*This post is taken from Sarah Young’s, Jesus Calling devotional.

This post is taken from Sarah Young’s, Jesus Calling devotional.

As we approach 2017, if we ask God for a sensitivity to see His work in our lives, we will experience some “seeing is believing” moments. We will see Him work in such a way in our lives and the lives of others, where He will remind us of the truth of His presence, His awesomeness and His love.

Everyone has a role to build up the body of Christ, and we’ve all been called to ministry work, to be equipped by Scripture and our spiritual leaders. No one is gift-less, potential-less, or purposeless. We all have a ministry. 

Isn’t it interesting how one part of your life can be going so well- i.e. jobs, success, health, finances, free time BUT another part can be struggling or almost nonexistent- i.e. your relationships, your marriage, or your relationship with your kids? We certainly weren’t meant to always stay on the mountain. With Nehemiah as our model, we'll see one practical life application from Scripture that we can use so that we don’t lose our joy, faith and hope in the midst of having one part of your life going well and another part that may not be going so well.

Even if it’s a season where we feel like everything is going wrong, God showers graces. We can lose sight of these graces because we’re already feeling so down. But, if we look with our spiritual eyes we will see the Father’s love and that He is with us.

Friday wisdom from the Jesus Calling devotional on seeking God's prescence.

It’s possible to know a lot of people, especially if you’re a networker by nature or if you live in professional multi-cultural cities like Washington, DC and Brussels. But knowing a lot of people does not make them your friends. And having discernment about who accesses you is a key piece of wisdom I wish I knew 10 years ago.

We’ve all been called to serve. Jesus came for people, to save us and to heal us. That’s what His ministry was about: people.

A personal mission statement that does not include a mission and aim to uplift others, and to put them before ourselves is a personal mission statement that is weak and lagging character.

If people realize with their hearts and minds that they are (or can be) powerful people of God, then they walk forward with their dreams and desires with more boldness. But we often need a refiners fire (challenges that try us) to light us up so that we can come out as pure gold.

It’s important in life that we be mentally fit for all sorts of situations- to be fit to take on sin and fight the flesh, and to be mentally fit to fight life’s giants. When we’re mentally prepared it shows that we also have great faith in God. And it’s also a big part of knowing who we are so that we can have a stellar personal mission statement.

Who we are a spitting image of shows what’s really going on inside our hearts [our root system]. By heart I mean our emotions, the thing(s) that drives us, the thing(s) that propels us to act or not act, our love for something, the good we do, the evil we do- if we forgive, if we hate, if we surrender our lives to God, if we’re jealous towards other, etc.

There comes a time in life where we have to draw a line in the sand between what has burdened us or once defined us in the past, from, where we’re trying to get to. We can’t move forward if we’re still trying to hold onto the past.

What people know of themselves comes from what they have been told of themselves, and sometimes what they have been told is worldly poor advice. Do you know who you are and what wonderful things you can do in the world- outside of what people are telling you about yourself?

What is the way? For believers it is Jesus and we’ve been put on this earth to glorify God and use our gifts and talents to serve this generation. We’ve been put on this earth to follow “the Way” and to be conscience of Him and not lose sight of His mission for our lives.

In our busy lives we can lose sight of the fact that relationships don’t work unless we do, and that we must make an effort to invest into people. People don’t know what you mean to them unless you tell them. There are some things that must be professed with our mouths.

God is faithful and He is good. He wants us to enjoy our earthly lives that He has given us. He wants to surprise us, where one day we may walk into something new, thinking it will be the same of what we had before, but maybe slightly better, and BOOM! - God has given us something far more than we could have ever asked for or imagined. 

One thing I realized about God is that He’s all about process. More often than not, God, thousands of years ago, and God in 2016 is a God of process. Sometimes He does things quickly, like the waving of a wand- abracadabra and POOF- it’s done and fast. But when He decides to mold and make our characters, the things we want can take weeks, months or years.

I’ve got one and you’ve got one- a conscience. That thing that jerks us back when we do wrong, and that that gives our hearts peace when we’ve made the right decision...

We all have seasons in our lives where some are more challenging than others, but challenges are meant to increase our faith in God, mature us, strengthen us, and make us wiser. God doesn’t intend for us to stay stuck in a season. He’s the only One that’s meant to stay the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But we’re meant to morph and grow as He moves us from season to season. However, it is possible that we can stay stuck in a season for far too long, longer than God intended us, if we choose to.

There are seasons in life when we’re in the unexplainable, where we’re being pressed, where situation after situation that comes makes us exhausted, and where we can’t understand why we’re being pressed on every side.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

~Dale Carnegie

It’s exhausting to try and please other people and what they think we should do or not do. And even though their advice may come from a good place, we will only find freedom through seeking to please God above all else.