How often do you praise God? I don’t know about you but my Sunday school class sure had a hard time answering this question. It is easy to see why though, how often do we honestly think about it? The bible tells us that we should continually praise God (Hebrews 13:15), but sometimes we care about how many likes we get on Facebook versus the amount of praise we give God.

That was exactly what I realized when I asked my Sunday school class this question. My class full of teenagers knows more about the amount of Instagram likes than the amount of praise they have given the Savior. It was a little disheartening; I am not going to lie. That is where the praise journal idea came from.
So, what is praise journaling? It is a journaling technique that allows you to not only track the praise that you give to God, but also allows you to challenge yourself to praise Him more each day. So, let’s get started!

Choose your journal

​You can use one of two types of books. A day runner or a notebook. Pick the one that works for you the best. The most important factor is that the book is empty. Because you don’t want to mix this journal up with any other note taking you are doing. This way you can focus on what you are writing, which is very important. This notebook should be small enough for you to carry with you all the time. You will always have this notebook with you, so also make sure it is one you like and fits your life.

​Divide your journal

Make 2 columns on each day if you got a day runner, 3 if you got a notebook. In both books the first column should say “What for”. The second should say “When”. If you have a notebook, then the third column should say “Date”.

Start tracking in your journal

Now it is time to start tracking your praise. Every time you praise God, I want you to write it down in your journal. Keep track of what you praised Him for, when you did it, and the date you did it. Track every single time you praise Him. When you do it in prayer, at work, at school. Everywhere. Every time you finish praising Him stop and write it down.

​Review your journal

​The previous step was the second most important step in this process. This one is the most important. Every morning when you wake up review your journal for the previous day. Understand when you praised God, and question when you didn’t. Start to learn your habits and challenges. Learn more about how and why you praise God. This reflection time is imperative to this activity.

​Challenge yourself

This final step is the part that will make you better at praising God, because regardless of the number of praises that you counted in your review time no amount of praise to God is enough. In this step, you challenge yourself to praise God more than what you did the day before. Challenge yourself to be better, for God, then you will be better.

​By using the praise journaling technique, you will not only know how often you praise God, but you will challenge yourself to be better for God. That is what this journey is about, to be better, not for ourselves but for the Lord, so we can be His living sacrifice (Romans 12:1).

​I hope this can help you. I pray you are blessed by this technique. We are all in this together. Have a blessed day!

Your alarm just went off and it is time for you to get up in the morning, what do you do? Hit the snooze button and try to steal a little more sleep? Simply hop into the shower and rush out the door? Breakfast? Here is a bigger question do you take time for God?

​I know I didn’t do it often enough. Just being honest and transparent. Once I modified my morning routine to revolve around my faith two things happened. The first is that I was generally happier throughout the day, because I knew I had given God my attention first (Matthew 6:33). The second being that I realized that I am significantly more productive both spiritually and physically. So hopefully this helps you to get more out of your mornings:

Morning Prayer

I start my morning with prayer, thanksgiving, and praise. Why? Because I was blessed with waking up this morning so why wouldn’t I give Him the praise and thanksgiving for that. My prayer is simple:

​“Lord I thank you and magnify you. I thank you for waking me up this morning. For touching me with Your finger of life. I ask that you forgive me of my sins those both known and unknown. Those that are unknown please bring them to light so I can do better by You. I ask that You have Your way in my life today. I also ask that You have Your way in the life of my family and leaders. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.”

​This helps to ground me for the day. It starts it off right. I have invited God into my life. This helps to remind me of what is the most important in my life.

Morning Devotional

​Then, before I watch anything else I go to YouTube and watch the Faithbox devotional. I do this because I want to make sure the first media that I consume is one that has faith at the center. Not only am I consuming media that revolves around my faith but I am also setting a theme for my day. I can take what Willie is saying and figure out how it applies to my day and my life. I want to meditate on what Willie is saying, and get the most out of what is being taught. I do this before I check my email, my text messages, my social media, or any other media. This way God is the first thing I consume in my day.

Review My Praise Journal

Next I go over my praise journal. What is a praise journal? My praise journal is where I keep an account of how often I praise God every day. Each morning I review my previous day and challenge myself to praise Him more than I did the day before. We wrote an entire article on the topic that you can read here if you want to know how to get started with your own praise journal. By reviewing and challenging my praise of God each day I am recommitting myself to do better by God.

​Need a good praise journal? Checkout this one from Tyndale. It is a beautiful and scripture filled journal that will make journaling even more enjoyable. And you get to color. Boom!

