Maureen Y. Smith - Conquering the Seeds of Destruction

As you continue to listen to Part 2 of the Seed of Courage, allow yourself to think about different situations that have happened in your life and how your thoughts continue to guide you. Understand that God wants you to embrace the positive things that He has said about you and to avoid the negative thoughts that may affect your mental stability. Prayerfully, you will allow your voice partnered with the Holy Spirit inside of you to give you the confidence and the courage that you desire.

As you continue to seek out the voice of God and you remain open to be guided by Him, The Seed of Courage can teach you how to uproot the Seed of Exploitation and its roots, but it can also provide you the help that you need in gaining more trust in Him. There are many things that can prevent you from having the courage to move forward. Whether it is the attacks that are coming at you or it is your own fear that hinders you, by embracing the Seed of Courage you will feel and know that God is always with you.

In today's podcast, you will hear how the Root of Corruption can get the best of people as they seek to get whatever they can, even if it is at the expense of others. Although Amos dealt with this root over 2000 years ago, unfortunately, those same types of things happen today which lets you know that the adversary continues to influence people to do what he wants them to do. It becomes important to break this destructive pattern that he has you in by choosing to do things God's way.

As you listen to today's podcast, you will see that the things that Amos faced with the children of Israel are things that we also deal with in our own society. The Root of Fallacy seems to grow more and more. There are times where people want to listen and follow all of the narratives that are being conveyed on the air waves, social media, etc. as opposed to listening and doing the will of God. Prayerfully, there will be a sincere desire to seek God and do what He says to do so that we can represent Him in a pleasing way.

When the adversary tries to build the Root of Complacency in you, you can find yourself stuck in the challenges of life. As the enemy keeps attacking you, you may find yourself continuing to do things the way you want too. Following God is not your focus because you stay content. Try your best to break-free from this pattern and surrender to God. When you do, you will discover new things about yourself and with others.

As the adversary tries to plant this new seed into you, you will continue to battle within your mind and your thoughts as to the path that you will "choose" to take. Although there are times that people want to say, "the devil made me do it", it still becomes a matter of choice. Will you keep listening to the things that can cause destruction to you or someone else OR will you choose to listen to God so that He can guide you to a life of obedience and to have peace of mind with Him? Listen to today's podcast and see how Amos continued to share how the children of Israel handled things.

The goal of this study is for you to understand that you are not alone. Although there are times where you may feel that only negative situations happen to you or you may feel as if you can never get "a break", as you are reading the Bible and doing this study, you can see that people in the Bible had their own struggles as well. Throughout all of it, God is with you and He wants you to lean on Him so that He can help you, heal you, and develop you into the child of God that He has created you to become. Stay encouraged and know that you can do this.

As you are journeying through this study, I hope you are learning from the people in the Bible that has been shared and that their stories become not only teachable moments for you, but also that you can relate to their lives personally. Hopefully, their stories have also given you the courage to share your story to someone who may be going through some similar situations that you have experienced. As God guides you to share, may your life be the example that will help bring someone closer to God.

Now that you have seen how the Seed of Pride and the Roots of Arrogance, Prejudice, and Ruling can be formed inside of you, and you allow the Seed of Humility to uproot all of that, how will you use these lessons moving forward? As God continues to teach you, I pray that you will consistently listen to His voice in the Word and embrace the Holy Spirit living inside of you so that it can be the guidance that you need to make the right choices and decisions to please Him.

As you have continued to listen to God, you will now learn how to uproot the Seed of Pride and its roots by allowing Him to plant this new Seed of Humility inside of you. Developing this new seed can be challenging at times and it will cause you to break some things inside of you, but you will see that walking as a servant for God will have its rewards. The humility that you gain from it will be life-changing and worth all the effort that you have put into it.