One of the things we as Godly men and women need to have an attitude of is Grace. I can promise you that your husband or wife will forget to do something you want. They will not get to doing something as quick as you want. They will not do something as well as you want. They will even sometimes not feel like doing what you want them to do. The question is how will you respond to this in your life. Will you be one to quickly get angry, or frustrated that the expectation you placed on your husband/wife is not met. Or will you extend Grace to them and trust that if you lovingly ask them to do it that they will more likely do what you need and do it with a great attitude?

How about take things a step further and when someone you love doesn’t meet your expectation, that you realize that your expectation being met should not be more important than how your spouse feels. What is more important, getting your husband/wife to act and do what you want or to think and feel like a loving spouse should toward you? Why do we often show our spouse we care more about the tasks in our lives that need to get done than the relationship that we want to build together.

Take this and apply it to our relationship with God. Do we put those same expectations on God? Do we look to God and get frustrated when He doesn’t meet our expectations and do what we want? Or do we realize that God does love us and wants what is best for us. What is more important to you: 1) God giving you what you want out of life, or 2) Your relationship with God growing more intimate? Do we realize that our perception and expectations we place on God and others directly shapes the ability for us to have an intimate relationship with God and with our husband or wife.

I dare you today when your husband or wife doesn’t meet your expectation to not get angry and frustrated but instead go tell them how much you love them and then find a way to serve them!

Ephesians 5, ” 22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31″For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

The heart, vision, and purpose of youth ministry is to enable our students to Get to Know Jesus.

Philippians 3:7-11,
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

As Paul tells the Church at Philippi there is nothing greater in our life, in our ministry, in anything than Knowing Christ Jesus. In fact, he goes so far as to say that if we compare anything to knowing Christ it should look like trash. Yes, our filthy dirty trash. I don’t know about you but the last time I told my kids to go eat something, I didn’t say, “hey boys, go grab something out of the trash to eat.” The last time my boys asked for a toy or a present, I didn’t wrap up a bag of trash and say, “here you go boys, have at it!” I know better as a dad, that trash is this nasty, dirty, germ filled junk that our goal is to wrap it up in plastic bags, put it in a big plastic trash can and take it to the street to be sent away.

As I read Philippians 3, I realize that there are so many things in my life that I try and put not just near the same value as Jesus, but even above Him. But Paul describes that it isn’t just about knowing Jesus should be more important to us, but that anything, I mean anything else should be as Trash in our lives. There just is no comparison to knowing Jesus. Jesus is the only way we can be in a relationship with God the Father. Jesus is the only one who could pay the price for our sin and disobedience. Jesus is the only one who by coming to earth could send us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. A perfect God can only live with Perfect People. I know the only way I will ever be perfect is if a Holy and Perfect God stands in my place for everything I have ever done that falls short of the Glory of God. Jesus did that for me.

What are we doing in our lives to show our students, our family, our friends, that we want to Get to Know Jesus more than anything else in this world? If you want them to get to know Jesus….we have to!

Take a moment on Thanksgiving and each and everyday to remember how Good God is!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Prayer is something that we all know we need to do! We know that it is vital for our ministries to see God do mighty things in the lives of our students, leaders and us. Why is it sometimes so hard to pray? Why do sometimes we take kids off on trips, take them out on events, get them in vehicles to go serve and yet forget to pray with them? We should make sure that everything we are doing in our ministry is coated with the Word of God and prayer.

God in His Perfect Love, His Sovereign Grace, His Ultimate Wisdom has sought after us desiring to be in a relationship with us. A relationship that changes us and others around us. God desires for us to go into our families, our homes, our churches, our communities, our country and the world to do whatever it takes to enable people to see the Glory of God. God, our Father, desires for us to do this by depending on him, trusting in His Son Jesus, relying on the Holy Spirit. He has chosen for us to use prayer to accomplish his plans. Can God work and move among us whether we pray or not? Yes, but He desires to walk alongside of his Creation and use us as we pray and seek a deeper relationship with Him. Prayer does work. Prayer does bring us closer to the heart of God. Prayer does move us to move among the hearts and lives of others. Don’t miss a day, or a moment that you could be walking with your Creator and praying for Him to do mighty things in your life and the life of those you minister to.