Perspective with Jesus

The longer I am that I have been in this walk of life with Jesus, the more I see that correct perspective is such a blessing to our lives.  If we allow the Peace of Jesus to bring perspective to our lives, we will find that our lives have multiple moments where we could stop and be thankful to Jesus for Who He is. 

We know that our majestic mountain, and vast oceans are so beautiful, but my focus today is more on the areas maybe easily overlooked.  What about taking minutes of everyday to look around at the smaller details of life in order to find thankfulness in your heart for Jesus.

Too often in life, we think that we need to have all the ducks in a row in order to celebrate the power of Jesus in our lives.  If we allow this thinking, we are missing out on multiple days where Jesus could have been our central focus, and received our praise, but instead we allowed our mind's eye to be focused more on the irritations of life, rather than the perspective He wants to yield in our lives.  This perspective helps us to understand that life isn't always going to go perfectly, but that He is
non-the-less helping us.  Sometimes help is just being able to handle a difficult issue, rather than the issue going away.  Pray for Peace and the Perspective that it yields.  myalabasterbox.org  https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella  https://facebook.com/daniella.pastor.39

Seeing Fear for What It Is

Many of us have fear that seeks to devour us.  Not fearing seems as impossible as not taking in air in the next few minutes.  Fear is so integrated into daily life.  It is used as a management tactic, a manipulator, a motivator, a deterrent... I grew up with fear in my daily life.  In fact, fear is one of the strongest emotions of my childhood and teen life.  Due to this, I became very casual in my perspective towards the damage it was truly causing in my life. 

I decided that if I was ever going to get to a point where I could truly love life, I would have to allow Jesus to reconstruct my heart to stop seeing the fear in everything, and instead see His glorious power first.  With Jesus, I am learning to reset the course of my life.  You see, through allowing Jesus to be the Lord in my heart, I am able to start living out of a victory in my life, rather than an undercurrent of fear driven actions. 

What did it look like when I started to allow Jesus into the reality of the fear inside me?  I knelt down one day, and told Him that no matter how hard I fought at it, fear always seemed to have rule in my life.  I spoke to Him of just how tired I was, physically, mentally, emotionally... I was at the end of myself.  Will it look the same for you when you turn your life's fear over to Him, I have no idea, but I do know that however it comes about, it will be freeing. 

Through this act of turning fear over, Peace has become so real to me now.  The Peace of Jesus has provided perspective, and that is more powerful in my life than Fear ever was. Pastor Daniella http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/index.html  http://pastordaniellapeaceapplieddaily.weebly.com/  https://twitter.com/pastordaniella

A Life Walked Out, Step by Step

Remember being a kid and reaching up with arms out stretched in that universal signal children give of "Pick me up"? You, the kid, were so tired of using your own will to walk around, and instead you wanted someone else to do it for you.  Laziness, not really, just a realization that someone else was there that could, in fact, make life easier.  

When you become a follower of Jesus, you feel the same sort of "relief" is being offered to you again in your life.  Yet, we don't always get carried everywhere, do we?  What do I mean?  Think over the past four years of your life.  Make a mental note of the events that have taken place in those years.  You might have just listed some very powerful miraculous events, but more than likely, you also listed several moments that didn't feel so miracle filled. Let's leave that mental list on hold for a minute. Instead, follow me in a thought...

In life, an incorrect perspective can form.  This incorrect perspective can cause a follower of Jesus to feel that Christ is not rendering help unless He is carrying you out of a situation.  Remember above I asked you to make a mental note of the events that have taken place in the last four years?  Many of those events that you noted weren't situations where you were carried out of the trouble, were they?  This didn't mean that Jesus wasn't there for you.  Those times you weren't carried were actually times where a deepening of your trust was forming in your relationship with Jesus.

The Bible teaches us that we can only please Jesus through faith.  Faith is a very difficult idea to maintain in life, isn't it?  We fade in and out of this idea many times over the course of our walk with Jesus, but there has to become an underlying base of faith.  A foundation that starts to form.  The foundation becomes a faith not based on whether Jesus is there for you in a miraculous manner, but rather a firm understanding that Jesus is there for you all the time, no matter what the natural looks like.  This faith forms when we start exercising out trust towards Jesus.  Times in life when we are not being carried out of a situation serve to further a more personal relationship with Jesus.

