Ask heckyeahJesussaves

“My father is a pastor of a church. I know the word of God. When my father married my stepmom everything was fine but it seemed like I could never make her happy. My dad follows everything she says. I am a failure in her eyes. A big disappointment to them both. She has basically drove me away from God. To be straight up honest I have kind of given up on God. There is such anger when I see anything about him. I know my stepmom thinks she is helping but I dont even know my question. I am just don”

Forget about the negative things that they think or say to you. You weren’t made to please them or anyone else in this world. You were made, by God and for God. We were all made to worship Him.

It can be hard to take this in right now because you’re upset. And quite frankly, who wouldn’t be. I think that you were put in the situation that you are today for a reason. You are light. If you have Christ living in your heart, you are the light of Christ. You’re different because you belong to God. You are loved be a wonderful and powerful Father and He is greater and a trillion times better than any father we can ever have on earth or any mother.

People in this world are also going to try to put us down. Even if they don’t mean to put us down, words and actions and relationships are just so powerful. Especially those in our family. Don’t blame God.

I don’t know his exact plan for you, but I do know that going through this situation, it may break you, but through the brokenness, you are able to grow and share your experience and help others. Through the brokenness Christ’s light shines through and it teaches us to depend on Him and not ourselves. Not even our parents.

Even though your dad is a pastor, does that mean that he’s right hundred percent of the time? Of course not! We all mess up. That’s why we’re here on earth and not with the Lord in heaven right now. Life this situation up the Lord and He will handle it. Let go and stop dwelling in it. It’ll only bring you down more.

This doesn’t mean however, that we reject our parents positive criticism. Such as correcting us for the better. We still respect them and honor them as God tells us to. Ephesians 6:2

Don’t give up God because He hasn’t given up on you. He loves you and sometimes harsh situations are opportunities and growing chances in disguise.

Psalm 25:4-7. Pray for the Lord to lead you

2 Timothy 2:3-13. Don’t give up even when you’re suffering

Matthew 18:21-35. We must forgive as we have been forgiven

Ecclesiastes 9:11. Life isn’t fair

Isaiah 3:1-26. God will punish injustice

Matthew 5:38-48. Jesus’ new approach to injustice

Luke 17:6. Small faith is precious

praying and thinking of you :)

love you, yijia

“Hi there :) So, I have a bit of a problem. I need your prayer. My two closest friends got into a relationship a couple of months ago, and they decided a couple of hours ago that they no longer want to be my friend. I believe I have pushed them away, this is my fault. I’m hurting, obviously. I realize I actually have no one I can completely rely on anymore. That hurts quite a lot. I need your prayer/advice”

Yes, of course I will pray for you. My advice to praise God through the storm. Sometimes bad things happening in our life are just opportunities in disguise. One of me favorite songs is called, “Blessings” by Laura Story. In the song, she sings that God sometimes allows bad things to happen because He is trying to teach us something, or it’s actually a blessing in itself for us to grow, to learn, to experience and to depend on Jesus more.

Pray to the Lord and repent for whatever you need cleansing of. Them move on and let go. Let God take care of the rest. Focus your mind on love God and live for Him and being the beautiful light that you are!

Exodus 3:18-22. You can trust your future to God

Philippians 3:12-14. Never give up being your best

2 Timothy 2:3-13. Don’t give up even when you’re suffering

love you, yijia

“I have a friend who has a lot of bad things in her life. She talks to me about everything, and she really seems to need me.. but the friendship is making me very unhappy and bringing me down all the time. I don’t know if it is the right thing to do to keep the friendship anyways or let it go? Advice”

First and foremost, bring this situation to the Lord. Pray about it. Sometimes prayer time can feel just really empty, but don’t give-up on prayer because it’s very, very powerful. Life this situation up to the Lord and pray for your friend. 

Be honest with your friend and tell her the truth. Make sure that you’re loving. Speak to her with love and tell her that her situations are bringing you down. Invite her to do some fun events with you; examples are going out to eat, amusement parks, roller skating, shopping, church events, or church. If you bring her to church, it can be a good way for your youth leaders or other church members to help her and pray for her as well. Together we’re the body of Christ and encouraging and helping each other.

Don’t let go of the friendship, or cut it off completely. Share with her how you cope with loneliness and how you would deal with the situations. 

