Busy guy, the apostle Paul. In Acts 17 we find him spending a good chunk of time going round Greece, checking out the different idols the people worshipped. What did he find? Well, he learned that the Christian church was pretty focussed on the whole being-religious thing (Acts 17:22). They spent a whole lot of time talking about what to worship and how they should do it. Their main problem? They'd tried to fill their lives with all-things-worshipful, but not with the actual, living God who made the world and everything in it (Acts 17:24). Essentially, they'd missed the point by worshipping God's creation and not God himself.

How prone are we to do the same? The world is full of stuff that grabs, and keeps, our attention. In that sense, we too can get quite religious about certain things. Money, material stuff, social media, gaming, etc - how often do they rise to the top of our priority list?

Instead of feeling bad about our sometimes upside-down priorities, let's remember this: the things of the world can't satisfy us, but the things of God do, and will, bring a whole new level of purpose when we seek him first - and he is always available to be found.

So what now? Skip social media today. Each time you get the urge to check your timeline, pray instead. True, you can pray while you're doing other stuff during your day, but on this occasion we mean focussed prayer. Bring each part of your life to God and ask his will for it.

We may have had nights when we've been so petrified by something that might happen, our mind so filled by 'what if's', that we can't sleep. Sometimes our fears of punishment, danger, loneliness, [insert-fear-here] seem well-founded. But are they actually? The truth is, we sometimes experience a real-life high level of stress about stuff that's only taking place in our heads. So we become paralysed by events that aren't actually happening: fear gets out of proportion and affects our daily lives. But the God who put boundaries on the sea (see Proverbs 8:27-29) can restore the boundaries in our worried minds.

Do we feel held back from the peace and freedom that God can give us? Isaiah 26:4 NLT says, 'Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock'. It takes effort to say 'No' to what holds us back and put our trust in God, but when we're persistent in handing things back to him, we'll develop rest in our soul.

Now, the above advice is harder if we've been struggling with fear for some time. If that's us, we can know this: God is on our side. He wants us to know that nothing can separate us from him: 'It is for freedom that Christ has set us free' (Galatians 5:1 NIV).

So what now? When you find yourself distracted by worry, especially at night when you should be sleeping, do something simple - read the Bible. The whole of Isaiah 26 is great. Focus on God's word instead of on your fears.

Today is Easter Sunday, the day we honour the most powerful event of all time. In fact, it was the greatest history-shifting, life-changing event - the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And the apostle Paul wrote: 'The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you' (Romans 8:11 NLT). We literally have the most powerful person ever on our side and living in us!

Diets, New Year resolutions, motivational seminars - all good in themselves. They're about us trying to make ourselves newer and better. But often we can't maintain the effort to really change. We find it hard to change, but we're desperate to. The many self-help books out there tell us what to do to change but can't give us the power to do it. Where can we find the power to change? Through our main source of power: Jesus. He invites us into relationship with him and offers us help for life. He can help us to live spiritually, physically and mentally healthy.

Jesus' resurrection conquered the power and weight of death and sin, forever: 'God rescued us from the dark power of Satan and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who forgives our sins and sets us free' (Colossians 1:13-14 CEV). Through his resurrection we are changed: 'Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new' (2 Corinthians 5:17 CEV).

So what now? Thank Jesus that, on this day many years ago, his love and power changed your life, and the whole world, forever. Live knowing that through his resurrection power, you can live free.

The apostle Paul is preaching up a storm. He's talking about how to please God, about how we should live in a way that makes everything we do an act of worship. He tells us: 'Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them' (Romans 12:9 NLT). This verse is saying: 'let love be without hypocrisy.' God is deeply unimpressed by hypocrites. He can spot them a galaxy away. The Bible is full of places where he's disapproving of people's outward actions because their hearts are completely the opposite.

In the book of Joel, God says, 'Don't tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead' (Joel 2:13 NLT). He's cross at people who are doing all the right things but not really feeling it. They're covering up how they feel by putting up an impressive-looking front. But it's not real.

Being nice and considerate can make us look good but it's really not what God's after. To quote 1 Corinthians 13:3 NLT, 'If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.' Our love should be for the benefit of others, not for our own personal PR campaign; otherwise it's worthless.

So what now? Has there been a time lately where you've done something nice but you had an ulterior motive? Ask God to give you his genuine - that is, never false or hypocritical - love for people.

'I'll never forget that day. I much prefer to remember the week when Jesus came to my town. Everyone was talking about him. He performed miracles and said things that really challenged our thinking. As he came through our city gates, everyone cheered, "Hail Jesus, King of the Jews!"

But days later, he'd been arrested. I couldn't find out why. They were asking us to choose between Jesus and a thug named Barabbas. You'd think everyone would shout to release Jesus, right? But one person shouted, "Free Barabbas!", then another, and soon the whole crowd was shouting it. Even I shouted, "Barabbas, free Barabbas"! I don't why I did it; I'm not the sort to go along with the crowd. Why didn't I stop and think for myself? The next time I saw Jesus, I hardly recognised him. His face was swollen and bruised - they'd beaten him up really badly. He had blood running down his head from where they'd forced in a crown of thorns. They laughed like it was a joke, but it didn't look funny to me. A soldier asked some guy to help carry Jesus' cross - I suppose that's one good thing that happened that day, but the only good thing.

When they nailed Jesus to the cross, he said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." While he was there, dying, he was thinking of us, asking God to forgive us...to forgive me.'

So what now? Thank Jesus that he died and forgave you, so you can be set free forever.

Everyone faces problems. It's part of living in this world. We can't control the unexpected side-slams that find us; but we can control how we react to them.

We are people God has met, reached out to, saved from sin and then restored. So, we're in the best possible position this side of Heaven to deal with problems. Romans 8:37-39 NIV says: 'In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

The things that might intimidate us can't separate us from his love. But more than that, the side-slams we've had so far are not meant to remain as 'weak points' in our armour against life. When the Roman Empire conquered a city, they not only captured it and controlled it, they put it to work for them. God's even more efficient than that terrifying military machine: when God restores us, he takes control of our weakened defences, and these weak points become his strong, shining towers. Our shaky moments of former weakness will become the workforce of his glory in our lives. In him, we'll not just conquer those weaknesses, we'll have 'overwhelming victory' (Romans 8:37 NLT).

So what now? Imagine your weaknesses 'put to work' for God's glory. Now talk to him about it.