JFA Blog

Reflections, studies and news for your walk with God.

April 07, 2021·Nicole Leão

And when the spiritual discouragement hits?

Let’s admit that we are not always excited, sometimes we feel tired and sad. But then, instead of seeking our Lord, the more we turn away from Him and everything that involves His kingdom, that is, the church, ministries, and so many other important areas of our lives. I believe that many of us have been through this and no matter how hard we try to get out it seems so difficult. But enough of the discouragement, the weakness and the sadness! Today we will meditate on what the Bible tells us about this spiritual evil that can afflict any of us. Elijah in the cave The great prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19, even after witnessing the Lord’s great deeds, went through a period of profound discouragement. He was afraid because Queen Jezebel had threatened to kill him, felt lonely for being God’s only prophet and was disappointed with the people of Israel, who had broken their covenant with the Lord. In verse 4 of chapter 19, Elijah wishes for his own death and asks God to take his life. However, the Angel of the Lord goes to Elijah and gives him something to eat and drink (1 Kings […]

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April 05, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: Jesus, exchange my burden for yours

Today I want to pray for the theme of the last theme presented here on the blog, we will pray that Jesus will exchange our burden for His, which as it is written in Matthew 11:28-30, is soft and light. How often do we not fill ourselves with things to do and forget what we should really be doing for God’s honor and glory. Your work is an important area of your life, as well your family, church, friendship and so many others. Well, today we will pray that in all these areas our Lord will show us how we should act. I leave here a passage especially for you today: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 Remember that you don’t have to repeat the prayer exactly as I am going to leave it here, because each one of us has a specific way of communicating with the Lord. But if you […]

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March 31, 2021·Nicole Leão

The greatest act of love in all history

We have arrived in April and we find ourselves on the eve of Easter, a date so important to us in which we commemorate the greatest act of love in all history. I was thinking throughout this week about how people celebrate this milestone. I believe that many families have the habit of getting together and having a special lunch, in the case of Christians, we go to church and we also have a special service, we eat in memory of the sacrifice of our Lord. Despite this, I feel that Easter does not get the same attention as, for example, Christmas for many people. I believe that this happens because of the commercialization of this date, society has made this period extremely commercial, with the famous Easter eggs (which every year get more expensive) and bunnies. I know that at Christmas we also have symbols and man-made traditions, but especially at Easter I see this directly affecting children who are still learning about the word of God. So today I want to bring here the real story of Easter. The first Easter This year everyone will celebrate this moment with their families in seclusion, due to the Pandemic and […]

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March 29, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: Remembering the sacrifice on the cross

We are approaching Easter, such an important date for us Christians, where our Savior died for us on the cross, freeing us from the bonds of sin. And today I want to pray that we will never forget what our savior did for us, giving his life so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. I also leave here a passage especially for you today: 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 Remember that you don’t have to repeat the prayer exactly as I will leave it here, because each one of us has a specific way of communicating with the Lord. But if you want to accompany me, it will be a pleasure, feel free to speak in your own way. Prayer Dear God, I thank you for giving up your only Son to die for me on the Cross. I thank you because you had mercy on me, even with my faults and sins. I thank you for your infinite love […]

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March 24, 2021·Nicole Leão

How do you deal with your feelings?

So many feelings are capable of dominating us throughout life, fear, envy, anger, anxiety, sadness, jealousy, love, courage, and so many others. Sometimes we act driven by anger, sometimes by gentleness and calm. Who has never been anxious, worried or anguished? Fortunately, once in a while we become joyful and happy, even infecting those around us. Feelings can be intense, and we don’t always feel we have power over them. There are many kinds of feelings, good, bad and those that we cannot define. But in the Bible we find examples and answers to deal with each one of them. The Bible and feelings David was often overcome by loneliness during the time he lived in hiding from Saul, but he also had moments of intense joy, such as when the ark of the covenant arrived in Jerusalem. Gideon was first afraid in the face of his challenges, but later showed courage. Samson was overcome by passion. Elijah was depressed and sad when faced with the consequences of his call, but received an answer from God. Peter was ashamed, afraid and perplexed to see Jesus being arrested, but then became sad and bitter for denying Him. Well as we can […]

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March 22, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: May the wall fall!

