We are blessed to serve a God who is so much bigger than we can fully understand. Whatever we may face in life, our walk with God doesn’t hinge on how much we understand or how much we produce, but on trusting in how big he is and exercising faith in relationship with him. In order to keep growing in both our calling and in the knowledge of God, we must learn to make Jesus preeminent in every area of our lives, especially the areas that feel big or difficult for us.

Is Jesus big or small to you? Do you believe that Jesus is working in your life even when you are in the wilderness? (Matthew 16:25)

There are times in life when the Lord convicts us or speaks very clearly to go in one direction or another. Even so, God doesn’t expect our lives to become a script, where we only carry out specific orders from him. Instead, God invites us into a relationship where we walk with him and make decisions with him, and he breathes life into us wherever we go.

As we follow Jesus, we will all encounter areas of life where we struggle to live in freedom and walk in alignment with what God says is good. We were designed to overcome these struggles with the help of the Holy Spirit who works in us. When we fail or have trouble overcoming, God is not disappointed in us, and he doesn’t want us to give up. Every setback is an opportunity to learn how to keep trusting God and keep persevering, until one day the Lord leads us up the mountain and into a new level of freedom and intimacy with him.

What does life look like with the perspective of joy that Jesus has?

Serena shares a testimony of how her parents recently encountered Jesus. After decades of prayer, God was faithful to bring her family together and to bless them with new life.

In John 10, Jesus says that as the good shepherd, he comes to the defense of his sheep when they are in trouble. In all the highs and lows of life, our heart posture as his sheep should be to lean on God and trust him. His power and his blood are enough to lead us through anything that may come our way.

In our busy lives the Lord asks that we spend time with him alone. Are you retreating with the Lord?

How are you relying more and more on the Lord and not on yourself?

When we decide to follow Jesus, he brings us through a process of being made perfect in love, so that fear can have no part in us (1 John 4:18). This isn’t an instantaneous process. However, as we walk with God through different stages of life, he invites us to learn how to lay aside our fears and fix our eyes on him.