Week 6:  T·R·U·S·T

Memory Verse
{Psalm 25.2a – “O my God, in YOU I trust.”}

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~Day 1~
Who Better?

Read Psalm 18.30-31.

There is only one God… He is our only ROCK! And did you get the first part?....... His way is PERFECT! Who better to trust than God with PERFECT ways?

Read Psalm 20.7-8 and Psalm 118.8.

Is there anything that you can put you trust in over God? NO! It doesn’t matter how great someone is or how much they love you. It doesn’t matter steady and solid someone seems…. A human will at some point let you down, disappoint you, fail you. But God? He never will!!!

Read Psalm 73.25.

Once we trust God, we realize that we have no other desires apart from Him. He fills us up! What can we want in Heaven or earth more than God?

-          Do you trust anyone in your life more than you trust God? Be honest with yourself. How can you change this?

-          Reread Psalm 73.25. Could you write this statement out and it be true of yourself? Do you desire Him and His Will and His presence more than anything else in life?

 

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~Day 2~
Best How?

Some of you may wonder… “How can He be the BEST for me to trust? I can’t even see Him!”

Take a look at Isaiah 45.12 and Psalm 100.3.

He’s our CREATOR! You can put our trust in Him because not only did He create the world… but He created YOU! He designed YOU! He knows YOU…. Even better than you know yourself.  But it gets even better….

Read Psalm 40.4.

Not only is He the best to trust because He is our Creator, but we are also promised that we are blessed  when we trust in the Lord! Blessed how?

Read Jeremiah 17.7-8.

We will be planted by the water, not fearing anything, always bearing fruit!

-          Spend some time thinking about the fact that God created You…. He made you. He has a specific purpose for you. You didn’t happen by accident. You weren’t some random chance. You were designed with a purpose. Now do you want to trust Him?

-          Do you feel like the verses in Jeremiah 17 (read them again) describe you? Do you feel like tree planted beside the river that never stops bearing the fruit of Jesus? Do you want it to describe you?

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~Day 3~
“Who Me?”

This past weekend the youth group from my church went on a retreat…. A skiing retreat. I decided to go simply to hang out with the kids but let’s be honest, I’ve never skied, I don’t pick up on things easily, and I’m pretty much a chicken at the thought of flying down a mountain locked in to pointy long boards on my feet. Once I did lessons though and I got going, I actually was really enjoying myself. I decided maybe I could graduate from the bunny hill to the green slope… This is where it got interesting. I would start to pick up speed and FREAK OUT! So that left me only one option, sit down, make myself fall. I did this so many times the first several times down. On about time #8 I decided I was not going to intentionally fall to stop my speed. I decided that I was going to try it. If I fell, no big deal, I wanted to make it down. The last four times down the slope, I didn’t fall a single time. The problem had never been that my body couldn’t do it, that I couldn’t handle the speed, or that I couldn’t make the turns. My body knew what to do. The problem all along was that I didn’t trust my body to do it!

Read 2 Corinthians 3.5.

I know what you’re thinking… “Didn’t you just tell us that we couldn’t trust anything or anyone but God? Now you’re telling us to trust ourselves?” Yes and No. Don’t trust yourself… trust God to work through you. You will never be good enough. You will never be talented enough… on your own. But GOD equips you. He helps you be enough! When He leads you to do something, do it trusting that He will work through you.

Read Matthew 25.14-29.

Why would I have you read this story? The man who buried his talent was afraid he would lose it. He was afraid that if he used it, it wouldn’t be good enough, or that he wouldn’t get anything more out of it. So he hid it and his master was furious. So many times God gives us talents, gifts, opportunities, open doors and we choose not to walk through them with the fear that we won’t be good enough. Maybe you are afraid that you won’t speak well enough or perform well enough or that you will mess up and look bad. Living with Christ has never been and never will be about trusting your own abilities! But by trusting God… We must trust Him to work in us and through us for His glory!

Read Psalm 37.4-5.

This is my life verse. Why? Because when we are totally delighting ourselves in the Lord (seeking Him, trusting Him, finding our joy in Him) and we commit to Him (we put all that seeking and trusting into action by chasing Him), we can trust that HE WILL ACT! EVERY TIME!!

-          Read Philippians 2.13. Do you trust God to work through you? To teach what to do and how to do it? IF not, why? What’s holding you back?

-          Read Matthew 10.20. Do you believe God will speak for you?

-          Thinking back to the story we read in Matthew…. Do you hide out of fear that you won’t be good enough or that you might mess up?

 

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~Day 4~
Why Them?

