When we are caught up in sin and chasing it with all of our lives, we find ourselves being burned by the sin we’re chasing with consequences and destruction. The fire that God can light in us through His Holy Spirit can burn away the desire for sin and stir an all consuming passion in our hearts for chasing after Jesus.

When Adam and Eve ate of the tree in the garden that God told them not to eat from, sin entered our world and brought spiritual death to all of us. God offers us a bite from the tree of life but in order to receive that life we have to take Jesus in by accepting His sacrifice for our sin and letting His life replace our spiritual death.

Rather than being wrapped up in one single event, the Christian life is a work in progress that involves struggling through sin and temptation. If we are not struggling, we are not moving. We will never arrive at completion until we see Jesus, and until then we need to continue to grow and mature.

Most of us have people in our lives that we would consider an enemy, someone who dislikes us and picks at us constantly because of their disdain. The Bible tells us that rather than lashing back at them we are to respond in kindness, and it is that kindness that inevitably heaps coals on their head, which will eventually cause them to question why we respond in love.

Jesus had many followers while He was here on earth, but at one point or another most all of them ditched. The opportunity to pick up and follow Him is always there, the question is simply whether or not we will choose to give up our own lives and follow Him closely or not.

When we let God have our whole lives, He transforms us just like planting a seed in the ground produces a new plant. God wants to use us to multiply His Kingdom but we must first give ourselves to Him to plant as He pleases.

David lived his life faithfully serving God, perfecting his skills and protecting what God gave him to care for. Because David had been faithful in facing the battles with the bears and the lions to protect his sheep, he was prepared to face the battle against Goliath, knowing that God is the one who has always given Him the strength to win.

God may be telling us to do something and we’ve been ignoring it for any amount of time. When we listen to Him with a willingness to obey, He forgives us for running away and gives us another chance to do what He’s asking us to do. It is better to live in obedience and bring life to others around us than to live in sin and negatively affect everyone else.

God created us as part of His plan to bring Himself glory when we become His children. We may not know all of His plans for us, but we can know our purpose and follow Christ so that our lives have meaning here on earth before we spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

The devil is after destroying our lives, sometimes even to the point of contemplating suicide. Jesus offers us a complete release from our old lives to step into a whole new life with Him as He lives in and through us, but we must first die spiritually so that we can yield ourselves completely to Him and His leading.