Are you planted on the Rock and earnestly growing up, believer? I mean roots going down deep and hands reaching up in full surrender and trust! Choose to be.

Remember, a rootless Christian is actually a fruitless Christian. 

In the Lord, decide to keep on developing roots that go down deep into God’s rich Word, and live joyfully connected with other trees if ya will. I mean those growing as you want to grow.. close to pure water so to speak. Living water, those close and on-fire for Jesus. You and I can do that by simply choosing to do so. Lord, help us press in to know You well, and to make You well known while we have the chance. Help us obey you more! We agree for an authentic awakening and a biblical revival – Jesus, this divided world so SO needs You! Wanna see some growth too for us disciples. Pour it out like never before, Lord. Let it rain again–we want it to just pour down.

What does the Bible say on this? See the context of these verses. 

Colossians 2:7-8 - Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:8 - He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

1 Corinthians 3:9 - For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.  

Ephesians 2:20 - built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.  

Ephesians 3:17 - so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Got a bad mess right now? Let God turn your mess into a good Message that can help others. He can do it -- He's done it before. It's easy for Jesus.

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” —The Apostle Paul, Romans 8:29

Do you feel all alone, lonely, empty, or a bit aimless? God cares and has a good plan for your life. You’ve heard that before right? Well, it’s true and He’s closer than most people know. He can guide your life well. 

Are you hurting due to some loss? Do you feel hopeless or guilty inside? Are you sinking right now? Do fear and anxiety and worry fill your thoughts? You need to call out to the Lord. If you will call out to Him, He will reach out and rescue you. But you have to ask for His help and call on His name. 

Have you gotten all distracted in the city? Man, it’s so easy to do.. When allow.. when we take our eyes off Jesus and allow our minds and hearts to be filled with doubt, fear, and anxiety, we can start to sink.

So when that happens, here’s what we need to do: Cry out to Jesus. That’s what Peter did after he stepped out of the boat and started walking across the water to Jesus. And by the way, there’s nothing wrong with crying out to the Lord.

What is in us that makes us say, “I can fix this. I can get through this. I can control this”?

Actually, we can’t. We need to call out to the Lord.

Some might say that’s a sign of weakness, but I think it’s a sign of intelligence. In fact, I think it’s a sign of stupidity when we think we don’t need God’s help.

The Bible tells us that “immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:31 NKJV).

With blunt honesty just mean it when you pray, get real with God. He knows it all anyways.  If you will call out to Him, He will reach out and rescue you. But you have to ask for His help and call on His name.

What Do You Say Or Not Say To Someone Who Is Grieving?

Wish I always had comforting words to give to people hurting. Don’t always have them, but I do have two ears to listen if they want to talk or need some prayer.

Do you ask them.. “How are you doing?” How do you ask them? 

Well, you already know it’s more than likely... not well at all.  

Many have found comfort in the Scriptures. To avoid causing someone further grief, let me give you some guidelines about what not to say to someone who has just lost a loved one.

“What Not to Say. Don’t compare their pain with your own

– “I know just how you feel.”

– “My grandmother died too, so I understand.”

Don’t rush to the end of the grief process

– “You’ll get over this soon.”

– “Time heals all wounds.”

Don’t try to explain God’s actions

– “God always picks the prettiest flowers first.”

– “God must have needed to have her close to Him.”

Don’t substitute

– “Let’s be thankful you still have other children.”

– “It must be a comfort to you that your other grandfather is still living.”

Don’t theologize

– “All things work together for good; God will bring good from this.”

– “God never gives us more than we can handle.”

Don’t be fatalistic

– “It must have been his time to go.”

– “This was obviously God’s will.”

What you should say to people who are grieving

Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all, but just to be present. Tears are a normal and proper response in times of mourning. It is good to weep with those who have experienced loss.

The same sensitivity of feeling that causes annoyance when someone says something wrong works the other way, too. It is attentive to encouraging and uplifting words. “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Proverbs 25:11 ESV). Your words can be profoundly helpful and healing.

Here are some principles to keep in mind when someone is grieving a loved one:

Keep it simple

– “There are no words to say.”

– “I’m so sorry.”

– “I love you!”

Let them know they are not alone

– “Thinking of you today.”

– “We’ve been praying for you, and will continue to pray.”

Tell them you’ll be there for them

– “If there’s anything I can do, no matter how small, I want to help.”