Today I want to pray with you for the falling of the walls in our lives. Sometimes we may feel that we can’t go any further, that something is holding us back and this can discourage us. However, this is the time to gather our strength and keep going until the walls that are keeping us from going further fall down, and we can enjoy the peace and fullness of what our God has for us. We need to be prepared for the battles in fasting and prayer. So today I invite you to pray for the walls to fall to the ground. I also leave here a passage especially for you today: He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay them low;he will bring them down to the ground, to the very dust. Isaiah 25:12 Prayer Dear God, thank you for your protection, your love, and for being with me in the battle. Thank you for all that you have done for me, for the opportunities that I have had and for those that are to come. Today I pray to You, for I feel that there are walls in my way. I feel that there are aspects of […]

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March 17, 2021·Nicole Leão

Where does your insomnia begin?

In peace, I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalms 4:8 Tick-tock, tick-tock, so the clock beats, one more hour passes and no sleep comes, we start to wonder why we are in such a situation, but not always accept the real reason, creating even unfounded reasons in our imagination. These days I found myself this way, almost time to wake up and sleep “didn’t come”, or rather, I was too restless to sleep, so I thought of a thousand things, I took some tea, tried to change position in bed, but nothing seemed to help. Until at a certain moment I realized that I was thinking for hours about the same subject and the same person, and that was when I realized the origin of such restlessness. In fact, my insomnia had a name and a reason, even though I was insisting that it was just lack of sleep. I was so stuck on that thought that I started to feel distressed and then I realized that the enemy was trying to attack my mind, because that way I would not have the disposition to do everything I needed to do the […]

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March 15, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: Saying goodbye to insomnia

These days I can’t sleep, and I was thinking about how many times we have insomnia and say we don’t understand why, and sometimes we just don’t want to admit that we are worried about a specific issue or that we need to solve something with someone. But we can’t always do what we need to do at that exact moment, or we don’t even know how to solve such a situation, so we need to give it into the Lord’s hands and let Him guide us to rest and then calmly know how to act on a certain matter. With this in mind, today I want to pray with you that we can together say goodbye to insomnia. I leave here a passage especially for you today: In peace I lie down and soon I fall asleep, for only you, Lord, make me live in safety. Psalms 4:8 Remember that you don’t have to repeat the prayer exactly as I’m going to leave it here, because each one of us has a specific way of communicating with the Lord. But if you want to accompany me, it will be a pleasure, feel free to speak it in your own […]

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March 10, 2021·Nicole Leão

The Seasons of Life: Autumn

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot; Ecclesiastes 3:1,2 Today we will continue the series “The Seasons of Life”, where through 4 texts we will be led to reflect on the moments through which our lives are composed by making an analogy with the seasons of the year, thus being spring, summer, autumn and winter. Without a doubt, we can say that our life is full of different circumstances that are not always well defined as the seasons, sometimes spring is not only flowers and thinking about this I remembered a violin concerto by a very famous Italian composer named Antonio Vivaldi, entitled “The Four Seasons”. In his composition, through music he brings in different notes these nuances that exist within each season, just like life, but it is still possible to perceive that there is a cycle, a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the Bible we find numerous passages that speak exactly about this, the weather, and for our reflection we will talk about autumn. Autumn Be glad, people of […]

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March 08, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: No more tears!

