2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

God loves us so much that He gives countless opportunities for us to repent and turn to Him.  It is not His will for anyone to die in their sin, but we all have a choice.  We have the choice of receiving Him as our Savior or rejecting Him and after that our daily choice should be to become more like Him!  We are called to be Holy, because He is Holy!  Freedom in Christ, doesn’t mean you can choose to live however you please, it means that with the Holy Spirit living within you, you have the power to overcome those areas you struggle with!  God will give you the strength you need to live a life that is pleasing to Him!  Our goal in life shouldn’t be to see how much we can do that will make us fit in with the rest of the world, or to make sure that we get everything we feel we deserve in life regardless of what it may cost those around us. Our goal should be to daily strive to allow Him to fill us so we can have victory in our lives to be an example to those who don’t believe! Plus, if you are waiting on something you believe God has promised you then obedience must come first! You can’t live just any way you choose and expect God’s blessing!

I have to say that one thing that truly weighs heavy on my heart is Human trafficking.  It is a problem of epidemic proportion around the world!  Did you know there are somewhere around 70 countries that have legalized prostitution?  Wow!  And we wonder why human trafficking is a problem.  It breaks my heart and if it breaks mine, can you imagine how God feels.  I saw a book titled, “God is in a Good Mood”, and the man who wrote it doesn’t believe there is a Hell, and let me tell you, when God looks down and sees innocent children, teenage girls and boys and men and women being sold on the streets for sex, no, I’m sorry, but no God is not in a good mood!  The disturbing thing is this; how many “Christians” are out there supporting Human trafficking by paying for it?  Obviously it was a problem even back when Paul was writing to the Corinthians:  1 Corinthians 6:15-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?  Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?  Never!  Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?  For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”  But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.  Flee from sexual immorality.  Every other sin a person commits is outside the body; but the sexually immoral person sins agains his own body.  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body.” 

Maybe the thing you are struggling with is stealing or drug addiction.  Maybe what you struggle with doesn’t seem like a real big deal compared to some of these other things, maybe you are ‘just mean’ or you live to gossip….God wants you to strive to overcome any area you are struggling in.  He wants you to live a godly, holy life so you can be closer to Him and He is Holy!  He doesn’t want you to accept any sin that you struggle with as being “just the way that you are.”  He wants you to have victory in every area of your life!  He wants you to be a light in a dark world!  People are looking for answers and they are finding them in all o the wrong places!  We need to live ives that make the answer, that they need Jesus so obvious they can’t miss it!

Get rid of that thing that is holding you back in life and your walk with Him!  If you are not the one struggling with some sin that has consumed your life, let’s remember this; God is long-suffering, and out of godly love for each other and our love for God we need to hold each other accountable.  We need to encourage repentance and accountability so each of us can be all God created us to be!   Allow God to use your life to glorify Him! There is nothing else in life that matters more than being all we were created by Him to be and to encourage each other to do the same!

That “full” life you are striving for will be found in a close walk with Him!

Quote: “Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.”  ~ James Allen, ‘As A Man Thinketh’