Avenue Church

When life becomes difficult, we can overlook the goodness of God or doubt His presence in our lives. We can even see our situations as unfair or undeserved. There is more to life than we see know, but it can only be experienced in Christ. 

What comes to mind when you think about certain people in your life? Your spouse, ex-spouse, co-workers, anyone that you would consider not "for us, with us, or like us?" What comes to mind when we think about others reveals how much of Christ is in us." This one cuts so get ready!

When you look at yourself in the mirror, what thoughts come to mind? What are those thoughts based on? We are often our harshest critics, and the lie we believe the most about ourselves is "I'm NOT good enough." This lie is mass-produced by a couple of more subtle lies. Find out how to take back the power this has over you.

Have you ever been disappointed in God? Feeling like you have to act right to earn His love? Do your prayers feel unanswered, like He's holding out on you? Do you find it hard to trust God? If you said yes, you are believing the lie "that God is not good. " The truth is God is always good! Even when things don't feel good!

The devil is a liar!! Since the beginning of creation, our enemy has been deceiving and accusing us. But we get to choose who we believe.  What we CHOOSE to believe directs our gaze, perception, desire, behavior, and influence. We are always to choose God's word over anything else because everything contradictory to God's word is a lie. 

The Psalms end with PRAISE. For a Christian, at the end of lament, at the end of doubt, at the end of confession, at the end of fear, at the end of anger...there can only be praise. Praise is a posture and attitude, not just an event. It's what we were created to do for all of eternity. 

Do you ever forget that God knows everything and is everywhere... all at the same time? Psalm 139 reminds us to be aware of God's knowledge of us, His presence with us, and His power within us. When we recognize these truths, living with God's purpose in our lives becomes more meaningful. 

We can't fool God. He knows how we feel and what we want to say to Him. Hiding our feelings and holding our words doesn't help anything. Psalm 42 and 43 challenge us to feel what we need to feel and say what we need to say. We don't stop there! We can praise Him again. 

Confidence in God can be tricky. If we are not careful, we can base our hopes and beliefs on only what we can see. But we are called to believe and hope for the things that we can see. That means we have to be confident about something. What is that? We must be confident in the character of God, even when we don't feel like He's moving. We must choose to have confidence in the absence of evidence and the presence of negative feelings. 

Psalm 23 can be familiar and we can sometimes take it for granted, but we can never forget that Jesus is our "Good Shepherd."