There are many things that can distract us from fulfilling God's will and purpose for our lives. Instead of being concerned with what matters most in the kingdom of God, we tend to focus our time and energies on things that are not really that important. That is human nature, of course. But God desires that we grow toward maturity in Christ, where our concerns would become less about ourselves and more about God and His kingdom purposes.

It's easy for us to be discouraged by negative situations. Especially with regard to sharing the Gospel, we imagine that some situations would make it difficult for us to do so. But God is more than able to overcome such negative situations, if we will continue to trust in Him, and not be discouraged. We must carry on because the Lord can still accomplish His purposes in spite of the difficult situations we are in. We must always share the Good News regardless of what is happening around us or to us because God is with us.

The goal of our ministry is not mere attendance during Sunday worship. Some people think this is the most important, i.e to have a large number of people attending on Sundays. Of course, attendance is important. We do want people to attend on Sunday. But we also want them to engage, participate, and partner with us in the ministry. In other words, we want them to become spiritually mature. But what does it look like?

Being in the ministry is challenging. There are a lot of difficulties. At the same time, doing it effectively requires a lot of skill, effort, and concentration. Not a lot of people are willing to do it. If ever, they might do it only for a little while. Very few people are willing to do it with long-term patience and endurance. How can we serve the Lord and God's people in this way?

We all have weaknesses. Some of them we can easily accept because they are part of our nature or we consider them normal. But some weaknesses are difficult to accept. We hate ourselves for having them. We feel that we are disadvantaged or disabled. We try so hard to overcome them, and when they persist, we become disillusioned with ourselves. We feel there is no future for us. But how can we stand in God's promises to overcome them?

What gives you true joy? What makes you really happy in life? For many of us, our source of joy or happiness are things that we call "blessings". When such "blessings" come, we rejoice. When the "blessings" do not come, we complain or feel depressed. How would you know that your life is being transformed by the grace of God? When your source of joy is no longer about "blessings". Sure, you would be thankful for such things. But your joy no longer comes from that. It is focused somewhere else.

Your self-identity, or the way you know and understand who you are, affects how you live in the world and relate with others. If your self-identity is wrong, then you will live contrary to God's will and you will not be able to relate well with others. In contrast, if you have the right self-identity, you will be able to live according to God's will and relate well with others.

Our salvation in Christ should affect all of our lives. It should be, at least over time, and if we walk by faith each day. This is true especially in the area of our relationships. However, it doesn't happen to every follower of Christ. Some remain unchanged in spite of the availability of the abundant grace of God. This is contrary to the truth of the Gospel. Properly understood and embraced, the Gospel should change the way we relate with others.

To be effective in our Christian lives, we cannot just be on the defensive. We must also learn how to attack and counterattack against our spiritual enemy. This means we must not hide in fear. We must be proactive in our advance against the spiritual forces of evil in this world. Jesus said that the gates of hell cannot stop us. In other words, our best defense is actually a good offense. How do we launch this attack and counterattack?

As we have learned in our previous lesson, we are in a spiritual battle. We cannot overcome our enemy Satan unless we are aware and ready for this kind of battle. More importantly, we must be aware of how to defend ourselves as well as how to attack or counterattack the enemy. So, the first thing we need to learn is how to defend ourselves against an unseen enemy who is always trying to defeat us. What is our best protection?