Money can be a touchy subject and it can bring up a lot of tough questions. Maybe because you don't want anyone to tell you what to do with your money, or maybe you don't have enough to feel like you can keep up with everyone else. The problem with money is that we all wish we had more. But the love of money can cause problems. It can cause greed, stealing, jealousy, and lying. It's important for us to learn how to handle money properly so we can own the money instead of the other way around.

Whenever temptation comes our way and we give in, we can start to feel ashamed for what we did. When we are ashamed, we feel like there is no turning back...we screwed up too much. Thankfully, Jesus came to this earth and died on the cross so that we can start life fresh again. When we start again, we can keep our eyes focused on making good decisions that honor God.

We're always looking for what we can get away with and when we are doing that we usually have a battle within us. One side of our mind thinks that God is going to be mad, while the other side thinks that God will show us grace. While God's grace is amazing, His grace doesn't promise us that there will be no consequences. Based on this, we need to have wisdom in the choices that we make. We need to look at the bigger picture. We can find how to live through scripture and the words that God provides for us. When we do that, we can trust what God has labeled as true.

Our temptations will often come with the thought, “I need ______.” That's why it's important to trust God knows what we need and is looking out for us. 

We're starting a new series on how to resist temptation. Temptation in and of itself is not bad. Everyone experiences it. It's what we do with temptation that matters. So it's important to know who we are in Christ so that we can resist the temptation, because what we think is TRUE about us influences what we DO. And God knows us better than we know ourselves, so we need to let what God says about us influence what we do.

It's easy for us to focus in on worship as being singing during church only. Yes, that is a form of worship, but it is not the only form of worship. Worship is a way for us to connect to God better and love God better. Worship is putting our focus and our energy towards God. It's a way of declaring "God, you are greater than we are. You're bigger than anything we can imagine." When you learn to truly worship God with your heart, you will learn what it is like to get to know Him better.

Many times we may be afraid to bring up a conversation about God because we either don't know what to say, or we don't know enough about what we believe, or we don't want to sound stupid, or we don't want to offend someone. But talking about God can really help us become close to Him. That's why it's important for us to share our story about our faith in God. We can start to share the reason for the hope we have in our lives and when we do that, then we start to get to know God better.

Whether we feel like prayer doesn't work or that it's hard to talk to an invisible God, prayer can be difficult. But it's important to know that any time you talk to God, you're close to God and He's close to you. Prayer is less about asking God for the things that you want and more about spending time connecting with Him. Be honest with God, praise Him with your prayers, thank Him with your prayers. When you do these things, you will start to realize that when you talk to God, it is helping you get to know Him better.

If you have grown up around the church, or around church people, you have probably heard the importance of the Bible in our lives. Maybe you have even tried to read it before, but you feel like you just didn't connect with it. Maybe it was too hard to read, or you felt like what you read was not relevant to your life. But the fact of the matter is that we need to spend time making a habit of listening to God through reading scripture. God's Word changes us as we spend time reading it and pondering the deeper meaning. It gives us perspective, wisdom and guidance. But in order for us to receive that, we have to put time into reading and understanding it. Listening to God through His Word helps us know Him better.

Is there anything that you ever wanted to do so bad, and you had all the intentions of following through with it, but over time you forgot about it and then that desire just faded away? The quickest way for something to go from “super important” to “kinda forgot about it” is for it to be out of our sight. Out of sight, out of mind is a real thing. We can do the same thing with our own faith. We can have all the desire in the world to love God and get to know Him better, but unless we make it a habit to be intentional with connecting with Him, we won't actually get to know Him better. In order for us to connect with God more, we need to consistently spend time with God. When we do that, we can truly get to know Him better.