Let your life match your lip.
There are far too many Christians who live two different lives: one on the inside, another on the outside; one Sunday morning, another the rest of the week.
Such people are hypocrites, phonies, Christian liars; they live wrong lives. Why? Because they have a wrong heart. We must be very careful that our heart is clean and pure (see Psalm 51:10).
We are told in Matthew 12:34 why our heart is so important: For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. In other words, your heart affects your mouth.
Since our lives, and especially our words, are being examined by unbelievers, we must be careful to have a clean heart so that we will have clean words; and if we have clean words, then our lives will show good fruit. In other words, a good (spiritual) heart will bear good fruit.
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks (Luke 6:43-45).
Therefore, be careful that your words are clean and pure and that your actions are equally clean and pure so that the world will see that your life matches your lip.
Don't doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light.
No matter how hard you try, in a room that's completely dark, you'll never be able to see anything. Even if you know for sure that something is in the room, it's impossible to see it if the room is totally dark. You know it's there, but you just can't see it.
That's what faith is like. You may be absolutely confident that God loves you; however, during the difficult and dark times in life, you may not be able to see that love.
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Even when you don't see God's love for you, you can still have faith that he loves you -- that is, you can be certain that he loves you, even though you don't see it.
During those "dark times" in your spiritual life, you may not be able to see God's love, his faithfulness, his grace, or his promises to you; however, don't lose your faith. Be certain of what [you] do not see.
One day, your faith will be sight.
Are you causing more problems by not dealing with problems?
When a problem is concealed and not dealt with it tends to compound and become worse. For example, say you have a child who doesn't take school seriously and who studies infrequently. If you don't deal with that problem, it will likely get worse because your child will fall further behind in school. However, if you confront the problem—though it certainly won't be easy to confront—then you will likely prevent that problem from causing more and bigger problems in the future.
There are times when confronting others might inconvenience you, but not confronting them will only invite much bigger problems later. Permit yourself some inconvenience now in order to resolve problems before they worsen. Do not allow problems to multiply because you're afraid to confront.
Likewise, if someone sins against you, you should not simply ignore what happened because doing so could cause the problem to escalate. Instead, Jesus says you should confront the problem: "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over" (Matthew 18:14).
In situations where it's really challenging to deal with a problem, it may take more love to confront someone and tell them the truth—even though it hurts—than it does to simply pretend nothing is wrong. In other words, it may be easier to let the problem slide, but to do so is not love.
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