Welcome to our Students Standing Strong Blog! We invite you to become a part of this journey. Whether you’re a student attending an S3 club, an alumni of S3, a youth pastor, a parent or maybe you’re somebody who has words of hope and encouragement you would like to share with others. Send us an email at Blog@MyS3.org and in return we will send you the writing guidelines. We look forward to hearing from you!
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Choose Happy, Choose Hope
Thank you Boyd Brigman (a friend of S3) for these encouraging words of hope!
Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Hope is so important and without it, people die. We see this more and more as our society spirals into the depths of despair and anxiety.
In this verse, Paul makes an amazing statement. He refers to God as “The God of Hope”. He declares that you can overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that God will fill you with joy and peace “as you trust in Him”.
The last phrase is the key that will change your life…you must trust in Him…you must choose to trust The God that gives Hope.
Each day I must choose what I am going to focus on…either my long list of problems and worries, or the fact that I can trust my God to handle them.
Focusing on the problems, anxiety and restlessness will result in more stress and create more problems… If I focus on trusting God, it will cause the anxiety to subside and allow me to deal with issues I need to deal with.
There is no way to have peace without Trust. There may be problems that must be solved, and healing that needs to take place, but without trusting God there is no way to acquire HOPE.… Take care of yourself, address your needs, and choose to trust God. Rest in the hope that only He can provides.
Deliberately choose contentment. Not in a shallow way ignoring reality but by focusing on the fact that God loves you and has promised that nothing in all creation can separate you from that love. Make that your foundation and you will have hope.
There will still be storms but anyone can ride out the storm as long as you have hope.
“Choose happy”
For more devo’s created by Boyd Brigman, check out his site: http://bigosbibletime.blogspot.com/?m=1
The Comparison Game
Don’t get caught in the trap!
The “Comparison Game” is a dangerous trap because the rules always change and no one ever wins.
Do you ever find yourself checking many times a day to see how many “friends,” “followers,” “likes,” “shares,” and “retweets” you get? Does viewing social media ever causes you to feel as if everyone else has more friends, more fun and more excitement than you have? When you think others don’t like you, does it makes you feel as if something is wrong with you?
You’ll always experience times that you don’t “feel good” about yourself. Maybe you don’t like something about your appearance, clothes, personality or accomplishments when you compare yourself to others. Maybe you’ve even wondered if God messed up when He created you.
On a scale of 1-10, how do you feel about yourself right now? (1 is for I don’t love me and 10 is for I love how God made me.)
In 1 Samuel 16:7. God says He looks at what is in a person’s heart, not what is on the outside. Stop and ponder what that means. God is interested in the REAL you on the inside–not what’s on the “cover” that others use to judge you. So, how could this Bible truth make you look at yourself differently? And, how could this truth make you see and treat others differently from the way you did before?
1 Samuel 16:7 NIrV But the LORD told Samuel, “Do not consider how handsome or tall he is. I have not chosen him [to be king]. I do not look at the things people look at. Man looks at how someone appears on the outside. But I look at what is in the heart.”
Matthew 19:19b NIrV LOVE your neighbor as you LOVE yourself.
When you compare yourself to others, there will always be someone else that seems to be more athletic, beautiful, talented, intelligent or popular than you. Comparing ourselves to others causes us to be trapped into believing that we should be like everyone else. However, what people see on the outside is not the real you! God made you to be one of a kind, with an inner beauty that is uniquely your own! Your inner self (your “heart”) is who you are! God wants you to be free from feeling you should be like everyone else. God tells us in Genesis 1:31 that He “saw all that He had made, and it was “very good.” And that means you!
When you begin to see yourself the way God sees you, you can stop the comparison game! In Psalm 139:14, God describes you as amazing and wonderful!
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Psalm 139:13-18 NIrV
13 You created the deepest parts of my being.
You put me together inside my mother’s body.
14 How You made me is amazing and wonderful.
I praise You for that.
What You have done is wonderful. I know that very well.
15 None of my bones was hidden from You
when You made me inside my mother’s body.
That place was as dark as the deepest parts of the earth.
When You were putting me together there,
16 Your eyes saw my body even before it was formed.
You planned how many days I would live.
You wrote down the number of them in your book
before I had lived through even one of them.
17 God, Your thoughts about me are priceless.
No one can possibly add them all up.
18 If I could count them,
they would be more than the grains of sand.
If I were to fall asleep counting and then wake up,
You would still be there with me.
For God so LOVED the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Check out more on The Comparison Game at: https://my.bible.com/reading-plans/14568-the-comparison-game
