First Cup 6:33 w/ Elder Shayla: Recent Episodes
Elder Shayla
First Cup 6:33 is the podcast that will take us on a journey to start the day with Jesus and make Him first priority in every aspect of our lives.
What part of yourself or your life do you find most difficult to surrender to God? Paul's suggestion that believers "present their bodies" (Romans 12:1) may seem strange, but his reference to bodies is about more than flesh and blood. It's about mind, body, and soul. Listen to today's thoughts on being a living sacrifice!
As Joshua challenged the Israelites, "... choose this day whom you will serve … But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." We all have to make that decision and live it out sincerely and faithfully if our legacy is going to make a difference after we're gone.
When we find ourselves creating visions about the future, whether it be about what to achieve, where to go, or what paths to take, we often fail to remember the process that comes along with it. There are times when God puts things in our hearts (dreams, aspirations, goals) and He gives them to us right away. There are other times, and this seems to be the majority, when God puts things in our hearts and then makes us wait. And often, we’ll begin to wonder, what is God doing? Did I really hear from God? Or what is taking Him so long? God knows that there are some things that have to happen before we can step into what He has for us. We just have to learn to trust the process.
Jesus never avoided honest conversations. He delighted in them. Can we ever worship Him if we're not walking in truth? It was in the divine appointment between the Samaritan woman and Jesus that I learned truth isn't reprehensible; it's revelatory.
When you try to throw together ingredients that don’t mix well, you end up with something that can’t be easily consumed no matter how good your intentions may have been. In Judges 17, Micah and his family may have proclaimed the name of the Lord, but their worship directly violated His commands. Rather than worshiping God according to His Word, they mixed righteous worship with the human traditions of their culture. The result was disastrous.
There's so much that can happen when one person dares to say yes to God. Your "yes" will bless. Whatever it is that God has been nudging at you to do, no matter how crazy it might sound or look, all God wants is your yes. Listen to this week's podcast and be encouraged by this teaching on how your yes will bless.
While they can be uncomfortable for your child, growing pains aren't dangerous. They won't lead to any serious health conditions, and they usually resolve by late childhood. But for many of us, it would seem that those growing pains carry over into our adult lives...right? The reality is that growth is very uncomfortable and at times very painful. It hurts to grow. Because growing means to expand beyond my current environment which means that I am required to change.
If we're willing to be honest and transparent, there are times in our walk with God where we allow discouragement to creep in so much so that we find ourselves pondering the question, are we missing out? Sometimes it can seem that those who reject God are thriving in every way, while those who seek to obey and honor Him experience trouble and opposition continually. It's enough to spark questions in the godliest of believers.
We have a tangible opportunity to use our grief for God's glory. You may be in the thick of the most difficult loss or struggle of your life, but that does not mean God is not at work. There is absolutely a place for grief and anguish. But let God be the leader in the good times and in the grievous times and watch how He works through it.
It would seem that right now in the midst of everything that is happening around us that declaring a season of expansion would seem to be a sort of oxymoron. But God often does some of His best work in the dark!
The Truth is, we all get dropped in life, and I understand it's a lonely place, and you feel forgotten, like you don't matter. But the drop was only a temporary setback for a permanent setup.
Agape love is laying down our humanly If - Then conditions and picking up the holiest version: If God loved me so much, then that is enough to cover everything in my life. Can you think of an example of a time you were able to love someone that felt beyond your capacity? How did God’s agape love play a role in it?
Moving to a new place can sometimes be nerve wrecking. Following God's instructions require us to step away from what is familiar and move toward what seems foreign. We have to be willing to embrace the unknown future, while letting go of what feels comfortable and certain. What has God been calling you to leave behind in obedience to Him?
It's a celebration and instead of fixing our eyes on our limitations, we're using the voice God gave us to Speak Up! If you've struggled with feeling unqualified to do what God is calling you to do let this episode be a reminder to you that it's not about who I am (you are), it's always about I AM, or rather, who God is.
Numbers can hold an incredible amount of sway in our lives. Their influence can show up in how we allow the reading on the bathroom scale to dictate our mood. Or how we tie our worth to fluctuating social media stats. We might even try to root our feelings of security in the amount of money sitting in our bank account. When we look to worldly measurements instead of the Lord to fill us with a sense of worth and hope, we are starving ourselves of His perfect provision.
How often do we have scenarios in our lives where the lion shows up and immediately we suffer brutal attacks of the mind. We wrestle with the lion. And lose. Because we let him get the best of our thoughts. Satan is rendered powerless the moment we tap into the power of God's Word.
If we are honest many of us struggle with our expectations for other people. Whether those expectations are realistic or unrealistic, we desperately want people to keep their word and follow through with their actions. We can't expect people to solve our problems or our pain, but we can look to Jesus.
We all have qualities about ourselves that make us lack confidence and insecurities can hold us back from stepping into the assignments God calls us to. But we can trust that God does everything with purpose and precision.
Many of us spend a great deal of our time "trying" to keep up with an image that either we've created for ourselves, or we've allowed others to create for us. We tend to get preoccupied with whether people think well of us or not. But as citizens of God's kingdom, we are called to reflect the image of the King.
Serving God faithfully doesn't just happen out of the blue. We have to make the deliberate choice with every action, every thought, every decision we make. We decide to submit to the Holy Spirit, to obey the Lord and honor Him by turning from our sin. We decide to influence, teach and be the gatekeepers to our children, our marriages, our friendships and our co-workers. We must instruct those who we love by modeling Christ.
On this episode of First Cup 6:33, we're talking about the hard seasons. Sometimes in life we have moments where we say, "It's just too hard". It's in those seasons of suffering we are encouraged to go through the process because it's producing.
Hey everyone! Welcome to the first episode of First Cup 6:33 Podcast! In this episode I share a little bit about what our podcast is all about and give a brief message about why I decided to launch and go on this journey with all of you. Join us as we start our first bible study of 2022 right here on January 10th. Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned.