Let Christ Lift You Up


By John Lysaught

Do you sometimes feel like a failure or worthless in your relationship with Christ—or just life in general? Joey always felt like he could not do anything right. His life was plagued by disheartened feelings of worthlessness and failures. Regardless of what happened, things never worked to his advantage.

He was always left behind in the things in life that mattered most. He barely made it through high school. He dropped out of college after the first term. His life was full of failures because each time he tried something, it never worked out for him.

Joey couldn’t find a good paying job. He either got fired for some frivolous thing or quit when things were starting to go well—because of fear of getting his hopes up for something he knew would fail in due time. So he floated along aimlessly through life.

Still living with his parents because he couldn’t afford to live on his own -- he saw no future for himself, just another lump on the log of life waiting to decay into dirt. Joey had no girlfriend, never did, and had only a handful of friends. He never did drugs, but he did drink to help him escape from the day. He had to numb his mind for the next day so he could just get through it again.

Joey was raised in a Christian home but never connected with God and never got saved. He still went to church with his parents (one of the conditions of living with them), but he never looked forward to it. He felt so little and unrecognized in church. He thought, what kind of God would make him feel as he did—so worthless and a failure in life.

Why did nothing ever go his way? Why did he just exist with no hope of a pleasant future? Why, he asked, did God make his life so miserable? Anyway, long story short, he felt like a failure to his parents, himself and God. “Worthless Joey” is what he felt about himself.

Are you this person on some level at this time in your life? Maybe things aren’t going your way. Maybe you feel disconnected from Christ and His love. Do you feel worthlessness or a failure to God? In your mind you may be thinking, “Yeah, I am.”

But I’m here to tell you that you are not worthless and are not a failure.

You may have failed at things in life such as college, a good job, finances or with your family, etc., but that does not translate into a failure in Christ. The world will try to keep you down by showing you and leading you to failure, but Christ doesn’t think you are a failure.

You are the clay that He is still forming in His hands to make you the man or woman he wants you to be. Don’t get into the mindset that Christ sees you as a worthless failure.

The world is pretty darn good at making us feel worthless or like failures. Satan does this because he knows if he can get you down in the things of the world, he can crack your armor and make you feel worthless and a failure to God as well. I admit that this is still a struggle for me at times. I totally feel like a loser sometimes and feel that I have failed Christ in some way in my life.

The reason for this crack in my armor sometimes is because I let some issues get to me and I’m sure some of you feel the same way. I let Satan’s world get me down, and it is hard to get back up at times. When I fail, for me, it makes me feel worthless.

When I feel worthless, I don’t feel deserving of Christ’s love for me. When I don’t feel deserving of Christ’s love, it begins to create a slippery slope of not feeling connected with Him anymore.

When I feel this way, rationally, I know it isn’t true—but emotionally I do feel like it is. Am I a weak Christian? I’ve asked myself that question many times. I’m not though; Christ is my center and my Rock, but the world has on occasion gotten me to think otherwise.

You know what I do when my rational mind kicks in and over powers the irrational thoughts of worthlessness to Christ? I get out my Bible and I read the book of 1 John. For me, 1 John calms me down and brings me back to Christ. It may be different for you, but it works for me.

When the world gets you down, it is easy to let it spread into your spiritual life. Yet we must do our best to remember that we are not failures or worthless to God. We may sometimes feel like we are but we are not. Sometimes things in this world don’t go the way we want them to and so we let that negativity slip into our relationship with Christ.

We just have to do our best to remember the promises and love that Christ has for us.

1 John 3:1 says: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”

Worthless? A failure? I think not. If you are a lover of Christ—a Christian, then we are called the sons of God. We are His children and what father would do harm to His children? None of the Christian parents I know... So if we love our children, just think of how much more He loves us because we are His children.

He loves us so much that He came down to us in the flesh to be the blood sacrifice for our sins so that we may be forgiven. He spilled His blood for us. He was the Lamb that has made us clean before God so that we may well know that we are His children and will spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Because of this we stand apart from non-Christians. They see the world differently than we do. As Christians we must not feel worthless or like failures because we are set apart and see the world differently than non-Christians.

When we sometimes fail or feel worthless because of the things of this world, we should fall back on Jesus to keep us strong. We may fail in the world, but we can fight that worldly failure from creeping into our love and relationship with Christ.

This is so encouraging, isn’t it? I mean, we should be stronger in our attitude toward feeling like a worthless failure because Christ is so good. What an awesome God we serve, praise, and worship!

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Sometimes tribulation can also mean failures in the world that then lead to a feeling of worthlessness. We must keep this at the forefront of our minds: we may fail, we may feel worthless at times, but we have an Advocate with us that can overcome those emotions and turn it all around for us.

Tribulation is the opposite of peace and Christ wants us to have peace. So even if you fail by the world’s standards, you can still have peace in your heart.

There are things that this world will do that will make it hard to get back from failures to a state of peace. Take for example, the world temps you in one of your seemingly never-ending weaknesses. This can be temptations like gambling your life away at the slot machines, having extramarital affairs or any number of things.

