•Returning to your First love•

Helooo everybody! I feel so bad for not writing very often these days. Life kinda happened the past few months,sorry about that ! So, I decided to to a post about returning to our first love

Fill in the blank with the first thing that comes to your mind: I LOVE _________. 

Love is a word we use so easily nowadays….

I love chocolate!I love instagram!I love my guy/girl !I love my new shoes!I love this series!I love this song!

Obviously, we love our family or nearest ones  more than we love chocolate or shoes. So how would you fill in the following  space?

My FIRST love is _____________.

When someone asks me to fill in that blank space, I will immediatly say that I can’t choose. How do you choose between your mother,father, brother,sister,boyfriend,girlfriend ect who you love the most?

When we fill in “Jesus ” in the blank, immediately we receive the ability to have limitless love for others around us. In life , it’s sometimes so easy to fill in “Jesus” in the blank space when it’s going good with you and you receive blessings , and then at times when life gets a little more complicated and we go through some deep waters, we struggle to fill in His name. But we need to learn to make Jesus our first love and love Him through everything.

Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list.—Matthew 22:37-38

I just love to see the love and hunger new believers have for God! They are always so passionate and hungry for Jesus and a lot of times in our lives our relationship with God is like a rollercoaster. One day you have the faith and hunger of a new believer and then a few weeks later you just don’t feel anything. Unfortunately, our original passion sometime fades as our faith matures. We then  may become like the church in Ephesus who Jesus spoke of in Revelations 2:4-5 :

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

When we realise that Jesus isn’t our first love anymore, we should sit and think what is stealing that love? Some of us may say friends,others money, or even parents or siblings. It is really important to make Jesus our first love in order to love other things. When we love other stuff more than we love Jesus, we won’t be able to love it in the fullness that we would when making Jesus our first love. If you realize that Jesus isn’t your first love anymore, go sit and talk to Him. Ask Him to restore that love you first had and you will see how the rest of the areas in your life will start to fall in place . I can surely testify about that!

It’s my heart for all of you to make Jesus your first love again .

Thank you for everyone’s responses and emails! I appreciate it ❤ I will try my best to write a bit more !

love you all ! Greteli xx

Spiritual food

Hey guys!

I’ve been thinking a lot  what I should write about. God laid it on my heart to do a post about spiritual feeding.Spiritual feeding is one of the most important things for me in my relationship with God. If you don’t feed yourself daily with the word of God , it’s not going to be easy to get to know Him.

Matthew 4:4 – “Jesus answered, “It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” It is really important for us to live from the word of God. Sometimes it’s going to feel awesome to spend time with Him and other times it’s not going to be so awesome . We need to remember that it’s not about how we feel during our quiet time. It’s not about feelings and emotions but about faith and faithfulness. 

In our lives , we sometimes just want to praise God for everything and sometimes it feels like a sacrifice  to praise Him.The past week I had to force feed myself with the word because I didn’t feel “hungry” for it anymore. A guy from church said something to me  that really opened my eyes. He said that we need to remember that God is worthy of all our time. When we only give Him our time when we ”feel good”or when we are ”hungry” for it , it’s not about God anymore , but about ourselves. It is so true and a lot of us makes that mistake.

Another thing God laid on my heart … We’ve been praying a lot for all the fires and droughts in our surrounding areas.While praying for rain , the Lord just showed me how we should also pray for spiritual rain & water.   John 4:14 “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

My prayer for every one who is reading this is that you’ll drink of God’s water and eat from His word every day more and more.

love you all xx

•rejoice in the sufferings•

I think the question about christianity I receive the most is “Why do we as believers suffer?” This is probably the thing I’ve struggled the most with when I began my journey with Jesus. I could never understand why we should go through such deep waters. Buttt after a while God came and changed my heart towards it.

 

Philippians 1:29-30 ” For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake , having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.”

To understand it better, I explain it to myself this way.  Sometimes, when you are celebrating your birthday and you receive  some gifts, you often get some  you don’t actually like that much. They usually seem meaningless to us. Its very much the same when you compare it to God. When we receive gifts from God, there IS going to be some gifts that we don’t always like . Following Jesus is going to take you through some sufferings.

When going through sufferings,  our faith is often being tested . But we should also remember that it is not always God testing us. The enemy also brings temptations which leads to suffering.

2 Corinthians 13:5  ” Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith ; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test.”  Faith is more than just what we say,think,believe and feel. It is about taking action and changing ourselves in the way we speak , think and do.

When we go through sufferings we should arm ourselves in the same way God is thinking . 1 Peter 4:1 ” Therefore , since Christ has suffered in the flesh , arm yourselves also with the same purpose , because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin ”

We should change our mindset of feeling sorry for ourselves to rejoicing in our sufferings. 1 Peter 5:10 ” After you have suffered for a little while , the God of all grace , who called you to His eternal glory in Christ , will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. ”

May we all grow in faith and rejoice during our sufferings .

xx

•Quiet time•

The most important thing in having a relationship with God,is obviously spending time with Him. Just as you would spend time with someone you would want to know better,you have to spend time with God to get to know Him better. Here are some tips to get you going 🙂

1.) Choose a time

I prefer having quiet time the first thing in the morning and the last thing in the evening. That way I start and end my day with God.

