“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. – Matthew 5:11 (NLT)

Have you ever been mocked for your faith? I remember a time when I had a job and my boss just hated Christians. He did everything in his power to make life hard for me. I worked at a restaurant, and he would try to knock trays of food and drinks out of my arms, all because he didn’t like me and what I stood for as a Christian.

Instead of retaliating, like I wanted to, I felt like God was leading me to ignore the bad treatment and to just keep a good attitude in the situation. So each day I showed up to work and I did my best to act like my boss’s actions didn’t bother me. I always treated him fairly and with respect.

After a year or so of working there, my boss’s attitude toward me began to change. He was never really over the top nice to me, but once he told me that I was the first Christian who hadn’t let him down or flaked out on him. He never came to know Jesus, but he respected me and with time treated me better.

Just like me, you’re going to face situations where people aren’t going to treat you right due to your faith. When that happens, ask God for wisdom. The person who is mistreating you might have a lot of hurt from other Christians that is causing them to act the way they do. If you ask Him, God will give you wisdom and show you how you should respond.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. – Ephesians 4:11 (NLT)

Leadership can be hard sometimes. You might be in a place of leadership in your school, church or home group and you might feel overwhelmed. There can be times in leadership where you simply aren’t sure what to say or what to do.

In the body of Christ, God has put many different spiritual gifts. And each place of leadership in the church is important. Regardless of where you’ve been place to lead, here are a few things to remember.

1. Keep Learning.
   Keep reading your Bible. Listen to good Bible and leadership teaching. Grow each day. If you approach your leadership always learning and growing, you’ll go far as a leader. Regardless of how far you’ve come, there are always ways to learn and improve.
2. Rely on the Holy Spirit
   You have the Holy Spirit to help lead and guide you. So when you don’t know what to say or what to do in a difficult situation, rely on the Holy Spirit. He will give you ideas and help that will be vital to your success as a leader.
3. Give yourself Grace.
   As a leader, you’re not always going to be perfect, and that’s ok. Give yourself room to learn, make mistakes, and grow. Don’t expect perfection from yourself or others.

Being a leader in your school or church can be fun, but also challenging. Know that if God has called you to a place of leadership, you’re equipped to do it. Don’t be afraid to walk in the things He’s showing you to do.

that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. – Philemon 1:6 (NKJV)

Sharing your faith can really seem overwhelming. You might question whether you really know enough to tell someone else about Jesus. And that question sometimes causes you to be quiet rather than share your faith with others.

Today’s verse helps make sharing your faith a bit easier. The end of the verse talks about the acknowledgment of every good thing that is in you. So rather than being concerned about whether you know enough to answer all of people’s questions, realize that simply sharing the good things God has done in your life is an effective way to share the gospel with others.

So what has God done for you? Has He healed you? Have you been freed from fear? What has God done in your life? Think about that and then ask God how you can let others know. God will give you creative ideas on how you can share what God is doing in your life.

Maybe He’ll lead you to post something on social media. Or perhaps He’ll show you someone you can write a card or letter to. However He leads you, don’t be afraid to step out and do it. Sharing your faith doesn’t have to be scary or hard, sometimes it’s just telling others the good things God has done for you, and then inviting them to get to know the Jesus that has set you free for themselves.

A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls. – Proverbs 25:28 (NLT)

When emotions are unchecked in our lives, we’re like a city with broken-down walls. If a city didn’t have strong walls, they were able to be attacked by their enemies. The city couldn’t experience good things because it was vulnerable to attack.

In the same way, if we don’t determine to develop emotionally healthy habits, like self-control in our lives, we are not going to be as successful in life.

If we want to walk in the freedom and the good things God has prepared for us, we’ve got to choose to walk in self-control when it comes to our emotions. It’s easy to let our emotions run wild and react rather than sit back and think. However, if we just react emotionally, we might react too much or we might react too little. When we take some time to think about our response and learn more of the facts, is when we’re able to give the right response.

So today, take some time to think about how you’re responding to situations around you. Are you overreacting? Under reacting? Spend some time getting all the facts before you respond. When you do, you’ll make better decisions and be walking in more self-control.