Remember those times when you were young, when you did ask to be picked up by a parent, and they told you instead that you were going to have to walk.  At first, you didn't take it so well.  You might have even thrown a bit of a fit at the idea, but as fatigued and frustrated as you were, you still made it.

Don't we feel a bit the same way when we realize that the trial we are facing is not going to be one that Jesus will be carrying us out of?  What one of us wants to hear that we are going to have to walk out a difficult situation step by step?  Yet, if we yield our spirit to humbly learn from Jesus moment by moment, we will find that an inner strength is birthed.  This strength is fortified by the relationship that you and Jesus are building as you together walk out, step by step, of the trial you are facing.  A new relationship between you and Jesus is taking new form.  In place of wavered faith, a new foundation is forming where a vital trust for Jesus is coming to the forefront of your life.

This strengthening helps us to understand the very personal relationship Jesus wants from us. Which one of us really wants a God that only shows up for the miracles, and then walks away?  I know I don't.  I love miracles, but I will not allow life's precious moments of tender help from Jesus pass me by.    Pastor Daniella  https://twitter.com/pastordaniella  myalabasterbox.org  http://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/index.html

When Love Surprises You--- I remember as a teenager a time where I was stunned by love. One evening, a telephone call came from our church minister. My dad sat listening to the phone call, said a few things and hung up. He then called me into the living room to talk. I had no idea what the call was pertaining to. He then told me that the telephone call had to do with me. It seemed that a recent boyfriend had spread rumors about me. These rumors were not ones that would boost a girl's reputation. My dad then said, "I am going to choose to believe whatever you tell me and not what they are saying." I informed my father of the absolute truth. I had not done what was said. My dad stood up, hugged me, and said, "Okay, then the matter is dead to me." I was so moved. My dad showed me a side of love that day that I have never forgotten. He chose to believe me over anything that was said about me. That was over 26 years ago, and I still remember it as if it took place yesterday. Why do I tell you this story? Because when we allow love to speak through us, we don't begin to know the level of impact it has upon another person. In the following days, when you want to meet the yearning of your soul to be upset, instead...smile, comfort, reassure. The impact of these times, will be felt for years to come. Pastor Daniella

Hidden in the Details

Hidden in the Details

I remember when I was growing up, I had an adult tell me that Jesus can't be bothered with the details of my life.  I remember thinking, "But....He's Jesus!  If there is ANYONE that should be bothering with the details of my life, isn't it Jesus?" For a time, I took their opinion as truth.  After all, there are so many people in need of Jesus on this Earth.  Why would Jesus want to bother with the small details of my life?  After a bit, I started to  feel these details in my life were holding me captive.  The only release, to invite Jesus into all the details of my life.

Hidden within the details of our daily life, is a deeper relationship waiting to take place with Jesus. The Bible (Rev. 22:13) assures that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega.  Matthew 10:29 also informs us that God is fully aware of every sparrow that falls to the Earth in a given day.  These scriptures, in my opinion, inform me that from the beginning to the end, and every detail between I am to be in involving Jesus into my life.

Are you by chance still thinking this is a bit silly?  Think of some of the roles that you may play in your daily life.  Are you a parent, a boss, an employee, a business owner, or a homeowner?  Why do I ask these questions?  Well, in these circumstances, and many others, we have wanted every detail of what was taking place.  If you are a parent, you need to know the details of where you kids are going, or if they are sick, how to care for them.  As those in the work force, we have to involve details in our daily decisions.  Bought a house?  You needed to know how much to put down, what your payments, your interest rate will be. You probably did research in where you would live and whether you were getting a good price for your house.  The details are not something we as humans ignore when it involves areas of life that matter to us.  We matter to Jesus, each detail from the beginning to the end.

