone else? If I get in my car and follow a friend to a restaurant, what do I do? I ask him where he is going, I realize I don't know the way, I stay behind him and mimic his every move. If he stops, turns, or speeds up, so do I. Then I applied this to Jesus. 

I got into the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and started reading about Jesus' epic life. I realized there were some things he always did, that I hardly ever do. 

For example, he was always helping someone, and usually not a very popular person. He helped people who are paralyzed, blind, sick, hungry or living a life of sin. 

In addition, he always told them about God, but on a level that they could understand. He often spoke in parables, used stories and common metaphors to give people the good news. 

Getting amongst the people

Since I wanted to be like Jesus, I figured I'd start with these two things - helping people & talking about God. So, I got together with a buddy of mine. We made 50 sandwiches, got a cooler full of water bottles, a stack of Bibles and we went downtown to feed the poor!  We felt a bit like Jesus when he fed the 5,000! 

That was one of the most amazing days in my Christian life. I got to help people, I got to give people Bibles, and I got to talk to people about Jesus. 

There was one homeless lady who had recently become a burn victim. Her face was intensely scarred from her wounds. To top it off, she was pregnant. I told her Jesus loved her, asked her if she wanted him and she said yes. After our conversation, she prayed that God would forgive her, save her and be with her. 

Practical ideas for being a Christian outside of church

Ever since that day, I've had an answer to the question, "What does a Christian look like?" They look like Jesus. 

What did Jesus do? A lot of stuff, but one thing he did was help people and that always led him into conversations about God. 

So here's how this matters for you in your every day life. 

Figure out one way to help people in your at school, at home, in your neighborhood. 

Here's some ideas to get you started: 

You could ask an elderly neighbor if you can help with yard work or another chore.

You could volunteer for a specific job at church. 

You could call and check on someone who lives alone. 

You could make friends with someone who doesn’t have many friends. 

You could ask your parents if you could help cook dinner, clean something, do laundry. 

Whatever it is, look for a way to serve. 

When someone asks you why you do it, tell them, "I am a Christian and I follow Christ!" Answer any questions they have and invite them to church.

The Bible says in Matthew:

"But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:26-28 (look it up!)

W H A T D O E S T H E B I B L E S A Y A B O U T A N X I E T Y ?

Can you think of times in your life when your parents would ask you what you learned at school or church. Most likely they

were being really nice, but for some reason, you wanted to go to your room to be alone, or listen to music. You just wanted

to be away from your parents and their questions. Because you wanted to get away, when your mom asked you, “What

did you learn at school today?” You might have said, “Nothing”, and ran to your room. Or perhaps your dad asked, what

did you do with your friends last night, and you said, “Nothing”.

This devotion is a tribute to those moments when you told your parents you learned nothing at school or did nothing with

your friends. So when your mom asks you what you learned in this devotion, you can honestly say, “Nothing”, haha.

To learn about nothing in this devotion, let’s check out a scripture about nothing that’s found in Philippians 4:6.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. – Phillipians 4:6 (look it up!)

Being Anxious Is Easy

The first part of this verse is easy. It tells us to be anxious. And for me, being anxious is really easy. I don’t have to try to

be anxious, I can do it naturally. Being anxious is almost like second nature to me. You might have more homework than

you have time to do, or you can see all the bad things going on in the world and it can become so easy to be anxious. You

might even feel like you have a really good reason to be anxious.

Even if we feel like we’re justified in being anxious, this Bible verse tells us to be anxious for nothing. How is that even

possible? With all the stress in our lives, with all the craziness going on in the world, how can we live our lives not being

anxious?

Can We Really Live Our Lives Without Anxiety?

The end of this Bible verse gives us a clue how we can do this. It tells us in everything with prayer and thanksgiving, let

our requests be known to God. So when we’re faced with anxiety, we’re to pray and to be thankful.

I know in my life, a lot of my anxiety comes from not being thankful. I can be stressed out that I have all state choir and

band competitions next weekend, or I can be thankful that I have a God given musical ability. I can be anxious that I might

not get my paper written in time or I can be thankful that I have the opportunity to go to school and get an education. When

we are thankful, it makes all the difference. It’s hard to be anxious when you’re always being thankful.

Your Approach to Anxiety Matters

I remember a time when I was trying to learn how to skip rocks on water. As hard as I tried, I wasn’t able to make the rock

skip. My best friend however, was a master at skipping rocks. He was able to make rocks skip four or five times across the

surface of the water. I was so jealous at my friend’s ability to skip rocks, that one day I asked him how he did it.

He showed me a way to hold the rock that allowed me to get my rocks to skip across the water several times. My friend

had what I needed, which was to change my approach to skipping rocks. Once my approach changed, I was able to skip

rocks successfully.

How many times are we anxious because we need to approach things differently?

Living a life free from anxiety isn’t impossible, however, we may need to change our approach to do it successfully.

How Do We Change Our Approach To Anxiety?

So how do we do it? How do we change our approach to anxiety? I think it starts with really believing that God cares about

you. It’s easy to think in the midst of a difficult situation that God forgot about you or that God doesn’t care. In reality

nothing could be further from the truth.

God cares about you and wants to walk with you through any situation and circumstance you face. So don’t believe the lie

that God doesn’t care about you. He cares about you so much. He wants you to be able to be anxious for nothing because

you know that God will take care of you.

We don’t have to be anxious. We know God will take care of us

We Can Be Anxious For Nothing

We don’t have to life our lives full of anxiety. Instead we can do what Philippians 4:6 says be anxious, for nothing. We

can choose to pray and be thankful in the midst of bad situations and circumstances. As we do that, we’ll experience

God’s peace and love.

So dare to believe that God cares about you. Dare to live your life free from anxiety because you know that there’s nothing

that God wouldn’t do for you!