Crying can sometimes be good, but we know that it isn’t always… so many times we have a lump in our throat that doesn’t seem to go away, the world gets a little gray and everything seems worse than it really is. But lately I’ve learned something that has helped me a lot, and I believe it can help you too: when the world seems bad, be thankful for the good things. Once, when I was very young, my father taught me to look out the window. That is, to look out the window and see what was beautiful through it. Our eyes are sometimes so used to looking at everything in a negative way that we simply forget to look for what is good and brings peace. So I want to pray together with you for joy and that our window of the soul, the eyes, will be clean to look for what is good. I leave here a passage especially for you today: For your anger lasts only a moment; in your favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalms 30:5 Remember that you don’t have to repeat the prayer […]

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March 04, 2021·Nicole Leão

The Seasons of Life: Summer

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, Ecclesiastes 3:1,2 Today we will continue the series “The Seasons of Life”, where through 4 texts we will be led to reflect on the moments through which our lives are composed by making an analogy with the seasons of the year, thus being spring, summer, autumn and winter. Without a doubt, we can say that our life is full of different circumstances that are not always well defined as the seasons, sometimes spring is not only flowers and thinking about this I remembered a violin concerto by a very famous Italian composer named Antonio Vivaldi, entitled “The Four Seasons”. In his composition, through music he brings in different notes these nuances that exist within each season, just as life is, but it is still possible to perceive that there is a cycle, a beginning, a middle, and an end. The season we will see today is summer, a time of joy, but also of a lot of work. Summer He who gathers crops in summer is […]

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March 04, 2021·Nicole Leão

The Seasons of Life: Spring

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, Ecclesiastes 3:1,2 Today we will begin the series “The Seasons of Life”, where through 4 texts we will be led to reflect on the moments through which our lives are composed by making an analogy with the seasons of the year, thus being spring, summer, autumn and winter. Without a doubt, we can say that our life is full of different circumstances that are not always well defined as the seasons, sometimes spring is not only flowers and thinking about this I remembered a violin concerto by a very famous Italian composer named Antonio Vivaldi, entitled “The Four Seasons”. In his composition, through music he brings in different notes these nuances that exist within each season, just like life, but it is still possible to perceive that there is a cycle, a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the Bible we find numerous passages that speak exactly about this, the weather, and for our first reflection we will talk about spring. Spring See! The winter […]

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March 01, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: Wisdom in the midst of crisis

We are not in an easy moment worldwide, the coronavirus is still circulating around, many people are hospitalized, others are still unemployed, and with this we see the hope of many getting dimmed. More than ever we need to be strategic, focus on what matters, and be wise in our actions and decisions. That is why I want to pray together with you for wisdom in the midst of this crisis, so that we can deal with it in the best way. I leave here a passage especially for you today: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 Remember that you don’t have to repeat the prayer exactly as I am going to leave it here, because each one of us has a specific way of communicating with the Lord. But if you want to follow me, it will be a pleasure, feel free to speak it in your own way. Prayer Beloved God, I want to thank you first of all for all that you have been doing, for your care and protection. I thank you for your provision […]

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February 25, 2021·Nicole Leão

Do you have conviction in God’s sovereignty?

Today I want to have a brief conversation with you about the sovereignty of God. I know that sometimes we can find ourselves afraid and lost, but our Father knows all the pieces of the puzzle in each of our lives. Even though at times we may not find where each one of them fits together, we can have conviction in His sovereignty and be sure that God will direct us to put the final picture together in His time. God’s Sovereignty and our choices The Bible says that God is sovereign and also that we have the ability to make decisions. Our actions are important and bring real consequences. However, God already knows everything that will happen and promotes His plans. Our personal plans and decisions can never destroy God’s ultimate plan. There is much debate about how it is possible for God to be sovereign and for us to have the ability to make choices. But we can say that God is sovereign because He grants the privilege to choose and defines what we can choose and the consequences of our actions. It was God Himself who placed in our nature the ability to make plans and deliberate. […]

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February 22, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: Humility before the Father!

