Use What You've Been Given!!

Jesus tells a story about a man who had put some people in charge of some money. For our understanding we’re going to change the value. One man he gave $5,000, to another he gave $200, and another he gave $10. Upon checking back with the men he found that the man who he had entrusted $5,000 to had doubled his money and the same for the man to whom he had entrusted the $200 to. The owner was very pleased and told these two that because they had been faithful with this small thing that they would be trusted with greater things. The man who he had left the $10 with had not done anything with the money and therefore did not lose it, but he didn’t gain any either. The owner was very upset, he cursed him and called him lazy and took away what he had given the man and gave it to the two other men. - Matthew 25:14-30 (paraphrased)

 

What have you been given?

 

We have all been given something. In Romans 12:6 – 8 and 1 Peter 4:10 we find some of what the Bible says about our gifts. “We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in accordance to his faith. If it is serving,  let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” (Romans) “Each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter)

Notice these 2 things: 1) Gifts and grace go hand-in-hand. 2) Our gifts are for God and others.

Jesus says in Matthew 22:37 – 40, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” So the very first thing we need to check is our hearts. Is everything in us operating out of love for God and love for others? If not, why? Let’s fix this before we go any further, pause for a moment and talk to God about that.

 

We see in Matthew 10:8 Jesus is directing his disciples, telling them “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Grace is a gift we have received through Jesus Christ and our gifts are meant to showcase God’s grace.

Do you know what your gift is?

It doesn’t matter what your gift is – no matter how big or how small you think it is. Do you remember our guys in the story? They were all entrusted with different amounts. – You have been given a gift! As you think about this new year and all to come begin thinking about your gift and how you can use it.

I want to challenge you to use your gift! Think “use it or lose it”, this is biblical. In Revelation 3:16 Jesus says, “because you are luke warm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Go back to the opening story, the men who were faithful with what they had been given (no matter how big or how small) and because of that they were given more. The man who didn’t do anything with what he was given had that taken from him.

 

Discover your gift, discover how you can use it to glorify God and give grace to others, then get after it!!

The Power of Doubt: We All Deal with It

(Paraphrased of a story in Matthew chapter 21)

One day Jesus and the disciples were walking along a road and were hungry. Jesus saw a fig tree and went up to it to get some fruit. The tree had nothing but leaves on it so Jesus cursed this tree saying, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this they were amazed.

 

Verse 21 & 22, Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to this fig tree, but you also can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

"...if you have faith and do not doubt..."

There is power in doubt.

 

James 1:6 "...he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."

 

In Matthew chapter 14 there is another story of Jesus and his disciples. He sent them across the lake in a boat and then late  in the night Jesus decided to join them. So he went to them walking in the water. They were terrified when they saw this and finally Peter said, "If it's you Lord, call me out to you." Jesus of course did and Peter stepped out and began walking on the water to Jesus. Then, wouldn't you know, Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and began to doubt that he was really walking on water in the middle of a storm! At that moment Peter began to sink, but of course as soon as he called out to Jesus for help Jesus saved him.

 

Doubt has the power to do two things.

 

1) Doubt removes our focus from God.

When we start to look at what is going on around us, usually we begin to question the possibilities in it. We start to doubt that anything or anyone can actually do any good.

 

2) Doubt takes you under.

Look at Psalm 69:2 MSG "I'm in over my head, quicksand under me, swamp water over me; I'm going down for the third time."

 

Think of the times in your life that you have had something come against you, whether as a result of something you caused or not. If you doubted in that moment the chances are that you experienced higher levels of anxiety and fear. Jesus tells us in John 20:27, "...Stop doubting and believe!"

 

"If you believe..."

There is power in belief.

 

Mark 9:23 "Everything is possible for him who believes."

 

Mark 10:27 "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

 

Ephesians 3:20 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."

 

Romans 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

 

Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding."

 

God's promises for you are found throughout scripture. Go to God's word and lean on what he has written for you thousands of years ago!!

 

I wonder how many miracles have gone undone because of doubt. Jesus said in our opening scripture that if we would have faith and not doubt, if we would believe then we could do so much more than withering a fig tree with our words.

