Purpose Archives - Page 3 of 6

Being Courageous.

January 14, 2013 By: Sarah Leffcomment

Hello and Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was pretty low key…actually really low key. We did take an evening excursion to Trader Joes though on Saturday, which was excellent, and made a quick stop at our favorite bubble tea shop which was right down the road [so convenient]. But, other than that, nothing new to report.

In other news, I’ve been reading the book of Esther over the weekend. If you haven’t actually read the whole book, I would encourage you to do so—it’s very good! If you’re not familiar with Esther’s story, let me give you a brief background. Esther was a Jew, who was chosen amongst many other beautiful women to be the new queen in Persia. During her time as queen, an evil advisor convinced the king to issue a decree stating that anyone could kill any Jew at any time beginning on a certain set date in the near future. The king wasn’t fully aware of what this decree entailed, and definitely did not know that his own queen was, in fact, a Jew. When Esther learned about the decree from her cousin Mordecai, she was devastated. Devastated and afraid. But, under her cousins’ instruction, she decided to approach the king [which was illegal and punishable by death] and plead with him for the lives of her people. In the end, the king accepts her, listens to her, and eventually executes the evil advisor who instigated the imminent slaughter in the first place. He then gave the Jews the right to fight back and defend themselves against anyone who would attempt to harm them. In the end the Jews were saved—all because of Esther’s bravery. But just because she was brave, doesn’t mean she wasn’t afraid.

“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this.”

Esther 4:14

Esther didn’t have any of the usual qualification for becoming a queen in Persia, and the circumstances that brought about her queen-ship were far from ordinary. But, God knew what he was doing. He knew about Haman’s [the evil advisor] plot to kill the Jews before he even spoke of it. He knew that someone who supported the Jews needed to be in authority to save them at that specific time. So, what did he do? He placed Esther in a position of authority, granted her favor with the king, and through her courage saved the Jews from imminent destruction.

She was right where God wanted her to be, exactly when he wanted her to be there. She was faithful to God’s promptings in her life, and her people reaped the benefits of her obedience.

We can learn a valuable lesson from Esther’s life. While we may not be destined to become royalty, or to save an entire nation from destruction, God has a specific plan and purpose for each of our lives. He has things for us to do, and a timeline for us to follow. It’s so important to be doing what he wants us to do when he wants us to do it. And the plans he has for us may require us to be courageous. They may not always be the most comfortable or easy actions for us to take—Esther definitely didn’t have an easy task. But, the end results will always be worth any discomfort we may initially experience.

Well, on that note, I’m off. Enjoy the rest of your day, and God Bless:)

Pray with Confidence.

January 9, 2013 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:)

Lukewarm?

January 4, 2013 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:)

Fix Your Eyes on Jesus.

December 19, 2012 By: Sarah Leffcomment

Hello! Hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday so far. Mine is going well…it’s windy and cloudy outside, so it feels nice to be cuddled up inside with little Samson next to me:)

Precious.

Anyways, I don’t have too much time, so I’ll get right down to what I read this morning from Hebrews.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 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. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Hebrews 12:1-3

I have always loved this passage of scripture. But, now that I’m older and reading it at a different time in my life, it has a much deeper meaning to me. The Christian life has never been, and will never be, without challenges. We live in a sin-stricken world, and there is nothing we can presently do about that. Choosing to live a Christian lifestyle requires sacrifice. Commitment. It means giving up on your own agenda in the pursuit of God’s plan for your life. The only way to really succeed is to fix our eyes on the only one who has ever lived a perfect Christian life—Jesus. We are going to stumble and mess up sometimes. We’re humans—that’s just what we do. But, what’s important is that we learn how to pick ourselves back up again, and continue to focus our attention on Christ.

Over the past few years of my life I’ve gone through a lot of changes both spiritually and emotionally. While I have continually drawn closer to Christ, I have also had my fair share of challenges and stumbling blocks along the way. But, each challenge I have faced has shaped me into the person I am today. And that person is strong and confident in the person she is in Christ. I know that I have a lot of learning ahead of me, and that there will inevitably be challenges along the way, but I am no longer afraid. I know God has a plan for my life. All I have to do is fix my eyes on Jesus, and run the race set before me.

What about you? Maybe your going through something right now that just seems too difficult to overcome. Don’t be discouraged. God will bring you through whatever it is that you may be facing, and in the end you’ll be stronger because of it.

Hope you all have a great rest of your Wednesday! God Bless:)

Having Faith.

December 18, 2012 By: Sarah Leffcomment

Hello and Happy Tuesday! For some reason it really doesn’t feel like a Tuesday today…guess I’m just really off in my days. Another thing that just doesn’t seem right is that Christmas is exactly one week from today! Maybe it’s the Texas weather, or the fact that my family is going to be out of town and I won’t be going home, but it certainly doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. Guess that means I’m gonna have to watch a few more Christmas movies and bake some more cookies over this coming week to put me more in the mood:) Shucks.

Today I read a familiar verse from Hebrews that I want to share with you this morning…

“Now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.”

