Under Pressure

Satan is on the move every day. He tries to weave circumstances into our daily routine to trap us, to throw us into the chaos of feeling annoyed, stressed, and under pressure. Satan likes to destroy our peace and make us feel unworthy of God’s forgiveness. He sets doubt in our minds and and tries to slowly destroy our confidence.
 
God is so much more powerful than satan. When we stand with God, satan crumbles. We live in a fallen world because of sin. Satan likes to believe he has the upper hand, but he’s no

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God Provides what We Need

Written by:  Mark Culp
 
Exodus 16:4 recounts the story of when God introduced manna to the Israelites. It was during the time when He was leading them through the desert after He had miraculously delivered them from the bondage of Pharaoh. They were in the wilderness where God was leading them and forging a people for His own.
 
His seemingly simple instructions to His people were to gather only what they needed for the day with the exception of the sixth day of every week, where they would gather twice as much. These instructions were simple enough, at least on the surface, but to many, the instructions just did not make any sense. They were in a desert wilderness after all, and many decided to gather

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Shift Your Focus

A friend recently shared a post on social media that said “Worship gets you through the hardest times in your life because it shifts your focus from the problem to the Problem Solver”. This post showed up right after a different friend was inquiring about what I’ve been doing since some struggles in my life. I proceeded to tell him that after these struggles came along, I got myself very busy with Godly people doing Godly things. He then said he felt he may have isolated himself in the same situation. I’ll admit, I may have wanted to isolate myself, but God surely didn’t give me that option. God began moving in my life immediately and didn’t give me much of a chance at all to sulk or have pity party with myself (i.e. “poor me!”).
 
Nope, God grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me a few times, told me to take a few days to get things out of my system, and then we’re going to be on to the next thing. God knew exactly what needed to happen with me, so I didn’t question Him. I got involved more in church, started hitting the gym more, and started surrounding myself more with Godly people.

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Security

Being secure in who I am has been a journey. Walking with Christ is amazing. He’s opened my eyes and given me strength I never knew I had. Naturally, I still have pitfalls and bad days. I know when I’ve messed up because I have the Holy Spirit who convicts me and sets my mind on the right path.
 
As long as I can remember, I have always trusted and believed in God. Even when I walked right into reckless situations, God always knew me better than I knew myself. He knew when I

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Filling the Gap

Be good to your servant,
that I may live and obey Your word.
Open my eyes to see
the wonderful truths in Your instructions.
I am only a foreigner in the land.
Don’t hide Your commands from me!
I am always overwhelmed
with a desire for Your regulations. Psalms 119: 17-20
 
One of the first things I tried to do when I became born again was give up something for lent. The funny thing was I was never successful. I would slip up somewhere along the line, and eat the chocolate cake, or I would have that night out where the cheesecake looked too good. Eventually, I would give in. Then one year, I put it all together and found success! There was so much joy in my heart that I enjoyed cheesecake that year much more! In retrospect, each passing year where I failed, I also learned something from my failures. I realized to avoid certain places, or had greater will power to never ‘give up.’ I was

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