I wish so much that I had realized this much earlier in my Christian life.

It is so easy to look at troubles and trials as really bad things, or think that God is mad with you or punishing you for something. In the book of Job, Job’s friends came to the conclusion that he must have done some horrible sin to be going through such terrible trials.

I am seeing more and more that God does initiate things that are out of our control so we will be put in a position of desperation to trust in Him. When we absolutely can’t do it for ourselves, it is only God who will be thanked, praised, and worshiped for what He has done to miraculously bring about an answer to our problem.

The more you study the Bible and learn about God’s Character, the more you will know you can trust Him with every detail of your life. He will always have something better and more complex in mind than you can ever imagine. He always sees the “big picture” and knows exactly how your part will fit into the piece of the puzzle.

I’m certainly not saying that this is an easy way to live, because you usually can’t physically see how everything will turn out. But the way you respond to God’s call reveals much about who you think He is.
Make the choice right now to walk in obedience to Him even though you may not be able to see the end result beforehand. It will be a magnificent ride!

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God just wants to be able to use you where you are planted right now. In the course of an ordinary day at work, you might have many opportunities to minister to others that you are not even aware of unless you are prepared for the important job of ministry.

It seems that there are at least a million ways to waste time and look as if you are really working – at least, convince yourself that you are accomplishing a lot of good things.

I decided to keep track of how I spent my time each day and found that even though I thought I was pretty disciplined, there were many areas where I could improve. It is hard to sit down and take a frank look at your habits because “pride” tries its best to get in the way of real and productive change.

It is not the easiest thing in the world to be able to concentrate for a long period of time without your mind starting to wander (BELIEVE ME I KNOW THIS FOR A FACT.)

I want to share with you something that has worked for me in the past and still helps me to stay disciplined:

Before you start a big project make up your mind that you will not be distracted by anything, but will ZERO in on what you are doing until it is finished. You can even break up a huge project into several smaller projects with a time line for each. Give yourself a certain amount of time to do each project and then take a short break to do something else that doesn’t require such intense concentration.

Discover how you work best and concentrate on improving that until you really are disciplined to get maximum work each day.

We all need times of rest and relaxation where we can kick back and enjoy the day or a few days without feeling guilty, but that shouldn’t be our normal daily activity. Those times should be like dessert, and when they do come we can enjoy them much better because we don’t have to feel guilty that we are wasting time.

Even Jesus had to get away every now and then for some “down time” to get refreshed and rejuvenated for the important work ahead. Totally enjoy your “down time” but then get right back into doing your very best for each thing you do during the day.

If you have asked Jesus into your heart, you need to set an example for others to see that you are different and every job you do is ultimately for God and not man. Just that one thing will make a huge difference in your work habits.

When you know that God is your ultimate boss, and He will be the one that measures your performance, you definitely won’t want to cut any corners or waste time doing meaningless things. You might be able to fool your boss or someone else close to you, but you will never fool God. He knows your innermost thoughts and attitudes. If you treat everything as extremely important because you are doing it for Him, you won’t have to worry about doing mediocre work.

Let God be THE BOSS each day and see how much more disciplined you can be.

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People get frustrated and burnt out when they do things that are not what God has told them to do.

But… when you are in the center of His Will, and even if you are not a creative person, the Holy Spirit will pour ideas into your mind that you would never think of otherwise.

The Holy Spirit has led me down some roads recently that I would have never thought of going down on my own. When I look back on what has happened, I can say that the experience has been awesome; however I feel as if I have stepped into the unknown (which I have) and in some ways I still do not see the end of the path. I can absolutely say one thing, though – I HAVE NOT BEEN BORED!

I must say that even though I might not know exactly where I am going, God always does and I can count on Him to lead me down the right path.

Being creative is not a natural gift I have ever had, and I have always been amazed at people who have great ideas that pop into their head at a moment’s notice. I generally struggle to come up with one idea that turns out to be mediocre at best.

I have truly been amazed the last few years at how the Holy Spirit has given me guidance to do things that I truly would never have given a single thought to doing on my own.

I encourage you to start asking God to show you the next step in what you are to do, and take it; no, you probably won’t be able to see the end result at first, but you can trust God to lead you step by step in the right direction.

Get to the point that you consider obedience to Him the top priority in your life. Don’t choose to stay in a “comfort zone” and miss the awesome things God wants to do in your life.

I am continually amazed that God would choose to use me for anything at all, and I wish I had a much greater faith to believe for things that would be totally impossible without intervention from Him.

I think of how many times I have tried to go in my own direction, and traveled far too long down the wrong road before God finally had to close a door to get my attention. The things I was doing were not bad, but were good things that were keeping me off track in getting God’s Best for my life.

There really is a huge difference in getting God’s Best and settling for just “good” – even “very good”. Satan will offer you “very good” to keep you from getting God’s Best.