Hebrews 11:1

I’m sure most of you have heard this verse before—it’s usually a popular one for Sunday school memorization. But, have you ever really thought about what it’s actually saying? If you’re anything like me, you want all the answers up front. You want God to tell you exactly what is going to happen and why, and you don’t want there to be any surprises. But, if God made everything perfectly clear to us, what would be the point of having faith? If we knew all the answers already, why would we need to trust God to reveal them to us? We wouldn’t.

Christianity is completely based in faith. If it weren’t that way, our testimonies wouldn’t be so powerful. There’s something about being required to have faith that really creates a unique and wonderful connection between God and us. If faith were not required, we wouldn’t trust and respect him as much as we do. Faith is being sure of what we hope for a certain of what we do not see. Even though we can’t know for sure what the future holds, we can be confident that God has a purpose and a plan behind each of our lives. And while we can’t actually see God, we can have faith that he is always with us, guiding us where we are supposed to go.

While it may be frustrating some times not to have all the answers, faith really is a gift and a blessing. Without it, our lives would be completely different, and we wouldn’t truly appreciate the journey that eventually leads to our eternal destination in Heaven.

Just some food for thought. Hope you all are having a great day! God Bless:)

Living Courageously.

December 17, 2012 By: Sarah Leffcomment

Good Morning and Happy Monday! Hope you all are had a great weekend! Mine was great. While the majority of Friday night was spent at Best Buy, I ended up with a new iPhone, which is SOOOO much faster than my previous one—love it! Then on Saturday, James and I went to see the Hobbit, which was AWESOME. Seriously, go see it. I absolutely love all things Lord of the Rings, so naturally I was nervous about the book to movie rendition. However, I was definitely not disappointed. The whole thing was very well done. Sunday I had the day off so we were able to go to church, grab lunch with some friends, take a walk, and finally put our new grill together! It took forever, but I can officially say that we now have a grill—yay! So excited to start grilling up some dinners:) Over the weekend I also read one of my all-time favorite passages of scripture, and I thought I would share it with you this morning…

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

2 Timothy 1:7

We were never meant to be wallflowers—timidly fading into the background of life. No. We are meant to be bold and courageous in anything and everything that we do. God did not give us a spirit of fear, but instead a spirit of power, love and self-disciple. We don’t have to be afraid, and we definitely never have to live in fear. Through the Holy Spirit living in us, we have the courage and boldness to do anything we set our minds to. So often the enemy tries to sneak into our lives, telling us that we need to be afraid. Well, those are lies. And those lies keep us living in fear, which in turn keeps us from fulfilling our destinies in Christ. We never have to be afraid to do the things God has called us to do. Through his power we are stronger than anything the enemy could put in our way.

This verse really hit me this weekend. I feel like I am afraid to truly start doing the things I know God has called me to do, but I’m not sure why. Now I understand that I have been afraid because the enemy has been lying to me. Trying to keep me living in fear—as far away from my calling as he can keep me. I need to start living more courageously and boldly, instead of hiding behind my fear. While hiding may seem easier at the time, I know that in the end it’s not going to get me anywhere, and will accomplish nothing for God’s Kingdom. It’s time to start living out of courage instead of fear.

Well, on that note, I hope you all have a great, courage-filled day! God Bless:)

Running the Race.

November 30, 2012 By: Sarah Leffcomment

Hello and Happy Friday! Hope you all have had a great week so far, and have an exciting weekend planned! I’ll be working, so not much exciting will be going on around here, but that’s alright. So, I was going to go ahead and share some Friday Favorites from the week, but instead I want to share something I read this morning from 1 Corinthians.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

1 Corinthians 9:24

In this scripture, Paul is comparing living the Christian life to running a race. When running a race, or participating in any sporting event for that matter, winning is quite often the end goal. It’s what keeps athletes motivated to run faster, stronger and harder. So, how do you go about winning? You have to train diligently—with purpose, passion and drive. You can’t just show up on the day of the race without having put in any effort before hand, and expect to beat out the competition. No—you have to train. You have to work for it.

In the same way, we can’t expect to be strong Christians without putting any effort into living the Christian life. We can’t expect to have a relationship with Christ if we never pray or read his Word. It just doesn’t work that way. We can’t just settle for standing on the sidelines of our life, choosing to not put forth our full effort in following Christ. Instead, we need to diligently pursue him in all that we do—not half-heartedly, but completely committed to him.

This is something I know I need to get better at. It’s so easy to get distracted by the things of this world, and also by our busy lives. I really need to focus on diligently pursuing God and his plan for my life—that is the only choice worth choosing.

Hope you all have a great weekend! God Bless:)

Believing is the One and Only Key.

November 5, 2012 By: Sarah Leffcomment

It’s Monday again! Hope you all had an excellent weekend. We did some exploring (as usual) on Saturday, and had the opportunity to hang out with some awesome people from church on Sunday. Overall it was a successful weekend:)

I also started reading the book of John over the weekend, which has so far proven to be an excellent book. One thing I love about the different gospels is that you are able to see the same timeline of events from various perspectives. Even though some of the stories may seem a little repetitive, each gospel provides a slightly different tone, which creates depth within the overall timeline.

