Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. (Romans 6:13)

God spares us much temptation we’ll never even know about. But when we are tempted, God doesn’t automatically remove it; we must actively fight it. Paul gives us 2 keys for battling temptation—both have to do with presenting the members of our bodies. We can present our members—our eyes, ears, hands, arms, and every part of our bodies—to sin or we can present our bodies to God.

Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

I don’t know about you, but I want to grow more and more in my faith this year.

I’m so grateful that over the years God has helped me grow in faith, but I believe it’s his will for all his children to grow more and more. Here are some suggestions to strengthen your faith this year.

Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

Everything God does in our lives is for our benefit, including suffering. Though they never seem pleasant at the time, hard times produce wonderful benefits in our lives. On Monday I mentioned one benefit—affliction drives us to God’s word.

Here are seven more benefits of suffering:

Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

Our culture constantly tells us to build our self-esteem and think highly of ourselves.

Yet the Bible urges us to do the opposite. To pursue humility. It’s actually a glorious pursuit. And we have plenty of reasons to be humble.

Here are a few:

Photo courtesy: Unsplash

There are times in life when we need someone to say to us, “Take Courage!” or “Take Heart!” Like the time I was about to rappel backwards over a cliff. I looked down, and it was a long, long way, and I’d never done this before. My friend who had secured my rope to a tree assured me, “Just push off backwards. You’ll be ok. You’re tied to a tree.”

When we are discouraged we need to hear someone say, “Take Courage.” Maybe you are facing an overwhelming situation. Maybe you were recently been laid off or face an uncertain future. Perhaps you are facing a serious health challenge. Maybe you’re not facing a life-and-death situation, but you’re facing several crazy kids who have the gift of frazzling. But at one time or another we all need to hear God say, “Take courage.”

Here are a few reasons we can:

When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, he changes our hearts and minds. He gives us the mind of Christ (Php 2:5). And we are to cooperate with him by actively transforming our minds and thinking by the word of God:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind… RO 12:2

As we take in God’s word, the Spirit of God renews our minds, causing us to think Christ’s thoughts, to see life as Christ sees it, and to know God more and more. Yet it’s important that we guard our hearts diligently:

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. PR 4.23

In other words, we must pay attention to what is going into and coming out of our hearts. We must watch what we’re thinking. This doesn’t mean we should become self-absorbed or become overly introspective or constantly be thinking about ourselves. But we should be aware of our thoughts because our mindset affects our life.

Here are eight questions we can ask ourselves to see how we are keeping our hearts:

Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

The Bible has a lot to say about anger.

I don’t mean righteous anger, the kind of anger we can experience toward injustice or evil but sinful anger. Many times we may feel we are “righteous” in our anger because someone wronged us. Anger often involves our sense of justice. But it’s very easy to slide into sinful anger, hatred, and bitterness.

Here are some Biblical truths and principles that God has used to help me make progress in conquering my own sinful anger.

Photo Courtesy: Pexels

Prayer is an act of weakness. When we pray we admit to God that we desperately need help. That we’re weak and needy and not in control of all things. That we are not self-sufficient.

We all face temptations of many kinds. God wants us to beat them. We don’t have to sin, as powerful as temptations feel.

Here are 8 ways to gain the victory.

There are two mistakes we can make when facing temptation. Sometimes we can fall off the horse on one side; at other times we can fall off the other side. God’s word keeps us in the saddle.

What? Are you serious? What good can it possibly be to have a difficult child? Or a teen who struggles with sin? Or a child who rebels against you?

Challenges with our children are as much (or more) about us than about them. Sometimes we discover that we are depending more upon ourselves than the Lord. So often we think that if we just do all the right things—have family devotions, discipline our children, love them, keep them from bad influences, educate them in a certain way—then they will automatically be saved and follow the Lord. But doing all the right things doesn’t change the heart. The Lord is the only one who saves and changes people, not all our practices and effort, as good as they may be.

We need to remember that God causes all things—even a teenager’s sin—to work together for our good. Here are 5 ways:

We all face temptations of many kinds. God wants us to beat them. We don’t have to sin, as powerful as temptations feel. Here are 8 ways to gain the victory.

We will all be criticized at one time or another. Sometimes justly, sometimes unjustly. Sometimes others’ criticism of us is harsh and undeserved. Live long enough and there won’t be one facet of your life that goes uncriticized — your looks, your habits, your faith, your politics, your ideas and interests— all will be up for critique at some point.

The truth is, sometimes we may need criticism. Criticism is almost always hard to accept, but if we can learn how to do it, we can make major milestones in our Christian lives. We can learn humility and learn how to change for the better. We can be open to the Holy Spirit’s sanctification. 

Is there a Biblical way to respond to criticism? Are some reactions and responses better than others? If criticism is constructive and meant to help, not hurt, there are certain things we can do to take that criticism and learn and grow from it. 

I haven’t always done well and I’m still learning, but here are a few things I try to think of when others criticize me. 

Adapted for this format by the iBelieve.com editorial staff.

Therefore, God calls us to honor President Obama. This does not mean we have like him or agree with anything he does or believe he is a good president. But we must honor him in our hearts and with our speech. For a believer in Jesus to call President Obama an idiot is a sin, not just against the president but against God.