Well it had been quite the adventurous week. As I said this past weekend I went skiing and now I want to tell you about another out of my norm experience for the week. On President’s Day some of my friends wanted to go hiking. Now while I used to hike up little mountains in my back yard when I was about 9 or 10, it’s sometime I haven’t experienced in YEARS! And never quite this big. We arrived and looked at the mountain and were informed it would be a three mile hike to the top…. As you can imagine I wasn’t too excited. We hiked and hiked and we knew we were about two thirds of the way up and we come up on rocks… huge rocks… boulders. That we were going to have to climb up on and across to get to the top. I thought there’s no way. No way I can do it. No way I’ll make it up. My lack of enthusiasm turned into a huge amount of fear. I’m terrified of heights. I’m clumsy. My friend Mike (the crazy hiker who coordinated this whole event) is very, very strong though. There were several times he had to practically lift the kids and some of us girls on to the rocks. Towards the end I was trusting him more and more knowing that he hadn’t let me fall so far and wasn’t going to. But then…. we got to the last boulder… the pinnacle. It was much bigger than any rock we had got on before and because it was the last one, there seemed to be nothing around it. I was terrified. I decided that I would just stay the rock right below the pinnacle. That was good enough for me. But Mike insisted that I did not come all that way to not make it to the very top. After much encouragement and him promising multiple times that he would get me up and not let me fall, I went for it. There was nothing I could do to help myself. I had to trust that he would get me there… and he did. And it was gorgeous.

The point is, I never would have made it to the top without my friend. If I hadn’t trusted him, I would have just sat on the level right below the top.

In the Christian life, God sends people into our lives to help us. To encourage us. To challenge us. To guide us. To reach our full potential in our walk with the Lord we have to trust God and trust those that He sends our way. We need to trust them to help us grow and be active in helping others grow.

Read Hebrews 10.24-25.

There is so much importance placed on encouragement and fellowship throughout Scripture. Surround yourself with people running after Christ and allow them to help you grow towards Jesus. Also be that encourager for those around you.

Read Galatians 6.2.

We are also called to carry one another’s burdens. When someone needs help, we should give it. Their troubles should be our troubles. In the reverse sense we have to allow others to be there for us in our trials. To pray with us and speak truth to us.

-          When someone tries to encourage you or point you to Christ to you receive it and thank them for it? Or do you have the mentality that you can do it yourself?

-          Reflect again on Galatians 6.2. do you allow others to help you bear your burdens? Or do you choose to carry them alone?

 

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~Day 5~
With All?

Read Proverbs 3.5-6.

There’s that word again…. ALL. We should trust Him with EVERYTHING!

You can trust Him with all and when you do…
He will bring……..

JOY

Read Psalm 33.20-21.

Our hearts can be glad because we trust in HIM!

PEACE

Read Isaiah 26.3-4.

PERFECT PEACE!...... Who would ever say I don’t want peace? When we trust God and fix our thoughts on Him… He gives PERFECT PEACE!

-          Do you have that joy that only comes from trusting God?

-          Do you have that peace that only comes from trusting God?

-          Think on ways this week that you can trust God more?

 

What are your thoughts? I want feedback. Feel free to send me any question responses. I would love to hear from you, answer any questions you have, and pray for your needs specifically. Feel free to share this, comment, email me at brandycaudill90@gmail.com, or facebook message me!

 

Week 5:  “Loving Out Loud”

Memory Verse
{1 John 4.19 – “We love because He first loved us.”}

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~Day 1~
How can we possibly love others?

Last week we studied about the characteristics of love. (Keep in mind that as we study love, we do not mean it in the romantic sense of the word but are talking about having love for others.) As we studied what love looks like last week did you feel a little overwhelmed? Was there a part of you that felt like that would be impossible? It’s easy to get caught up in all the ways we should we love and feel like we are not capable of that kind of love.

Read 1 John 4.19.

So… we can love because He loves us! He enables us to love with the same love that He loves with.

Read 1 John 4.7-8.

Once again we see that love is FROM God. He enables us to love in a way that is pleasing to Him. This verse says that “whoever loves God has been born of God and knows God.” As we grow closer to God and know God more and more, we will continue to love others more and more. We won’t just LOVE them more but we will love them with a more perfect love. A love that is more like Christ’s love for us.

-          Can you recall a situation where you acted out of love and you know it had to be from God?

-          Meditate on a situation that you need to ask God to help you love in. Ask God to work in you to help you love others even when it’s hard or not what you would prefer to do.

 

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~Day 2~
What is the purpose of loving others?

Take a look at the verses that come right before our focus last week…  1 Corinthians 13.1-3.