How do we take the step into involving Jesus into the details?  Well, if you haven't been doing it as of yet, the onset will be met with some awkwardness.  You will probably feel a nudging in your mind to think, "Okay, honestly...do you think Jesus cares?"  Pressing this thinking down will be an area where you will need to remain active.  The Bible is offered to us a truth.  Assuring yourself through scriptures that Jesus is interested, is just very helpful.  You can start involving Jesus in the details of your life immediately.  Invite Him to your life right where you sit.  Ask Him to involve Himself into your daily needs, desires, excitements, sorrows.... Are you about to take a test for school, ask Him to help you implement what you have learned.  Are you about to take a vacation?  Ask Him to be a part of the details in the vacation.  What about your interactions with people for the day?  Ask Him to help you see the needs of the people that are around you and that you would be a blessing to them.  Going to the grocery store later?  What about asking Him to go before you and help feed your family.  I too have to fight down the thoughts in me that creep up telling me that it is silly to ask for Jesus to come into my life in such a detailed manner, but every time that I allow myself to let Him in to the details of my life, I am met with more peace and aided with more help from Jesus. thttp://pastordaniellaministries.weebly.com/daily-offerings.html and https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

A Peace that Passes All Understanding_ In Philippians 4:7, we are promised peace that passes all understanding. it is interesting to me what this scripture in the Bible can mean from day to day. One day this Peace will mean that I can handle dealing with the many tasks that await me. Another day, it will mean that I can forgive a wrong done to me. I think that the interesting aspect of this Peace is actually allowing it to wash over you. In the heat of a busy day, a frustration irritation, a person doing wrong to you...you do not feel like letting go and letting God work in the situation. Honestly, what one of us ever feels like letting something go when you are hurt? The important understanding it to realize that we are too often letting the wrong element of thinking rule over us in our lives. The Peace of Christ is to be ruling in our hearts. The Peace spoken of, this "Peace of Christ", doesn't look like our human term of peace. As humans, we would have peace be our avoidance of difficulties, or people rushing to apologize to us for their wrong they have done to us. Jesus offers peace during the frustration. He offers comfort of our Spirit when someone has wronged us. If we yield to it, the Peace made available in Christ will take on a life of its own within us. The next time you are in the heat of irritation, stop, if just for a minute, there is a small nudging within you to calm down. Give it special attention. That nudging is actually the Holy Spirit trying to offer aid to you in your troubles. We want peace to rush in trumpets blazing and an immediate "calm" to rush over our bodies as if this ideological state of "utter peace" is just going to move in where there once was total frustration. Mostly likely, it's not going to look like that. The Peace that comes from Christ starts as a whisper in your inner being, and when you choose to listen to it...that is when the intensity will grow. We have to want to feed the nudging of the Holy Spirit. The more that we allow the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit to be the "message" that we listen to, the more we will be met with encouragement in the Holy Spirit to yield to it. This yielding is going to mean effort on your part. You will have to push down the frustrating feelings that your emotions are having, in order that you can act on the calm. Trust that you can listen to the calm that is being offered you. You aren't going to want to do it out of emotion, you are going to have to trust that Jesus is offering something better, and we overcome evil with good. This trust is going to stretch, but the trust will be met with aid from the Holy Spirit so that you can follow the will of Christ for you to have Peace be at rule in your heart. Pastor Daniella https://twitter.com/pastordaniella myalabasterbox.org

Jesus Helps

When you come to the end of the yourself and you feel you have nothing more to give to a situation....stop and look for Jesus. It is there, when we stop thinking we are the solution to everything, that Jesus will meet us and start placing in us a Peace that we can use during the trouble. 

 

http://myalabasterbox.org/daily-readings.html https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

Many times in life, we start thinking that helping people should never hurt us. Think of the last time that you helped out someone and got hurt in someway by the transaction. Please follow this link to the full article http://myalabasterbox.org/daily-readings.html

Follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella WEB SITE: http://myalabasterbox.org and FB at Daniella Pastor

