Life 
What Are You Learning?

Okay so everyday the time to wake up comes and the time to walk out the door arrives.  It is the start of the new day.  So what will you do, and what will you learn?  We are capable of learning so much in a single day.  Our minds are powerful and strong.  But how much do you learn on any given day?  Yes I know you go to school each day during the school year, but do you really learn? Or do you just, well remember what you need to so that you will do well on a test?  Life is happening all around us it happens everyday.  We encounter new things and we have the opportunity to learn new things.  But how much do we really learn?  What does life teach us?  The choice is up to you it is your decision each day that you wake up and each day that you breath.  You can learn new things that will help you get through life, or you can just go through the motions.  Going through the motions is where a lot of us live, day by day doing whatever we need to do to get through the day.  But there is more, when you think of where you want to end up in life, most of us would say a good place a comfortable place.  Nothing wrong with that but that in the end would turn out to be a boring life and I don’t think you want to live a boring life!  So what do you need? How will your life become more than just the normal life?  For that you need wisdom!  Check this out  Proverbs 19:20 says this  Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. For many of us taking advice and receiving instruction is one of the hardest things for us to do.  This is where wisdom and new knowledge begins.  Each day as we do life we have the chance to learn and grow in wisdom and in that we can develop skills that will allow our lives to impact others.  When our lives impact others then we are living a life that creates impact and change in the world around us.  This is an awesome way to live, it gives our life substance and purpose.  We have to realize that each day we need to grow and to learn new things.  We have to work at it and stay focused on how we want to live life.  So what have you learned today?  What will you learn tomorrow?  How will you take what you learned and apply it to change the world around you for the better?  These questions can help you as you develop a passion to make your life a life that will impact and change the world around you!  Be ready to learn! Be ready to change! Then be ready for a life impacts! 

Got Life, I mean we all do but what are we doing with the life that we have?  Some people don’t like the life that they have.  When I hear people talk about their life that way I always wonder why they just don’t get a new life.  Not like you can buy one at the store or on the web, but I always think why don’t you change something?  And in the process of changing something they well your life will change.  People forget that they have control over only one thing in life and that is themselves.  When we look at life we always want to blame someone else.  We never ever want to say hey my life is what it is because I am in control of me.  I am always telling my kids that I am not upset about what they did, I am disappointed that they lost control over themselves which lead to well not act the way they know they should.  

What about you how is your life going?  What do you like about your life what would you like to see change in your life?  It is your life and how you live it is up to you!  We all have choices in life.  So what choices have you been making lately that have caused you to enjoy your life more?  What choices have you been making that have caused you to enjoy your life less?  Jesus came so that we can have the best possible life ever.  Not many people believe that they think that Jesus came that we might have a life after death.  But that is only part of what He did.  So how are you with your life.  You getting done all the things that you want to get done?  Do you feel like you take every day to the max and get everything out of the life that you have for that day?  It is not something that we think about all that much but maybe we should give it more thought.  Jesus cares about the life that we live right now so much that He died and rose again so that we could live life to the full.  Check out what He says in John 10:10  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  Life to the full, sounds good sign me up.  However we have to want it and we have to take charge with how we live our lives.  He said that they may have life and have it to the full.  Knowing Jesus and Jesus knowing you is awesome but it is a choice to live life to the full.  You have to want it and you have to go after it.  

Keep reading for some cool pointers on how you can run after life to the full!  

Faith is so important, it is actually impossible to please God without faith.  Don’t believe me check this out.  Hebrews 11:16 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.  So what are you doing to increase and strengthen your faith?  It is key that we do not allow our faith to reach a level and then just stop.  Of course our enemy would have us think that we have arrived, and that there is nothing more for us to do with our faith.  Believe it our not some of us think we have arrived but we have not.  We all have ways that we need to grow in our faith!  There is always more, until Christ returns or we go home there is work to be done!  
As we go through this life things can get tough, disappointment can be around every corner and well sometimes it can just be downright difficult to believe in more.  Check out this verse and dig in and see how God seeks to encourage us and what He promises to us as we keep seeking to grow our faith and our dependence upon Him.  Isaiah 40:31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.   Now that is what I call a promise.  I mean cling to that and believe that He will carry us further than we ever thought that we could go.  We have to run the race with His encouragement behind us always.  
It can be tough to put your faith as one of the most important things in your life especially when everyone around you puts other things in the top spot. But for us as followers of Jesus we have to make our faith the most important thing to us.  It has to fill our number one spot.  
When we attempt to do this everything turns on us and it gets harder and harder to dig in.  
Trust me as you seek to dig in and run after God first in all that you do, your faith will increase and you will grow.  During the process you will need to cling to God’s promises to strengthen you and help you out along the way.
I love to call on God’s promises because in that I am increasing my faith and learning that God is so there for me and I fall more and more in Love with Him.  The more that I fall in love with Him the more I grow my faith and it is an awesome cycle.  Keep reading and we will show you some ways to strengthen your faith…

Lets face it faith can be a simple thing or it can be a really hard thing to grasp and hang on to especially when life is hard.  We all have times when we are on top of the world with our faith, during those times Jesus is the answer for everything!  We are moving mountains left and right and we can’t be shaken in our faith.  But honestly these are usually just moments that come and go like a passing storm moving over the mountains.   The other part of life is spent in the moments between and in these in between parts of life our faith is in us but it is sleeping. We don’t call on Jesus for everything, we might goes days without evening calling out to Him.  This is the battle of faith.  Things come into our lives and they cause us to have a hard time living out and believing our faith.  I get this way sometimes when the day has been long, and it seems like no one comes to me with any good news.  Every where I go it seems like people need prayer and encouragement.  Then I arrive at home ready to plop on the couch after putting the kids to bed, and another text comes in someone in need of prayer.  My thoughts become selfish, thinking really, I just want to watch TV and forget that the world is so broken.  At that moment my faith is challenged and it is filled with doubt.  Then as I get to my knees (it might be an hour or two latter) but when I hit my knees my faith becomes alive and I pray, and pray…  As I pray I am focused on this.  Don’t miss this because this is the battle of faith.  Paul wrote this one liner and it is so powerful.  In Philippians 4:13 Paul encourages us with this. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” As I process this verse I realize that I do everything through Him, and in that I receive strength.  

When has your faith been shaken and weak, what were you facing?  What thing slammed into your life and crushed your spirit?  Chances are at that moment you are not doing things through His strength.  You are thinking that you and you alone have to face the problem.  When that happens doubt creeps into your faith and you will lose.  What we have to understand is this our faith is His faith and His faith is perfect and strong.  We have to live out of His strength not our own.  We have to run the race of faith with His strength through Him.  Our faith leads us to Him, or dependence is Him and He will never fail us.  Doubt leaves and we live our life in and our of our faith… and that is awesome!