Maureen Y. Smith - Conquering the Seeds of Destruction

As you continue to grow with God especially in your relationship with Him, you will see that your level of confidence is building up inside of you. You will be able to determine this as you are faced with challenges in your life and how you decide to handle them. Regardless of how bad things can get, you have it inside of you to keep pushing, to keep believing, and to keep trusting in God to get you to your destination. Know that God has your best interest at heart and you must have the confidence to make things happen for yourself, and most importantly, to make things happen for God.

In today's podcast, you are able to see another characteristic of God which is the ability to operate in excellence. There are times where it may seem natural to do so because of the goals that you are trying to achieve. The challenge that can come about is when the things that God is guiding you too are not appealing to you nor are they things that you want to do. Because of your obedience to Him, you follow His lead and discover a new, heartfelt, and more valuable way to operate in excellence. You now look at this characteristic with selfless eyes instead of selfish ones as you do His Will.

In today's podcast, I share another attribute of God which is Operating in Good Morals. In our society today, you are faced with the decision of making a good choice or a bad one. There are times where your decisions can be uncomfortable or you can go down a negative path, especially if there are selfish motives taking place. It becomes important to allow your thoughts to be aligned with the Word of God so that He can guide you into operating in an image of who He is.

When you are developing this attribute from God, please stay encouraged. As long as you are checking in with God, you should be able to have some peace with the things that you are undertaking. Also, you will see that the more that your relationship with God grows, your desires become aligned to what He wants you to do instead of you doing the things that just please self. You will see that this helps your determination to be more focused and God centered which ultimately helps you to accomplish His will.

As you listen to today's podcast, you will be asked on how you display strength. Many people look at strength in different ways. Some people describe it based on their physical strength while others explain people's level of strength based on how they handle situations mentally and emotionally. This can be shown by responding in silence instead of reacting to a situation. Through it all, allow God to guide you into handling situations with His strength and responding in a way that is pleasing to Him.

As you listen to today's podcast on Encouragement, it is an attribute that we all would like to encounter at some point in our lives. Whether you are gifted naturally in giving encouragement to others or you are the one who needs to experience it yourself, a feeling of encouragement in a situation can help a person to keep going, to keep seeking, and to keep living. Throughout the Bible, God displays encouragement to each soul with the hopes that no one feels defeated by the adversary. Allow God to minister to you and to give you the encouragement that you need.

In today's podcast, you will hear another attribute of God that should be displayed in your life. By operating in loyalty, you will not only show how God has moved into your life, but you will show how your relationships have become meaningful and long-lasting because of the loyalty that you have shown to them. This is not something that happens overnight. There may be times where you are tested to see how loyal you will be. You will have to decide if you will be loyal to God and represent Him OR if you will be loyal to yourself and operate in your own ways. Which way will you choose?

If there was ever a time that one of God's characteristics is something that each person should learn, it is today's topic of "Walking in Honesty." Most people would verbally say that they walk in honesty on a consistent basis and it would be wonderful if people's actions displayed that as well. If you were to look at relationships that have fallen apart or become strained, you may uncover that dishonesty was a reason behind its destruction. Because God wants us "all" to be in fellowship with one another, it becomes crucial that we allow His teachings to manifest inside of us. Honesty is the best policy!

One important characteristic that God wants you to embrace and apply is His characteristic of showing forgiveness to others as well as with yourself.  He doesn't want you to show anger, revenge, and judgement to others who have wronged you. Although your pain may be raw and you don't understand why they have treated you this way, God still wants you to forgive them. God also wants you to forgive yourself and not stay in a feeling of condemnation, especially if you stayed in a situation longer than you needed too. Believe that God is always there for you and operate in forgiveness.

As you listen to today's podcast, you will continue to hear the discussion on God's characteristics and how we are to learn and embrace them on a daily basis. When you think about showing respect to others, you may find yourself having to put self to the side and show respect to someone, even if it is hard to do. God needs you to represent Him in a pleasing way. Also, there may be times where you need to seek God diligently in order to have respect for yourself. God loves others and He loves you; therefore, it becomes necessary that you respect yourself and feel respected by others also.