The God who can turn it around

When I first got saved, I believed in the unbelievable. I had a strong childlike faith. I was young and I believed God could do anything. I expected miracles. Jesus saving my life was the biggest miracle of all. I never knew such a wonderful thing could happen so when it did, I was filled with a lot of hope. My life changed significantly for the best. I had something I had never had before. Hope was something new to me and it was amazing. I remember holding on to the scripture about our faith moving mountains. I thought it was the most powerful statement I had ever heard.

 I kept picturing mountains of difficulties being moved out of my life. I can still picture those mountains in my head. They looked massive but God was bigger. My God was huge. He was above anything that existed including mountains. No one and nothing I was familiar with could move mountains. My understanding was that God could move them. Then I realized that my mountains were not moving. The trials and tribulations in my life sat there like an oversized mount Everett. I couldn’t understand it. What was I doing wrong? What was God doing wrong? Were the mountains actually too big for my God?

My faith and my hope decreased. That mustard seed of faith became a speck of faith. It was invisible to my spiritual eyes. I was lost. I couldn’t see above the mountains. The mountains were unmovable. What had happened to my God? It took me a while to get to the point where my faith got strong enough. I was doing something wrong. My faith in God could move mountains and I had to focus on building it up. The mountains in my life were there to help me get my faith stronger. It took me years to come to that conclusion. God was not weak. God was still able to do the impossible. I just let my circumstances blind me to the truth of the power of God. I had to pump up that seed of faith and make it bigger.

 I expected God to do all the work. He expected me to have faith and to maintain my faith no matter what. He showed me that He could turn around the worst situations. I experienced losses, failures and bad breaks. However, I had the God who could turn anything around. He was the God of the breakthrough, the God of miracles, the God who can do anything. I kept believing. I kept trusting that the mountains would be removed. The enemy kept telling me that those mountains were too high. The Holy Spirit kept telling me that no mountain was too high for my God. The enemy presented all situations as irreversible circumstances. God kept telling me He could turn anything around. I kept listening to the Lord. I kept going. He kept delivering.

Friend, the God who can turn it around is your God. Your mountains are not an obstacle to Him. The dilemma and the problems you are facing are not too difficult for Him. He can take your situation and make it something amazing. He can make a path in the middle of the wilderness and turn your dry season into a rainy forest of blessings. Give Him your circumstances. Expect Him to turn things around. Expect Him to remove those mountains. 

Expect Him to do it easily. It could take some time but God is always on time. He will turn around the things that your mind says are irreversible. He is an expert at that. No matter what you are facing today, God can turn it around. Remember that every day. Miracles still take place. Mountains are still being moved. Good things are still here today. Your God is still on the throne and He is still in charge of you. Stay strong. Stay in faith. God will turn it around. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Matthew 17:20-21; Matthew 21:2; Mark 11:23

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Get excited about today

Get excited about the Lord. Get excited about His Word. Get excited about His love. Get excited about His promises. Get excited about His peace. Get excited about His Spirit. Get excited about what He says about you. Get excited about what He does for you. Get excited about the Lord because He is the same yesterday, today and forever. I start my day by rejoicing over the Lord. I start my day with praise. I start my day with a dance in my heart and joy in my entire being. I get excited. I get excited about my day because I know I am going to spend it with the Lord. He is the One I need to be with all day. He is the One who makes my day a better day. He is the One who can get me through any day. I have nothing to worry about and nothing to fear. He wants me to go into the day with faith, hope, joy and the awareness of His presence. 

Every day is a great day when we know that God is in every day and He will hold our hand and bless us throughout the day. The enemy wants you and I to start the day thinking about what could go wrong. He wants us to focus on our problems and on our shortcomings. He depicts a dismal picture that he would like for us to hold up high all day so that it is all we see all day. God has a totally different picture of our day. He is the picture frame of our day. He is in the background. He is in the structure. We can find Him in everything good and there will be many good things. God never leaves the picture of our lives. He keeps an eye on everything and He can help us through everything. Let’s rejoice today. Let’s get excited about the day. Not because we have something  great scheduled. That is always nice but because God is in our schedule every day. He makes our schedule. He makes our days better. He is the best part of our day and He is in every part of our day! 

“Rejoice always” is what the Lord is saying today. He is always excited about our day. He is always excited about spending the day with us so we should be excited as well. There are so many reasons why we shouldn’t get excited about the day. The opposition makes sure that our joy and our peace are taken away from us. He is a party pooper and a joy killer. However, Jesus is the reason for today and we can be glad and rejoice every day. He is the reason for our victory and the reason why we are here. We are in great company. We are going to be a great company all day. When the negative thoughts come at you first thing in the morning, kill them with faith. Declare that today is the day the Lord has made and He will be by your side all day. 