Decide right now that you will not settle for anything less than being in the center of God’s Will for your life. It is an awesome place to be!

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If you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small.

The Message version

If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place.

This verse is very powerful to me, because I can think back on many instances where a person has gone through a huge crisis of some sort. Some have handled it with dignity while others have completely fallen apart and never fully recovered.

Adversity comes in many forms, and sometimes what we think might be a terrible thing might turn out to be something we can look back on and see how God wanted us to run to Him and let Him handle it in His chosen way.

God has dealt with me about walking in His Strength each day instead of trying to do everything in my own strength. I have found that trying to fit everything into one day that I feel God wants me to do is totally impossible without His supernatural help and guidance; but when I tell Him first thing each morning that I will never be able to get everything accomplished without His help, He somehow supernaturally gives me the strength I need to do it.

When you are walking in His will for your life, you will find that He tells you to do things that you will never be able to accomplish in your own strength. God purposely places things in your life in order to help you to grow stronger and tougher as a Christian.

He even told some of the great men and women of the Bible to do some things that were downright hard. If they hadn’t trusted in a mighty way they would have probably been devoured by Satan.

God wants you to find out about His Character. Once you know even a few truths about Him, you will realize that He always has your best interest at heart and wants the absolute best for your life. He can see exactly how everything will work out, and wants you to rely on His sight and strength to work through you to accomplish what He desires.

If He tells you to do something hard, it is because He sees great potential in you and wants to develop it and use you in a mighty way for His Kingdom.

God sometimes puts you in a tough situation to teach you to lean on Him with everything in you. The next time things look impossible, claim Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

You will be amazed at how much more you can accomplish with God’s supernatural help. Try it and be amazed!

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…God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.

I John 4: 18 AMP

There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection].

Fear – Phobos

To be put in fear, alarm or fright, exceedingly, fear, terror

Love – agape

Affection or benevolence, love feast – the highest kind of love

Perfect – teleios

Complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character). Completeness, of full man, perfect

Casteth – ballo

To throw, more or less violent or intense, arise, cast out, dung lay, lie, pour, send strike throw down

Out – exo

Away, forth, outside of, literally or figuratively

Torment (punishment) – kolas is

Penal infliction, punishment, torment

Perfect – teleioo

To complete, accomplish, consummate, consecrate, finish, fulfill

This definition different from the first perfect

It’s funny how you can read a verse for years and suddenly God opens your eyes to an aspect of it you have never seen before. The Bible speaks of love in several different places, and I always thought of it as being nice to others and trying my best to love them regardless of the way they treated me; but the Bible says that God is love and if we want His blessing on our lives we must truly love others.

Some people just seem unlovable or it makes us totally uncomfortable to be around them. It might seem much easier to stay away because things might get messy if we try to love them enough to help them change their lives instead of just applying a bandaid to the wound.

If we have “no fear in love” we won’t be afraid to go the extra mile in loving another person who doesn’t seem very lovable. Jesus went out of His way to eat with Zaccheus, who was a dreaded tax collector. Everyone disliked him because he gouged them by burdening them down with extra taxes, which made their daily lives extremely hard.

But Jesus knew that it would be well worth it to spend time with Zaccheus, because his heart would be radically changed. Zaccheus eventually more than made it right with everyone he had treated wrongly.

Jesus died on the cross for the most terrible and evil person on earth, and had a huge amount of love for them. He was not afraid to get His hands dirty to try to help even the worst of them, and He was able to do it because of a bold, fearless love that was so great it could change lives.

Jesus could see the heart of others and He knew who was ready for and needed help. He was not afraid to reach out to those people, but He also had God’s power on Him so strongly that those around Him were changed and healed. Many heathen people were changed dramatically because they knew He was genuine and truly had the power they were so looking for to change their lives. They recognized that His teachings were radically different from what they had been hearing from the Pharisees and Saducees. I also repeat this and want you to understand that Jesus knew who would be open to receive help and those are the ones that He spent time with.

The more the Holy Spirit takes control of your life, the more you will be able to discern those people who will be open to change, even if they don’t realize it at first. You will be able to love them with a true love, see them in a different light, and show them Jesus through your actions and deeds toward them. The Holy Spirit can truly change your attitude and heart towards another person if you will let Him.

I John 4: 20-21

But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: Love God and love each other!

Dake’s reference bible says this is the “acid test of a born again experience.”

By no means am I advocating that you should be a doormat for another person to trample on as they would like. Loving with a God kind of love and having the leadership of the Holy Spirit are instrumental in dealing with a person who constantly tries to belittle or take advantage of you.

Jesus knew when a person could be helped and he didn’t just give a handout that would help them on a temporary basis. He gave them something that would last long term to help them become a strong Christian; then they could in turn help others.

