Devotional for friends // Devocional para as amigas

    "O fardo mais pesado que carregamos são os pensamentos em nossa cabeça." Troubles. Troubles with people, places, troubles in our minds, within ourselves. All kinds of troubles. We all have them. Sometimes, people say things to us, and we get sad or even disappointed, and we take this disappointment with us and carry it everywhere we go. We let those false words define us. And we end up believing in those words.    Then, when we don’t remember why or when we became like that, we blame God. We start believing that God doesn’t love us, we believe that God made a mistake with us, and we believe that God won’t accept us because of what we believe that we are. We carry those disappointments and let them define us, and we don’t even remember the source of that sadness and anger. A lot of feelings start boiling inside our hearts, and thoughts come flooding into our minds, and we feel lost, insecure, forsaken, unloved, and forgotten, and then, instead of searching for our...

  You know, we want to believe that we are wise in our own eyes. Then, God sends a test. And then what happened? We fail. Why do we fail? Because we believed that we were wise. We trusted in ourselves. We thought that we had been through enough to know what was right, what was the best alternative, the best response, the best… and then what happened? Our humanity happened. Our pride comes in and messes with everything. We think we are too good to be true, right?   Some people believe that saying that God tests us is wrong. But He does, and He does all the time. Why? to break our pride, to fix us, to show us His power—what else?   I have at least eight verses here saying that God tests us.   I have asked myself this question so many times: Why did God put those two trees in the Garden of Eden? Didn’t He plant a trap? Maybe. Didn’t He know that the devil would come in serpent form to test those humans? He did. Then, why?   Well, the test was this: where are you le...

Let me paraphrase here Jesus what he says in Matthew 7:1 – 5. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said: “Do not judge, for with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged. And yet, when you do, take a moment to evaluate yourself, because you cannot take a speck of anyone’s eyes”. Have you ever tried to take a speck out of somebody's eye? It is impossible, isn't it? Well, it's the same when we try to correct or "help" someone by being judgmental. When we first correct ourselves, the other person may see us and correct themselves.  It is intrinsically human the act of judgment. We are always judging, are we not? Every person who we have encountered or talked to or even only seen. We think of things that are judgments. We judge their clothes, their way of saying things, their cars, their spirituality, and their behavior; even we think we can judge their thoughts, meaning we assume things that we have no way of knowing. Things that haven’t been spoken yet, only just b...

    I love the Lord of Ring and the Hobbit stories. They are so good and teach us so much.  Although my reflection was not about the Lord of the Ring’s wars, my reflection has a lot to do with wars. All kinds of wars that we face every day. I battle with my body every day. Few inches of my body has something to tell me every day. My body wants to keep me down, feeling defeated, unable. Sometimes I think my body is against me for no reason, just because.  But I must remember, I am not alone. I am not fighting this battle alone. I must show up for war to see God in action. Like king Jehoshaphat’s story.    I don’t know your story, your battle or even the war your are in. I just know that if only you remember that there is a God willing to help you, you will see what amazing things He can do for you and for those around you.    Here it goes a Jehoshaphat’s recipe for victory.   2 Chronicles 19   2 ... “Should you help the wicked and lo...

  The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. 2 He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 3 For a long time, Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. 4 But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them. 5 In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. 6 One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because  God was troubling them with every kind of distress . 7 But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” (2 Chronicles 15:1 -7)   Lately, Christians are preoccupied with the end of times. They think this might be it. Well, I cannot confirm or deny it. But what I can tell is that everything t...