You get what I mean—big things that can lead you to feeling guilt and a sense of worthlessness, which make you feel that you are a failure as a Christian.

You know what? God knows. He knows your weaknesses and your shortcomings. When you face these temptations and feel like a failure in your marriage or your finances, or whatever, it will be hard to overcome these issues for they are tribulations of your temptations on steroids.

Yet as hard as it might be, as hard and high as the hurdle may seem, you can overcome them in Christ. Christ’s mercy and grace, through His sacrifice for us is something we should be thankful for, joyful of, and can count on daily.

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

What should we do when the world makes us seem like failures or when we feel worthless because of our shortcomings? The above verse says it all. When we fail and fall into temptation, or fail in the world in areas such as our finances or such, Christ is with us. When we get so caught-up in the moment that we forget Christ and what He teaches and tells us about life, He is still with us.

We are refined through the fires of trouble, tribulations, infirmities, and any other challenges we may face in life. When you are distressed because you think you failed Christ, don’t despair. But take joy in the fact that not only will you overcome—the test you are facing will refine you and your heart commitment to Christ.

In each trial we face, we have the opportunity to either be refined or feel like a worthless failure. I’m striving for refinement. Even though we may strive, we still fail sometimes because we are sinners in a fallen world.

We are surrounded by secular people who just don’t get it and do their best to pull us into the world as they see it. Yet in Christ we can, and do overcome those trials in life that really do set-us-apart from others.

Have you ever noticed the difference in trials between a Christian and a secular person? We can go through trials and tribulations with a smile on our faces, while the secular person looks at us like we are crazy because they are freaking out over the same thing. We are the face of Christ in times of trials.

We have the assurance of God’s love for us while the secular person does not. He or she does not understand our reactions because they don’t know Christ. This is why we must not let the failures and trials in life effect us: we are to be the face of Jesus to others, an example to them.

Spiritually speaking, we live in a world dominated by Satan and are strangers in the midst of chaos. Keep that in the forefront of your mind, that the world and Satan want to take you away from Christ. He will do his best to persuade you to let go of Christ.

He does this through a lot of means including worldly failures. He wants those worldly failures to seep into your faith. He wants failure in the world make you feel like you are a failure to Christ. Don’t fall into that trap.

Christ is love. He will never willingly let you go because of some perceived failure. He will draw closer to you if you let Him—in the times of trials in your life. He is there for you. He wants you to be close to Him.

Christ doesn’t want you to feel worthless either. In Christ you will have peace . You will have an assurance of love. You are worthy of Christ and His grace and therefore you should have no reason to feel worthless because you are precious to Christ and are His child whom He loves unconditionally.

Regardless of the failures you have had or the negative attitude you may have of yourself, that is no reason to be separated from Christ. Christ is here for us. He is here for us to lean on and to run to for comfort when we do fall and feel guilty about ourselves. His grace is enduring and His love is unfathomable.

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

Don’t let the world get you down. Let Christ lift you up and keep you joyful through the trials you will face. The prize at the end of every trial, every failure you have overcome, is the prize of a stronger relationship with Christ.

Turn to God for strength and assurance. For when you are assured of the love of Christ for you, you cannot feel like a failure or worthless. You will feel loved and cared because you have Christ in your heart, mind, and soul.

Christ is faithful and never changing in His love for you and me. When we finish the race and are taken to heaven, the race on the hills and valleys in this world will be worth it—for we will be with Him forever.


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God is gek op jou. En niet alleen dat: Hij houdt onvoorwaardelijk van je. Ervaar Zijn liefde, deel Zijn passie met anderen en ontmoet Hem tijdens één van onze samenkomsten. En als je daar niet op kunt wachten: leef je dan uit met alles wat je op deze website kunt vinden.

God loves you. And not only that: He loves you unconditionally. Experience His love, His passion with others and meet him during one of our meetings. And if you cannot wait for it: you live with anything you can find on this website.


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Basically this website is targeting the young and restless. hehe..

Glad to be back. Ah, Bak Kut Teh here I come.

Wow ... You know Dutch ?

Thanks.

May this be one of the blues, as easily fleeting as it is for joy.

This post has been edited by Deadlocks: Jan 6 2015, 09:29 AM

For example, what questions?


What cause this sadness? External factors (what you cannot control)?

don't worry deadlock... your condition is: in deadlock. you cannot go left hand without release right hand, but before release right hand you need left hand.

This condition will literally kill you in long run, in short run you feel depressed.

I pray for you.

In the meantime: 3 words.

DO NOT SUFFER... any suffering it's not from CHRIST. It's from devil.

Not until i can get from HS that you are healthy enough to pick up the cross, Therefore in the mean time: DO NOT SUFFER.

Bible Devotions with UW

Why Faith without works is dead?



Listen to this.

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Simple but powerful truth.

