True love is the glue for all aspects of every relationship. If we love, there will be peace; if we don’t, there will be strife. If we love, we’ll honor others; if we don’t, there will be strife. If we love, we’ll put others first; if we don’t, we’ll put ourselves first. The list goes on — but the truth is, we all want to feel loved. With our friends, family, romantic relationships, coworkers, we want to experience love. Romans 12 teaches us that true love begins with…us. It begins with our own hearts. Once we learn to properly live a life of true love towards others, it will impact the love we experience from others.

One of the most difficult things for us to do in life is be consistent, no matter the circumstances. It’s easy to remain consistent when things are easy and everything is working; however, we tend to quit being consistent when it’s difficult and we see no change. But what if our consistency in the difficult moments is what would bring about growth, change, and breakthrough? In I Corinthians 15:58, Paul encouraged that we remain steadfast — that we not allow our circumstances to sway our trust, faith, and confidence in the Lord. It’s through our consistency that we are able to see the completion and finished work of what God has for us.

In this one passage of scripture, we see two stories that needed a miracle from Jesus. But specifically, we see the lady who had been subjected to bleeding for 12 years. See, it’s a lot easier to believe Jesus will change your story when it’s a new problem than it is to keep believing that when it’s an old problem. For this lady, it wasn’t her pastor, doctor, spouse, or friends that gave her the strength to believe. It was her trust in Jesus, it was her faith. Jesus said, your faith has healed you. In this message, we look at 3 habits to develop and/or strengthen if we’re going to see a positive change in our outcome.

As we enter a new year, we tend to pray for new things. We pray for God to bless us with more, so that we can experience greater — More talents, more opportunities, more abilities. We read the Bible, we pray, we learn from God’s word; and yet, we’ve made a habit of missing the most important step — putting His word to use. We won’t see God provide more until we first are willing to take what He’s given us, and put it to use.

When it comes to believing and working toward anything great, we tend to disqualify ourselves in our own minds. It’s often easier for us to believe what we’re facing is stronger and more able than we are. For the Israelites in Numbers 13, they viewed the people in Canaan as giants, while they viewed themselves as grasshoppers. However, Caleb was able to adjust his vision and see the Canaanites for what they were — already defeated. God had spoken and said it was already handled, and Caleb shifted his vision to match God’s word over what it may have looked like. Because of this, he was able to experience all that God promised.

We have a tendency to find our excuses and disqualifications of why God can’t fulfill what He’s spoken about our lives. While we may believe for a moment, it’s difficult to continue to see it through after facing disappointment. As we end another year, we no doubt look back and see missed opportunities, failures, and disappointments. But while this year may not have looked like what we expected, here’s what we do know — if God has promised something, He will see it through.

We often hear it said that Christmas is the “most wonderful time of the year.” But the reality is, for many it doesn’t seem wonderful. For a wide array of reasons — from unmet yearly expectations, to loss of loved ones, Christmas can be a difficult season. Yet, while it may not feel wonderful for all, it truly is wonderful — not because of the reasons we’ve grown to expect and measure it by, but because of what is truly celebrated during this season…the birth of our wonderful Savior, Jesus.

Mary being chosen to give birth to Jesus was miraculous, but it was also inconvenient. Telling Joseph, explaining to others, making it to Bethlehem — it was all inconvenient. However, it all took place for Mary because she was favored. In our lives, we tend to get hung up on how inconvenient God’s plans seem, and we overlook just how favored we are to be a part of the bigger picture He has planned.

It’s often difficult for us to get our hopes up for anything great because we’ve been let down so many times. The truth is — life and people have a way of letting us down. Because of this, we find it easier to just expect anything great, even when it’s something God has promised. But to move forward into the fullness of what God has for our lives, we have to move beyond past disappointments, and raise our hopes and expectations to the level of what’s He’s spoken.