“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.” John 3:16 (AMPC) The single most important need of a human being is to experience love, especially God’s love.  Do you believe God loves you?  According to John 3:16, God’s motivation for sending Jesus to this Earth was love. It wasn’t pity or impatience. He loved us even when we were in our most broken, rebellious state, and He still loves you this way today.  If you picture God as a big, mean judge in the sky who allows children …

You were told that your foolish desires will destroy you and that you must give up your old way of life with all its bad habits. Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy. Ephesians 4:22–24 (CEV) The way you live out your life is tied to how you see yourself, how you see God and what you believe about love. If you’re not experiencing love in the amount or kind you desire, you’ll likely be able to trace the problem back to your beliefs regarding one of those three areas. First, let’s cover what you believe about yourself.  Most people …

You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Psalm 139:15 (MSG) You have God-given gifts and abilities. Are you discovering them and putting them to use?  God has wired you a certain way for a purpose. He doesn’t expect you to be good at everything or attempt to please everyone. Philippians 4:13 says that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, meaning He strengthens you to handle each challenge and do what He has called you to do. It doesn’t say that you can run around doing everything under the sun and He’ll strengthen you in it all.  The question is: what is Christ strengthening you to do?  As you pursue a …