Today I want to pray for a delicate subject in a world where we are encouraged to think only about ourselves, which is humility. So many times we don’t inflate our ego not only before people, but especially before God who is our father, we are proud, we consider ourselves as the owners of reason, and we act as we please considering what is best for us. The lack of humility also leads us to rebellion that keeps us away from God, so today we will pray for humility before the father and with people. I leave here a passage especially for you today: Be completely humble and docile, and be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2 Remember that you don’t have to repeat the prayer exactly as I am going to leave it here, because each one of us has a specific way of communicating with the Lord. But if you want to follow me, it will be a pleasure, feel free to speak it in your own way. Prayer Beloved God, I thank you for your goodness, love and mercy. For taking care of me in every detail, even though I sin, make mistakes, and […]

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February 18, 2021·Nicole Leão

Series: What healing do you need? [Spiritual Healing]

Today we will continue the series “What healing do you need?”, where through three reflections we will recall biblical stories of physical, emotional and spiritual healing, in which the Lord worked in favor of his children, showing once again his glory and infinite goodness. In the last text we talked about emotional healing that has a high proximity with today’s subject, spiritual healing. Not all emotional healing is necessarily spiritual, but all spiritual healing is also emotional. When we talk about deliverance we need to remember that this is a wide-ranging subject. But today we will focus on the freedom that Jesus talked about the most, that of being free to live God’s will for our lives. When we understand this, we will realize that what most imprisons us, especially spiritually, is sin. The different spiritual cures Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”. He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:19-21 In this […]

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February 12, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: Health to keep going!

In the last few days we have been talking about healing here on the blog and today I want to pray for health to continue standing firm, fulfilling the purpose that God has for us, whether it be work, academic, family or ministry. Without health we are unable to accomplish many things, so today I invite you to pray with me, that we will continue standing firm on the unshakable rock. I also leave here a passage especially for you today: Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you. Exodus 23:25 Remember that you don’t have to repeat the prayer exactly as I am going to leave it here, because each one of us has a specific way of communicating with the Lord. But if you want to follow me, it will be a pleasure, feel free to speak it in your own way. Prayer Beloved God, I thank you for my health, for waking up today and being able to live another day for your honor and glory. I also thank you for the health of all those I love. You have been good to me, even though I […]

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February 09, 2021·Nicole Leão

Series: What cure do you need? [Physical healing]

Today we will start a new series here on the blog, called “What healing do you need?”, where through three reflections we will remember biblical stories of physical, emotional and spiritual healing, in which the Lord worked on behalf of his children, showing once again his glory and infinite goodness. We will start with physical healing, which surely we all already need at some point and in a year when we still face the coronavirus is so necessary. Physical illnesses can attack any person and when they arrive we question why and what is the cause of facing such difficult situations in life. We don’t always understand why we pass through certain valleys, but through the word of God we can understand why we pass through them and remember that just like our powerful Father did in the past, He continues to do today. Nowadays medicine is more advanced, and we have different treatments for countless illnesses, but God continues to perform miracles like the ones we read in the Bible, and today I want to remember here the story of Lazarus. The illness and resurrection of Lazarus Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, were great friends of Jesus. […]

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February 08, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: Returning to the arms of the Father

We are called to be children, but how often by our pride, arrogance and sinful nature, we decide to go our own way, without asking the Father’s direction, trusting that we know what is best. We turn away from God’s presence and at some point we realize that we are actually doing a tremendous amount of nonsense. We are troubled in the depths of our soul, anguish beats, sadness and so many other bad feelings of restlessness. But you know what? God loves you, he never stopped loving you and is eager to welcome you with open arms again. So today I invite you to pray, asking forgiveness for all rebellion and renewing the covenant you once made like the Lord. I leave here a passage especially for you today: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 Remembering that you don’t have to repeat the prayer exactly as I will leave it here, because each of us has a specific way to communicate with the Lord. But if you want to accompany me, it will be a pleasure, feel free to speak […]

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February 03, 2021·Nicole Leão