What it means is this. If we don't practise our Faith practically, we're good as dead spiritually.
The equation is parallel. For our Christian life to be vibrant it depends on how crucial, as to how far we practise our walk.

Faith without works will cause you to be spiritually dead. It is not just a matter of believing (the intangible). Practicality and Faith goes hand in hand.

So UW, what do you mean by practicality? Live your Christian Life practically. For example"

When you wake up, first thing you do, spend time with your heavenly Father in prayer, read his word. Read the Bible.
I would go as far to say, even 5 minutes a day is better than None at all. That is a divine truth. You can increase the time spend, as you get more intune to this.

When you're out of your home, remember to be kind to others. Love your enemies. If you drive, be humble and be kind to others.
The Holy Spirit says it like this. When you love your neighbours (surrounding people), you love God. This is the greatest walking the talk for a Christian.
It is the essence of practising your Faith with deeds. People may not know your kind deeds but hey God knows.

For whatever prayers you have entrusted to God. Be it your career, your finances, your partner, you marriage, your relationship, that new House or Car, whatever it is,
guard your words carefully. Don't pray with faith and then confess negatively in front of your friends or working colleagues. What I mean is, don't contradict between what you
prayed for and what you say to others. Something like, God I believe and thank you for healing my this condition and in the next moment, in the course of conversation with someone, you say
I don't think I will be healed or I don't think God will hear me.

What I gave you as examples (above) are simple illustration of practising your Faith with deeds. It may be beyond these parameters or different.
Doesn't matter. What is important is that you understand, if you don't practise your Faith with works, your spiritual life is as good as dead.
I'm not saying this to scare you or discourage you. Just telling you, the Bible is never wrong.

And it's not just practising a few times here and there. It's everyday living. Everyday practising until it becomes part and parcel of your daily life.
One side of the coin in James 2:26 says that Faith without works is dead. It means the flipside is also true.
When you engage practising Faith with works consistently, Your Spiritual Life is guaranteed to be vibrant and alive and not only that. I believe you WILL experience the reality of God!
His grace, wisdom and power will be a reality in your life. It won't be just a matter of theory or concept but the living experience!

I write this devotion to reach out to Christians who feels that God is elusive and hard to experience. Now perhaps you know why you're not experiencing when you should as a believer.

Hope this helps you in your Christian life.

God Bless.

This post has been edited by unknown warrior: Jan 6 2015, 05:28 PM

Just basic Dutch.

Be Still and Know


“He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God...’ ”
(Psalm 46:10, NIV)


In our world today, most people are used to having constant activity: computers, cell phones, television, email, video games. There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but the Bible tells us that we need to stop and be still so we can focus on knowing God. This is especially true during the difficult times. When you are facing a challenge, it’s easy to want to run to a friend or talk about it with a co-worker. But at some point, you have to stop and say, “God, I rest in You. I know You have me in the palm of Your hand.”

Remember, our battles are spiritual battles. The people in your life aren’t the source of your problems, the forces of darkness are. When you choose to be still and know that the Greater One lives on the inside of you, you are putting yourself in a position of strength. So today, take time to be still before Him. Let His peace cover you. Let Him refresh you by His Spirit. Remember, the battles you face belong to the Lord. Be still before Him so you can see His hand of victory in every area of your life!

Emergency prayer.

My boyfriend's father had bladder/kidney issues. The find both of them not functioning very well. Right now they inserted the bypass bag and washed the kidneys. Hoping that it will function properly again tomorrow.

Otherwise it's kidney failure.

Please pray for healing. Thanks.

i didn't pray but i SPEAK healing in the name of JESUS ... by JESUS's stripes we are healed. Amen

This post has been edited by de1929: Jan 7 2015, 11:53 AM

How old is he? Kidney Stones or Degenerated Kidney Function?

He's about 60+
Errrr now dunno yet. They said kidney activity really really low, but nobody made a conclusion yet. Currently under observation.

You don't believe in the power of prayer? Speak healing in Jesus name is praying too

This calling upon God is the supreme business, the whole business in this mortal life, of the City of God.
–Augustine, on Gen 4:26

Hmm. But I've missed church for months though. I have my reasons for not going back, and I wonder if that's my problem.

I used to have problems with my life too. Too much clubbing, drinking, etc..

Then I found God again, so I started to go to church, cg and bible group.

So far so good. I have started this "Reading A Bible in a year plan". See how it goes.

I prefer my day starts with the skies opened with beautiful clouds than to go to church and bible studies. I have always been a not-so religious person, so I have problems what it means to work with faith.

Ah, so you are the type that likes "sunshine and city lights" and shunned the "doom and gloom" eh? Well, I used to be exactly like that.

I was not so religious and just want to enjoy my life, do my own thing, changed bf every other month, etc.

Now I have found faith, its not so easy. I didn't know what happened but SOMETHING had happened that CHANGED my life. Even my family got shocked. hehe..

Now I have no more tattoos, drink less (except Oktoberfest, hehe), swear less and I begin to take Christianity seriously.