Here’s what the Bible says about loneliness and friends:

Exodus 2:21-25. God’s presence prevents loneliness

1 Kings 19:9-18. You are not alone when you have the Lord

Proverbs 14:20-21. Help lonely people

Mark 15:33-39. Christ understands

Genesis 14:14-16. Friends help in times of trouble

Genesis 45:5. Real friends forgive each other

Exodus 32:11-13. Pray for your friends

1 Samuel 20:30-34. How to care for your friends

2 Samuel 19:19:31-32. Real friends stick together during rough times

Proverbs 17:17. Friends love in the good times and the bad

Jeremiah 26:24. Stand up for your friends

John 15:13-15. Jesus proved his friendship

Spend time reading the Bible to or with your friend. Ask her if she wants to and let her know that Christ is the Prince of Peace. He loves her.

love, yijia :)

“Please help me I’m losing my mind and my faith. All my life i have been raised in the church and taught to believe in God and I have been in terrible living situations and I thought God brought me out. I don’t even know when it happened but what it seems i just woke up one morning and said, “I don’t think i believe in God anymore.” I went to church that morning feeling so fake, pretending to be something I’m not. It’s not like don’t want to believe, I just don’t know how to anymore with everything I’ve been through. If I’m His and He so calls loves me so much then why does He allow so much pain and I’m not just feeling sorry for myself because I know that my life isn’t as bad as others are. If there’s a God then why are innocent people getting raped and slaughtered everyday. I just don’t understand. I don’t know what to do I just feel empty inside”

1 John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete through us.” This verse has encouraged me ever since the first time I read it. I used to always question God as to why I can’t see Him and why doesn’t He just reveal Himself to everyone, that way the whole world believes! 

But God is so big. If we see Him, we would all be on our knees, crying and praising Him. He doesn’t want us to praise Him because we fear Him, He wants us to praise Him because we love Him.

Why is there so much bad things in the world? Because the world is an unfair place. It’s dominated by sin and our flesh desires. The evil one is in this world and we are tempted at every corner of our lives; to lose our faith, to question God, to do terrible terrible things. We think that these things, or even people and power and status we desire will satisfy our lives and make it complete. But the more that we take from this world, they less room there is for God’s goodness in ourselves.

Earth is only our temporary home. All the sin around us, even within us will one day be gone; when we are with the Lord. Why does this all have to happen?

To bring glory to God. I don’t want to sugar-coat the truth so that it’s easier to digest, but we were all made in the image of God. For what? To worship Him. We were made to worship Him. That’s when we truly feel free and at peace and complete. Because of God’s love we are complete.

Here’s a few Bibles before I write anything more:

Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3. Galatians 3:6-9. Belief in God makes us righteous

2 Kings 5:13-15. Belief leads to obedience

John 20:24-31. 2 Corinthians 5:7. 1 Peter 1:8. Believing in what we cannot see

Sometimes we are in difficult situations because we need to grow. God may allow it to happen because He wants to teach us something or He wants us to depend on Him. These happen because it gives us hope, gratefulness, compassion, patience, kindness, and love. It can take the hard and cruel times in life to bring out the reality of a person’s heart. It pushes us to our limits, motivating us or pushing us down to our knees; realizing how small we actually are. 

Can God stop all the bad stuff? Yes of course He can. Why doesn’t He? He doesn’t want to dwell in this temporary place; earth. He has something much better planned and He wants us to go live there with Him. In the meantime, if everything was perfect, we would certainly take everything for granted and be people in a world full of laziness and no motivation to grow or do great things. Through the bad times, we see the good and we gain hope and encouragement for the future.

I pray that this is all making sense and as I write these words, I am learning too and God is teaching me.

I really want to encourage you to watch this music video:

It’s called “Something More”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrV_ZvwZRvw&feature=related & (with subtitles)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcw5dkvkfsc

Situations like these bring hope into the world. It makes us look to something more that just the things and people around us. It points to God. Because the point of our life is to point to God.

Sometimes we stop and want to ask God, “Why?” Why He allows poverty, injustice, and suffering, when He could do something. Why don’t I ask Him? Because He’s asking me the same thing.

Through my brokenness and faults in my life, I live on as a testimony and light to the world. My life is just a mist and yet God chooses to use me to bring hope the world. There is always hope because God is our hope.

I’m praying for you and I love you. But God loves you even more. If you ever feel that way again, lift it up to God. Talk to Him about it. I’m open to talking about it privately too if you would like.

“hey my best friend just said we were over. Do you have any verses of encouragement? or could you possibly help me understand the context of Hebrews 12?”

Friends come and go, but the Lord remains with you and loves you forever.

