Seeing it God's Way

27/01/2025

“They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, And condemn the innocent blood. But the LORD is my defence; And my God is the rock of my refuge. And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; Yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭94‬:‭21‬-‭23‬ ‭KJV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.94.21-23.KJV

They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, And condemn the innocent blood.

20/10/2022

God Gives Good Gifts

There are seasons in our life when we are more discouraged than encouraged. It is inevitable that all of us will experience those moments, and it is often in the face of insurmountable grief or negative experiences that this happens.

But Romans 15:5 reminds us that there are three things that God gives to those who believe in Jesus. The first is that God gives endurance. When we begin to grow tired of doing good things, or living our life for God, it is often because we are living with the wrong motivation.

True motivation comes from living for God, not ourselves. It is God who gives us the endurance through the Spirit to make good choices and live for Him.

The second thing God gives us is encouragement. In seasons of discouragement when we feel let down by people, God gives us lasting encouragement. He reminds us that we are loved. He reminds us that we are being transformed. We don’t need to strive for approval or acceptance because we’re already sons and daughters of God.

The third thing that we can pray for God to give us is unity of mind toward each other. This means that we consider others how Jesus would consider them. Instead of seeing their flaws or mistakes, we see them as people loved and cared for by God. We should work towards unity with each other rather than division.

All three of these things are worthy of spending time in prayer, asking God for: endurance, encouragement, and unity with each other. If you’re feeling tired and want to quit, ask God for the endurance to continue doing good for those around you.

If you’re feeling discouraged and down, ask God for encouragement that only He can give. And above all, ask God for the same heart and mind of Jesus that brings us together in unity rather than division.

14/10/2022

Work hard not to impress, but to Improve!
A Glory-filled Friday, y’all❤️

17/09/2022

Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Psalms 27:14 NKJV

Let this encourage someone today🙏

12/03/2021

Unity in Diversity through Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

PS- let this Words find expression in our hearts as we unite in service to the same and one God, Jesus Christ.

We achieve more when we bond and work in synergy, not minding our diverse ministries and giftings, for all were made for one purpose-to edify the Kingdom of Christ.
May He (Christ) give us more insights as to pertaining the things of the Spirit and His Kingdom, Amen 🙏.

Great day!🙄

20/08/2020

Day 7

Topic: A Love Story

Scripture: Romans 12:1–2; Philippians 1:6

I’ve noticed over the years that whenever I talk with people about pursuing God’s greater story for their lives, they want that story while at the same time not wanting to do what it will take to get it. They want to choose it, but they don’t want what comes with that choice.

And yet, as we’ve just discovered, that story doesn’t get told in or through our lives unless and until we choose it. It is a love story, written by God, and love is always a choice. But to choose God’s love is to forsake all other loves; in other words, sacrifice is required. Most people want nothing to do with sacrifice, with the choice to willingly lay down our lives. Even so, the greatest stories are told on the other side of sacrificial living, on the other side of selfless regard.

Lecrae had to sacrifice familial love to embrace God’s greater story for his life. Billy Graham had to sacrifice personal safety to embrace God’s greater story in his life. Andy Stanley had to sacrifice relational harmony to embrace God’s greater story in his life. Martin Luther King Jr. was asked to make the ultimate sacrifice in giving up his very life for the cause, but just look at what God has done through that one man’s life. A greater story, indeed.

Before the creation of the earth, God wrote a part for you to play in the story of redemption he’s telling day by day. The question that remains is, will you play the part that’s yours alone to play? After all, the greatest decision you could ever make in life is to become who you already are.

What might you be asked to forsake for the purpose of playing the role God is asking you to play?

(Sam Collier)

17/08/2020

Day 6

Topic: I Call You My Friends

Scripture: John 15:15; 1 John 4:18

So much of life hinges on a single choice. And on the single choice after that.

