Busyness, pain, and laziness are barriers to community. Some of us have been hurt by churches in the past. Some of us just don’t want to make time to go. Others just don’t want to put forth the effort. How can we make a true connection and avoid these barriers?

How are we doing as followers of Jesus? Do we reflect the love of Jesus to the people we encounter every day? Can God count on you to be used by Him to help change the world?

To get the most out of your time with Jesus, you need to know exactly who He is. Jesus is the one who changes everything. He can use anyone to do any job. He can change the hearts of sinners. He finds potential, when everyone else sees a problem.

Everybody is important in the kingdom of heaven. It doesn’t matter if you’re popular or charismatic. What matters is that you matter to God. You just have to be willing to be faithful in whatever God asks you to do.

To be a hero doesn’t mean that you have to perform great heroic tasks that wow the crowds. As a follower of Jesus, some of the greatest things we do are the small simple acts of love and kindness towards others.

Sometimes it seems like we love to beat up on ourselves. It seems that we're really good at recognizing our shortfalls while seeing everyone else's strengths. But when God works in us and through us, we can recognize, not just others', but our own strengths as well.

What was new becomes stale. What was once a blessing suddenly become lackluster. How do we keep from losing the awe and wonder we once had with God and the blessings He gives? We can renew our passion for the seemingly common things by learning to recognize God’s activity around us.

Have you ever had trouble keeping a resolution? Did you start out good and then gradually slide back into old patterns and old thinking? Our willpower is never enough, our timing is often too hurried, and we try to change all by ourselves. Without God, it can be impossible to maintain any forward momentum in our lives.

We all have character defects. Some of them are outside of our control. It may seem like an uphill battle to quit an addiction, or to end a bad behavior, but there is a way to bring about change. When we trust God and rely on Him to do the work inside us that we can’t, we find the strength to get over it.

Living with regret can shape our lives and relationships. Guilt destroys our confidence and keeps us stuck in the past. We have to learn how to deal with it and take an honest looks at our lives. We have to take responsibility for our actions, ask God for forgiveness, and admit our faults.