Here’s a few Bibles of encouragement:

Exodus 32:11-13. Pray for your friends

Genesis 45:5. Real friends forgive each other

Proverbs 17:17. Friends love in the good and bad times

Psalm 25:4-7. Pray for God to lead you

Philippians 3:12-14. Never give up being your best

2 Timothy 2:3-13. Don’t give up even when you are suffering

Matthew 25:14-23. Sharing in God’s happiness

Revelation 22:3. No evil in heaven

Revelation 21:4. No more tears, sorrow, crying or pain

Rev. 22:5. God will be heaven’s light

Luke 10:17-20. Our greatest honor is being a child of God

Genesis 8:1. God never forgets you so have hope

1 Corinthians 15:54-58. Hope because of Jesus

Romans 8:35-36. Nothing can take God’s love from us

Romans 12:9-21. Love demands that we give of ourselves

Matthew 5:43-48. Loving enemies

Matt. 5:38-42. Christ-like love serves others

Romans 8:24-30. Patiently look for the positive in life

2 Thessalonians 1:4-5. Patience helps you endure suffering

Hebrews 11:13-16. Focus on heaven for patience

Matt. 5:25-26, Make peace with others

1 Corinthians 1:3. Ask God for peace of heart and mind

Matt. 13:21. Never stop believing what Christ can do

Exodus 3:18-22. You can trust your future to God

1 Samuel 20:30-34. How to care for your friends

———-

Hebrews 12

Wow! There’s so much packed in Hebrews 12; so much wisdom and wonderful words of the Lord.

Before reading God’s Word, we should always pray. Pray for understanding and for the Lord to teach you something. If ask God to come into your Bible study time, then the Lord will surely help you understand. Don’t expect to understand everything because there’s mysteries that even the smartest theologians in the world don’t understand. But if we seek God, God will meet us where we are at.

What I got out of Heb. 12:

Heb. 12:1-13 is “God disciplines His sons”

What verse 1 is talking about is that since we are in a race, we must live holy and blameless lives. V2, we must focus on Jesus Christ our Lord the Holy One. He is the One that give us true joy. V3, think about Him when you feel like you will lose heart. V4, This isn’t even the hardest part yet.

It goes on to say that don’t lost heart and focus on the light, Jesus Christ. Even when we are put to shame, and are correct, take the criticism and accept it for our advantage. This means that When people correct us, don’t lost hope, instead, have even more determination to do good.

It is important to have endurance. God disciplines his sons; it’s because He loves us and wants us to grow.

He then goes into a comparison between our earthly fathers, vs. our Heavenly Father. The main point is that, if our earthy fathers can be so good to us, or they are our heroes, or leaders, or disciplines us, how much more should we depend on our Heavenly Father. How much greater is our Heavenly Father?

Through the touch times that we endure, we grow and we gain wisdom. We may feel the pain right now, but we are actually learning and we should count it as a blessing.

So, we must have strength (put our faith into practice) and walk where we are supposed to in our life.

Heb. 12:14-29 is a warning against refusing God

What the passage is talking about is that we have to do our best to Christ-like. This means to love others. Through this, people will see God moving within us. We have to be careful for temptations and sins. Yes, we will probably still mess-up but despite that, we must trust in the Lord.

If we lost sight of God, one day He will come back and then it might be too late.

As the verses proceed, it goes on to talk about the glory of God and how Holy and pure He is. Because we are sinful, and God is sooo perfect, just a seemingly small sin we have in our heart can kill us in the presence of the Lord.

(there are definitely things that I don’t understand, but you should pray to God for wisdom or maybe talk to a youth leader :)

As the passage ends, it closes by saying that God is GREAT and we should be thankful and worship Him as we are called to do. He is so powerful and big and mighty we should be in awe, of every second that He spends with us. We should fear Him (meaning, loving and glorifying Him). He is a light that will never fade.

“ok im kind of confused…if we already accepted God/Jesus into our life/heart, why do we need to have a relationship with Him? Not that I dont want one…but why do we need one”

If we accept Jesus into our heart, that means that we believe in Him and we have agreed to trust Him. In doing so, we must depend on Him to take control of our lives rather than ourselves now. By asking Him into our heart, we want God to make us pure and holy, just like how God is, was and still yet to come. 

But we can’t be righteous and good on our own! Jesus is the only One that can help us be pure. He is the only Perfect Man. That’s why we need Him so badly and need a relationship with Him.

God doesn’t need us to have a relationship Him. Rather, we need it. We need God is our lives; that’s when we truly feel peace in our hearts and satisfaction. It’s what we were made to do: worship Him!

If we love God, we will gradually seek Him and love Him. He wants us to be loved into His embrace, not to be pressured into it. That’s why we have freedom. We have the freedom to do what we want and to choose what we want to do.

Having a relationship with Christ makes the process easier because He carries us and even though we seek Him, He finds us, holds us and loves us. He wants a relationship with us because we are His children and He is our Father.