Feeling Better and Learning Still

Just so everyone knows your prayers were and are appreciated! I feel tons better today and God has given me joy in my situation. I didn't expect to feel so much better today, so the prayers offered on my behalf and the ones i had with God last night have comforted me and given me peace. It is nice to have a network online where i can call on my friends to pray for me. I have had such an awesome response(s) through messages of concern and encouragement... and it amazes me how God can work.

some scriptures that have gone through my mind:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. - Hebrews 12:1

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins - James 4:17

I, just like anyone else am growing, simply because i am a minister or a teenage Christian does not mean I have everything figured out or that I am all-wise. Sometimes people expect this of me.. and while we are called to be "perfect" and "above reproach", sometimes it doesn't just come all at once but it is a process, a JOURNEY. That is the theme for my youth group and the theme for my life. I want to constantly be growing in my faith, in my walk, in my ministry, and above all I aim to make Christ happy and joyful with me above all things.

When we do evil or wrong by mistake there are consequences, sometimes that consequence is that we learn something about ourself and about the world, about our faith or our church.

The sin comes along when we do not act quickly to rectify the situation or when we take pride in what we want over the unity between members of the church or between people around us. James 4:17 says we sin when we do not do the good we ought to do.. and this is what I try to live by. So be careful in life, in hard times and situations; be wise, ask God for much help in gaining this wisdom, and above all, never forget that Christ is to be the center of our life - it is Christ who defines us. We were "bought with a price" and that is something we need not forget (but sometimes seem too so easily).

Well, those are some lessons and thoughts. God is a great God and sometimes lessons are learned beforehand and afterward, sometimes lessons are learned through reading scripture and prayer, sometimes through good conversation and laughter with others, and sometimes it is learned through conflict. It is what we do in these situations, how we react that show others if we are truly defined by Christ or by something else.

Are you learning from God?
If not, then why?
Are you growing in your faith?
If not, why?

In Christ
For the Glory of God,
Daniel