 

Today, let yourself awaken from the slumber of doubt and walk in belief!!

 

Comment below with your thoughts and how I can be praying for you!

 

~Awaken Us~

Brenna Stanford



You can watch live broadcasts on the Periscope app, follow me @BrennaDawnn or go to YouTube.com and follow me to be able to watch replays!



Why? And How to make it count!!

Good afternoon everyone!! I had an entirely other post planned for today but I really feel led to share this simple message.

 

Why are you doing everything that you're doing today? Many of you are preparing meals, getting last minute gifts and things needed for your celebrations today and tomorrow. But why? What is your reason behind all of it?

 

Family... Seeing the face of a child light up with joy as they rip into a wonderful surprise... Snuggling up with your loved ones and enjoying each others company... It's what you're supposed to do right? Christmas is celebrating with family, opening presents, putting aside differences and coming together for the cause of the season.

 

What is the cause?

 

Why are you putting on a smile and putting up with those family members that you can't stand anyway? Why are you putting so much effort into a meal that will be devoured in no time? Why are you spending money you don't have for things children don't need? (I'm guilty too!)

 

All of these things aren't bad, but how good are they? They are only as good as the reason and intent in which you're doing it.

 

This season  isn't about family or gift giving, these are just things we do in celebration of the reason.

 

You see, with this season comes a great, great gift! A gift that was given so that we could be welcomed into an eternal family free from condemnation and sin!

 

Jesus humbled himself and left the throne of God to come to us and rescue us. That miracle, that sacrifice, that gift is why we celebrate! We celebrate with our family in honor of the greatest family!! We spend money to give our very best in honor of the one who gave what money can't buy!

 

As we're preparing our meals, spending time with family we love and family we strive to put up with, while we watch as little children tear into the gifts that seem to cost so much, let us do it all with a different mindset. Let God awaken our hearts to His will in all of it.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if working for the Lord, not for man.

- Colossians 3:23

Let us remember the real reason we do all of things. Let extend the gift of grace to family that we don't think deserves it, because we do not deserve the gift that was given to us!

 

If you do not know in your heart what I am talking about and you've only known the Americanized, watered down version of Jesus then look up this story in Luke chapter 2. Look for the NIV (New International Version), unless you can understand it please don't try t read King James or New King James versions. You can find it on biblegateway.com

 

Enjoy your celebrations! Merry Christmas!

~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford

{This message is also posted on my other blog, sunflowersandweeds.BlogSpot.com }

Free Indeed!!

"So if the Son of Man sets you free, you will be free indeed!"

 - John 8:36 NIV

 

I love when the Bible uses exclamation marks! I think if there was one punctuation mark that I had to choose to represent life it would be the exclamation mark! I mean, why not? Life is incredible! Everything from the very beginning and the big picture of the universe to this very moment and how our bodies are functioning right now; our hearts beating and pumping blood, our lungs contracting and breathing air in and our, our sensories working allowing us to read this, our brains performing every single thing it is doing at this exact second!!

 

Yes, I am very well aware of all of the terrible things that happen in life. That's just part of it and it's been a part of life since the fall of man in the very beginning. But the Bible places and exclamation mark right here, emphasizing the importance of this statement. The word indeed actually means to emphasize a statement or confirm something already suggested.

 

Today, I want you to think about a few things. First, is there something in your life that you need freed from? For some of you this is an extremely vivid YES! For most of you your immediate response is no. Tune in right here, search your life, your thoughts, your actions, your circumstances, what has you bound? Maybe you're bound by a circumstance that is out of your control. Maybe it's a person who binds you.

 

There is a true story I want to share with you. A person who was entirely in love with the Lord became concerned for another person. These people are family, they know each other and what circumstances they are facing. Out of a godly love concern set in, overtime the concern became so strong that it was eventually put in a priority that only belongs to God. After a little while the relationship between the two became strained and full of bitterness and contention, but there was no escaping and just leaving. the two could not physically distance themselves. What happened was that the distress-maintain style of attribution set in, this is where everything that is negative that takes place is attributed to the other person. (i.e. "it's all their fault that...") Life became just shy of miserable and some days misery was achieved.

