How do you feel right now? Are things at school overwhelming? Do you feel overloaded and upset? Maybe the pressures at home just feel too much. Here’s the truth, even though things might be hard right now, as Children of God, He doesn’t want us to live our lives discouraged and upset. Instead, God has come to give you hope.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13 (NIV)

God wants you to have hope, and not just a little hope, but hope that is overflowing. Many times, it’s easier though to look at how wrong everything feels right now.

The truth is, if you look to Jesus, spend time in the Word, you’ll begin to get hope. To be filled with hope, you have to turn away from what you’re seeing in the world around you, and turn to Jesus.

Practically speaking, it might mean turning off your TV before bed and spending time reading your Bible and praying. It might mean saying no to chatting with friends that cause you to fear and be upset.

God wants you to be at peace, but you might have to make a few adjustments to get there. However, it’s worth it. Living a life at peace is always a good thing.

Pray: Jesus, I love you. I purpose today to walk in your hope and peace. I choose to set aside time to spend reading the Bible and get to know you better today. In your name, I pray, Amen.

Do you look to others for approval? I know I certainly have been guilty of that. I’ve wanted the approval of other people so bad, I’ve given in to peer pressure, made bad decisions, and many other things hoping to have other people like me.

What I discovered was this, when I lived to please other people, I wasn’t really making better friends. I couldn’t keep everyone happy at the same time, and when I tried, I was exhausted and stressed out. I realized that God describes a better way in today’s Bible verse.

For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. – 1 Thess 2:4 (NLT)

If we make pleasing God, rather than people our purpose, we will be less stressed out. God is who we should be living to please. When we make living for God and knowing Him our goal, it will bring much more happiness than we could ever find living our lives to please others.

So today, choose to get to know God. Make pleasing Him your goal in everything you do. As you choose this, you’ll be less stressed out and more fulfilled than living to please others.

Today’s Truth: Live to Please God, not people.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to want what others have? Maybe it’s to have a relationship, or perhaps you want the life that you see someone else living. Whatever it is, it’s easy to see what others have and want those things for yourself.

The people of Israel were no different. They too wanted what they saw others having. They compared themselves to other nations and decided they wanted a king.

Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” – 1 Samuel 8:20 (NIV)

Having a king wasn’t God’s best for Israel. God wanted to be their king. He wanted them to have something better, to be led by Him. However, Israel convinced themselves that they needed a king.

Just like Israel, it’s easy to want the things we see others have. In fact, we can want those things so much that it causes us unhappiness. Just like in the time of Israel, God wants to be your fulfillment. He wants to bring you the fulfillment that no person or thing can bring.

So today, determine to let God be your fulfillment. Choose to find contentment in Him. Don’t wish for the things others have, instead simply fill your time with getting to know God better. As you seek Him, you’ll be more fulfilled and find a lasting relationship in Him.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

Making friends is hard sometimes, isn’t it? I remember when I was in high school and how much I craved the approval of others. It caused me to only talk to certain people and not others. It affected the clothes I wore, the music I listened to, and the way I talked.

It’s often easy to get our value from how others see us. If someone likes us we feel good about ourselves. When they don’t we feel like we have no value.

The truth is, not everyone is going to like you. Not every person is going to be your friend. Even if not everyone has recognized your greatness doesn’t mean that God hasn’t.

God sees you differently than the way others see you. God sees you through Jesus. He sees your purpose and potential. When others don’t place value on you, God says that you’re a masterpiece. He loves you and sees the best in you!

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. – Romans 5:20 (NLT)

Do you wish that you could automatically get good grades in school? Like you didn’t have to study at all, simply show up and boom, you had all A’s. Wouldn’t that be nice?

When it comes to grades, what you do matters. The more you study, the better your grades are. In school, your work matters. The harder you work, the better you’ll do.

However, with God, that wasn’t the case. There was nothing that you could do to ever make yourself right with God. No amount of good works, following God’s rules, or doing the right thing would ever mean heaven for you.

Instead, what you needed was God’s grace found through His son Jesus. Jesus bridged the gap between God’s righteousness and our sin. He made it possible for us to know the true God. That’s great news for us. We can live our lives free and full knowing that God’s grace is enough!

Pray: God, thank you for your wonderful grace. Thank you for making us right with you. I choose to walk today in the freedom you provided for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” – John 13:35 (NLT)

Relationships with other people can be really complicated sometimes. How often have you had a friend not do what you wanted them to do? Or maybe a teacher isn’t treating you fairly and you feel really mad and upset.

Dealing with other people can be really hard. Especially when you’d just love to yell and give that person a piece of your mind.

Relationships with others aren’t easy, but today’s verse gives us some help. In the verse, we are encouraged to respond to others with love. That doesn’t always mean that we’re not going to tell others how we feel, but we can do it with a heart of love.

When we still are loving to those around us, we show the world that we are disciples.

So today, if you’ve struggled with your relationships with others, ask God for help. He can show you creative ways to deal with difficult relationships in love. God’s there to walk with you, so let Him. He wants to lead and guide you in every situation you face!

He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.” – 1 Samuel 15:29 (NIV)

Getting to know God can be really exciting. As you read the Bible, you learn more about who He is and how good it is to know Him. There are so many amazing attributes of God, but one of the most exciting ones is God’s faithfulness.

I’m sure you’ve experienced a parent promising you something and then later realized they forgot all about that promise. When that happened, you probably felt misunderstood and disappointed. Parents aren’t perfect and sometimes when they mean well, they still forget their promises.

The good news is that God is not like that. He can’t even lie. When He says something, He will bring it to pass. God is faithful all the time.

When we begin to believe that God is faithful it changes our relationship with Him. It helps us to trust Him because when we understand who God is and that He is faithful it makes it easier to trust Him more.

So today if trusting God has been an issue for you, begin to study and search the Bible for verses about the faithfulness of God. As you read about God’s faithfulness, it will help you begin to believe that He is trustworthy and faithful!

Today’s Truth: When God says something He will bring it to pass. God is faithful all the time!

Here is a FREE download for further study on God’s Faithfulness.

Do you ever struggle with trying to make people happy? Maybe you even make decisions based on how others feel rather than what you really want to do. The pull to please people can be very real.

And it’s true that as Christians, we shouldn’t be going out of our way to make people mad. However, if we live our whole lives only pleasing others, then we’ve missed the point. We should be living for God. His desires should be our desires, and we should be living to please Him.

But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. – Ruth 1:16 (NLT)

Ruth was determined to live for God and for God’s desires. She didn’t go back to her family and her country. Instead, she chose to make pleasing God her priority.

Like Ruth, we should be determined to live for God. Even if it means that we’re not making everyone happy. God should be the one we’re living to please, and it’s His approval we should seek each day.

Today’s Truth: Live to Please God