Author: Nathaniel Colt

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Read: Psalm 27:4–8

Have you ever met someone that you really wanted to be friends with? What did you have to do to be friends with them? When you have a relationship with someone, you want to spend time with them. You want to get to know them more. You share your thoughts and feelings with them, and you care about theirs. You want to spend time doing things together and creating memories. And, when you’re not with them, you miss them. That’s what a real relationship is.

God wants to have a relationship every day with us. He doesn’t want an occasional visit from us every now and then. He wants us to spend consistent time with Him, to talk with Him, and to share our thoughts and feelings with Him. He wants to be involved in every part of our life. But we must choose to put Him first and make Him a priority.

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Read: Luke 10:38–42

Because Martha was so distracted with the busyness of life, she missed sitting and listening to Jesus and spending time with Him. The Savior of the world was sitting in her house. But she was more concerned about all the preparations. She had her priorities out of order. Martha was putting doing things for Jesus in front of having a close relationship with Jesus.

God doesn’t need us to be perfect to come to Him. He simply wants to be with us. Sometimes, we think that we need to be in the right place to be with God. We don’t have to have the perfect music playing or be sitting in the perfect seat in church to talk with God. We can talk with Him when we’re in bed or getting ready for the day. We can share with Him how we feel when something happens at school that we didn’t expect. We can feel His presence with us on the soccer field or as we’re sitting around the dinner table. Putting God first means making sure that there is always space for Him in our life. It means not crowding Him out because we think we’re too busy with other things.

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Read: Exodus 20:3–6

In many places, people choose to worship idols—an image or statue that represents a fake god. They believe that the fake gods that the idols represent will answer them and give them the things they need. But, these idols can never give them what the one true God can.

Even when a person knows there’s only one real God, it can be tempting to make something else be an idol in their life. This happens when we choose to put other things in the place where God should be. We do this by putting other things over God. We get so busy, and we treat those things like they’ll give us what we need. But, it’s only our relationship with God that can meet any need we have. God wants to be number one in our life. When we choose to put Him first, we are saying, “God, I love You more than anything else.”

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Read: Philippians 4:11–13; 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

Imagine there’s a new pair of shoes you want, but you don’t have enough money to buy them. When you can’t have something, it can be easy to forget about all the things you do have. Sometimes, you start to grumble and complain. When you really have your heart set on doing something, you can become frustrated and ungrateful if things don’t happen the way you planned. But, it’s important for us to recognize that God is good. He shows His goodness to us, even when we may not be able to see it right away.

When we learn to be content no matter what we’re going through, we can have a heart of worship and gratitude in every situation. Even when God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we think He should, or He allows us to go through difficult times, He is still good. He is still worthy of all our thanks and praise. We must choose to be thankful whether we feel like it or not..

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Read: Psalm 103:1–5

Can you imagine how boring it would be if you were watching a sports game, and all the players were just walking around instead of really trying to play the game? If you were playing in this game, you would probably get benched by your coach for being lazy and not taking it seriously. Sports require all of your effort from the beginning to the end of the game.

This is the way that God wants us to live our life in worship to Him. Everything we do can be an act of worship if we do it to honor to Him. Even becoming the kind of person He wants us to be is worship. Who we are and what we do should show that we’re thankful to Him. We shouldn’t be lazy in our worship to Him or careless in how we live our life. We should let all that we are, with our whole heart and our whole life, express our gratitude and praise to Him.

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Read: Luke 17:15–19

Imagine for a moment that you are wanting to give the most perfect gift to someone special. You spend time searching for just the right thing that you think they’ll love. You do some extra jobs to make some enough money to pay for it. When you buy it, you make sure to wrap it carefully, so it looks perfect. Then you give it to them, and they look at it before walking off without ever saying thank you or telling you if they like it. That would be hurtful, wouldn’t it?

Jesus could have demanded that the other nine men come back and thank Him, but He didn’t. He wants us to worship Him and thank Him because we want to and because we love Him. For the one leper who came back, it was an immediate response. As soon as he saw that he was healed, he came back to Jesus and started praising and thanking Him. This should be our attitude, too.

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Read: Luke 17:11–14

When someone in Bible times had leprosy, they were separated from the rest of the people and forced to live outside of their village. People were afraid that their disease was contagious and deadly. If the sick person came close to someone else, they had to yell from a distance, “Unclean.” This disease destroyed lives. When Jesus healed all ten of these men suffering from leprosy, He not only healed them physically, but He also changed their entire lives. They could return to their families and friends and live normal lives again.

When we think about all that God has done for us, we are reminded that without Him, we would have nothing. His goodness can be seen in every part of our life. Because of what He has done for us, our life is changed forever. He is so good to us and deserves every bit of worship, honor, and gratitude that we can give Him.

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Read: Acts 10:44–48; 11:1–3, 15–18

Peter had an experience that turned his thinking upside down. All of his life, his teachers probably taught him that people who weren’t Jewish were unclean. Being Jewish, his leaders may have told him to stay away from these people, Gentiles. He probably didn’t eat with them or enter their house. So, when God gave Peter a vision that led to Cornelius, a Gentile, and his family being saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter was amazed. The people he thought were unclean had now been made clean by Jesus. The Holy Spirit filled them with His power, and God transformed their lives.

When Peter returned to tell the other believers, they criticized him. But, the Holy Spirit changed their hearts when Peter took a stand and explained what God was doing. The Holy Spirit was giving them a new way of thinking. Because Peter took a stand for God’s leading, more people came to know Jesus.

As we witness and share the gospel with others, let’s always follow the Holy Spirit as He leads us. The Holy Spirit led Peter to the Gentiles, and he saw a mighty work of God. The Holy Spirit also guided him to share what had happened and strengthen the believers in Judea. Peter followed the Holy Spirit’s lead and kept his heart and mind open to what God wanted to do. As we rely on help from the Holy Spirit, our heart will be open to what God is doing. When we rely on Him, it means that we depend on the Holy Spirit to lead us. When the Holy Spirit guides us to share, we should share. God will be with us and teach us the way to go when we pay attention to the amazing things He is doing.

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Read: 1 Corinthians 15:58; 16:13–14

In Paul’s letters that he wrote to churches, he sometimes wrote about people’s work for the Lord. He thanked believers in different cities and praised them for their faith and standing firm in Jesus. Paul took a stand for Jesus and never gave up on his commitment to Him. Paul spent his life spreading the gospel and helping new believers wherever they were. He encouraged the believers to keep obeying Jesus even when they had opposition. Paul knew that there would be trials and problems. He knew that believers needed to hear the message of these verses. Paul’s words encourage us too as we read his words and receive strength.

Like Paul, we can encourage others to follow Jesus. Everyone needs to hear the good news of Jesus. Every believer in Jesus has people to share the gospel with that God has placed in their life. We can pray for our friends to be courageous and strong. We can talk to others and share Jesus’ love with them. We can also encourage others to stand up for Jesus. In all these ways, we strengthen believers. We remind them that we are to win as many people as possible for Jesus. Let’s keep working for God. It’s always worth it.