In this new video, I (Darlene) want to encourage you! This is the time to put God’s Kingdom first! One thing I have learned is that God is truly faithful and trustworthy! When we put knowing God, God’s Kingdom, and living righteously as our priority, He adds to us all we need!
Also, we wanted to let you know that our Christmas goal is nearly reached! As of this moment, we have raised $16,000 of the $20,000 goal! Isn’t that awesome?! To all who have given, Thank you!
May God bless you this Holiday season! We love you all!
All to Jesus,
Darlene
P.S. If you still want to help us reach our Christmas day goal, you can give here. We would love to meet the goal for this winter outreach before we release our big 2024 mission plans.
Matthew 6:33 (NLT) Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Matthew 6:9-10 (NLT) 9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Transcript:
Hey guys, Darlene Stanley here. I want to read you the word as we step into this Christmas season. It’s a busy time of year and the bigger the family, the busier it seems to get. Am I right? I think I’m right. So I just want to read to you a really good verse right now. It’s Matthew 6, 33. It’s one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. It says, “To seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and He will give you everything you need.” Say everything. Say it again. Everything. Say everything I need will be supplied. Amen. This is the time of year that we are pouring out of ourselves. You know, we’re giving here. We’re helping, you know, right now we’re helping kids in Nepal have Christmas and we’re trying to get the kitchen on the way. We want to outreach to poor families. So we are giving of ourselves. Well, this is a promise to us as we are generous in this time of Christmas. Matthew 6, 33, “As we seek first the kingdom of God above all else, above everything,” meaning we give God our first, our best, the first part of our day, you know, the first part off the top of our income, everything that comes into our lives. And we live righteously, meaning we live and walk according to the Word of God. We try to live and obey in an obedience to God’s Word over our lives and not live like the world or for ourselves. He says He’ll give you everything you need. So this is a promise that as we put our faith and trust in the Word of God, God’s going to take care of the rest. He’s going to take care at every need that you have this season in your life. And I just want this to minister to your heart. Some of you have been wondering, like, how am I going to make it? How am I going to do it? Well, the answer is not to scale back in our generosity. The answer is to seek God, to seek His will in the earth. And what does He want us to be doing? You know, He wants us to be seeking and saving those who are lost, being a witness and giving. So giving is a part of the kingdom of heaven. And that is not something we are commanded to stop, even in times that are hard. And sometimes, especially when times are hard, God asks the most of us, because in that point of our life, we need a breakthrough. You know, we need something to shift, something to happen. And so sometimes, honestly, when it’s the hardest, God can require even more from us to give. Because He’s wanting to bless us. And that is the heart of our Father, not to take from us, but the heart of our Father is to get things to us. But we have to choose, are we serving Him, or are we serving the thing we’re afraid of losing? It could be money, it could be things in our lives. Are we serving that first over our obedience to God? Does God have all of our heart, or does He not? You know, the Scripture says you can only serve one master, you can’t serve both God and money. We can’t serve God and, you know, our jobs, the money, like we have to seek God and serve Him first. So this is an important reminder, even in this season where I know it can be stressful, and I know it’s hard sometimes for some families to really make ends meet this time of year. But I’m telling you, as we are generous with the things that God cares about, He is promising from the Word of God here that He will take care of everything that we have need of. So what is God asking of you to give in this season? And I just want to stretch your faith, to trust and believe God, give where He’s telling you to give, you know, obey, give to that project, give to that work, you know, give to that family. If there’s another family that you know about that is in need this Christmas, like give, and God’s gonna make the rest work. He’s gonna make it happen for you guys. Amen.
So I just hope this encourages you today. Just walk in Matthew 6:33 and your life will never ever fail. I’m telling you the truth, like this has been a verse, really a life verse for myself. Even before I was married, leading up to the last night getting married, and then our travels around the world and preaching the gospel, this has been one of those anchoring scriptures in my heart. Like no matter what we face, I knew if we’re seeking God’s will above everything else, His kingdom, His kingdom in the earth is His will. It’s what He wants, right? In Matthew 6 verse 9, you know, He’s teaching us how to pray. And He’s saying, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. May Your kingdom come and Your will be done on the earth as it is in heaven.” The scripture is connected as well to Matthew 6.33. So we seek the kingdom of God above all else. That’s His will on the earth. We seek to do His will on the earth to live like Him, to live like Christ, like Christ once. And as we do, He promises us. He promises it. He’ll give you everything you need. So to honestly obey this scripture and to ask yourself, “What is God wanting me to do for Him?” Do it. Don’t hold on to it. Don’t try to control things. Don’t try to just like make things happen the way, honestly, our flesh and our fear would say, you know, it needs to happen this way because we try to hold on to things when we get scared. But God says, “Hey, trust me. Give it to me and I’m going to give you everything you need.” So I just hope this encourages somebody out there today. And I just want you to know that God loves you and He is not trying to take something from you. He is trying to get something to you. This is so true in our Father’s heart. He asks things of us to give because we are connected to Him in relationship. We’re His kids. We’re a part of His house. And so in Him asking us to give things is a way of us belonging and being a part of the family. And He’s not going to ask us to give something that He don’t intend to also just return and bless our life with again. I can’t tell you, we’ve given away things so many times. So many times,Dustan and I have completely got rid of just about everything. You know, boiled our life down to a backpack and lived very recklessly by some people’s standards. And it was a reckless faith to be obedient to what God wanted from our life. And that was to trust Him. And that time of our life was a Luke 10 journey for us. You know, to trust Him, watch Him take care of us, watch Him give us everything we need. And I tell you what, we put the scripture to the test and every single time it proved to be true. God took care of us. When we had nothing else to eat, God brought somebody to our doorstep and gave us rice. You know, that was in Asia, in the middle of remote Asia where we could get no money out. There were no ATMs and we had run out of cash. We had nowhere else to go and no food, nothing. And this village opened their doors to us, gave us a place to stay and brought us bowls of rice to eat. So we never had to go without because we were trusting God. I’m telling you, no matter what you are facing this Christmas season, no matter what you are going without this season, I want you to know that God wants to minister to you and your family. And I just want to pray with you in agreement,
no matter what you’re faced with right now. Father God, I just come in agreement right now with my brothers and sisters watching that you are faithful to your word. And Lord, we thank you for your word. Matthew 6 33, you are faithful. Your promises are sure, Lord, as they seek you and they seek the kingdom of God, meaning they are walking in obedience. They are heading in the direction you call them to go. They’re trusting you, Father. They are giving their living righteously, Father. Lord, I thank you that as they are doing these things, you are supplying right now everything they have need of. We thank you, Father. You are El Shaddai, our provider, providing for us. We will never lack. We thank you, Father God, that lack is broken off of our lives. Poverty is broken off of our lives. We thank you, Father, that you’re faithful to perform and fulfill every one of your promises and your words to us. They are yes and amen. In Jesus name I pray, amen. All right, well, I hope you have a blessed rest of your day. And I just want you to know that God is thinking of you and He is looking out for you guys. And we love you so much. I pray that you have a wonderful, blessed day. And remember to live, live in this word, walk in this word, and hold on to it. It’s our promise. Amen. Love you guys. See you next time. Bye-bye.
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