The Plank In My Eye!

Matthew 7:3-5- "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck out of your eye', and look, a plank is in your own eye?
Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye."
I have been guilty of this so many times! I remember talking about how selfish I thought one of my friends was with her money. Then, the next week we went out to eat with someone. My husband decided to buy his dinner (which he ordered an $18.00 meal). I was feeling very stressed about our money at the time, so I started to grumble to myself about what an expensive meal he got and began to complain about having to pay for it!
What a hypocrite I was! How selfish I was! This was the same kind of thing I would complain about my friend doing, and here I was doing the same thing!
That's what this verse is talking about... me always looking at what others are doing wrong and not first asking God to show ME where I have been wrong and selfish and judging others for things that I do myself... just maybe in a different way or in a different area in my life.

Doing Good

The verse for the week is Galatians 6:9 which says, "Let us not become tired of doing good. At the right time we will gather a crop if we don't give up."
Sometimes it feels like we keep doing what is good without any reward or benefit, and everyone around us is not even trying to be good and it seems like they are the ones getting the rewards and the benefits!
It's like when a farmer plants a crop. He puts the tiny seed in the ground, and then everyday he waters it and cultivates it. Then one day, he finally gets that sweet, delicious corn, or those juicy, ripe tomatoes.
God will do the same thing in our lives. He told us not to become tired of doing good. To trust Him, don't give up, and He WILL pour out the blessings in your life!
He WILL give you the desires of your heart! Sometimes it might take a while, just like with that crop, but it's because God wants to give you the best.... he doesn't want you to settle for what seems good enough for right now, He wants to give you the perfect gift, the gift that was made in heaven just for you!

Is God mad at me?

Have you ever felt like God was mad at you? I remember going through a time where I felt like I could never do anything right when it came to my relationship with God. I would do really good for a while spending time with God, praying and reading my Bible, and then I would go for months without doing anything! I would feel so bad, like I had failed God. Then I would get back to focusing on God and spending time with him. I would be feeling really good until someone would come along and make me mad! Then I would start talking bad about them to anyone who would listen!
I knew in my head that God loved me, but sometimes I didn't really feel like He loved me or was proud of me.
Jeremiah 31:3 says that "God has loved you with an everlasting love", a love that can never go away, no matter what you do or how you act. God is on your side and wants to see you succeed in every area of your life... in relationships, in school, in health, etc. He wants to use our success to bless others and point them into a relationship with God, so that they can also experience the everlasting love that God has for them.