Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

5 Ways to Grow in Christ

Hey, Gabriel Girls!

 I trust you’re having a great summer! No matter what you do this summer, don’t forget to spend time with Jesus.

 Of all your relationships, your relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important relationship you will ever have. It will last forever, into eternity. So don’t you agree it’s vital that you keep working on that relationship?

 If you don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I urge you to establish one. Click here to learn how to do so. 

 Okay, now let’s talk about five ways to grow your relationship in Christ:
1) Dig deep into God’s Word. God’s Word is the Bible. The Bible and Jesus are actually one and the same, so if you dig deep into the Bible, you will be digging deep into Jesus. Why is this important? Because the better you get to know Jesus, the more you will be like Him, and the more like Him you are, the better your life will be.

 Check out Psalm 119: 1-3: Happy are all who perfectly follow the laws of God. Happy are all who search for God and always do his will, rejecting compromise with evil and walking only in his paths. 

 If you want to be truly happy, follow Jesus! 

 2) Pray.  Prayer is a two-way conversation with God. He talks to you, and you talk to Him. Be sure to do twice as much listening as you do talking, however, because God is far smarter than you are. :)

 I keep a Prayer Journal of my conversations with God. It’s really cool to go back and read over the things God has spoken to me over the years. Most of all, keeping a Prayer Journal will remind you of how much God cares, especially when you’re going through tough times.
3) Obey what God tells you to do. How do you know what God tells you to do? The best place to find that answer is in the Bible. God has written down all that He wants you to do. It can be summed up in two commands found in Luke 10: 27: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  Obey these two commands and you’ll be just fine. :)  

4) Meet with other Christ-Followers. We all need the support of others on our journey with Jesus. Fellow believers lift us up when we are down, and vice versa. The Bible says this about meeting with fellow believers: Let us not neglect our church meetings, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near (Hebrews 10: 25). We do not necessarily have to meet in church buildings, because we are the Church. But we should meet regularly with other Christ-Followers, especially during these dangerous times right before Christ’s return.

5) Tell others about Jesus. I am so thankful for the young woman who told me about Jesus and about my need to be born again. Even though I thought she was crazy at first, I eventually realized that she was telling me the truth. Were it not for her courage, I would not be writing this blog post today. 

So, be bold in your witness for Jesus Christ. You have the truth, and by sharing the truth with others, you will prevent many from spending eternity in Hell.

There you have it: 5 Ways to Grow in Christ. Now all you have to do is put these 5 ways into practice. You will be amazed at how much your life will change for the better!

Now, it's YOUR TURN: What ways do you practice to grow in Christ? Please share with our fellow Gabriel Girls!

You can post your comments in the box below. Thanks! We're eagerly waiting to hear from you. Your opinion matters!

TWEETABLE:


______________________________________________________
Copyright 2016 by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio. All Rights Reserved.

To Become a Gabriel Girl, you need to qualify as follows:
  • You need to be born again. This means that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and the Lord of your life.If you don't know how to do this, click here.
  • You need to have a desire to tell others about Jesus wherever you go and whenever you can.
  • You need to commit to following Jesus by reading the Bible and praying every day and by obeying Jesus' command to love Him and to love your neighbor.
    ____________________________________________________
You can find me on the following Social Media Venues:
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Thursday, June 30, 2016

5 Ways to Grow in Christ

Hey, Gabriel Girls!

 I trust you’re having a great summer! No matter what you do this summer, don’t forget to spend time with Jesus.

 Of all your relationships, your relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important relationship you will ever have. It will last forever, into eternity. So don’t you agree it’s vital that you keep working on that relationship?

 If you don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I urge you to establish one. Click here to learn how to do so. 

 Okay, now let’s talk about five ways to grow your relationship in Christ:
1) Dig deep into God’s Word. God’s Word is the Bible. The Bible and Jesus are actually one and the same, so if you dig deep into the Bible, you will be digging deep into Jesus. Why is this important? Because the better you get to know Jesus, the more you will be like Him, and the more like Him you are, the better your life will be.

 Check out Psalm 119: 1-3: Happy are all who perfectly follow the laws of God. Happy are all who search for God and always do his will, rejecting compromise with evil and walking only in his paths. 

 If you want to be truly happy, follow Jesus! 

