Relate Church

Jesus coming the way He came, as a baby lying in a manger, is symbolic of simplicity, romance, and comfort to us.
The message of comfort is that God makes His home in us. Forever. 

When your life has meaning, you have comfort. 
God gives you personally selected ideals to strive for, that are unique to you, that gives you meaning. And it is your life’s meaning to focus on them, and go for those ideals. But until you find and follow the path pursuing those ideals from God for your life, you are going to feel meaningless.

Your life, and mine are full of troubles, struggles, mountains to climb and rivers to forge. You have past hurts and pains that seem to linger. You have situations that happened to you that you still don’t understand.
And it seems all of us are concerned about our future here. The fear of our economy falling, politics, riots, viruses, and all that is going on around us…we need comfort.
While God is the amazing, awesome, Creator of the Universe and all there is, He is also the God of all Comfort.

Prophecy? Are we all supposed to walk around acting like we know the future? Yes! God has told us what is to come. And it’s important for us to continually remind each other about it.
You know that Jesus is coming back for His people. You know that God is going to win. You know that He will wipe every tear from our eyes and welcome us into heaven. You know about many things to come because God has said it! And prophecy is nothing more than saying something God has said will happen.

Here’s the challenge: Stop begging God and start thanking God.
 Thank God that He knows what you need before you even ask.
 Thank God that He cares about your life.
 Thank God that He has your best interest in mind and is working on your behalf.
 Thank Him that He is doing His will.
 Thank Him for healing, don’t beg for it.

Like it or not, we are in a spiritual war. Whether you want to be in a spiritual war or not doesn’t matter; you are in it. You are either on the Lord’s side, or the side of evil. One or the other.
As good soldiers of Christ we need to look at every area of our lives and get it together to the best of our ability. Our finances. Our health. Our homes. Our emotions. Our schedules. Some of us are letting everyone and everything run our lives so much that we have zero time to do anything for God. We are so caught up in everything BUT GOD.

When you and I stand before God at the Judgment seat of Christ, our commitment to God will be called into question. 
Did we fervently and patiently serve and wait for Him while we lived on earth?
When our moment of death came, were our eyes fixed on Jesus?
Much of Jesus’s parables have this theme to them. And in each of these parables there are people who passed and people who failed. 
Jesus was clearly communicating what God is looking for when it comes to a relationship.

Today I want to talk with you about the secret.
What you do and who you are in the secret will be rewarded.  
God is most interested in this area of our lives, and we should be too.  
What you do in the secret tells you more about you than anything else.
The words I use, the thoughts I have, the things I do—when no one is looking, all tell me a lot about what kind of a person I really am.
Do I give or take when no one is looking?
Do I sacrifice or withhold from others based on who is looking?
I want to encourage you today to begin to do positive things when you are alone.

Jesus said that the things we say will be important on the day of judgment.
Am I helping the people around me to be able to think this way? Am I promoting unity, peace, love, and purity? Or am I promoting my own way, my own importance, my own ego?
And here’s another question we should challenge ourselves with: Am I speaking words of life to reach others for Christ?
Are the words we speak building? Or tearing down?

Does God know you respect His presence in your life?
Does He know you want to know Him more? Are you seeking to know Him? Reading His Book? Growing in that relationship? Or are you lax in it? Just hoping to make it to the little corner of heaven?
Does God see where you have changed the things you say and do because He is with you?