– “If you ever want to talk, day or night, please call me.”

Offer hope from God’s Word

– “I look forward to being with her again.”

– “He’s a bigger part of your future than he was of your past.”

Don’t avoid talking about their loved one

– “He was such a good husband and father.”

– “I always admired how sweet and kind and forgiving she was.”

Reminisce

– “I remember a time when just she and I got to talk about…”

– “I’ll never forget the day he pulled that funny prank on me…”

Remember: God is with us

It’s never easy losing a loved one, especially if it was unexpected. Speaking from personal experience, you will never “get over it.”

But remember this: ‘God is with us.’ There is even a blessedness in mourning. Jesus said, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
So as you seek to comfort people who are mourning, please remember to be patient and kind with them. Give them time, choose your words wisely, and don’t forget to keep praying for them.” Greg Laurie

I say draw close to the Lord Jesus. -- know Him well and then when helped make Him well known. 

Pray and obey -- there's no other way to be happy in Jesus.

If there is a personal failure in your life, it is one of lack.. in believing biblical prayer. Believing In Him who loves you and answers prayer. Fish4souls.org

If there is a personal victory in your life, it is a victory of believing.. in biblical prayer. Believing In Him who loves you, and answers every prayer. Yes, no, or wait. SeeNations.tumblr.com

Supplication. Let's do that. Not mixed sowing (like to the flesh or to this corrupt world-system). No! Pure sowing to the Spirit.

Intercession. It's a good day for this. Believe in Jesus. 

Have the right address attached -- to the Father in the Name of the Son. Simply be candid, bold, specific and unafraid in your relationship with the Lord. Having done all to stand, stand therefore -- prayerfully, wisely earnestly .. go forward no backwards.Why have a reputation of looking alive while walking dead and religious? Be strong, find someone who is weak. Help em up!

Prayer is the medicine if ya will for the disease of egotistical self-confidence. Christian leaders have fallen in the areas of the gold the glory, and the girls (greed, ego/power, lust n sex). No room for self-reliance and spiritual independence away from the Lord.

Fill your mind with the Word of God (Bible truth) and your whole outlook will be different, much better! And you'll be able to pray better--effectively!

Lately has your life been like totally stuck in a culvert? Why strive and keep trying to push that bus out of the muddy ditch back onto the road alone.. when Clark Kent is sitting on the bus. Ask. Fish4Souls.org

Have you lost hope? I hate that when someone is outta hope. So sorry about that. Where did you put it..or?

May I ask.. Do you have some hope for living today? 

How much hope? Need more? 

When the outlook ain't so good, try the uplook. Chin up, focus up, Buttercup! Need some peace and joy amidst all this gone-crazy chaotic weirdness? Sometimes we simply need to turn our gaze away from all the changing circumstances of this life.. up to our Prince of Peace who can fix anything.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee." Isaiah 26:3   

"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Hebrews 4:11 

At any given time we're either striving (in the flesh) or abiding (in the Vine), believer. I say.. Admit it an quit it -- all the striving, jiving and conniving.. religiously labourin' to gain His favor or to earn your way in. Ain't gunna happen. Just believe in and receive -- Jesus your Living Hope! No alarms, just relax in His arms.. be at rest.

“If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest.” ~ Corrie Ten Boom

I pray that God the Father will answer all your prayers in Jesus Name. He can. Yep, and in such a way that you'll recognize His loving heart and strong hand in it.. that He'll help you today with the dreams He gives to you for your life. I also pray that you'll know the Lord well, make Him well known in your part of the world, and daily walk well in His will. 

His written word 24/7/365 helps me know His perfect will. Talk about hope! Don't want to merely guess on this -- it's so important for each of us.    

Yes, God does have a specific, intricate, wonderful, and really great plan for you (in this sin-cursed imperfect, fallen world). It's because He really loves you. Loved you all the way to the Cross, and even farther.. to this day. And He has new hope and new life for you today -- Jesus is our living Hope with abundant life for us! 

This hope involves pure biblical praise, thanksgiving and worship daily, wisely applying His Scriptures.. and wisely using all of your gifts properly to glorify Jesus ..as well as for seeing other people won to Christ. I mean brought into His Kingdom like you were won to Him. He of course does that so differently with each individual life.. cuz we're all so different from one another and have different needs. His Holy Spirit of truth will empower you and moment by moment gently lead you. This is so liberating! 

