The Availing

 Through Him We Have Strength By Ava Grace  Our strength comes not from us, but from the One Who created us. We have no power in this world. We are weak men with weak souls. Nothing that we do comes from our own strength, but from Him. The song Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me, by City Alight goes like this: What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer There is no more for heaven now to give He is my Joy, my Righteousness and Freedom My steadfast Love, my deep and boundless Peace To this I hold, my Hope is only Jesus For my life is wholly bound to His Oh how strange and divine I can sing all is mine Yet not I but through Christ in me This first verse and chorus tells us that nothing that we could possibly do comes from us. Yes, we might say we do great things, but is this from our own accord? Surely not! All the strength that we might ever have comes from the only One Who can give it to us.  We do not save souls; we merely make known the saving ...

  Jesus - Not Us - Should Be Praised By Ava Grace  Make It count, leave a mark, build a name for yourself Dream your dreams, chase your heart, above all else Build a name the world remembers These lyrics come from the song Only Jesus by Casting Crowns- and it is one of my favorites. This first verse reminds us of how we must  leave behind a name that will go down in history- else we will be forgotten. No one will remember us. The song goes on: But all an empty world can sell is empty dreams I got lost in the lie that it was up to me To make a name the world  remembers But Jesus is the only name to remember The next verse unpacks how the world can only give us false hope. There is nothing in this world that will live on past death. Except Jesus. Because He is the only person in all of history that we must remember. He is the Living One, Creator of our souls, our Redeemer! Is it not only fair and right that we give Him the reverence and remembrance...

  We Can Face Today- And Tomorrow By Ava Grace  We have a hope that millions of people do not have. Why? Why can't everyone experience this fantastic, everlasting peace? The answer is simple: they do not know Christ, and we do.  Today's song is Because He Lives (Amen) by Matt Maher, and the chorus goes as such: Amen, Amen I'm alive, I'm alive Because He lives Amen, Amen Let my song join the one that never ends Because He lives I can face tomorrow Because  He lives Every fear is gone I know He holds my life, my future In His hands Let's unpack these words that simply explain why we don't have to fear today- and why we can face tomorrow, shall we?  First off, we are alive  because He lives. If He were dead, if He did not exist, we would not be on this planet. But why are  we on this planet? The New City Catechism puts it like this: We are to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. By being faithful in Him that He will help us through our d...

  Why Being UNcool Is the New Cool By Ava Grace  To quote Leanna Crawford's song 'Uncool' will be the start of this post. She sings: If its uncool to say that I love Jesus If its uncool to sing about my freedom Then I'm cool being uncool If its uncool to tell the world Who saved me I don't care if they call me crazy  'Cause I'm cool being uncool In this song, Leanna explains the importance of going against the crowd; not blending in with all the popular kids. Because in reality, being cool and popular has no eternal reward. But having Jesus - and sharing our faith - does.  When we deny our true faith-driven selves and start blending in with the crowd, we are going to feel hollow and empty. Because being the most popular kid at school is not going to get us anywhere. Sure, we might be looked up to, but for the wrong reasons.  As Christians, we want to be looked up for a different sort of popularity, though these days, being a Christi...

School: How to Appreciate It and Use the Time Wisely By Ava Grace  Every middle school and high school students' reaction to the first day of school is probably 'Yay! Now we have more structure to our days, instead of just lazing around the house!' But after the first few weeks, our attitude has a tendency to plummet. Not only are we working for forever  on homework, but sitting through all those long lectures is incredibly boring.  But I have a secret to share.  If we choose to tackle the assignments with vigor, we will accomplish more in less  time. And your question may be 'How can I do this?' Well friend, I will answer your question by giving you an example of a normal school day for me, and then explain why this system has worked so well for me.  My family does school Monday-Thursday, and then we take Friday off and work on household projects on Saturday. On a regular Monday morning, I will set my alarm to 7 A.M. and in the quiet of the morning, r...

Why Spending Quality Time With Family Is Important By Ava Grace  Some might ask why spending time with family is important. We're all pulled in different directions, with sports teams, jobs, and spending time doing things that we like to do. But if we all gave of ourselves a little, saying no to that one game, or that one thing that we really  want to do, and we spend time with the ones who mean the most to us, it will help us build relationships with people who will challenge us to be better Christ-centered people.  By spending time with real people - I'm not talking about fictitious characters here - we will be confronted by how different we all are, even though we all have the same blood pumping through our veins. We will learn how to be humble, gentle, and  patient  with the people who will drive us crazy.    But those bonds that we will develop with our family will grow stronger with every minute that we spend in the same room with ...

Why Writing Is Woth It By Ava Grace I know. It’s hard. Writing. It seems so impossible. But let me tell you: It is not. Writing can be so rewarding if we commit. The key word there is  commit . We can’t call ourselves writers if we don’t have a goal. What that goal is varies from person to person, writer to writer. But it is an admirable goal, nonetheless. We will cry. We will pound the keyboard with our fist. We will throw that pen and crumple that paper. But, telling the story we were chosen to tell is hard. It is grueling work. It is frustrating when the words Just. Aren’t. There. We just want to sit there and stare at the blank page. It is foreboding; screaming ‘You can’t do this. You are not cut out for this. You are not a good enough writer. Someone could do this better.’ And we want to believe it! We want to say ‘Yeah, okay. Some other day maybe. Or never. I don’t know.’ But we have to write. We all have a story to tell. And if we believe we can do it, we will! But not ...