Reconnect With The World

​Now that I have taken care of God now I can start to take care of the rest of my life. The first step in this is reconnecting with the world. I finally check my phone, answer emails, text messages, and kiss my wife. This for me is the hardest part. I am tempted during everything else that I did in the morning to pick up my phone, check social media, emails, and everything else that our wonderful phones connects us to. The thing is when you take the time to put God first then you truly start living for Him.

Workout

Now that I have done a spiritual workout now it is time to do a physical one. Why? Because my body is meant to be a temple for the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16-17), so I must take the time to take care of it. I do some form of workout, be it taking a walk or doing a quick workout routine, however it is achieved a workout is on the agenda.

Shower, Coffee, and Breakfast

​Now it is time for me to get cleaned up and put something in my body. My normal varies often depending on what I am in the mood for. I suggest finding your breakfast groove. I know one item that tends to always be on the list and that is coffee. If you use cream in your coffee check out this awesome video by Cooking With Jack Show. It is healthier than the normal stuff and easy to make.

​As for other items, I would recommend either going with what you know or checking out YouTubers like the Domestic Geek to find inspiration for your breakfast. Check out her playlist below.

Review My To-Do List

​While I am eating, I review my To-Do list that I made the night before. That is a part of my nightly routine. Speaking of nightly routine, I think I have my next blog post. When I write it I will update this one with a link to it. But back on topic I review my list and make any modification that I need to. Let’s be honest no to-do list is perfect but if we take the time to review it we can find most of the missing items.

I personally use the RocketBook Wave notebook to keep track of my to-do list because you can easily erase it. You can check it out here.

Get Dressed, Get Lunch, Get Prayed Up

Now that I have finished everything else that I needed to do it is time to get ready to go. I take the time to get dressed for work, grab my lunch, pack my things, and pray one last time before I run out the door. For me praying before I leave is crucial to keeping myself centered in Christ for the remainder of my day. My prayer here is:

​“Lord I thank you for being who you are in my life. You have blessed me exceedingly and abundantly. I ask that you forgive me of my sins those both known and unknown. Those that are unknown please bring them to light so I can do better by You. I ask that You have Your way on my job today. That you set an atmosphere of peace. One which we can get our work done without confusion or dissent. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.”

Then I head to work. That is the morning routine. No I don’t achieve this every single day. Sometimes I am fasting so the routine changes. Sometimes I just am too tired to do it all. As Paul said:

I am not already perfected nor have I attained

Philippians 3:13

So I in no way will say that I don’t slack some time. But this is what I strive for. This way I can keep God in the center of my life.

​I hope this helped some of you. Please make sure to leave us comments below on things you do in the morning to put God at the center of your life.

Amen!

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

As Christians it is important to remember that the Lord is the answer to all things. In this scripture we are reminded that regardless of what we are going through if we just wait on the Lord our strength will be renewed. Not only will it be renewed but we will reach heights that we could not have reached on our own. This should serve as a massive form of motivation in our all battles as Christians. As followers of the Most High, we know that He will never leave us or forsake us.

Regardless of what is going on in your personal life, brothers and sisters, if we just reach out to our Father He will see us through it.

In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:6

This should not only be motivational but encouraging to all of us. As long as we trust and believe in our Lord and Savior then we will all be on the right path. All we have to do is ask.

​Amen!

Question is your life with Christ a passive or active action?

No, seriously, do you chase after Him or do you just kinda say He is with me?

That is what I want to explore today, being a follower or a pursuer of Christ.

Now to dig deeper and provide clarity on the two concepts let’s define follower versus pursuer.

Being a follower is a passive action. This is akin to following someone on social media. You occasionally see their stuff in your feed but you don’t actively go and seek it out. You don’t yearn for their content.

This is the opposite of a pursuer. To be in pursuit of something means you’re relentless. You’re pursuing this person, and you won’t stop until it is found and accessed. Aas Jacob put it:

“I will not let You go unless You bless me!”

Genesis 32:26

How many of you realize that pursuit is exactly what God had in mind for us as Christians?

It is true in Matthew 16:24 Jesus said:

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

Matthew 16:24

First, take heed of the words come after. To come after someone IS pursuing someone. Let’s first establish that Jesus does not waste a single word when He speaks. He specifically used the definition of pursuit as the start of explaining discipleship and in turn the intent can be determined that He means for us to fully chase after Him in our actions.

Second take a look at the structure of the sentence, the pursuit comes BEFORE the follow. This means that you following Christ can’t happen without you also pursuing Christ. This is something that many of us forget in our Christian walk.