In John chapter 6, the people were asking Jesus what they needed to do please God, and receive eternal life.

“ Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

John 6:28-29

The people were convinced that God required works from them in order to be deemed righteous and good. It makes sense that they would think this way because this was the way they had always been taught. How strange Jesus’ words must have sounded to them when he said, “The work of God is this” to believe in the one he has sent.” God didn’t have any requirements for them, other than believing in Jesus—the thing that matters most in life.

So often we try [sometimes subconsciously] to earn our own salvation through our various works because we believe that is what God requires of us. Somehow it just seems easier to believe our works can cover us than to believe that Jesus has already done that, and all we need to do is believe. Personally, I think this is cultural. We’re so used to working hard to achieve results that we just can’t totally buy in to the idea that someone would just hand us something so great as eternal life, with only the belief in Jesus attached. But, just as Jesus told those people in John that they only needed to believe in him, the same answer applies to us.

There is NOTHING we can physically do to earn salvation—no task that God would demand of us to complete. In dying on the cross, Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins so that we wouldn’t have to, and instead have the opportunity to receive eternal life. All we have to do is believe in Jesus, and accept him as Lord of our lives. If you’ve never asked Jesus to come into your life, I would encourage you to do so. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, or what your past is comprised of—remember there is nothing you can do to earn salvation; all you can do is receive it!

Lord, I recognize that I am a sinner, and that I need your forgiveness. I understand that you sent your only son, Jesus, to earth, and that he died on the cross to save me from my sins so that I can receive everlasting and eternal life with you. He paid the price for my sins, and right now I ask your forgiveness for all of the sins I have committed. Cleanse me. Purify me. I ask Jesus that you come into my life, and that you be my Lord and Savior—forever king of my life. In your name, Amen.

Hope you all are having a great day so far! God Bless:)

Choices.

October 31, 2012 By: Sarah Leffcomment

Good Morning, and Happy Halloween! I doubt we will get many trick-or-treater’s seeing as we live on the third floor of a gated apartment complex, but oh well—I’ll just have to eat all the candy myself. Ha. Just kidding—kind of. Anyways…

I was reading about the parable of the king and his servants in the book of Luke this morning, and the words of Jesus hit me in a different way. Let me give you a little background information. This is the parable involving a king who, when going away on a trip, decides to leave three of his trusted servants with three different sums of money. To this first he gave ten units, the second received five, and third one. On the kings’ return, the first and second servant both presented him with double what they had been given, and were each rewarded accordingly for their efforts. On the other had, the third servant had not doubled his allotted money. Instead, he had hidden the money away out of fear, and had nothing to show for his efforts when the king returned. Needless to say, the king was a bit upset, and he took the money away from the third servant and gave it to the first, who had originally been given ten. Following the parable, Jesus said this…

“I tell you to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.”

Luke 19:26

I always thought this sounded a little harsh…I mean, come on right? Give the guy some slack! But when I read these words this morning I saw them in a different light. We are like the servants in the story, and God is the king. While we may not be given money with the clear task of multiplying it, we are each given unique gifts and talents to use. With these talents, we are also given a choice. We can use them selfishly for our own personal benefit, not use them at all, or use them as God intended—to help his kingdom grow here on Earth.

Like I said, it’s our choice to with them what we will, but ultimately we should want to choose the third choice. We should want to use our God-given talents to serve him, and further his kingdom here on Earth. I mean, what other purpose can you possibly imagine that would be greater? I can’t think of any.

What are our gifts and talents? Are you using them in a way that glorifies God?

Hope you all are having a great day! God Bless:)

True Humility.

October 30, 2012 By: Sarah Leffcomment

Happy Tuesday! It seems weird that the weather is clear and sunny here in Dallas while the East Coast is so stormy! I’ve been watching the news periodically over the past couple days here, and it definitely looks bad out there. Remember to pray for all the families and businesses affected by Sandy!

Anyways, yesterday I was reading about humility…

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 14:11

I find that humility seems to be a common theme throughout the Bible—and definitely an important one. But what does it mean to be truly humble? I think a lot of us have an inaccurate perception as to what this really means. Often, we mistakenly think that to live in humility, we must put ourselves down, or in some way degrade ourselves. We think being ‘humiliated’ is the same thing as being ‘humble’. Well…that’s just not true.

Truly humble people are humble because they compare themselves to Jesus instead of others, and in doing so realize how far away from perfection they really are.

Truly humble people recognize their gifts and talents, and instead of trying to hide them, wish to use them to glorify God and further his kingdom here on earth.

Truly humble people don’t put themselves down in order to achieve humility, but instead focus in on their individual giftings and callings given to them by God. They aren’t greedy or selfish with their gifts and talents, but share them freely with others.

“Humility is not self-degradation; it is realistic assessment and commitment to serve.”

[Footnotes]

For a long time I had the impression that humility involved self-degradation, when really the opposite is true. True humility is something that comes out of a love for Jesus, and a desire to follow his plan for you life—not matter what or where that plan happens to lead you.

Hope you all are having a great day! If you’re near Sandy, stay safe and stay dry! I will be keeping you all in my prayers! God Bless:)

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