Declare that it is going to be a blessed day because the Lord blesses you and you have all you need in Him. You see, focusing on lack and failure depletes our minds of the richness that lies within us. The Holy Spirit is in us and He is all the riches we need. He is powerful and He is wonderful. He is a true treasure. He is hope. He is love. He is peace. He is joy. He is everything that is good, pure and wonderful and He dwells in us. That is such a good reason to be excited. Thank God for the Holy Spirit. Thank God for caring and for giving us His Spirit. Get excited about how the Spirit guides you, teaches you, shows you Jesus and supports you every day. Come what may, you have the Spirit of Jesus in you. Get excited about today. It is another day with the Spirit of the Lord. 

My rejoicing in the morning comes in the form of praise, worship and thanksgiving. Sometimes I don’t have the words to express my gratitude and my reverence to the Lord. I marvel at His love. I am so thankful and so honored that He loves me. He loves you, friend. He adores you. That’s exciting isn’t it? It is the best thing ever. People might not like you. People might reject you but the Lord will always, always love you. I get excited about that every day. It helps so much. It makes the start of my day better and it stays with me all day. The adversity tries to remove that truth from my mind as soon as I am done praying. I hit the negativity with words of faith and words of praise. Nothing can separate us from the love of the Lord.

 Nothing can stop God from being with us. Romans 8:38-39 are scriptures that I get very excited about. They read, “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.” What a tremendous promise! Stand on it every day and get excited about your day. It’s going to be a day to remember. It’s going to be a blessed day despite the trials and tribulations. You are in great company all day. Get excited! May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Psalm 97:12; Psalm 118:24-26; Romans 5:1-2

God before you

The Lord God goes before you. He knows what’s coming ahead. He makes a way for you through whatever is going to happen to you. Don’t think that you are headed in a direction where there is no protection.” God goes before you” implies that He is also protecting you. He is your defender and your shield. Picture your life as a series of events that are surrounded by God and that are protected by God. God never leaves you. He is always ahead of you so no matter what happens today and tomorrow, God has seen it. God has known about every event in your life. He is never surprised and He is never shocked. Your next steps are known by God. The path you are walking on has been explored by God. 

You are not alone. You are not abandoned. There will be many things to come. Some will be good and some will be bad but the good news is that God remains the same. He saw your next bad breaks and your next blessings and nothing has changed His mind and His power. His love for you stays intact. You will sin tomorrow. You will miss it tomorrow and God has seen it all. He is not loving you any less. His love will be there tomorrow and the day after. He has gone before you and He still loves you. Think about that! Think about God’s unchanging love. What is true is that God’s love changes everything. God’s love is going to bless you and make your tomorrow better. Trust Him. He goes before you to bless you and to make your future a bright and shiny tomorrow.

We all have a picture of what tomorrow might look like. We often envision a bleak and sad future. Doubt comes and clouds our judgement. Fear comes and blurs our perception of what’s to come. The future, the unknown, can be scary. I used to see it as a dark and intimidating tunnel. I used to see myself going through that tunnel alone. I used to wonder what was at the end of that tunnel. I used to see no end to that dark tunnel. When it came to my future, I was a loner going through the motions with no hope of a better tomorrow. The bad circumstances then made me think that what was to come was bad. God knows what’s coming. God has seen it all. 

God is not worried about our future. As a matter of fact, He has made a way through our future. We are in His hands. It’s time we saw ourselves as the children of God that we are. As the children that are taken care of. We might end up in an obscure tunnel but God will be with us. He has gone before us to secure our future and to make sure that the bad breaks to come will be broken and they will be turned into blessings. There is nothing that will happen to you that God can’t fix. There is nothing bad that God can’t turn around. There is no future that God hasn’t impacted with His goodness and with His love.

God is before you everywhere you go. He is your bodyguard. He is your shield and your refuge. He is on all sides of you. He is permanently surrounding you. You have nothing to fear and nothing to worry about. God is not leaving your side and He is not going to stop leading the way. I love remembering that “God before me” means that He is leading the way. I put my trust in Him. I know that there will always be a way and that I am safe and secure. God makes sure that I am. Praise Him, friend! Praise the Lord who makes a way. Praise the Lord who never leaves. Praise God and enjoy His ways. He has plans for you and His plans are always good. Keep going and keep moving in faith. God is with you and He will always protect you. Have no fear. Your future is in God’s hands! May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Deuteronomy 31:8; Isaiah 45:2; Matthew 28:20

God has more

I am convinced and I know that God has more for us. He always has more and He can always do more. We don’t know the depth of His love, of His goodness and of His blessings. His Word declares that He can do exceedingly more than we expect. There is a higher level. There is a higher level of power and of love. God is above all things and He is more powerful than anyone and anything. He has no limitations. He has all we need and much much more. The fruit of His Spirit is a giant fruit that we can taste but we can never have the whole fruit. 

