Words of Encouragement ... Matthew 4:4

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Matthew 4:4

This verse of scripture is something that Jesus said while he was in the desert being tempted by the devil.  Jesus had fasted for forty days and he was hungry.  The devil said to him your'e the son of God why dont you just turn these stones into rocks, but Jesus knew the deeper significance of what he was telling him to do,and chose  not to use his divine power to satisfy his natural desire for food.  Jesus knew that food was not a bad thing and that eating was not sinful, but he was in the desert to fast not to eat.  Jesus had given up his divine power in order to experience humanity fully.

Some people wonder why the Lord allows us to go through trials.  He does it to strengthen us and bring us closer to Him.  The Lord even allowed his son to be tempted by the devil.  The bible says Jesus has been tempted in every way we are and yet he did not sin.  Jesus knew that the Father was still in control and would shield
 him from the devil even if he didn't do it himself.

God calls us to trust him.   Its far easier to know that we can trust God knowing that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are.  He really has been there.

Words of Encouragement Psalms 107:28-30

Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.       Psalms 107:28-30


In times of trouble we often don't even have the words to pray.  Our emotions out weigh our knowledge that God is with us and he can handle our problems.  This scripture reminds us that we need to call on his name.  God doesn't need our prayers.  Our prayers are for our sake to give us a way to communicate with him.  To rely on him and for our faith in him to grow. The comforting calm of laying all that is weighing you down at the feet of Jesus and asking Him to carry your burdens for you is a peace that is indescribable.  This scripture tells of people who cried out to God when they were in a situation that they were in trouble, and God calmed the storm.  and then it says they were glad it goes on in later verses to say that they praised him when he had stilled the waves and lead them on their way.

It reminds me of when Jesus was in the boat with the disciples and he was asleep.  They came into a horrible storm and the disciples were scared, but with the sound of his voice Jesus calmed the waves.

What storms in our lives can we ask Jesus to calm?  We also need to remember that he may not always stop the storm but he will at least give us peace and walk with us through the storm.  We will never be alone.

Words of Encouragement Isaiah 40:11

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry [them] in his bosom, [and] shall gently lead those that are with young.
                                                                                               Isaiah 40:11

The Lord has so many attributes but one of the most comforting is that he is compared to a shepherd many times throughout the Bible.   The Lord Shepherds his flock with love and care.  Lambs rely on their Shepard for their needs to be met and trust that he will meet them.  Their life is not one of fear and anxiety because they do not believe that they will be taken care of.  If the Shepard has proven that he will protect and provide the lambs can live a life free from worry.  

 This scripture reminds us that God does three important things for us that we need to remember daily, remembering these things will keep us from worrying about the state of the world around us and our circumstances.  

God will provide.

God will protect

God will Lead.

If we remember these 3 things and truly have faith in him that he will keep true to his scripture then we will not  have to worry about life here on earth.

Words of Encouragement Matthew 19:14

But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children   Matthew 19:14

As I read this scripture this morning my heart broke for a mother who has selfishly spent the last 15 years raising, nurturing, and caring for her sweet son who lost her precious boy this week . For almost a week now I have been trying to put words together to express the feelings of a broken heart i have for this family, and the love and selfless giving i saw within it.  Chandler was an amazing young man, and his smile lit up a room  :) and his mom is an amazing woman.  A woman of strength and love for the Lord.  It warms my heart to know that this week there has been no pain for Chandler and that He has been running on the streets of Gold in Heaven. God promised the kingdom of Heaven to those who had faith like children.  A simple faith, that they would be protected and loved.  Its the faith of a child who knows his Father will provide. In the coming weeks my thoughts and prayers will be with the Benfield and Praytor families as they begin to move forward, but I hope they find encouragement to what a blessing Chandler was in so many peoples life, and his joy for life no matter the struggles he faced were an inspiration to all who met him :)  

During the rest of the month of February a portion of the proceeds from Sessions with Meredith Staton Photography and all of the proceeds from any purchases made from Initial Outfitters will go to Chandlers family  in a small attempt to bless them in the way that Chandlers smile blessed so many of us :)


If you would like to schedule a session, place and order or book a party with initial outfitters in support of the Benfield and Praytor Families please email me at meredith@meredithsearcystaton.com