This passage pretty much says that no matter what we do, if we don’t do it out of love others…. It means nothing. It is a waste of time. You can have the best talents, most skills, and give away the most possessions BUT if you don’t do it out of love for others…. It is no benefit! We see that the first purpose in loving others is that it is the necessary ingredient for everything else to matter.

Love is like the sugar of a cake. If you make a cake… it doesn’t matter what else you put in the cake, if you leave out the sugar, it won’t taste good. You can add cocoa and the chocolate taste be there but it still won’t be good. You can add the perfect mix of flour and eggs and baking powder that makes the cake have the perfect texture… but if you leave out the sugar, it won’t taste good. Love is the same way! It is a necessary ingredient for serving just like sugar is a necessary ingredient for cake!

Read John 13.34-35.

Another huge purpose in our love for others is that’s the trait that identifies us as Christians. Jesus said that they will know us and identify us by our love.

-          Do you feel like when others look at the way you love others, they can recognize you have a relationship with Christ? Do you wish your life was like this?

-          Do you sometimes focus your attention on tasks without doing it out of love? Do you see now that it is impossible to do anything worthwhile without love?

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~Day 3~
How much?

Read Mark 12.30-31.

So the first commandment is obviously to love God with everything, above everything! But we can’t obey the first commandment without putting the second one into practice also. We are love others as we love ourselves. Just think about this…. He doesn’t say your family as much as you love yourself or your closest friends as much as you love yourself. He says your NEIGHBOR as you love yourself. Anyone around you. Most people struggle loving their closest friends and family more than themselves. Can you imagine what it would look like if we as a body of believers started loving others before ourselves?

Read Philippians 2.3-4.

These verses tell us that not only should we love them as ourselves but put them in front of ourselves. We should seek to meet their needs before meeting our own! This is calling us to not just see them as equal in priority but as top priority next to serving Jesus.

-          Do you feel like you focus on your love for God but try to ignore loving others?

-          Is it possible to love God and not love others?

-          How can you put into practice putting others needs before your own this week?

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~Day 4~
In what way?

Read Romans 12.9.

I had you read this verse last week. I want to reiterate that love must be GENUINE! NLT version reads, “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them.”  Don’t just go through the motions and act like you are loving them. Don’t just say you are loving them. LOVE THEM!

This past week at my young adult group we studied about love and what that looks like with our brothers and sisters in Christ. One of my friends there presented an amazing illustration that I want to share with you through this next set of Scripture.

Read 1 John 3.16.

Not John 3.16… though very similar. This verse shows us that the equivalent of “love” is “laying down your life.” The word “life” here is not the word used for physical life although I think we are called to love to that extent. The word “life” used here is the word that refers to your needs, desires, and plans. So when it says we should lay down our life for our brother (brother/sister in a spiritual sense) it means we should sacrifice our needs, desires, and plans for their good. In the next chapter after this passage John goes into great detail about love. I’m going to write out that passage but every time John uses the word “love” I’m going to substitute it with “lay down your life” or “sacrificial love.” This will give you a somewhat different perspective.

1 John 4.7-21:

Beloved, let us lay down our lives for one another, for laying down our lives is from God, and whoever lays down his life has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not lay down his life does not know God, because God is sacrificial love. In this the sacrificial love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this laying down of our lives, not that we have laid down our lives for God but that He laid down His life for us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved if God laid down His life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for one another. No one has ever seen God; if we lay down our lives for one another, God abides in us and His sacrificial love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and believe the sacrificial love that God has for us. God is laying down His life for us, and whoever abides in laying down his life abides in God and God in him.  By this is laying down our lives perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in laying down your life, but perfect sacrificial love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in laying down his life. We lay down our lives because He first laid down His life for us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother he is a liar; for he who does not lay down his life for his brother whom he has seen cannot lay down his life for God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever lays down his life for God must also lay down his life for his brother.

-          Be honest with yourself. Dow you lay down/put aside your needs, wants, and plans for others?

-          Do you want to?

-          How do you fix this?

 

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~Day 5~
Good Example!

Obviously our first example is Christ! Want to see a more common demonstration of love? Look at Ruth!

Read Ruth Chapter 1.

-          Do you notice how Ruth loved Naomi?

-          Reread 1.16-17. Do you think Ruth laid down her desires, plans, wants, and needs for love of Naomi?

-          Spend time this week making your time about loving others and seeking their needs before your own.

 

What are your thoughts? I want feedback. Feel free to send me any question responses. I would love to hear from you, answer any questions you have, and pray for your needs specifically. Feel free to share this, comment, email me at brandycaudill90@gmail.com, or facebook message me!