Cast all your anxiety on Him, for He cares for you. – 1 Peter 5:7 (look it up!)

Facing your fears

3 steps to becoming less anxious, and more trusting.I struggle with fear. Always have. I could sit here and write story after story of how something happened, I panicked and started writing my will because I just KNEW life was over. Funny thing is 99% of the things I’ve feared never happened.

I know a lot of you have the same issue. So how do we respond when fear has a hold of us?

1. Define your fear

Not all fear is harmful. For example, if you see a car headed in the wrong lane of traffic and directly at you – that’s ok! What God isn’t against is the fear of sky diving, or walking home on a dark night. These things are dangerous and God gives us an appropriate fear to avoid death.

Most often though, our fear is about not trusting God with the direction of our life. Fear has to do with the idea that you’re alone and helpless, which is a slap in the face to a God who died to be with you forever.

So be careful to realize where fear is an actual problem in your life. Then attack that problem with this…

2. Question your fear

Fear does its dirty work by asking questions. It asks you questions about you. It asks you questions about God. It asks you questions about your future. And it makes you doubt. So fight back with your own questions. Here's some to get your started:

Who is bigger – God or your problem?

Who loves you with a never ending love?

Who promised you eternal life through his only Son in a place where fear will be no more?

Who sees you as perfect and righteous due to your faith in Christ?

Who knocked down the walls of Jericho?

Who got Joseph out of prison?

Who parted the Red Sea?

Who saved Noah from the flood?

Who really took down Goliath?

Who died on a cross for your sins?

Who defeated Satan, sin and death?

Who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

Jesus asks a question regarding fear in Matthew 6:

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? – Matthew 6:27 (look it up!)

In other words what has fear done for you? When has it ever solved any of your problems? Has it been your friend? Has it helped? Ask these questions! Journal through them! And then do this…

3. Replace your fear

Unfortunately, none of us have the will power to just read this post, close the app and vow to never feel afraid again. We can, however, decide that we are going to respond differently to fear than we have in the past. God gives us a replacement for fear in Philippians 4:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all

understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6 (look it up!)

It’s been said before, “Why worry when you can pray?” I love that question. When you get afraid, you have a couple options. You can call a friend, you can lay in your bed and fret, you can try to get out of your problems on your own power … or you can pray.

Now, to be clear, I do not believe that God always extinguishes our problems when we ask him to. Sometimes he says “no” and makes you go through it. But that’s not the point. The point of the Christian life is not to be problem-free. It’s to be with Jesus. And one thing he has promised us is that if we repent of sin and trust in him alone as savior, we get HIM. For now. For forever.

The knowledge of his presence is what gives us a peace that  “surpasses all understanding”. Because it’s better to be in an ark, facing Goliath or walking through the waters of a sea WITH God than to be on dry ground safe and sound WITHOUT God. 

Finding hope when you’re lonely

Feel like nobody understands you? Jesus gets it. And God is with you.

The Bible talks about many men and women who experienced loneliness at least once in their lives.

For example, take a look at Psalm 142 which was written by David. Although it was composed a long time ago, the words reflect the way many people feel nowadays:

Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the

living.” –Psalm 142:4-5 (look it up!)

When David felt alone, he chose to seek God and cry out to his best friend and refuge. And in this case, he was physically alone too because he wrote this psalm while inside a cave. And the truth is that sometimes, we also feel like we’re stuck in a cave.

Jesus understands your loneliness

Do you ever feel isolated, like you are in a place where no one is able to see you?  It doesn’t mean that your friends can’t help you. It’s just that right now, no one seems to understand you.

But there’s someone who does.

Jesus understands you and your feelings of loneliness because He faced the same thing.  His own friends – the disciples – didn’t help Him when He needed them most. In the darkest hour of His life, He was all by himself crying out to God. His friends weren’t praying with Him – they were “asleep, exhausted from sorrow” (Luke 22:45).

God is with you in your loneliness

Alone in the cave, David continued sharing his sorrow with God:

I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who watch over my way –Psalm 142:2-3. (look it up!)

Like David, you can cry out to God. He wants to hear you.

Sometimes we complain because God seems very far. But He is not. He is willing to communicate with you and hear about your good days and bad days – and whatever else you have to say.

Have you ever had a friend who really understood you? Have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t have to speak because just by looking in your friend’s eyes, you knew that you both understood the same thing? 

We can have these moments with God. All we need is to lift up our eyes towards Him.

The way in which you lift up your eyes to God can be by praying, reading the Bible or just praising him.

These moments can help you move from a cave of loneliness and isolation to a place where you know that God understands you.

There is hope in your loneliness

Just like Jesus, you will have moments of loneliness. In my own struggles with solitude, I’ve had to deal with difficult emotions like disappointment and the fear of being forever alone. This pain has also taught me that God is here and that I am never truly alone. Other resources that have helped me find a new perspective on loneliness are:

Talking to someone about what I feel. A counselor, Pastor, or youth leader.

When I want to pray but feel alone, I use a prayer app. It’s a cool way for me to share my prayer requests with others and I get a notification whenever a friend or family member prays for me. It’s a small thing that reminds me that I’m not alone! Do you think that prayer can change your perspective on loneliness?

Sometimes, I’ll reach out to a friend or teammate by sending them an encouraging video through Snapchat or Instagram. My perspective on loneliness changes when I take my eyes off myself and focus on encouraging a friend who may be going through the same thing. How can you uplift a friend today?

Focusing on God’s word, talking about my challenges, prayer and reaching out to others are not easy steps to take. But they remind me that I am loved. When you feel lonely, know that Jesus experienced this too. He promises that he will never leave you nor forsake you, so you need not be lonely for long.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you” Deuteronomy 31:6 – (look it up!)