A patient person shows great understanding, but a quick-tempered one promotes foolishness. – Proverbs 14:29 (HCSB)

Maybe you’re counting down the days until your summer vacation from school. Or perhaps you’re looking forward to going to college and leaving all the drama of high school behind. Many times, we’re really excited about the future, so much so that we forget to enjoy the present.

Being present and enjoying the present can be a really difficult skill to master. It’s easy to become impatient when things get boring and take longer than you expected. The secret to true happiness is learning to be content regardless of whether you’re having fun or where you’d like to be in life. Being patient can be difficult.

The good news is that you don’t have to be patient alone. Patience is a fruit of the spirit. That means that if you’ve accepted Jesus into your heart, you’ve got patience in you. You’ve just got to choose to let patience work in your life.

Developing patience isn’t fun or easy. However, the rewards of developing patience are good. You’ll find that you’re much happier. Choose today to enjoy where you are right now, even if it’s not where you want to be. Choose to be happy regardless of what is going on around you.

When we come to God, we have to believe that He exists. And that takes faith. We can’t see Him, so we have to believe that what He’s said about Himself in the Bible is true and that it makes sense about what we see in the world around us today.

But today, we’re going to look at the last part of Hebrews 11:6. It tells us that God rewards those who sincerely seek Him.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. – Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)

Seeking God is something like a craving. Let’s say you’re really craving ice cream. So ice cream kind of becomes all you can think about. You might ask your mom if she has any in the freezer. If she doesn’t you might ask her to get some for you at the store or go get some yourself. Why? Because when you crave something, you really want it and aren’t afraid to figure out a way to get it.

That’s how we should be going after God. We should be finding ways to get to know Him more. That involves seeking him out and finding more about Him through His word. So challenge yourself to seek God more today. Figure out ways to include Him in your life. Know that He wants to help you and be a part of everything you’re going through.

Do you come to God daily? Hourly? Asking for His help in each situation and circumstance that you face? Because God is willing to have a close relationship with you. He wants to help lead, guide, and direct you each moment and step of your life.

But to come to God, you’ve got to believe that God exists. And sometimes, that can feel a little silly. You can’t see God with your eyes, so you might wonder, how do I know that He really exists?

Our world is very contrary to God, so much of culture mocks people of faith. Science often comes up with reasons to doubt God and the world He created. But to have a close loving relationship with God, you’ve got to believe that He exists, and you can’t see Him, which makes things kind of difficult.

But here’s the thing. We all instinctively know that God is real. When we look at the creation around us, we see complexity and diversity, and it’s hard to explain those things without the Biblical God. Faith in God is really logical. No, you can’t see Him with your eyes, but you know He’s real if you’ll let your heart go there. Our world, universe, morality, and much more only make sense when you factor in the God of the Bible.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. – Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

When we come to God, we’ve got to believe that He exists. Once we believe that He exists, we can begin to enjoy the wonderful relationship He desires for each of us.

There’s an exciting relationship with God that we can all have. The good news is, it doesn’t take you being any kind of special person to walk in that relationship. You don’t have to be the best Christian, or do everything right. It just takes faith in God.

But what does it mean to have faith? That word can seem a little hard to grasp. To help understand, if we look the word up in Greek, we see that faith can be defined as belief, confidence, or trust. So faith is confidence and trust in God. That means we trust God in every area of our lives. When we feel scared about the future, we can trust God. When we don’t know what to do or feel overwhelmed, we can be confident knowing that God has the answer we need.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. – Hebrews 11:6 (NLT)

Hebrews 11:6 talks about it being impossible to please God without faith. But I love the idea associated with that. Because I’m not good enough. I’m not that special, but that doesn’t matter to God. He just cares that I love Him, trust Him, and look to Him in every circumstance that I face.

If we want to have a close walk with God, we’ve got to choose to live our lives full of faith, confidence, and trust in God.

Today’s Truth: We can be confident that God has the answer we need.