Words of Encouragement... Matthew 5:13

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.   -Matthew 5:13


Jesus is calling us to be authentic and use the impact we can have on the world.  He tells us that we are the salt of the world, Salt was used to preserve meat in those days.  It kept it from spoiling, without the salt the meat would have spoiled and not been usable.  Jesus tells us that we are to be salt to people in the world who don't know him.  He will use us to preserve their lives.  But He is also giving us a warning, that we must keep our relationship with him strong because salt is not the same if it looses its defining characteristic "saltyness".  We need to continually work on our relationship with the Lord, be in his word and in prayer to maintain our saltyness.  If we are not authentic with people or if we say one thing and do not live by the standards we say we live by then our testimony has no value to people.  The Lord will not use us if we are living by the worlds standards, and people will not relate to Jesus through us if we are being hypocritical.

Words of Encouragement - Psalms 8:1

O Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth!
                                                                    Psalms 8:1

Sometimes I dont think we take enough time just praising the Lord.

Our Lord is 

mighty

strong

the creator

the beginning and the end

full of grace

merciful 

the great shepherd 

the father 

benevolent

the great protector

wise

Sovereign

Holy

and the list of his attributes goes on forever.

we should spend a little extra time praising God for who he is and all that he has done for us. 

Words of Encouragement... Philippians 4:19

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
                                                                              Philippians 4:19


Paul was writing to the church in Phillipi and telling them of his ministry since he had left them.  The church had sent him money and supplies while he had been away working for the Lord.  Paul was writing in this chapter to thank them and to let them know that he was not writing for them to send more but, even if they didn't the Lord would and had been supplying his needs.  Paul had faith in the Lord that his needs would be met even though he had no control over what and where the support came from.  Paul had devoted his life to the Lord's work and there was no promised source of income from his work.  Paul was remininding the church at Phillipi that just as the Lord had taken care of him he would continue to take care of all of the needs of theirs as well.

As Christians today, we live in  a much different time, the pace of life is much faster, and it takes "more" to live this life, but yet the Lord still is true to his word.  He will supply all our needs.  I think of the birds and how calm they seem.  I even sometimes find peace in standing at the window watching them.  They don't worry about where their next meal will come from.  Its always there when they need it.  But we, being born of a sinful nature, have a quality of anxiety that the other animals don't have.  We worry.  All God asks us to do is to Ask Him.  Do our Part.  Give Back his Share. and believe that he will provide.  And he ALWAYS does.

The other thing we struggle with today is knowing the difference between wants and needs.  Sometimes we may have to live without things (wants) but God always supplies our needs, he knows what is best for us and will always bless us according to his plan.  God is supreme and has infininate resources.  If we love and bless each other with everything we have HOW MUCH MORE will our heavenly father love and bless us if we only ask.

Words of Encouragement- Psalms 13:1-5

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How Long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle my with my thought, end every sorrow in my heart?
Look on me and answer O Lord my God, Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death
my enemy will say I will overcome him
and my foes will rejoice when i fall
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation
                                                                                 Psalms 13:5


David wrote these words as his prayer from being in dispair.  He asked the Lord how long would he forget him, and how long would he hide his face from him?  Obviously The Lord had not forgotten David and he had not hidden himself from him, but David was not feeling the presence of the Lord around him.  Sometimes in the middle of what seem like horrible earthly problems we tend not to be able to feel the Lord around us.  Sometimes we think the Lord is too slow to act.  We often have impatience with God.  It seems sometimes that evil runs rampid and we wonder when God is going to stop it.  David affirmed that he would continue to trust God no matter how long he had to for God's justice to be realized.  When you feel yourself becoming inpatient remember David's steadfast faith and God's unfailing Love, and that sometimes when God allows the devil to work in our lives he is strengthening our patience and our faith.  God always gets the glory in any situation no matter how bad it seems to us.

Just like David sometimes we will have to wait on the Lord, It may be a financial situation, a health situation  a family situation or even someones salvation, and in these times it is harder to hold on to your faith but God's timing is perfect and if we trust in his unfailing love and rejoice in the salvation he has given us He will prevail :)

In his time
In his time
He makes all things beautiful In his time
Show us everyday
As your teaching me your way
You do just what you say
In your Time
- such beautiful lyrics to an old hymn but so true today.

