God wants to use us to do His work, but we get so busy doing our own thing that we wind up exhausted! When we obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we do the things that He gives us strength to do. Not only that, but He'll lead us into times of rest, too -- times that allows us to focus on who we are in Him.

We all have dates in our lives that are etched in our memories forever -- whether it's for better or for worse. And when it comes to the grief, sorrow, and pain that some of those more difficult days hold, it's especially important for us to remember that it's still a day that the Lord's made, and therefore, that we can rejoice in it. When we're tempted to allow Satan to rule over those tough dates, let's remember the Spirit that God's given us -- and then let's take back those dates and give them to the Lord!

Repentance happens when we not only confess our sin, but we also change our behavior. And that can't happen without God. We all make mistakes, but true repentance starts with confession and continues with a changed heart and a changed mind.

To live passionately for Jesus means that not only will you be rejected by the world -- you'll also be rejected by "religious" people. The call to follow Christ means being prepared to give up everything in order to pursue Him, but the price we might pay to is nothing compared to all that we gain.

Leaven, or yeast, is used as a biblical analogy in two very different ways. It can represent evil, like in the forms of complaining or disobedience, as an example of how an infection in one person can negatively affect the whole Church body. On the other hand, it can also represent us as Christians in the world: we're meant to infect this planet in a good way on behalf of the Kingdom of God!

God has made a way for us to be in right relationship with Him through His Son. So when we, as His creation, are far from Him, He misses us and calls us back to Himself. It's important for our relationship with Him to be strong and healthy because whether we realize it or not, other people around us are affected by how committed we are to following Him -- and whether we choose to live in obedience or to disobey His direction in our lives.

Real spiritual "heart change" begins with a kind of godly sorrow that leads us to repentance. But when we've repented of our sin, we should always follow it up with action steps. When we truly repent, we don't go back to doing the same thing over and over again -- we allow God to help us and strengthen us to make permanent changes in our lives.

Before Jesus came for us, people had to make constant sacrificial offerings as atonement for their sins. But even with those sacrifices, the guilt of their sin never went away. Jesus' death on the cross not only paid for our sins -- it removed them from us so that we could be cleared of guilt forever.

When Peter shared the Gospel with Cornelius -- a Gentile -- it served as an example that sometimes, God will push us outside our comfort zones and cause us to break traditions for the ultimate goal of reaching others. It's important to listen for the voice of God so that we're not venturing out and doing things on our own. The people He calls us to reach and the places He calls us to go might stretch us personally, but every person is in need of a Savior, and it's our responsibility to share the Good News.

Scripture tells us that everything in creation is held together by God, and He's present in every place. We can never get away from Him -- and when we surrender to Him, He begins to live inside of us through His Spirit. With God in us, we are never alone.