NCC Daily

If you want a lavish life, find a person who looks nothing like you, grew up nothing like you, lived a life nothing like yours, and love them so well that they call you their favorite person. That’s a lavish life.

You can have all things in common when you truly understand that nothing is yours. If we truly know that everything is given to us by God, we stop hoarding, we stop having a scarcity mindset. We know he will provide, and we know that what he provides is given to be shared.

I'm proud to be different. The things that make me different make me who I am. Also, it's important to note that “we are all made in God's image” and that in heaven our differences are celebrated and so we should be able to do that on earth as well.

When we all come together as the Body of Christ it is something beautiful to witness. Realizing that we are all different in many ways, but that is exactly how God intended it to be, and because of that we should celebrate our differences!

We see the formation of the beloved community in the pouring out of the Spirit in Acts 2. As the Spirit pours out as promised by Jesus, the ekklesia — that is the church, the group of called out people, are transformed through belovedness, spilling out into the world to be love.

One of the disciplines that we need to have is this idea of choosing joy, particularly when things are hard. Joy is something that we need to choose more than we feel.

I want you to know today that once you have trusted your life to Christ, the Bible says that God’s rightness and goodness and holiness are destined to win in your life.

Here's the truth, as we go after the dream that God has put on our hearts, things won't work out perfectly. In fact, we will likely have all kinds of opposition and issues as the enemy works to discourage and distract us from what God has placed on our hearts! But if this is a dream that God has given us, it's worth fighting for.

The implications for you and I that have had dreams from God only to see them crushed by the weight of our failure is tremendous. When we come to those moments, like Habakkuk who was witnessing the destruction of Judah, we ought to run to God – changing our position and posture and listen for His voice. Then we record, remember, and relay His Word of hope to others, and then worship.

Here’s what I know, when you’re constantly being filled, you’ll never run out of something to pour out. One thing I know is that in worship, is the place where the people of God encounter the presence of God, and that’s what I try to make the focus of my life.