Words of Encouragement: Mark 8:34-35

When he had called the people to himself, with his disciples also, he said to them, whoever desires to come after me let him take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels, will find it.
                                                                                 Mark 8:34-35

When Mark wrote this passage of scripture he was originally talking to the Romans and they understood what taking up a cross meant. Death on a cross was a way that dangerous criminals were executed in that time in Rome.  A prisoner was required to carry his own cross to the place where he would be hung on it to signify Rome's Power. Jesus uses this idea of carrying ones cross to symbolize the total submission that he requires of his followers.  Jesus does not want us to have a miserable life. In fact he wants us to have life, and life to the fullest, neither is he saying that we should seek pain needlessly for his sake.  Paul was talking about making an effort daily and in each moment to do his will even when the future does not look the way you want it to.  Jesus was telling the Roman citizens that following him would not be easy.   We should be willing to lose our lives for the sake of the gospel not because our lives are useless but because nothing- not even life itself can compare to what we gain with Christ.  And as Christians living in the United States, most of the time we wont even be asked to do the "hard stuff" ... We wont ever be asked to die for Jesus, or live in the third world countries for his ministry, but Paul says we will have to make sacrifices and we will have to lay down our lives in a sense that we may not live by our goals, and our desires, and our choosing. Jesus wants us to make a conscious choice to follow him every day, rather than lead a life of sin and self satisfaction  He wants us to stop trying to control our own lives and allow him to direct us.  This makes perfect sense because he is the creator, The Lord knows better than we do what real life is about, all he asks for is our submission, not self hatred, he only asks us to loose our self centered determination to be in charge.

If The Lord cares for the animals and the rest of the earth and they are always provided for, how much more would he do for the people he loves, are made in his image, and sent his only son to the earth to die for.

All he's asking is that we give up the control of our own lives and allow him to control our path.  He will bless us far more than we will ever expect if we will just let go of our lives and surrender them to him.

Words of Encouragement 1 Corinthians 1:25

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom and the strength of God is stronger than mans strength.
                                                                                           1 Corinthians 1:25

A lot of people don't think that Jesus was real, Jesus was one of three things he was either a Lunatic  a Lie, or Lord.  A lot of people would agree that he was either Crazy or he didn't even exist because the things of God seem simply foolish to them.  Even as Christians Gods ways can seem strange or crazy to us, but his ways are not our ways and his timing is not our timing and so we have to remember that even when the Lords ways do not make sense that that his ways are far wiser than our ways.  Even in his death many people find weakness in Jesus, but Jesus didn't stay dead, and by this he demonstrated his power as fully God over death.  His resurrection sounds like a fairy-tale to many, and many of these people try to work their way to a god because the simpleness of the gospel is too easy to be true.  To just admit that you have sinned, have faith and believe in Jesus as your Lord,  confess and repent of your sins, and surrender your life to him, sounds to easy and that there must be a catch to many. But God is so much wiser than we are.  God is so much stronger than we are.  If we will only ask him, he can do infinitely more with our time, our money, our relationships and our lives and he will bless us tremendously along the way if we will just trust him as God in our lives and turn our lives over to him and trust that his wisdom and strength are far greater than ours.

Words of Encouragement - Titus 2:1

You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.  Titus 2:1


In our world today there are so many different "teachings" so many different things that sound good.  There are "so many ways to get to God," but I truly believe that faith in Jesus Christ and complete surrender of your life to him is the Only way.  You have to be so careful to know what is true and what is not truth.Paul writes Titus from Prison and tells him that he must teach the people only what is sound biblical truth.  Paul knew the importance of the truth, even if it meant being arrested or even killed.  The only way to know what is true is to study the scriptures for yourself.  There are so many things out there and the only way to know if they are true is to hold them up against Gods standard, the word of God, the bible.  As Christians we need to study and  know the scriptures for a couple of different reasons.  First of all because it is an encouragement to our daily lives and brings us closer to the Lord.  Secondly because It will help us decide what is true and what is false that is being taught around us and to fend off false teachers, and thirdly it will make sure that like Paul warned against that when we tell others what we know about the Lord and his scripture that what we tell is truth.  When teaching is sound it combines correct knowledge and understanding with consistent practice.

To be sound doctrine it must be found in the bible, keep Jesus Christ Central, result in good behavior and actions, and promote spiritual health in ourselves and others.