This walk is more than just declaring Jesus as our Lord and savior. In reality that is only the first step. We have to continue to chase after Christ in all our action. Paul said it best:

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

Philippians 3:12

Paul, as the most prolific writer in the New Testament, we can be assured that he made the declaration of Jesus being Lord yet he even expressed that the path for him was not done. Most of us hope to be as devoted to Christ as Paul was, so how can we think our work ends simply at the declaration?

Now that you have a better understanding of what Christ’s intention is for us in our lives, you may be asking how do I shift my habits from being just a follower to a pursuer of Christ. That is actually really simple and comes in a ton of forms but I will give you two. One will be for those who regularly go to church each Sunday and on for your everyday life interactions regardless though they both take a little initiative on your part.

For my churchgoers the next time you are at church, take the time to go up to someone in church leadership and simply ask how you can help. Then when they give you something to do, treat it better than you treat your job. It is really that simple.

By doing this you are putting in work for God, because your church is God’s house so why not help keep His house in order? Once you start doing that then He will give you more to do for the bible says in

“Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.”

Matthew 25:21

For those of you who need something for their everyday life go out and show raw kindness that makes you have to be vulnerable to someone that needs it. Jesus said this is one of the most important things you can do when He said:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:34-35

Hopefully this helps you today. In the comments below tell the rest of the community how you pursue after God. We would all love to know. Have a great day and God bless!

When you think of God, what do you think of?

His goodness? His love? His mercy? His blessing?

What makes God good? Is it because He gives us things? I would argue that the bible says He is good regardless of WHAT He has done for us. Too often we as Christians forget our relationship with God. God would be God with or without us. God would be good with or without us.

​The Lord is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.

Psalms 145:9

God is Lord and we are His servants. The fact that He allowed us to wake up this morning was a blessing. The fact that we still have our right minds, where I can write and you can read this devotional, is a blessing. The fact that you have clothes on your back is a blessing.

He has already blessed you, because He does not have to do any of the things that we traditionally take for granted. Understanding that we need to be in a constant place of thanksgiving and praise to God for what He has blessed us with.

Now that we understand our relationship with God we must understand how a master blesses their servants, if the master is righteous like our God. We have been blessed with the answer to that.

His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

Matthew 25:23

This verse breaks down the exact way our God blesses a faithful servant. He entrusts us over a few things first. To prepare us and mold us. To allow us to see where our heart is at. When we have proven, we can be trusted, too ourselves not to God He already knows what we will do with it, then God opens the door for the larger blessing.

Now let me go over that proof. That proof is not that you are going to be responsible. Not that you are going to grow it. But rather the proof is if you are going to share it! That is what the molding time is for, so that you can learn how to share it. Only after that does growing it matter, because you won’t horde it.

How do we know this? Simple Jesus said:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:34-35

How did Jesus love us? He didn’t hold back anything. He shared of himslef, His things, and eventually His life freely to all. That is the measurement of can we be trusted with more. Showing that we are one of His.

I thank God for His divine timing. His timing is always perfect. In our minds, the blessing may seem like it is taking a long time, but in reality the blessing is right on time. God knows what is best for us and if we allow Him to lead us then everything always turns our alright. Remember the bible tells us:

In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:6

God is waiting to lead you, but He wants your submission first. This is because in this submission you can love like He loved you. I hope this helps you.

I hope that you can internalize this and use it when you struggle with submission in your daily life. As the bible says:

​Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

1 Samuel 15:22

​To obey you must submit. My prayer for you is that God gives each and everyone of you a heart of humility and submission so that He the work in your life. Remember Paul’s words:

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

1 Corinthians 3:6-7

Til next time brothers and sisters Amen.

What qualifies someone to be a leader? Think about that. Most think it is because they are elected or some tradition. This may work in the world to hold a world position like the President or a Monarch, but not when it comes to leading God’s people.

Jesus points out that somone has to be planted, and if not they will be uprooted. Specifically He says:

13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

Matthew 15:13-14

​Jesus is saying this in response to His interactions with the Pharisees in verses 1-12. You can see Jesus is pointing out an important lesson. The lesson is that anyone that is assuming a position because of tradition or simply wanting it versus assuming that position because God placed you there you will fail.

The Pharisees were in their position because of tradition, not because they were planted by God. How do we know this? Because you can’t be called by God if you don’t have a relationship with God. This is why Jesus says in verse 14 “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

We know that a relationship with God is necessary to be planted by God because the bible tells us:

And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Jeremiah 3:15

To be after God’s heart means God has to see you trying to live this life how He wants you to. You can only do this by having a relationship with Him.

​Peter gained the humble heart that God could work with, this is why He was planted.

Paul had that hardworking personality God wanted to put to work for Him that is why he was planted.

Remember that if you are not working within God’s will then you will be uprooted.

Stay rooted and stay grounded. Amen!