Peace That Passes All Understand, It is Closer Than You Think..... A Peace That Passes All Understanding IN Philippians 4:7, we are promised peace that passes all understanding. it is interesting to me what this scripture in the Bible can mean from day to day. One day this Peace will mean that I can handle dealing with the many tasks that await me. Another day, it will mean that I can forgive a wrong done to me. I think that the interesting aspect of this Peace is actually allowing it to wash over you. In the heat of a busy day, a frustration irritation, a person doing wrong to you...you do not feel like letting go and letting God work in the situation. Honestly, what one of us ever feels like letting something go when you are hurt? The important understanding it to realize that we are too often letting the wrong element of thinking rule over us in our lives. The Peace of Christ is to be ruling in our hearts. The Peace spoken of, this "Peace of Christ", doesn't look like our human term of peace. As humans, we would have peace be our avoidance of difficulties, or people rushing to apologize to us for their wrong they have done to us. Jesus offers peace during the frustration. He offers comfort of our Spirit when someone has wronged us. If we yield to it, the Peace made available in Christ will take on a life of its own within us. The next time you are in the heat of irritation, stop, if just for a minute, there is a small nudging within you to calm down. Give it special attention. That nudging is actually the Holy Spirit trying to offer aid to you in your troubles. We want peace to rush in trumpets blazing and an immediate "calm" to rush over our bodies as if this ideological state of "utter peace" is just going to move in where there once was total frustration. Mostly likely, it's not going to look like that. The Peace that comes from Christ starts as a whisper in your inner being, and when you choose to listen to it...that is when the intensity will grow. We have to want to feed the nudging of the Holy Spirit. The more that we allow the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit to be the "message" that we listen to, the more we will be met with encouragement in the Holy Spirit to yield to it. This yielding is going to mean effort on your part. You will have to push down the frustrating feelings that your emotions are having, in order that you can act on the calm. Trust that you can listen to the calm that is being offered you. You aren't going to want to do it out of emotion, you are going to have to trust that Jesus is offering something better, and we overcome evil with good. This trust is going to stretch you, but the trust you extend will be met with help from the Holy Spirit so that you can follow the will of Christ for you and allow Peace be at rule in your heart.

Too often surrendering to Jesus has been offered up only as an ideal, not as a reality. We can allow this thinking to penetrate our deepest barricades, we just have to learn how and why we would to take such a risk. myalabasterbox.org

Surrender-----As a kid, did you ever try taking on a task that was larger than you were? You decided to carry milk from the refrigerator to the table, never mind that the milk weighed more than you did. Did you jump from a height that in all reality was much taller than you thought it at first? What about deciding that you would get dressed without the aid of an adult, and upon presenting yourself you quickly learned that your shirt was inside out and backward, and your shoes were on the wrong feet? All of these are simple feats that we tried to surmount on our own, but have you ever thought how many tasks you take on as a believer that you should have offered to Jesus first? I know I am acutely aware of this very fact. Why? I am an control freak. Okay, overstatement...but in desperation for normality and stability in my life, I have often taken on tasks that far outreach my ability to surmount them. Although John 15:5 tells me that if I try to live a life without Jesus I am nothing, I have still tried to somehow prove that I am the exception to this statement. In every attempt, my self-made solution has crumbled beneath my feet. Through this, I am learning a life lesson. We are to offer Jesus not only every situation in our life, but allow ourselves to be stretched even further by offering Him the first thought on every situation in our life. Have you ever found yourself about nine steps into trying to solve something, meeting up with a dead end, and thinking, "Well, I guess I could pray about it." I know I have. I am trying to allow myself to stop my natural thinking and instead heed what Jesus is warning me about...my efforts are not going to produce fruit if I don't first offer my initial thinking on the matter to Him. Not the easiest for a driven person to consider, but none-the-less, a lesson I am better off for learning. "Be still and know that I am God", another time in the Bible that I am told that it is better to have just waited, let God be the Lord of my situation, and then allow Him to guide me. When I first tried to start implementing this into my life, I honestly thought I was going to go stir crazy. I kept thinking, "What good does it do to wait upon the Lord, there are things that need to be done." But, as I started to see the fruit of this sacrifice I was offering Him in my life, I started to see why it is that He requests this of us. Jesus is not an egomaniac. He does not make a request of us that is somehow self-serving, instead it serves to deliver something to us. We are shown peace through surrender of every situation in our lives. We are allowed in surrender, to taste what it is that He had here on Earth with His Father in Heaven. Jesus tells us in John 5:19 that He does nothing without the Father. If we are hoping to have peace here on Earth, where evil runs rampant, then we must finally come to a position of understanding that there is power in our surrender to the Lord, not impotence. MyAlabasterBox.org https://twitter.com/PastorDaniella

