In life, we get to choose. God created us with the ability to choose — to make choices. In Deuteronomy 30:19b, He said to choose life, that we and our descendants will live. So many of us believe more strongly in our past than in our ability to choose. While we may not have had the ability to control the past events in our lives, we do have the ability to choose how we respond to those events.

The solution to all the problems in our lives lies within us. We can choose to become bitter or resentful of the past, to become a victim of the past, or to become prideful of the things we have accomplished in the past. But it is still our choice. We get to choose how we respond to the past. The past may guide our choices moving forward but it doesn’t make our choices for us. If we make better choices moving forward, we will get different results. We can blame others for what we are or have experienced in our lives, or we can choose to move forward from it. Again, it’s our choice!

It’s always easier to put the responsibility for our actions onto someone else than to accept responsibility for ourselves. We — not anyone else — will be held accountable for our own actions. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in our bodies (2 Corinthians 5:10b NLT). Let’s quit making excuses, living in the past, and blaming others, and let’s choose life.

Don’t allow the past to determine your future. Let’s ask God to heal the past hurts so we can move forward to what lies ahead of us. The possibilities are endless for those who believe. 

Happy New Year. May 2017 be the greatest year yet.

Just a thought,

PSS

I hope you had a Merry Christmas — the time of year when we get to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus. He is the Christ, Anointed One, God with us. It’s not only His birth, but the reason for His birth. He came to take away the sins of the world — that whoever would believe in Him would have everlasting life. What a great thing God did for all of us. He wishes all would come to know Him as Savior and Lord. But, unfortunately, so many reject Him. They reject His Son. 

Now we look forward to a New Year. For some, it will be a new start. For some, a rededication to continue to do things they believe will help them in life. My prayer is that we will dedicate ourselves to getting to know God even better than we do right now, that we will continue to serve Him and support His Church, that we will take one or two areas of our lives and purpose to work on them — to get stronger in them, to grow in those areas so we overcome anything that is weighing us down or keeping us from realizing His greatness in our lives.

2017 can be our greatest year if we truly humble ourselves and pray, and every day ask God to be merciful toward us and give us strength to become more like Him. May you finish this year strong and enter 2017 with great purpose. 

Just a thought, 

PSS

Our level of disappointment is directly proportionate to our level of expectation. We all need to live life with great expectations. But our expectations need to be reasonable ones — ones based on facts and truth — expectations that have been communicated. 

At times we have unspoken expectations of people, of work, of our bosses, and especially of God. We will have expectations that are not based on anything concrete. But, nonetheless, our disappointment is real.

We must all learn to manage our expectations and base them on something more than a wish. The sad truth is so many are disappointed with a variety of things that were never discussed or agreed upon.

I might have certain expectations of my spouse that are a constant source of disappointment. But what we find is that our expectations were never communicated to them. We get mad and upset because somehow we think others should just know what we expect. We must learn to articulate: let people around us know what our expectations of them are. If we don’t, then that is on us, not them.

This is especially true with God: We expect things from Him that He never said He would do. We will accuse Him of not caring or not loving us. Why? Because He didn’t do this or that. Some of our expectations are based on wrong thinking or lack of knowledge. We must learn what God actually promises in His word, then pray and expect what He actually says. 

We all need to live with expectation — that good will come or good things will happen. Learn to believe and think the best of people. Let’s all learn to manage our expectations based on truth and knowledge.

Just a thought,

PSS

Our level of disappointment is directly proportionate to our level of expectation. We all need to live life with great expectations. But our expectations need to be reasonable ones.

Some of us have unspoken expectations — we expect things from others that were never agreed upon or spoken about. It’s those expectations that get us. We expect something of someone or something that was never discussed. We expect so much from God, even when His word doesn’t say what we expect. When this happens, we get disappointed. Disappointment is defined as: the feeling of sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one’s hopes or expectations.

We really need to govern our expectations with reality — reality of what has been said or agreed to. You will hear people say things such as, “I thought you meant this,” or, “I thought you said this.”

This is especially true when it comes to God. So often people accuse Him of not caring because He didn’t meet their expectation at the time. But what they expected wasn’t based on fact or in their core truth.

Let’s find out what the word of God actually says, then adjust our expectations to what has actually been said or agreed upon. What we will find is that we won’t experience as much disappointment in our lives.

Just a thought,

PSS

This is the season we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. As believers, we need to keep it about that. The actual gifts and the act of giving are fun and okay as long as we recognize the greatest gift ever given to mankind — Jesus the Savior.

I’ve noticed when I go to stores that people are saying, “Happy Holidays” more often, instead of, “Merry Christmas.” The national holiday that we celebrate is called Christmas. I believe the reason for some of this compromise is that we Christians often don’t stand up for our beliefs.

We have been taught for too long that being passive and uninvolved is somehow being godly or being a Christian. It is wrong teaching and very misguided. It’s easier to go along to get along, but that’s not what we are called to do.

This Christmas season I hope we find ourselves in a place where we are proclaiming our Christian beliefs. When you go to the stores, I hope you keep it about Christmas. Let’s make sure we greet people with, “Merry Christmas,” and be proud to celebrate the One who has made a difference in our lives — Jesus.

Just a thought,

PSS