If you will follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit, you won’t get ” taken” by another person. He will show you exactly how to help them, even though it might not be exactly what they would want.

Doing things in the above way will ensure that you will truly be able to help others, and also ensure that you won’t be taken advantage of so much that you will get burnt out and give up on helping at all.

Instead of turning away from people who are hard to love or be around, ask the Holy Spirit what He desires your actions to be; then let Him change you into a person who can glorify God in every circumstance into which you are placed.

Doing things in this way will keep you from getting “burnt out” on helping others who would only take advantage of you and really don’t want to change.

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The Holy Spirit gave me this thought and it has affected me in a powerful way. Every day it is possible for you to make several different choices as to the direction you will take for the future.

Some choices are huge and others are tiny, but they propel you in one direction or another. It is easy to think that just one day won’t make much of a difference because it is only one day among the thousands that will make up your entire life.

Many times when you are older, you can look back to one decision that you made that might have started you down the wrong road, and it may have taken you years to get back on the right one. An example would be the first time you tried alcohol or drugs.

It truly is possible for one small action to change your life forever. Just saying YES or NO one time can have very powerful consequences – whether good or bad.

God gave us the Bible specifically so that we can have a guidebook to know how to live and so that we can have the best life possible. He wants you to live a life of peace and joy even in the midst of problems or persecution, and that can only be done through living a life for Christ.

When the next temptation comes your way to make the wrong decision or put something off until another day, think about the fact that what you decide to do will ease you further along a road, but which one will it be?

Will you be able to look back a year from now and see progress or will you have lost ground? Each day’s actions are much more powerful than you can ever imagine.

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It does take a lot of energy to pour out your heart to God in prayer because you must get everything out of your mind and concentrate only on Him. Most of us are so busy “doing things” that this is not an easy feat to accomplish.

Many times we think that we don’t have time to pray or read our Bibles, but the truth is we ALWAYS have the time to do what is most important to us. We think that we must be busy all the time to lead a productive life, but many times that is just a way of keeping our minds occupied so that we don’t have to deal with the most important things. AND we have learned to be professionals at staying busy at things that aren’t nearly as productive as we would like to think.

There are thousands of articles that have been written on how to pray, but this one is written from the perspective of getting your life in a position that you can always be open to pray however the Holy Spirit leads you and to be ready to do it at a moment’s notice.

God wants to work through His Children in order to accomplish what He desires. What an awesome thing it is to be chosen by Him and be open to hear Him when he speaks.

Many people will never be able to get past their own selfish thinking enough to walk in obedience to God. You don’t have to watch many advertisements or television shows to get the impression that life is all about “ME” and what I want. It is easy to be compassionate every now and then and go out of your way to help someone, but to do it on a regular basis is not nearly as easy.

Being a great “prayer warrior” does not mean that you have no social life because you choose to lock yourself in your “prayer closet” all day praying. Unless you are old enough to retire, you must either have a job yourself or live with someone who provides you a living. We all have to at least make enough money to buy essentials for our everyday needs.

But I do have good news about how you can be a prayer warrior for the Kingdom of God and still live and function well in this world.

It is God’s desire for you to live to the utmost in your everyday life, and you can do it with an attitude of prayer. Then any time the Holy Spirit lays a person or problem on your heart, you can instantly be to the point where you can pour your heart out to God.

You can’t always go to a place of solitude and stay there for two hours, but you can pray an intense prayer for the person or situation right where you are at the time.

There are other times when God might wake you up in the middle of the night to pray urgently for a particular person or situation. You might be called to intercede on the other’s behalf until you feel a peace that things are going to be fine, no matter how long it takes.

God wants you to be so familiar with His Word and His Character that you can stand on the Bible and its promises with everything in you. He will give you the strength you need to do whatever it is He has called you to do.

Make the choice to read the Bible first thing each morning and ask the Holy Spirit to open your mind to see the truths it contains. God wants you to be ready to be used by Him at a moment’s notice.

Living in an attitude of prayer is a wonderful thing to God because He knows that your life is open to him to use whenever He chooses and in whatever way he chooses.

The next time you feel that God has laid an urgent need upon your heart, pray with everything in you. You may be the one person who will be able to intercede for someone and really make a difference – and you might be able to do it from halfway around the world without knowing that person at all or the full impact that your prayer might have.

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-Samuel Johnson-

Habits can be good or bad, and we tend to develop them without thinking about it much of the time. Good habits are just as easily developed as bad ones, though it might not seem that way.

No matter what wrong habits you have established, God can help you have the power to overcome them. You don’t have to be consumed by a bad habit that you feel can never be changed.

Satan wants you to think that you will always have to live a defeated, powerless life, but you don’t have to listen to him. He is a liar and it is his desire to always keep you in bondage so that you can never be used by God.