 

The person in this story was in bondage because (so they thought) of the other person. They were so godly in their intent to love this person, pray for them and try to help them. But the truth is the moment that this concern was elevated above it's correct priority level then things went south. The person ended up weighed down by their concern for another person and eventually enslaved themselves to that concern.

 

Proverbs 13:12 NIV "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

 

Not all of you are going through that exact scenario, but you are bound by something. None of you wants to be a slave. Everyone longs for freedom. Over the course of history there have been many wars that have been fought in the name of freedom, it is still taking place today. Freedom is what you want.

 

Hebrews 11:1 KJV "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

 

How do you get from hope deferred to sustaining hope?

 

Focus on God, not your bondage!

 

Mathew 6:33 NIV "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be given to you."

 

You may be thinking, but I do seek God first. The person in the story thought the same thing. Without even realizing it they had elevated something/someone else into their top priority and their top concern.That concern became an idol. God is very clear throughout scripture that there should be no other idols before him. The enemy is sneaky, he masquerades himself as light in order to fool us. He twists things and distorts them. You might have had a few of these thoughts; "I'm fighting for God!", "God put all of this together!". The whole time God's shaking his head.

 

1 Peter 5:8 NIV "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

 

You have to stay alert and keep your mind sober! Sober is defined ass earnestly thoughtful; marked by temperance. You cannot fill your head with crap and expect to not be deceived. Let me interject this one thing right here, if it doesn't line up with God's word then it's WRONG! There's no way around that.

 

So, keep your focus on God. If you're looking at him you don't have time to see the tricks of the enemy. When you adjust your focus, He is able to remove your bondage.

 

The one thing the person from the story will tell you is that once your focus is on God and you run in that freedom, you stop worrying so much about things. Make sure that you catch that, you will still have circumstances arise. You will even still care about them, but you won't worry. You are free in knowing that God is taking care of everything and all you need to do is focus on Him and let Him guide you in every moment.

 

"So if the Son of Man sets you free, you are free indeed!"

 

"...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfector of faith."

- Hebrews 12:1 - 3 NIV

 

~Awaken Us to Motion~

Brenna Stanford

 

Scriptures to Study:

Mathew 6:33

Psalm 51:10

Proverbs 3:6

Romans 12:1- 3

John 8:36

Hebrews 12: 1-3

Hebrews 11:1

Crucified by the Crowd

“But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” For the third time he demanded, “Why? What crime has he committed? I have found no reason to sentence him to death. So I will have him flogged, and then I will release him.” But the mob shouted louder and louder, demanding that Jesus be crucified, and their voices prevailed.”

Luke 23:21-23 NLT

Have the voices of the crowd ever prevailed against you?!

Jesus knows exactly what you are going through. The crowd made up false testimony. The rulers had no real reason to crucify him and even wanted to let him go. BUT the crowd!! The crowd made such a fuss that they refused to settle for anything less than crucifixion. 

Do you know that Jesus did not go to battle with the crowd? He knew God's will would be fulfilled no matter what!! You are not alone!!

Take heart!! The righteous will always prevail!! 

“O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge. Interlude”

Psalms 62:8 NLT

There's a song by Jeremy Camp that says over and over, "the same power (that rose Jesus from grave, that commands the dead to raise, rose mountains when he speaks, can calm a raging see), lives in us!! No weapon prevails, we stand in victory!!"

It may be the darkest day you've faced but Jesus is still with you!!

Look at Isaiah 30:19-26 NLT

“O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left. Then you will destroy all your silver idols and your precious gold images. You will throw them out like filthy rags, saying to them, “Good riddance!” Then the LORD will bless you with rain at planting time. There will be wonderful harvests and plenty of pastureland for your livestock. The oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat good grain, its chaff blown away by the wind. In that day, when your enemies are slaughtered and the towers fall, there will be streams of water flowing down every mountain and hill. The moon will be as bright as the sun, and the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days in one! So it will be when the LORD begins to heal his people and cure the wounds he gave them.”

There is purpose in your pain!! It is for the glory of the Lord that you are still standing!!

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.”

