God wants us to be generous, not only in our gifts to Him, but also in our gifts to others.  As we cultivate a giving attitude and a heart that is focused on generosity, then God will honor us.  But Pastor Ford will remind us today that we don’t give to get.  Instead, we give out of gratitude.

When we are giving to God, it’s not about what’s in our pocket or wallet—it’s about what’s in our heart and our attitude about giving.  And Pastor Ford will share with us today how we can honor God with our gifts, as we respond in gratitude for all that He has done for us.

When we experience betrayal, it’s easy to become embittered and respond to the situation out of anger.  But today, Pastor Ford will help us understand that God doesn’t want our response to be based on our feelings, but rather based on our faith in Him.

Pastor Ford will ask us today—is going to God our first response or our last resort?  As we deal with the heartbreak that things like betrayal can cause in our lives, if we don’t turn to God first, then we may very well be prolonging our own agony.

What do we do when a friend betrays us?  As we begin a new study in the book of Isaiah, Pastor Ford will remind us about the characteristics of true friendship and how we should respond when we experience the disappointment and hurt that accompanies betrayal by a friend.

Sixteen times in the book of Matthew, he uses the phrase, ‘This was to fulfill what the Lord had said by the mouth of the prophet.’  And we find that the genealogy of Jesus that Matthew provides validates the prophecy and is proof that we can trust the Word of God.

God knows the plans He has for us, and that fact should bring us comfort and confidence. Pastor Ford reminds us today that we can trust that God’s knowledge is true and perfect. And as a result, we can have a confident attitude about our future.

As we continue this study in the book of Jeremiah, we will learn more about how God is making it clear through this scripture passage that He alone knows what is best for us and He is working in our lives to accomplish it. And Pastor Ford will remind us that since God is in control, when He decides what is going to happen in our lives, it then becomes our destiny.

God comprehends and controls the situations in our lives. And just because we don’t know or understand what God is doing, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t doing what’s best for us.

As we continue our study in Jeremiah 29, we’ll see that when God talks about having the knowledge about the plans for our lives, He’s indicating that He has all of the details of our lives—the decisions we must make and the directions we must go.  Ultimately, God is the only one Who can tell us how to make the right choices.