I certainly cannot say that it will be easy to break a habit or stronghold that has been there for years, but it is always possible to accomplish it with God’s strength. If you ask for His help, you will be amazed at how much extra strength and power He will give you to fight the battle.

Don’t be held in bondage any longer by the chains of a bad habit!

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-Harvey S. Firestone-

I ran across this quote in a marketing newsletter, so I know the context of it was written with regard to having enough money on hand to be able to always have a surplus for unexpected things that might arise.

I would like for you to think about this SURPLUS from the perspective of being disciplined to spend time with God each day, not in the sense that you can store up something you can physically touch or see.

If you don’t put God first each day, when something bad or unexpected happens you will have to ask forgiveness and get in a right relationship with Him before you feel you can ask Him to work on the situation that has arisen. That might take a lot more time than you can afford if your need is urgent.

God wants you to have such a personal relationship with Him that you never think of trying to handle any situation yourself without His help.

If you make the decision to put Him first, He will give you the exact amount of power, faith, and strength you need for whatever arises.

In the world in which we live, it can be such a comfort to know that you don’t have to depend upon your own strength to handle a situation that might have spiraled totally out of control. God knows exactly what to do and always works at exactly the right time to meet your need.

Start working on your SURPLUS by being disciplined to spend time with God each day and put Him first in everything you do. Then it will be easy to pour your heart out to Him in time of need.

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I have never had the desire to go “rock-climbing” before, but I found myself facing the challenge of a rock wall and decided that I might as well give it a try. I do walk each morning but definitely don’t consider myself in top physical shape, so I thought I would probably only be able to climb 5 or 6 feet at the most.

I knew there was no real danger of getting hurt because the climbing gear that had been fitted to me was attached to a rope and pulley that would let me down safely if I lost my footing.

The first time I tried I got up maybe 8 – 10 feet before my arms started to give out. I then was told that if you use your legs to take the brunt of the weight, you will be able to last much longer than trying to use your arms.

I rested a few minutes and decided I would give it one more try in a different place on the wall. Armed with my new found knowledge about letting my legs be my main strength and just taking it slow and easy and thinking about where I needed to go next, I was ready for one more chance.

I was going pretty well for about the first 10 feet up, and then the climbing holds started getting a little farther apart. I had to really think about how I would make my moves. I had lots of encouragement on the ground from people who had already gone up and knew the best path. They were telling me to go right or left, but still when you are several feet up all those directions are much easier given than actually accomplished.

Through some careful placement of my hands and feet, I managed to get up about 20-25 feet high. Then just as I thought I would make it to the top, the next rung up was a good 8-10 inches above the farthest I could reach with my hand while standing on tiptoes.

I am only around 5 feet tall, so the higher I climbed, the farther apart the climbing holds were. I had already been told that as I stood on tip-toe I should gain some momentum by making a lunge for the next rung; then when my hand was secure on the climbing hold I should quickly find a place for my foot to rest.

That is definitely much easier said than done, and it all had to happen in a split second. By this time my legs and arms were tired and shaking a bit, so I didn’t have a lot of strength left to make the lunge up and get one of my legs up at the same time to hold me up

I wish now that I had given it all I had and tried the lunge up even if I missed the rung and came falling down. I think I must have started to think about how tired I was, plus I was convinced it was impossible for me to be able to lunge upward that many inches.  I finally rappelled down the side of the wall.

Don’t get me wrong; I am really proud of being able to accomplish the first 20-25 feet, because that is 3 times higher than I thought I would ever be able to achieve. It was also my first time even attempting something of that magnitude.

God has been dealing with me mightily about a complete and utter surrender to Him and giving Him complete control over what He desires to do with my life.  I started to think about the fact that the first few feet were not easy by any means, but they were manageable as long as I carefully calculated how to place my hands and feet. I could even say that I had been successful by my own physical abilities and strengths up until this point.

But when the extreme challenge came, I was already physically tired and it didn’t take much to convince me that reaching the next rung was impossible.

Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

God has impressed upon me that if I really believe that the Lord is the Strength of my life, I will be able to accomplish things that are totally out of my reach because I will have his Supernatural Strength to help me lunge to the next climbing hold, no matter how high it is. My springboard will be the power of God Himself to undergird me to take me to the next level.

I truly don’t know if I could have made it to the next climbing hold on the rock wall, but in my everyday walk with God I can reach into the unknown knowing that He is with me every step of the way and will give me the supernatural strength to do whatever He wants me to do. I just have to be bold enough to trust that He is leading me down the path that is best for me.

As humans, we tend to want to stay where we can be safe and comfortable, but God has so many great things in store for the Christian who will commit to Him and surrender fully.

Will you join me in surrendering your own plans and dreams to God? I feel sure we won’t regret it.

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