From Pastor Daniella. Minister of MyAlabasterBox.org Hidden Within the Details: I remember when I was growing up, I had an adult tell me that Jesus can't be bothered with the details of my life. I remember thinking, "But....He's Jesus! If there is ANYONE that should be bothering with the details of my life, isn't it Jesus?" For a time, I took their opinion as truth. After all, there are so many people in need of Jesus on this Earth. Why would Jesus want to bother with the small details of my life? After a bit, I started to feel these details in my life were holding me captive. The only release, to invite Jesus into all the details of my life. Hidden within the details of our daily life, is a deeper relationship waiting to take place with Jesus. The Bible (Rev. 22:13) assures that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. Matthew 10:29 also informs us that God is fully aware of every sparrow that falls to the Earth in a given day. These scriptures, in my opinion, inform me that from the beginning to the end, and every detail between I am to be in involving Jesus into my life. Are you by chance still thinking this is a bit silly? Think of some of the roles that you may play in your daily life. Are you a parent, a boss, an employee, a business owner, or a homeowner? Why do I ask these questions? Well, in these circumstances, and many others, we have wanted every detail of what was taking place. If you are a parent, you need to know the details of where you kids are going, or if they are sick, how to care for them. As those in the work force, we have to involve details in our daily decisions. Bought a house? You needed to know how much to put down, what your payments, your interest rate will be. You probably did research in where you would live and whether you were getting a good price for your house. The details are not something we as humans ignore when it involves areas of life that matter to us. We matter to Jesus, each detail from the beginning to the end. How do we take the step into involving Jesus into the details? Well, if you haven't been doing it as of yet, the onset will be met with some awkwardness. You will probably feel a nudging in your mind to think, "Okay, honestly...do you think Jesus cares?" Pressing this thinking down will be an area where you will need to remain active. The Bible is offered to us a truth. Assuring yourself through scriptures that Jesus is interested, is just very helpful. You can start involving Jesus in the details of your life immediately. Invite Him to your life right where you sit. Ask Him to involve Himself into your daily needs, desires, excitements, sorrows.... Are you about to take a test for school, ask Him to help you implement what you have learned. Are you about to take a vacation? Ask Him to be a part of the details in the vacation. What about your interactions with people for the day? Ask Him to help you see the needs of the people that are around you and that you would be a blessing to them. Going to the grocery store later? What about asking Him to go before you and help feed your family. I too have to fight down the thoughts in me that creep up telling me that it is silly to ask for Jesus to come into my life in such a detailed manner, but every time that I allow myself to let Him in to the details of my life, I am met with more peace and aided with more help from Jesus. Pastor Daniella

Pastor Daniella minister of MyAlabasterBox.org Peace "Peace I leave with you.." Jesus' words. I read these words in John 14...they seem as foreign to me as a language that is not in my native tongue. I read that I am not to let myself get disturbed. What? Don't let myself feel pressure, but the pressure is there. A decision has to be made and time is ticking. How am I not suppose to feel pressure and yet pressure is present? In John 14, I think we glimpse part of the answer to this question. We are told that Peace from Jesus looks differently than the peace of this Earth. Peace, the way the world sees it would consist of no troubles, and floating through life with really no issues. Yet in John 16:33 we are told, "In this life you will face troubles. This lets us know that this life here on Earth is not going to be a casual float down the river. The next words out of Jesus' mouth after warning us that there will be troubles in this life are ones of quickly notifying us that we are to, "Take heart, I have overcome the World." This sentence is like water to a desperate, dehydrated soul. These scriptures serve as a script to how our thinking should play out on those days where trouble, frustration, desperation, irritation...seem to be the only emotions rushing to meet our minds. We give authority to what our mind is going to focus on. We either aid our troubled situations to be what dominates our thoughts, or we give this authority to the Mighty Jesus Christ, the one who "has overcome the World." The Peace that we are given through Jesus doesn't come in some bright blue box with bows draped down the sides. In fact, it comes in the most humble position a human can offer, that of surrender. Surrender, a word used in many a worship song. Surrender...to let something go... to offer the supposed control we fool ourselves into thinking we possess over to someone else. Not just someone, but to Jesus. The one that has "...overcome the World." As a child, I never could count on normal. Peace, not an adjective I would use to describe my household. To this day, I have to go through such a struggle to surrender events to my Jesus. Through every one of these events and this process of letting go, I find that at the end of that journey I have a renewed strength that takes the place of the fear that was running rampant just prior to the surrender. When I finally lay down my weapons (self-pity, fears, emotional damage of my past...) ,and instead take up the armor Jesus offer for me (Peace being the most predominate) I am met with a renewed Spirit. I am filled with the sense that all is taken care of, even those in the natural...I see no real difference as of yet. I believe that this is what Jesus speaks of. Peace, not as the world sees it, but as I give. Peace...to be able to stand in the middle of the chaos and see the TRUE reality.... Jesus has overcome the World