Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! – 2 Cor 5:17

We all like new stuff. New shoes, new clothes, new video games, or a new phone. New stuff is just the best! Do you know that when God sees you, he sees new? When God looks at you after you’ve accepted Jesus as your savior He sees a new creature.

He doesn’t see who you were before you knew Jesus. He doesn’t see your shortcomings, failures and all the stuff that you’ve done wrong. He sees someone who is fresh and new.

When you think about how excited you get when you get a new phone and you can’t wait to use it, that’s just a fraction of how excited God gets about you. He loves you and is thrilled that you’re His child.

Have you ever been shopping on Amazon and have taken advantage of the filtering they offer? Maybe you’re looking for a certain pair of shoes, so you filter by size, and price, all to get exactly the right pair of shoes for you.

When it comes to hearing from God, we’ve got to learn how to use filtering too. Now you can’t filter God by size or price, but when it comes to hearing God, you’ve got to learn to filter out distractions.

The things of the world will try to distract you. The drama at school. Your social media accounts. Watching too much news, or even having your friends around all the time. Things like these can keep you distracted so that you don’t have the time or the quiet to hear from God.

And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. – 1 Kings 19:12(NLT)

When God speaks to us, He doesn’t yell. Instead, he comes in a whisper and in the quiet. That means you have to be quiet to hear Him. If your mind is busy, your life is busy, and you’re constantly doing other things, you won’t be able to hear from Him.

So today, start your journey learning to hear from God. Pray about whether there are things in your life that are distracting you from hearing from Him. To hear from God, you’ve got to get quiet. So begin to filter out the things that might be distracting you from hearing from Him.

Today’s Truth: Filter Out Distractions

God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. – Hebrews 6:18 (NIV)

When you’re watching TV or playing video games, you see lots of characters who lie. Even when it comes to friends and family, we often see people lying.

It can be easy when we see so many people and examples around us of people lying to think that God isn’t someone we can trust. However, the truth is, we can trust God.

God isn’t able to lie. When He speaks, He speaks truth and always wants good things for our lives. God’s word is truth. When you read God’s word, you act like it’s true because we can trust God.

So today, if you’ve doubted what God says is true, spend some time reading the Word. Realize that God can be trusted and what He says is truth.

So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. – Romans 5:11 (NLT)

Friends are great! They’re there for you when you’re down, they listen like no one else will, and they seem to always have your back in hard times. As great as your friends are, there will be times when they’ll let you down. They might not say or do the things that you wanted them to. However, there’s a friend that will never let you down, God.

The great thing about a friendship with God is that its forever. God will never leave you, let you down, or forget about you. God paid a huge price to be able to have a friendship with you. He gave His son Jesus to die in our place, and now we have the right to be called a friend of God.

Today’s Truth: God will never leave you, let you down, or forget about you.

Today remember that you’ve got an awesome friend in God. He’ll never give up on you or let you down! Be sure to thank Jesus for making us able to be friends of God.