Are there people who choose a destination other than what God has predestined for them? Absolutely. Are there people in the grave with books they were supposed to write, people they were supposed to save, companies they were supposed to launch? Yes, yes, yes—without a shadow of a doubt. This is the power of choice. Now you may say, “How can a loving God let us choose less for ourselves?” And I would say, “How can he love you and not let you choose?”

This is the problem with us playing God: We simply do not have what it takes. We contradict ourselves. We act selfishly. We say we want freedom and independence, even as we long to be somewhat controlled. “God, let me choose you!” we cry out to our Father. “Don’t make me go against my desires! I want to have s*x because I feel like it. I want to do what makes me feel good!”

Moments later, we cry out, “God, won’t you please keep me from harming myself? I can’t take this pain anymore!”

May I state the obvious here? We simply can’t have it both ways.

Before time began, God solved this dilemma by giving humankind free will. He wants to purify and redeem us, but he wants us to choose that noble course. I’ve heard it said that “Love is not love without choice. Once love is mandatory, it is no longer love. It is slavery, and God doesn’t want slaves.”

What does God want, according to John 15:15? “I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.” What God wants is friends.

What this means for you and me both is this: The ball is always in our court. God gave us the power to give him the power over our lives. The choice is always ours.

How do you respond to the idea that God wants you as a friend? What does this say about God’s character?

(Sam Collier)

15/08/2020

Day 5

Topic: Give, Give, Give!

Scripture: John 3:16; Acts 20:35

What I’ve noticed, time and again, is that the people who have committed themselves to letting God write their story, to pursuing God’s purpose for their lives, to modeling themselves after the great sacrifice that God prompted in his Son, are the same ones who are eager to sacrifice deeply.

It’s worth noting that the most successful people I know—and by the grace of God I’ve been able to sit with world leaders, key influencers, and billionaires along the way—all have the same thing to report. Without exception, what they tell me is this: “Sam, the fulfillment I’ve known from things I’ve acquired can’t begin to compete with the fulfillment I’ve found by helping someone else.”

That sentiment sounds familiar, doesn’t it? In Acts 20:35, Luke quotes Jesus as saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

A statement from John comes to mind: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. . .” (See John 3:16.)

And another one, from Andy Stanley: “Don’t make the mistake of believing that every resource that comes to you is for your consumption, alone.”

Give! Give! Give!

Keep in mind at all times that what God has entrusted to you might be for someone else.

Trust God in this: Follow his Son’s example in laying everything on the line for him. You will be blessed when you give. You will glorify God when you give. You will save lives when you choose to give. Giving is always a part of letting God write your story.

What is hardest for you to give at this point in your life—time, money, energy? What is one way you could give that hard thing this week?

(Sam Collier)

14/08/2020

Day 4

Remember, we are sill on our plan (A Greater Story, with Sam Collier)

Topic: Faithful to the End

Scripture: Matthew 10:39; Matthew 26:36–46

Every person alive is guilty of trying to control things that God says are outside of our control. We’re guilty of plotting outcomes that God says we should not plot. We are guilty of claiming knowledge for things that God says cannot be known. We are guilty for holding on with a ridiculously tight grip to what we think we’re entitled to.

There is a better way. “Give up your life for my sake,” Jesus exhorts us. “That is how to save a life.” (See Matthew 10:39.)

Now if Jesus wasn’t about to put his money where his mouth was, we might blow past his “helpful advice.” But that’s not at all the case. Our Lord was about to carry his own cross to Skull Hill, where he would die the most brutal of deaths.

Matthew 26 is one of those chapters in the Bible that I can’t read without cringing and squinting my eyes. How desperately Jesus wanted out of this deal, and who wouldn’t? To die is one thing. To know you’re about to die—and in the manner Jesus faced—is quite another. We’d be begging God too.

Still, Jesus said, “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Matthew 26:39).

I’m telling you: faithful to the end.

After returning to his friends and rebuking them for having fallen asleep (insert blushing, wide-eyed emoticon here), Jesus pleaded with his Father a second time. “My Father!” he said. “If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done” (v. 42).

A second time, he returned to his men. A second time, he found them asleep.