Psalms 23:1-6 NKJV

Take heart and stand firm in the Lord! He has a purpose for you!!

Awaken to a Godly Life

“She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks. There is no one to comfort her. The Lord has afflicted her because of her multitude of sins.” (Lamentations 1:2 & 5 paraphrased)

“But our weeping is because of this person or that situation!!”

We don’t ever gossip. Or lie. We never ever yell at our children or spouse...

You see all of these things are of our sinful nature. They sure don’t come from God. “For from within, out of a man’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.” (Mark 7:21-23)

Our culture has watered down Christianity so much that we can be lulled to sleep by it. There is this notion that because we’re not murderers that we are good Christians. Today’s American Christianity accepts E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!! “… those “extreme” things, are for the charismatic Christians or the missionaries…

Matthew 12:35 “ The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” We are walking through our faith lethargically on the edge of sleep. Then we are wondering why our world gets turned upside down when the first storm comes. This is not how God tells us to live! God says, “above ALL else, GUARD YOUR HEART, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and godliness.” (2 Peter 1:3)

What is a godly life? (What do these things look like in your daily life?)

o Love the lord with all your heart, soul & mind (Matthew 22:38-40)

o Seek 1st the kingdom and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33)

o Obey “Grace did not save Noah, obedience did.”

Titus 3:1-2 “Remind the people to be subject to the rules and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.”

o Love others “and love others as yourself” 

o Love your enemies (Proverbs 25:22)

o Do everything for God (Colossians 3:23)

o Stop being a good modern American Christian & let God consume your life!

Ephesians 5 paints us a picture of what this looks: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

We can all get caught up in the do-do’s of life. Paul talks about fighting our sinful nature in Romans 7, but we must wake up and wage war against our flesh!

“Let us search out and examine our ways” (lamentations 3:40) If we can’t look in the mirror of our hearts and see this godly life, if what we see is our bitter weeping and continuous tears, there’s only one thing to do. We must “turn back to the Lord. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven.” (lamentations 3:40-41)

The good news is that “through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail. They are new every morning; Great is his faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in him!” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” (Lamentations 3:24-25)

Luke 9:28-32 “…Jesus took Peter, John and James with him and went onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightening. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. … Peter and his companions were sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory…”

"when they became fully awake, they saw his glory"

It’s time to wake up! Now awaken & move!!

Get Your Strong Confidence!!

I'm not sure if you've heard or not so I'll briefly catch you up. Zondervan, a huge Christian publishing agency has sold their publishing rights of the Bible to another company. This company has been known for publishing satanist books along with other books that, in a very straight forward manner, go against things the Bible teaches us.

That's not all. Since this has happened they have already removed several verses of scripture and taken out many, many words all together.

When I found out about this I was blown away. Questions like how in the world could they do that? Why?!

Tonight there have been many times that I have woken up thinking this was all a dream. It's not. My heart is absolutely broken!! How can anyone take away from the Word of God?!?! How can they get away with this?!

This brings about even more talk of The End coming. The wife and mother in me gets so scared. What will my babies be facing when they get older? What if Jesus does come back soon? I have many people who are very dear to me who refuse to believe in God.

Then I found this scripture. "In the fear of the Lord [Yahweh, I Am] there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge." Proverbs 14:26 NKJV Then there was peace.

Yes, people may be removing words from the bible. Online and on your apps it's already done. Who knows if there is more to come? BUT we still have OUR Bibles, the paper ones that no one can come and erase words. Earlier today someone mentioned how the Nazi's tried to get rid of every religious book. I'm not a huge history buff but that may not have been the first time for something like this to happen either.

I'm in no way shaking this off as an "oh well, what can we do about it?" thing. I am here saying that God is the great and almighty I Am!!! There is none like Him and Satan CANNOT defeat Him!!! God has already won the war!! The Bible is the oldest surviving book in the world. I'm not sold that it can't survive this too.

We as Christians need to take this and move forward boldly sharing what we know is truth. That is God's word, all of it!! Our God is full of grace, compassion and love, and he wants everyone to know about it!! So let those who fear the Lord find strong confidence!! Let us boldly share God's love with the world!!

~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford