Standing Strong

There is an old hymn that goes like this: "I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.All to Jesus I surrender; Humbly at His feet I bow, Worldly pleasures all forsaken; Take me, Jesus, take me now." That song really ministered to me in church today.  I realized that I needed to surrender some things to God that I had been dealing with, like carelessness about certain things, attitudes I was having, and fear of different situations.   "Worldly pleasures all forsaken."  After I surrendered those things to Jesus, I felt His peace all over me.  It felt like someone had just lifted a heavy weight off my shoulders, like Christian in the "Pilgrim's Progress" got rid of all those burdens when he kneeled at the cross. What do you need to surrender to Jesus?  Surrender all to Him now, and He will give you peace!

It's hard to stand strong in your faith when other people persecute you for firmly believing in something. My parents, my four younger siblings, and I have experienced this quite a bit with homeschooling.  There has been numerous people who have put us down for homeschooling, whether they realize they're doing it or not. Sometimes the smallest things people say end up being something that the person they're saying it to will remember forever, and could hurt them deeply. In a situation my brother, sister, and I were in, someone said to us in front of other people, "You guys probably only do like 2 hours of schoolwork." That made me frustrated, because it was not the truth. I spoke up, almost without really thinking about what I was doing. I told them that we don't just do a small amount of schoolwork, that we go well into the afternoon.  Even though that person said they were only joking and that they were sorry, I most likely won't forget what they...

The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:1, "But know this, that in the last days, there will be perilous times." We are in the last days, and these are perilous times.  All you have to do is look at the world around you and you will know that we are in perilous times.  For example, two devastating earthquakes in Haiti and in Japan.  Evil leaders in Libya and Egypt. Quarreling among various countries. You can also tell it by looking at people. In 2 Timothy 3:2-5, the apostle Paul warns us, "Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power." The Bible also says that there will be wars and rumors of wars, famine, earthquakes, and floods. If you don't notice that all this stuff it going ...

These days, a lot of us try to live on our own ability. We think we can do anything with our own power. The truth is, we won't be able to do anything on our own. We need someone to help us, to encourage us, to strengthen us in times of distress. Of course, our friends and family might already be doing that, and we think we don't need anyone else besides the people around us. Well, partly true, we can get some encouragement from other people. However, the only One Who can really strengthen us is God. No man can encourage or strengthen us like He can. Friends and family come and go and cannot always be there for us. God will always be there for us. He is forever faithful, and He is the only One Who can quench all our thirsts. Maybe you are looking for that kind of strength and encouragement. If so, you've come to the right place! If you are not a Christian, you first need to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, before asking Him for that strength. If you are a Chris...