Day 15 of 21 Day Challenge

Jesus continued to encourage His disciples in John 15. In verse 7, Jesus says, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."  In verse 16b, He said, "Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." Jesus obviously wanted His disciples to know that all they had to do was ask for something, and they would receive what they asked for. Jesus said practically the same thing three times in a short amount of time! The first time He said this was in John 14:14, "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." What an amazing promise to the disciples, and to us! Jesus obviously was letting them (and us) know how important it is to remember that He would and will give anything to anyone who ASKS Him for it. Yes, it has to be in His will, but He is always listening to those who call on Him and He wants to give us the desires of our heart. Don't be afraid to ask Jesus for what you need!

Proverbs 24:10 says "If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!" Wow. This seems harsh, doesn't it? Actually, it isn't harsh at all. What do you do when you are faced with troubles? Do you try to handle everything yourself? If so, you may not realize that you are doing things the hard way! Relying on your own strength to do things can cause you to worry and make the whole situation harder than it needs to be. We are weak compared to God. He will give us strength is we just ask Him for it. When we falter in times of trouble, it is a clear indicator that we are not relying on God's strength to see us through. It also shows how small our strength is, in other words, it shows how weak we are! When faced with trouble, we need to immediately turn to God and ask Him to help us. That makes us strong! We are able to get through the difficulties quicker when we put everything in God's hands and allow Him to help us. Don't show people how weak you are. Show them how strong you are when you team up with God!