Mark 1:35-36: ”Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Following Jesus’ example I personally think it is the best to have quiet time early in the morning when it is quiet and there are no distractions .

 2.) Choose a place

Choose a place where you are going to sit. The less distractions,the better. Try to sit somewhere where there is no one who can disturb or interrupt you.

 3.) Be prepared

Get you bible,some pens and a notebook / prayer journal ready. I really want to encourage you to get a prayer journal if you don’t have one at the moment. Write everything that you are praying down. After a few months or so look back to what you’ve been praying for and you will see how God answered those prayers and how He worked in your life.

 

4.)Getting started

Before you start to read Bible,first pray.Pray that God would lead you and that He would show you what to read.Sometimes the things you are going to read are not going to make any sense to you. It happens a lot 🙂 Jesus told His disciples to throw the net at the other side of the boat,and they thought He was crazy,because there was no fish at the other side. But when they were obedient and did as He said, they caught enough fish to sink the boat. You don’t know what God is planning.Even though it doesn’t make any sense,trust in Him.

 When you are ready,read the scriptures God put on your heart. Highlight the parts that stood out for you. I usually write them also down in a notebook & try to memorize it.

Be still,so that God can speak to you too. In a conversation its not only one person that is speaking. In order to have a relationship with someone and to get to know someone,you will also need to listen to the other person.

 

I hope this could help you a little! Love you lots xx

 

 

•Humility•

So, I said that I would share some tips on having a relationship with God,because it is my biggest wish for every one of you to have a relationship with Him. I can’t imagine my life without having a relationship with God and I want you also to experience that joy . Anyway! The first thing I had to learn in my relationship with God,was Humility.

When I decided to follow Jesus, I was more worried about what others is going to think of me. When I prayed I wanted to pray these big prayers with big words just to sound good before other Christians. I did a lot such things just to look good, but nothing came from my heart. My relationship with God never actually grew,and I was worried about it. Then the Lord came and showed me why. I had pride and wasn’t humble and because of that He couldn’t work within me.

Recently I got a vision about two trees. The one tree was big and tall and the other one was really small. Suddenly a strong wind blew and the big tree fell over, but the smaller tree was still standing. The big trees trunk was hard and rugged but the smaller trees trunk was flexible and when the wind came the smaller tree only bent a little. I asked the Lord what He was showing me through this and He said that the big tree represented PRIDE and the smaller tree represented HUMBLENESS. The wind was God. God cannot work in prideful hearts but he surely can work in humble hearts because humble hearts are just like the smaller trees trunk. Flexible enough so that God can work with it.

The very moment I humbled myself to the Lord, He began to work in my heart and our relationship was actually growing. 

• James 4:6  – ”But he gives us more grace That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble “
• Proverbs 11:2 – ” When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
  but with humility comes wisdom. “
• James 4:10 – ” Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

 

•my story•

We all have beautiful stories and are storytellers . God is the author & writer of our stories. When I began to hear everybody’s stories & testimonies I felt as if I did not have a story. Everybody had this great testimonies of how they were healed and then found Jesus or things like that . But then I thought about it . We all are storytellers… Some peoples stories are longer & others shorter , but everyone has a story . So I want to share my story with you guys ! Its a short & simple story,but I trust the Lord that it would touch someone out there .
So here I go 🙂 I grew up in a christian home ,where my parents had a living relationship with God. They raised me as good as possible & started teaching me stuff about God . As I started praying ,I prayed the same prayer for 13 years but there was no meaning in it . Sunday mornings when I had to go to church , I would pretend to be  sick so that I wont have to go because it was so boring . At church I would count the roof tiles so that the time would pass. I was so religious. I thought that if I do good deeds I will go to heaven. Then, at school & church I saw how people who had a relationship with God lives. I saw that they had something I didn’t have . I had an empty space in my heart that I tried to fill with friends,social media, clothes and all my earthly belongings.

I “recommitted” my life to Jesus so many times and was even baptized at the age of 10,but I still didn’t have a relationship with Him. After a few years ( which is now ) the Lord made me sooo hungry for His word. I got so excited to read the bible & to go to church and everything ! It literally felt as if I had a crush on Jesus (which I do have) ! You know that feeling when you like someone and you go and stalk them to find out more about them, I did that with Jesus! LOL… I stalked Him in the bible & talked to Him day and night .The more I was seeking Him,the more I felt His presence in every day of my life 💛 Its the best gift you can everrr receive!
I really want to encourage each and every one of you to go and tell your stories to people. God made me so hungry for Him through other peoples stories ! And even if you feel you don’t have a story, God is busy writing it !
love you all x