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Archives for January 2013

Pray with Confidence.

By: Sarah Leffcomment

Good Morning and Happy Wednesday! I don’t know about you, but here is Dallas it has been raining [pouring] since yesterday afternoon. And it’s still raining. And it is supposed to keep raining ALL day. In a weird way I kind of like the rain, even though I would much prefer snow at this time of year. It’s relaxing to snuggle up inside while listening to it come down. Going outside is a slightly different story, seeing as I am immediately soaked while walking from my front door to my car, but for nom I’m inside cuddling with Samson. Great way to start off my Wednesday. Anyways, I was reading in 1 John again this morning [which is an awesome book by the way] and came across this passage…
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
1 John 5:14-15
When we pray, we can’t just ask God for any and every thing we want, expecting him to give it to us—just because we asked for it. Instead, the emphasis here is on God’s will being done above and before our own. The first thing we need to do is align our will with God’s will for our lives. It can’t just be about what we want. It has to be about what God wants for us. Once our will is aligned with God’s, and we pray for those things within his will to happen, we can expect God to follow through with an answer. We can expect him to hear us, and be certain that he will answer. We can be confident in our prayers.
This is something I struggle with. I feel like when I ask God for something in prayer, I’m not always confident that he will follow through with an answer. I hope that he will, but not truly confident. This passage was encouraging to me because it reminded me that I can go boldly before the throne of God in prayer, and if my will is aligned with his, I can be certain of an answer.
Pray with confidence. Expect God to follow through on his promises in your life.
Hope you all have a great rest of your day! God Bless:)

Preparing for Rejection.

By: Sarah Leffcomment

Good Morning! For some reason, it just doesn’t feel like a Tuesday today, but apparently it is. Ah, well. I guess I am pretty excited that it’s Tuesday, because that means we get to go see Max Lucado speak at our church tonight! He is such a great author, and I’m really excited to hear what he has to say. I’ll let you all know how it was in tomorrow’s post. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. So I know I said I was going to start reading the Bible straight through again like I did last year, but I kind of changed my mind. By all means, if you’ve started reading straight through, keep going! It’s just that for me, I’ve been feeling led to pray, letting the Holy Spirit lead me to the passage of scripture I’m supposed to read for the day. Lately, it’s been 1 John. And there is a LOT to be learned from 1 John. So, here is something I felt led to read and share with you this morning…
“Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.”
1 John 3:13
Well that was simple and to the point. Don’t be surprised if the world hates us. Hmm. As Christians, we were never meant to blend in to the background. We were never meant to conform to the patterns of this world. Quite the opposite actually. Instead of conforming, we have always been called to stand out. To live differently—separate from the patterns from the world. The problem? Living differently isn’t always the most popular choice amongst our peers. They may not understand why we act differently, and this lack of understanding often leads to hatred, or rejection, on their part. Don’t be surprised. They only feel this way because our lifestyle pushes them to conviction in regards to their own lives. As Christians, we can’t let persecution, rejection or even hatred cause us to live within the patterns of the world. We can’t let them affect us, but rather, we must have an effect on them.
If ever you are feeling rejected, persecuted or hated because of your faith, take comfort in the fact that Jesus knows exactly what you are going through. In fact, he’s been there himself. Rely on him, and he will bring you through any trial or circumstance you may find yourself in.
Well, I hope you all are having a great Tuesday so far. I’m off to get a few things done before work. Have a great day, and God Bless:)

No Grey Areas.

By: Sarah Leffcomment

Good Morning! Hope you all had a great weekend, and are having an excellent start to your Monday. My weekend was good. I had to work on Saturday, but got to relax and hang out with James and Samson on Sunday—always a good thing:) Anyways, back to Monday. So this morning I was reading in 1 John, and thought I would share this passage of scripture with you…

“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin.”

1 John 1:5b-7

I like the black and whiteness of this passage. There is no possibility for grey area when talking about light and darkness. When light shines, darkness cannot exist. Likewise, where Christ’s light shines, evil/sin cannot exist. We can’t claim to be living for Christ if in actuality our lives are bathed in sin. We can’t pretend to exude the light of Christ on the outside if our actions and lifestyle choices don’t line up with what we claim to believe. Like I said, black and white.

I know this is heavy stuff, but there are so many Christians out there today who really think they can live in the grey areas of life. They don’t understand that Christianity requires death to the old nature—and a new life in Christ. Our society teaches us that it’s okay to compromise. That living a life fully committed to Christ isn’t necessary. The more we listen to those lies, the more blurred the lines become in our minds. We start to see Christianity as a grey area instead of the black and white truth that it is. This, my friends, is a very dangerous place to be. The Bible is very clear that our lives should be separate, or different, from the world. We can’t go on living in sin [walking in darkness] if we claim to be living for Christ [living in truth].