 

Week 4:  “What does LOVE look like?”:

Memory Verse
{Colossians 3.14 – “Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”}

Keeping with theme of LOVE for February, this week we will be discussing the characteristics of love. As we think about these characteristics we can see even more how God loves us and start painting the pictures for how we should love everyone in our lives.

1 Corinthians 13.4-8
Love is patient and kind;
love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.
It does no insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends!

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~Day 1~
Love is Patient and Kind.

Patient: bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint; not hasty; steadfast despite opposition, difficultly, or adversity; able or willing to bear.

We live in a culture that teaches when we want something in life we should have it… right now. Whether you want a material object or a problem to be fixed, this world doesn’t do much to encourage patience. Friday night as I was babysitting 4 precious kids, I got to work on the lesson of patience with the 3 year old. These kids (ages 10, 7, 3, and 1) wanted to make cupcakes for their mom’s birthday. Meason, the 3 year old, wanted to sit on the counter and pour in every ingredient. There was one ingredient he was so excited to pour… the vanilla. I don’t know why it fascinated him so much. The problem was it one of the last things on the list. At least 4 times he would say “Miss Branneee can I pour this in now?” and I would have to say, “No Meason, it’s not time yet. We have to be……” He would then shout, “PATIENT.” How many times do we want things in life and we keep begging God, or our friend, or our parents… but it simply isn’t time yet. What I want you to get though is that patience isn’t just about waiting on something or waiting on a situation. Often time we are placed in situations where we have no choice but to wait. Patience is our attitude about waiting. Patience is holding on to hope even when it’s hard. Patience is being willing to wait no matter how long it takes. Patience is having a positive attitude even though you’re not getting your way. Patience is enjoying the ride instead of screaming “are we there yet?” every mile.

Read Psalm 37.7.

I want to share two of my favorite quotes from Joshua Harris with you….

“The irony of impatience is that only by learning to wait and by a willingness to accept the bad with the good do we usually attain those things that are truly worthwhile.” (This is pretty much saying that anything worth our attention in life, we will have to wait for.)

“Like a fruit picked green or a flower plucked before it blossoms, our attempts to rush God’s timing can spoil the beauty of His plan for our lives”

Read Ephesians 4.32.

We learn love is not only patient but kind. If we act out of love, when people wrong us we must be kind… which means we will have to have patience with them. It’s so much easier to not be kind. To let someone have it. Tell them exactly how it’s going to be. Or simply to ignore them. But Scripture is clear that love is kind. As Christians we are called to always act out of love… therefore we are called to be patient and kind.

-          You may be thinking this it too hard! I can’t be patient and kind. Read Galatians 5.22…. Patience and kindness are fruits of the Spirit. If you are a follower of Christ you have the Holy Spirit. Spend time praying and ask God to develop kindness and patience in you.

-          What situation do you need have more patience in right now?

-          What situation do you need to be more kind in right now?

 

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~Day 2~
Love doesn’t envy or boast; It is not arrogant or rude.

Arrogance:  exaggeration of one’s worth or importance.

Take a look at Proverbs 16.18.

Arrogance or pride leads to many other actions or attitudes that are not pleasing to God. Look at this part of the verse from 1 Cor. It’s no coincidence that these words surround it. When we feel that we are worthy or important, we often feel entitled. We feel like we deserve what everyone else has or better…. We become envious/jealous. It is also out of arrogance that we can be rude. As we just talked about yesterday, we are called to be kind. And of course we would have to be acting out of arrogance to boast.

Read 1 Cor. 4.7.

Think about who was writing this…. Paul. If I can think of one person in Scripture (besides Jesus of course) that would deserve to boast, it would be Paul. Paul who was totally religious but incredibly far from God. Who then met Jesus and had his life flipped upside down. Paul who wrote around half of the new testament. Paul who lived his whole life so sold out for Christ that no amount of suffering could stop him. … But you know what he realized that we so often times forget… He knew that the passion he had, came from God. The writing ability he had, came from God. The faith he had, came from God. The opportunities he had to spread the Gospel, came from God. He understood that there was no reason for any man to boast, because anything that’s good or of worth had to come from GOD!

-          What do you find yourself being boastful about? What characteristic, talent, or skill are you most confident in?

-          Be honest with yourself…. Do you struggle with being prideful? … If you think the answer is no, dig deeper. Look at your last week. Have you found yourself being rude, boastful, or jealous?... If so, then you like most of the rest of us are struggling with pride.

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~Day 3~
Love is not selfish, irritable, or resentful.