 2) Pray.  Prayer is a two-way conversation with God. He talks to you, and you talk to Him. Be sure to do twice as much listening as you do talking, however, because God is far smarter than you are. :)

 I keep a Prayer Journal of my conversations with God. It’s really cool to go back and read over the things God has spoken to me over the years. Most of all, keeping a Prayer Journal will remind you of how much God cares, especially when you’re going through tough times.
3) Obey what God tells you to do. How do you know what God tells you to do? The best place to find that answer is in the Bible. God has written down all that He wants you to do. It can be summed up in two commands found in Luke 10: 27: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  Obey these two commands and you’ll be just fine. :)  

4) Meet with other Christ-Followers. We all need the support of others on our journey with Jesus. Fellow believers lift us up when we are down, and vice versa. The Bible says this about meeting with fellow believers: Let us not neglect our church meetings, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near (Hebrews 10: 25). We do not necessarily have to meet in church buildings, because we are the Church. But we should meet regularly with other Christ-Followers, especially during these dangerous times right before Christ’s return.

5) Tell others about Jesus. I am so thankful for the young woman who told me about Jesus and about my need to be born again. Even though I thought she was crazy at first, I eventually realized that she was telling me the truth. Were it not for her courage, I would not be writing this blog post today. 

So, be bold in your witness for Jesus Christ. You have the truth, and by sharing the truth with others, you will prevent many from spending eternity in Hell.

There you have it: 5 Ways to Grow in Christ. Now all you have to do is put these 5 ways into practice. You will be amazed at how much your life will change for the better!

Now, it's YOUR TURN: What ways do you practice to grow in Christ? Please share with our fellow Gabriel Girls!

You can post your comments in the box below. Thanks! We're eagerly waiting to hear from you. Your opinion matters!

TWEETABLE:


______________________________________________________
Copyright 2016 by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio. All Rights Reserved.

To Become a Gabriel Girl, you need to qualify as follows:
  • You need to be born again. This means that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and the Lord of your life.If you don't know how to do this, click here.
  • You need to have a desire to tell others about Jesus wherever you go and whenever you can.
  • You need to commit to following Jesus by reading the Bible and praying every day and by obeying Jesus' command to love Him and to love your neighbor.
    ____________________________________________________
You can find me on the following Social Media Venues:
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Friday, October 23, 2015

How to Get Closer to Jesus through Prayer

Hey, Gabriel Girls!

 Today we’re going to talk about one of my favorite subjects: Prayer. 


Now before you think BORING in capital letters, hear me out.

 Do you know what prayer is? It’s not reciting a bunch of pre-written words over and over. It’s not a list of your needs. And it’s not a formula for getting what you want.

 Prayer is a conversation with the Creator of the whole universe, the God Who created you!

 WOW!  Does that blow your mind?  

 Think about it.  The same God Who created the Milky Way and the galaxies and the stars and the planets and the sun and the moon and the oceans and the mountains--and on and on and on--wants to have a conversation with YOU!!!

 I don’t know about you, but that truth makes me feel very, very special.

 To think that God wants to spend time talking with me is amazing! But that is the truth. And He wants to spend time talking with you.

 So, how do you have a conversation with God?  The same way you would with your best friend. 

How do you talk to your best friend? You use your ordinary language. You’re honest and open about how you’re feeling. You share secrets.

 That’s the way God wants you to talk to Him. 

 Now, when you talk with your best friend, do you do all the talking? Probably not. In fact, when you go to your best friend for advice, you probably listen more than you talk.

 Well, it’s the same with God. When you talk with God, it’s better to spend more time listening to what He has to say than to do all the talking. Of course, you can vent to God and He’ll gladly listen (See our earlier blog post on how to vent the right way).  But it’s a good idea to spend most of your prayer time listening to what God has to say.

 Why? Because God is a whole lot smarter than we are. Plus, He knows you better than you know yourself because He made you. He knows how you function. He knows what’s going on inside you. And when you get broken, He knows how to fix you.

 The neat thing about prayer is that you can have an all-day conversation with God as well as a special time of prayer. In other words, you can talk with Him about everything throughout the day.  Because Jesus is inside you, He goes wherever you go. He’s always there, ready to have a conversation with you. 

 This habit of talking with God throughout the day is called practicing the presence of God. In fact, there’s a great little book about having an all-day conversation with God.  It’s called The Practice of the Presence of God and was written by a monk who lived in France back in the 1600s named Brother Lawrence. You can get a free copy of his book for Kindle by clicking here.

If you start having an on-going conversation with Jesus throughout the day, you will grow to love Him more and more and to know Him better and better. As a result, you will discover that everything you could ever need or ever want is found in Him and Him alone. 

 _______________________________________________
Copyright 2015 by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio. All Rights Reserved.

To Become a Gabriel Girl, you need to qualify as follows:
  • You need to be born again. This means that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and the Lord of your life.If you don't know how to do this, click here.
  • You need to have a desire to tell others about Jesus wherever you go and whenever you can.
  • You need to commit to following Jesus by reading the Bible and praying every day and by obeying Jesus' command to love Him and to love your neighbor.
    ____________________________________________________
You can find me on the following Social Media Venues:
Amazon Author Central: www.amazon.com/author/maryanndiorio
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