Are you living for Christ? I mean, really living for him? There is no grey area in Christianity—only the black and white truths. Don’t try to live in the grey. Commit to living completely, 100% in the light.

Well, I hope you all are having a great start to your week! God Bless:)

Lukewarm?

By: Sarah Leff2 Comments

Hello and Happy Friday! Hope you all are having a great day so far. As usual, this week has again flown by—seriously how is it already January? At least it’s been reasonably cold lately. Not quite like being in Michigan, but it’s better than nothing!
Anyways, I thought I would share with you something I read in Revelations last week that really stuck out to me. It’s regarding the different churches depicted towards the beginning of the book, and Jesus is the one who is speaking…
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
Revelation 3:15-16
The church Jesus was talking about here was neither hot nor cold. They weren’t on fire for him, but were stuck somewhere in the commitment stage of their relationship with him. Not fully committed to him, yet not completely unbelieving either. So many Christians today are like this. Tossed back and forth between the rocky waves of culture and the solid truths of Christianity. They can’t quite decide if they’d rather follow Christ or live their lives by the world’s standards. They are lukewarm.
We can’t be lukewarm Christians. We can’t go to church and be committed to Christ one day, only to turn around and live a double-standard life the next. We need to be 100% committed to him. On fire for him. Passionate for him. Always. All the time. No matter where we are or who we are with. Don’t settle on following God with half of your heart—commit to giving him the whole thing.
This is something I have struggled with in the past—giving everything in my life completely to Christ. This year I’m really going to focus on being totally committed to Christ 100% of the time. No matter where he leads me, or what he is calling me to do. I’ve tried figuring out how to do life on my own, and it just never seems to work out the way I planned. This year I’m going to focus on giving everything to him, and being on fire for him always—not just when it is convenient.
We have to change lukewarm into hot within the church. But we can’t do that if we aren’t completely hot ourselves. Commit to being hot—not lukewarm in your walk with Christ. I have a feeling you won’t be disappointed with the outcome.
Well, I hope you all have a great rest of your day, and an excellent weekend to boot! I’m off to work on some editing this afternoon. Wish me luck! God Bless:)

Hello 2013.

By: Sarah Leff2 Comments


Hello and Happy New Year! I’m so sorry it’s been such a long time since my last post…the last couple weeks have been crazy. Crazy, but definitely fun! James’ parents and sister [plus a couple of her friends] drove down to see us for Christmas, and stayed until New Years Day. We had so much fun exploring Dallas, and just spending some quality family time with them. Christmas was great…we cooked a big meal in the apartment [which turned out great, thankfully], and then it started to snow! Being from Michigan, I love my white Christmases, so the few inches of snow we received on Christmas day was a huge blessing. It made being away from home much easier.

Beautiful Fake Tree.
My Attempt at Unique Photography.
The Tree in all it’s Beauty.
Samson…playing with the packaging.
The Feast!
Snow in Texas? Yes Please!
Sisters:)
I even got James to come out and enjoy the snow with me!
The river behind our apartment.
During their visit we also went to a few malls in the area to do some after Christmas shopping, went to the Dallas World Aquarium [which is excellent—I would definitely recommend it], explored the city, and of course hit up a few local restaurants. Overall, it was a great week:)
Downtown Dallas.
Don’t remember what it is, but it is cool!
Penguins!
Stingrays:)
REAL Flamingos. YES.
The scenery around the aquarium…seriously more than just an aquarium.
Even a waterfall…there were birds and monkeys too…so cool!
Now, it’s back to the daily grind. I am happy to report that I officially finished reading through the Bible in one year! This was a goal I made at the beginning of last year, so it’s really exciting that I actually followed through with the reading. I learned so much from reading through the Bible that I am going to do it again. I found this great website  which lists a variety of different reading plans, including different versions and start days. If you’re interested in joining me, it’s not too late! I am doing the NIV plan which started on January 1st and goes from beginning to end. I may switch it up a little and read something from the Old Testament and New Testament each day, just for a little variety. There is a plan for this as well—the Old/New plan. Whichever way you choose, I hope you follow along! Reading through the Bible in a year is a great goal—one that you will definitely benefit from everyday.
That being said, I am going to continue to post devotions as often as possible during the week based on what I have been reading in scripture. I also have some new and exciting ideas to make the more interesting, so be looking for those changes/additions over the next few weeks here. Also, if there is anything specific you would like to see included in the blog, let me know! I always love your feedback.
Samson was pretty tired after everyone left…
Well, I am off to do some editing. I’ll be back tomorrow with a devotional of sorts. In the meantime—check out those reading plans! Have a great rest of your day, and God Bless:)

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