As Christians we have to be solidly grounded in the truth of the bible. so that we wont be swayed by all the lies out there or the pull of our emotions either.

As we go about our lives we need to be aware of what is being said around us, compare it to God word, and only live by the truth the Lord has set before us.

Words of Encouragement... Leviticus 19:18

You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people but you shall love your neighbor as your self.  I am the Lord.
                                                                                                  Leviticus 19:18

This verse as harshly as it sounds like it is written, is a boundary for our safety and our good.  So many people think that the bible is just a book of things that we can't do.  A way to ruin our fun. Especially in the Old Testament  people see the lives of Christians as stuffy and boring, but that is not true at all.  Jesus rephrased this "rule" in Matthew 22:34 - 40 when he told the people to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.  He said that this was the greatest of the commandments.  The thing that caught me on this verse was the part about not taking vengeance or bearing any grudge against the children of your people.  I think far too often we hold on to things when we have been hurt by people and situations   In essence we are saying that God is not big enough to handle this problem for us and it makes us feel good to stay mad about it.  Sometimes we even pull other people into our anger and frustration.  I have done this more times than i care to admit, and relationships with an innocent bystander of an argument or disagreement were hurt just because they were somehow related to the other person.  The real truth in this verse and in Jesus's teaching of the same concept in Matthew is that if we can get this one, the rest of the "rules" will come with ease.  This one is about our heart and our selfishness.  We think of ourselves higher than we really are which causes us not to love others, but if we love others and we love God, we have lowered ourselves to the correct place in our priorities and our attitude will be more like that of Christ.

Is there someone in your life that you need to make amends with.  It may not always be able to be fixed but you need to do everything on your end to try to fix it and then all you can do is pray.  The Lord is in control and is able to heal broken relationships. Sometimes its just not on our time table.

Words of Encouragement John 1:17

For the Law was given through Moses but Grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.
                                                                                                        John 1:17

Just as the Lord is completely loving, he completely hates sin.  The Law and Grace are two aspects of his nature that he uses in dealing with us and the sin in our lives..   God can not tolerate sin, that was the reason that he made Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden. Before the coming of Jesus the people in the Old Testament had to live by the law that the Lord Gave to Moses.  Not only did the law govern what they should and shouldn't do, it also gave  them specifications for the sacrifices and attachments that would take the place of the blood of Jesus until He came.  The People of the Old Testament had heard of their redeemer and they were saved with faith that Christ would come just as we are saved by our Faith that Christ did come and die on the Cross for our Sin.  The Lord giving Moses the law showed us his attributes of Gods Law and Justice and Righteousness  while when Jesus came, he came to show that the Lord's love, forgiveness, and mercy.  People don't like to think of God as a judge or someone who hates sin, but Jesus was sent so the Lord could show his Love and Grace and Mercy to the people in the most absolute way.  Jesus came to fulfill the law to its ultimate completeness. (Matthew 5:17).  The Law is a guideline to live by, but with our sinful nature we will never be able to live up to the Lords standard, so he offers the blood of Jesus as an atonement and a plan for the redemption of his people.

Rather than coming through Cold Stone Tablets, Gods truth now comes through a person's life.  As we get to know Christ better and become more  Christlike our understanding of the Lord will increase

Words of Encouragement - Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
                                                       Hebrews 13:8

Jesus has so many attributes that make him worthy of our worship, but one of them that has such meaning to us as humans is the fact that he does not change.  No matter what our circumstances  No matter how much the world around us shifts, no matter how many people in our lives that we can not depend on Jesus is always there.  He never changes.  He never leaves us.  Jesus is the standard, and the standard is constant and true. :) Find Hope in the fact that when everything else is falling apart, Jesus will be there and he will be exactly what he has always been... Faithful!

Words of Encouragement 2 Corinthians 4:7

"We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure.  This shows that the great power is from God, not from us."  2 Corrinthians 4:7

- Paul is talking about the Gospel here but i think it can be applied to our talents and abilities as well.. God has granted us each unique talents and abilities.  We cant do them on our own. We must strengthen and grow in these talents and learn and grow to become better, and we must use these talents for his glory and not our own :)  We also must keep in daily contact with the Lord so that He can work through us and the abilities he has given us to bless others.