The belief comes before the fulfillment

These days I was reading the passage of Luke 1, and I had my attention fixed on verse 45, where it is written: “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”. These words, inspired by God, were spoken by Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, to Mary, Jesus’ mother. In this chapter the story is told of when Elizabeth, a barren woman of advanced age, becomes pregnant and soon after Mary who is her cousin and virgin also becomes pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. But returning to the fact mentioned in the verse that caught my attention, the faith of Jesus’ mother came before the promise was fulfilled. Reading this passage it is also possible to identify that because of her faith she received the grace to give light to the Son of God. The answer of the Lord’s servant to the angel who announced to her what was to come, was filled with faith, she answered: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be fulfilled in me according to your word”. After reading this, I kept thinking about how many times we don’t want something to be fulfilled, but we don’t […]

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February 02, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: Constance to build!

Today we will pray for constancy, so necessary in our lives, because without it we won’t build anything, nor will we get anywhere. In the Bible we find countless stories of people who, through constancy, took their relationship with God to another level and were used by our Lord. Being a fickle person leads to frustration for never building anything you want, not to mention that this bad feature can lead someone to a divorce or the loss of a job, maybe you have been that way until today, but it’s ok, because I know that with the help of the Holy Spirit, you can change that in your life. Thinking about it, we will pray for constancy to be part of our lives. I leave here a passage especially for you today: May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. 2 Thessalonians 3:5 Remembering that you don’t have to repeat the prayer exactly as I will leave it here, because each of us has a specific way to communicate with the Lord. But if you want to accompany me, it will be a pleasure, feel free to speak your way. Prayer Dear God, I want […]

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January 30, 2021·Paulo Oliveira

The important things cannot be bought

Every year the chorus “Health to give and sell” is sung in Brazil, while partygoers imagine and wish each other a Happy New Year, with lots of money in their pockets and… health to give and sell. This 2021 started with this chorus more current than ever … but with a new meaning: Many going after anyone who can give a vaccine, or willing to pay dearly for a life-saving treatment. Health to give and sell has ceased to be the personal and disinterested desire of friends, to become a profitable business strand, where countries are not asking the price; citizens are wanting the state to give them health and companies in the health sector are selling expensive; from medicines to equipment, supplies and… vaccines. After all, how much would you not pay for some physical, emotional (and political) tranquility in times like this? As I thought about these facts, I remembered this well-known passage from Isaiah 55: 1-2, where God Himself is proclaiming: “…and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” And also: “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does […]

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January 28, 2021·Nicole Leão

Overcoming, when everything says no!

How many things do we no longer overcome in our lives? Living is overcoming daily. Overcoming ourselves, the opposite situations and the challenges of everyday life. Fortunately, when we serve a living God, we no longer need to do this alone, because there is a Father who watches over us. A Father who sent his son to save us and left the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our salvation. That is why you and I are already winners by accepting Jesus Christ as our only savior, in Him we have the certainty of victory, even if things are not as we wanted. Jesus is the way But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57 As I said, we do not need to overcome anything alone, as children of God we receive help directly from our father. It is written in John 14:6, that Jesus is the way to truth and life. He is not only by our side, but he is the very way to go to the Father. So the first thing we need to remember is that walking with Jesus is the first step to overcoming all […]

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January 26, 2021·Nicole Leão

Prayer: Bringing peace to the afflicted heart!

How is your heart? There are some days when all we think about are problems and worries about the future. Consequently we feel a bad feeling in our hearts, a weight, a restlessness that we don’t even know how to solve. Fortunately we serve a living God who loves us and who his word tells us to cast our anxiety on him, because he cares for us, and thinking about it, today I want to pray that our Father will bring peace to our hearts. I leave here a passage especially for you today: Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 Remembering that you don’t have to repeat the prayer exactly as I will leave it here, because each of us has a specific way to communicate with the Lord. But if you want to accompany me, it will be a pleasure, feel free to speak your way. Prayer Dear God, thank you for your care, for taking care of every detail and being so present in my life. I am grateful for your love and, because I know that even before I worry about something, the Lord in His infinite goodness is […]

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