So today, challenge yourself to put faith in God. Know that faith is what impresses God, not us being awesome, but our simple faith in Him each day. Determine to focus your attention on God today rather than your problems. Yes, the world isn’t perfect, yes, your life isn’t perfect, but God loves you and simply wants you to place your trust in Him.

You could be a super Christian. You might do all the right things and really have a deep and personal relationship with God. But here’s the thing. If you’re not loving others, all the good you do doesn’t really mean that much.

As Christians, we should be standing up for what’s right. When we see someone hurting or not making good choices, we should be leading them back to God, but we also can’t become jerks about it. We’ve got to respond to others in love. Because others, just like us, need God’s mercy and grace.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:2 (NIV)

So today, stand up for what’s right. But as you do, be sure that you’re doing it with a heart of love. Speak the truth, but speak it so that your heart is right and loving.

So if you’ve found that sometimes you aren’t kind when someone makes a mistake or when they don’t follow after God, realize that you can be a part of the solution. Help them find their way to God, but in a loving, kind way. And then pray and see how the Holy Spirit can help lead you to be part of the way back to God.

It can be really hard to stand up for God, can’t it? What do you do, when all your friends are making choices to not follow after God? How do you stand up for what’s right when it feels like you’re the only one?

The main thing you can do is to be strong in your relationship with God. You should be desiring to spend time in His presence and in His word. Guard your relationship with God more than anything else.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. – 1 Corinthians 16:13 (NIV)

Today’s verse tells us to stand firm in the faith. That means standing when it feels like you’re all alone. It means that you might have to say no to some things that aren’t godly things and be different than the majority. And that takes courage.

It’s not always easy standing up for God and for truth, but it is the right thing to do. So determine in your heart that you’re not going to be swayed by peer pressure. Instead, look to God, and let your relationship with Him hold you strong when it feels like you’re all alone.

You probably have some friends that aren’t following God. Perhaps, they know what’s right, but they’re choosing to not live for God. And that can make you wonder what you should do. Should you say something to them?

Or maybe you’re seeing things in the world around you that aren’t right. And you wonder, should I speak up? Should I stand up for others? Should I say the truth even if people don’t listen and maybe even make fun of me?

You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. – Ezekiel 2:7 (NIV)

In today’s Bible verse we see Ezekiel encouraged to speak God’s words to the people around him. It didn’t matter whether those people listened or failed to listen. What mattered is that Ezekiel spoke the things God showed him to speak and spoke out God’s truth.

In our relationships, we can’t be afraid to speak the truth found in God’s word to others. It isn’t going to be always easy to do, but we should not be afraid of speaking the truth, but with a heart of love. Our goal in speaking Biblical truth isn’t to shame someone or to make them feel bad, but rather to lead them back to the God who loves them and wants His best for them.

Today, don’t be afraid. Speak God’s word in love to situations and see God use you to help lead others back to Him.

For some say, “Paul’s letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are worthless!” – 2 Cor 10:10

It seems like it’s human nature to focus on our weaknesses. We often look at ourselves and only see where we fall short and mess up. I want you to imagine for a moment what would have happened if Paul had focused only on his weakness. This verse talks about Paul not being that great at giving speeches.

What if Paul had only focused on the areas he was weak in? I can imagine Paul hearing things like this, and thinking, well, I guess you’re right. I’m not that amazing to be with in person. I’m not that good at giving speeches. I guess I should quit. I should stop here.

I’m so glad that Paul didn’t do that. If he had not focused on his gifts like writing, we might not have a lot of the New Testament.

Don’t Let Weakness Hold You Back From What God Has Called You to Do.

The same is true for us too. Yes, it’s a challenge to not focus only on our weaknesses. Most of us are very aware of all the ways we fall short. Here’s the truth, however, if you focus only on weakness, it can stop you from doing what God has called you to do.

So today, don’t let your weaknesses hold you back from doing the things that God has called you to do. If you learn to rely on God and His help, you’ll always succeed in whatever you put your hand to.