A third time, Jesus went before his Father. Three times, he begged for relief. Knowing it was a futile request—knowing that this course was set—he went to his disciples and said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But look—the time has come” (v. 45).

In this moment we see Jesus modeling for us what he asks us all to do. Sacrifice. Sacrifice, so that this world can be a better place. Sacrifice, in order to find God’s best. Sacrifice, so that God’s grand, redemptive plan can be realized throughout the earth.

Which begs the question, how well are we following suit?

What is God asking you to do that involves sacrificing something for his will, even if it’s not what you would have chosen?

(Sam Collier)

13/08/2020

Day 3

I pray this blesses you!

Topic: Lazarus Moments

Scripture: Matthew 16:25; John 11:1–44

The shortest verse in the Bible is, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). And yet I think it’s one of the strongest. Jesus’s friends Mary and Martha had just lost their brother, Lazarus, and Jesus was nowhere to be found. They’d sent a messenger to ask Jesus to save their brother before it was too late, but Jesus had chosen not to come. Two days he waited, before he showed up. Two days!

Mary and Martha were distraught.

When Jesus did show up, he wept. He couldn’t have been crying over Lazarus’s death, because he could have prevented that death. No, he was crying because his friends were crying.

Their tears had moved him to tears. His delay in coming to his friends’ aid was strategic; he would raise Lazarus from the dead, thus proving his supernatural power and gathering glory for God. But in the meantime, before that resurrection, his heart of compassion led him to weep.

The message for me and also for you? God will always care for us, even when what is hurting us is in his plan, even when he knows we are hurting. But he will be with us in that hurting, leading us to the new life he has for us beyond it.

At one point in my musical career, I realized that music had become an idol in my life. Sam the Recording Artist had become my identity. I realized God was saying to me, “I know you say you love me, Sam, but if I don’t do it the way you want me to, will your love and devotion end?” In other words, “Am I in charge, or what?” God was killing me so that he could live. He was ripping out the desire in me to make his plan fit into mine. And he was weeping with me because he knew how I grieved my dreams, even though his plan was best in the end.

Maybe you’re stuck in a Lazarus moment right now, waiting on something to be raised up. Something is dying in your hands, and you’re worried that death will have the final word. If that’s you, please be encouraged. Trust God’s plan while holding his hand.

Take a few moments to reflect on this question, “If God asked you to trade your dream for his, would you do it?”

(Sam Collier)

12/08/2020

Day 2

FINDING A GREATER STORY

Scripture: Isaiah 55:9; Psalm 57:2; Galatians 2:20

What is God after in you? Is God stripping you of your agenda? Maybe for some of you it’s already stripped away. For others, you and God may be in a wrestling match or around the corner from one. Let me save you some energy and time—just let him win. The quicker you let him win and release control, the easier life will be. Now that’s easier said than done, but the premise still remains true.

I may not know what your specific struggle is, but I do know one thing for sure: that struggle can be broken off of your life by the healing, saving power of God. As my friend and mentor Pastor Jeff Henderson likes to say, “When your story connects with God’s story, it leads to a greater story.”

That line of Jeff’s has become my approach to everything. “Connect to God’s story!” I now tell youth groups and schools and church congregations. “It’s only by connecting to God’s story that your story will come alive. It’s only then that your story will become.”

Despite what you believe your story is about—abandonment, addiction, graduating from high school, getting a promotion, finding true love, being adopted, reconciling with a loved one, or getting fit at the gym—I believe your real, ultimate, story is God’s plan. Only when you decide to connect with him intentionally, meaningfully, and enthusiastically, will you find true purpose.

In Psalm 57:2, the psalmist says, “I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.” God created us to seek him for our identity.

I truly believe that God is redeeming a broken world. When we forfeit our plans and join him in his magnificent work, we experience fulfillment, for the first time in our lives.

In what ways do you find identity in the circumstances of your story rather than in God’s purpose for your life? How could you change your perspective on which story matters most?

(Sam Collier)