 

Let’s venture back the Old Testament for a story. You’ve probably heard or read at least bits and pieces of the story of Joseph. Quick summary. Joseph was his father’s favorite (if you have siblings you know how that it is). He not only was the favorite but he was special because God had given him special gifts dealing with interpreting dreams. One day while in the field the brothers threw Joseph in the pit and then sold him to Egyptians to be a slave. They made their father believe he had been killed. Once Joseph was in Egypt, he went through many trials, one of which included being thrown into prison. Eventually because of the favor of the Lord and his gifts of dream interpretation, Joseph moved up to being Pharoah’s right hand man. When his brothers came to Egypt to get food and Joseph revealed himself to them… they became afraid. They were worried that he would get back at them for all the craziness he went through. But look at Joseph’s response….

Read Genesis 50.19-21.

WoW! Can you imagine having that response? First of all he recognized that it was not his place to judge them. He also realized that God had taken that situation and used Joseph! He also responded with kindness! Talk about a man who understood love.

We get so caught up in being SELFISH that is results in us putting our needs before everyone else’s.

Read 1 Corinthians 10.24.

We aren’t supposed to look to our own needs but to those of others. But what about being irritable and resentful?

Read James 1.19.

Irritable is when you are easily frustrated. This verse says that we should be slow to anger… not IRRITABLE.

Resentful is something Joseph most definitely was not. In NLT, this part of the passage in 1 Corinthians read “keeps no record of wrongs.” We as Christians must forgive and let go of hurts from the past.

-          Read Phil. 2.3-4.  Do you strive every day to put other’s needs before your own?

-          Who is the person or group of people that you get frustrated with most easily? Maybe it’s your family or friends or co workers or classmates or teammates. Make it your goal this week to  not be irritable. To not get frustrated with them but out of love be patient and kind.

-          Think or situation in your life where you are being resentful. An event or hurt that you are still holding against someone instead of letting go and forgiving. Pray about this situation and seek God’s help in forgiveness.

 

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~Day 4~
Love doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in TRUTH.

Read Romans 12.9.

This verse starts out by encouraging love to be genuine and sincere. It follows up showing us that for love to be sincere, we must hate what is evil.. but hold fast to what is good. This means that in our relationships with family, friends, and even acquaintances we must not be happy about sinful actions or injustice of any kind. We should hate anything that goes against God’s Word. We should hold on to, cling to what is good… things of God. His Word. Fellowship. Truth. Service. LOVE!

Read Ephesians 4.14-15.

Did you catch what it said about truth….. It says we are called to “speak truth in love.” This is an incredibly hard concept to get ahold of… especially in our culture. In the world there is so much pressure to tell people what they want to hear. Make them feel good about themselves. While it definitely is a Christ-like action to encourage people (Hebrews 10.24), we must be diligent in speaking truth. It’s hard. No one enjoys being that friend that doesn’t sugar coat it and lays out the truth. We are not acting out of love if we don’t. We don’t act out of love by tickling people’s ears and saying all the right things to make them happy. We act out of love when we share truth! When we share God’s Word. When we tell them the things they don’t want to hear that will make  them more like Christ. That is acting out of love. That is speaking truth in love!

-          Evaluate your friendships and all relationships. Is there any person or group of people that you spend time laughing, talking or enjoying something that is of the world?

-          What situations this past week should you have spoken truth in love but you chose to say what was easy? Is it too late to go back and admit you were wrong and speak truth in love?

 

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~Day 5~
Love bears, believes, hopes, endures all things. Love never ends!

Read Hebrews 6.19.

This verse says that we have God as the anchor for our soul! So think about an anchor. When used properly, it holds the ship in place. This doesn’t mean that the waves aren’t still crashing around it and that storms don’t come. It doesn’t mean that it’s easy or that the water is going to now become smooth. It simply holds it there. When we realize how God loves us and we cling to that love as our source for loving others…. We can count on the love of God to anchor us. To hold us still. It doesn’t mean loving others won’t still be hard. It’s never easy to be patient and kind. It’s never easy to let go of envy and arrogance. It’s never easy to put others first and not hold grudges. And it’s never easy to speak truth in love. It’s never going to be easy. But we can count on love to last through everything because it is rooted in Christ.

Read Hebrews 13.8.

And Christ never changes. He is always the same and when we are seeking to look like love to those we know and those in this broken world, we need to have Him as our anchor!

-          Is Christ your true source of love? Do you try to love like He loves? Do you believe that He and He alone can help you pour out His kind of love?

 

What are your thoughts? I want feedback. Feel free to send me any question responses. I would love to hear from you, answer any questions you have, and pray for your needs specifically. Feel free to share this, comment, email me at brandycaudill90@gmail.com, or facebook message me!