Who needs hope restored? So many people around you and me do. I've personally met a lot of young people in Europe, in South America, in the islands.. and adults, and some old people in the Western world who need hope. You know.. after God saves and restores hope in us, we can be His agents of living hope for others who are hopeless.

The Bible says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)

God's good plan for you is so great that you and I can't even imagine it fully, accurately! The Bible tells us much on it though. Would you like to live out God's plan for all your life..even today? I want to help if I may. Q: What passion do you have now -- what's one of your dreams that you can pray over?



Put Your Hope In The Living Word (Jesus Christ).  

"You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word." Psalm 119:114 

"I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope." Psalm 130:5 

"Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:11 

“Show me someone who has lost hope, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t born again and prayerfully reading the Scriptures (God’s love letter to em). Reading God’s Word bolsters our faith, totally edifies and renews our hope.” ~ @KurtwVs

"Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:11 

"For I know the thoughts (good plans) that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 #emph.mine

"Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord." Psalm 31:24

"But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me." Micah 7:7 

"Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord." Psalm 31:24 

"May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you." Psalm 33:22

"And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." Romans 5:5 

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called." Ephesians 4:4   

"To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:27

“Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." Psalm 25:5 

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3 

"Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." Romans 5:3-4 

1. “Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19), because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” ~ RC Sproul

2. “The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity–hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory–because at the Father’s will Jesus became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.” ~ J.I. Packer

3. “Without Christ there is no hope.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

4 “Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.” ~ Thomas Aquinas

5. “Our righteousness is in Him, and our hope depends, not upon the exercise of grace in us, but upon the fullness of grace and love in Him, and upon His obedience unto death.” ~ John Newton

6. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words — And never stops at all.” ~ Emily Dickinson

7. “The best we can hope for in this life is a knothole peek at the shining realities ahead. Yet a glimpse is enough. It’s enough to convince our hearts that whatever sufferings and sorrows currently assail us aren’t worthy of comparison to that which waits over the horizon.” ~ Joni Eareckson Tada

8. "Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up." ~Anne Lamott

9. "What gives me the most hope every day is God’s grace; knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face, knowing that nothing is a surprise to God." ~ Rick Warren

10. “True faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God's fidelity to His Promises.” ~ Francis Chan

11. "Jesus gives us hope because He keeps us company, has a vision and knows the way we should go." ~ Max Lucado

12. “Notice the word ‘hope” (in Psalm 62:5). The Hebrew term literally means “a cord, as an attachment.’ Every one of us is hanging on to something or someone for security. ... if it’s someone or something other than God alone, you’re hanging on by a thread – the wrong thread.” ~ Beth Moore

13. “Our world today so desperately hungers for hope, yet uncounted people have almost given up. There is despair and hopelessness on every hand. Let us be faithful in proclaiming the hope that is in Jesus.” ~ Billy Graham

14. "What gives me the most hope every day is God's grace; knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever I face, knowing that nothing is a surprise to God." ~ Rick Warren

15. “Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve. Provoke yourself by recollection, and your affection for God will increase tenfold; your imagination will not be starved any longer, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.” ~ Oswald Chambers

16. “The Spirit of God first imparts love; he next inspires hope, and then gives liberty; and that is about the last thing we have in many of our churches.” ~ Dwight L. Moody

17. “Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace. Grief was not to be eliminated but seasoned and buoyed up with love and hope.” ~ John Piper

18. "Christ showed us hope transformed into sacrificial love." ~ Chuck Colson

19. “Jesus is the hope of the world and the local church is the vehicle of expressing that hope to the world.” ~ Andy Stanley

20. “You can look forward with hope, because one day there will be no more separation, no more scars, and no more suffering in My Father’s House. It's the home of your dreams!” ~ Anne Graham Lotz

21. “Simply by our proximity to Jesus, we can bring hope and life to people and places trapped in discouragement and despair.” ~ Louie Giglio

22. “Where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present.” ~ John Maxwell

23. “The only hope for this or any other society is to hear the Word of the Lord and obey.” ~ John MacArthur

24. “Outside of the cross of Jesus Christ, there is no hope in this world. That cross and resurrection at the core of the Gospel is the only hope for humanity. Wherever you go, ask God for wisdom on how to get that Gospel in, even in the toughest situations of life.” ~ Ravi Zacharias Facebook.com/shareJesus .. Fish4Souls.org