The love, the peace, the joy, the patience and the faith that are available are out of this world and they exist in abundance. God is a God of abundance. He is a God of more than enough. He is the God of more. Today I am inviting you to approach God with the mindset that He is the God of more and that nothing is too big or too much for Him. Your dreams are not too big. Your expectations are not too big. Your aspirations are not too big. As long as they are all rooted in the Lord, you can expect exceedingly more than the world has to offer.

God has peace. God gives peace. Jesus said that He gives us peace. Not the way the world gives peace. His peace surpasses all understanding. His peace is above and beyond the peace of the world. I love the idea of being “above and beyond minded” when it comes to the things of the Lord. Let’s expect peace that doesn’t make sense. Let’s expect miracles. Let’s expect miraculous peace that emerges in the middle of chaos and fear. God gives what the world can’t give. You and I can look for peace in all the wrong places and we will never be totally satisfied until we receive the peace that defies all understanding. God is a “defier.” 

 

God defies the laws of nature. He defies the ways of the world. He defies our understanding. His miracles are unexplainable happenings that defy nature and life in general. His miracles are more than life. They are larger than life. The Lord is looking for people who will believe in His miracles and who know without a doubt that with Him there is always more. More than the eye can see and more than what our circumstances are screaming at us. There is more for you today. Your current situation is not your final destination. Your current situation has not been hit by the power of God yet. Your current situation is about to change and more greatness is coming.

Expect more from God. Don’t expect according to what the world says you can expect. Build up your vision of God. Amplify who He is in your mind and in your heart. Spend time with God and let Him show you that there is more. He is more than enough and He is more than your last blessing and your last breakthrough. With Him you go from glory to glory. With Him you go from blessings to blessings. There is a ladder of blessings that you have yet to climb. You might be at the bottom of the ladder but there is more and more. That ladder has no end. What you can expect from God has no end. Start talking about how big your God is if you are not already doing it. 

Start talking about what you can expect from Him. Start telling yourself that God is the God of more. More love, more peace, more joy! Focus on the spiritual aspect of God. God is Spirit. Expect more of the Holy Spirit. Expect a stronger connection. Expect more communion. Don’t focus on money and material things. Those will come when you seek the kingdom first. Seek the God of the impossible and He will make incredible things possible. There is more coming your way. Stay in faith. Stay with hope. Stay encouraged. The God of more is going to do more in your life. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will never leave you!

Suggested reading: Job 26:14; Ephesians 3:20; 2 Corinthians 9:8-11

Keep going today

Keep going. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Your faith is not in vain. Your trust in the Lord is not in vain. You are going to make it. Things are going to turn around. God will make sure of it. Your faith will see you through. What you are doing is going to yield some amazing fruit. Faith is always the best choice. Faith is always the best path. It might take a while for your situation to get better but it will get better. There are so many good things coming your way. A change is on the way and the Lord is putting it all together. Stay calm and stay in peace. I know that the chaos that is raging today can be very disheartening but you are going to pass the tests of life and thanks to the Holy Spirit, you are going to pass them with flying colors. I have been in situations where I wanted to give up.

 I have had my back against the wall. I have seen how hard circumstances can be and how easy it is to crumble and fall. However, I have also seen the goodness of God in action in my life. His goodness is so much more powerful than the evil that is in this world. His goodness is so much stronger than the adversity that tries to derail me. The enemy is out to get us and he doesn’t stop but God’s love and God’s power also don’t stop. The greater the affliction, the greater the hope of a new day, a better day. God can do all things. God can do great things and He certainly can do amazing things for you. Today I am encouraging you to keep going. Keep believing. Keep hoping. Keep praying. Keep adoring the Lord. God is going to turn things around!

With God, you are always going places. With God, you go from hardships to blessings. The hard situations that are brought about by the enemy will be turned into blessings. With God, hope is never extinguished. There is always movement in the right direction with God. You are heading to a better place. Keep that in mind. You might not feel like things are moving and you might want to stop walking and stop hoping but you are on the move. You are going to a place where there is more peace, more joy, more love and more victory. Keep going. Don’t slow down. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop fellowshipping with the Lord. Don’t change your good habits. 

Don’t change the amount of time you put into praising the Lord. Keep walking in love. Keep doing good things. Keep spreading love. Keep smiling. Keep helping others. Keep being the positive force that people know. Keep representing the Lord. Keep being a spokesperson for peace and justice. Keep speaking the truth. Keep holding on to the truth. Nothing that you are doing for the Lord goes unnoticed. The crowd of witnesses is cheering you on. Keep going. You are headed in the direction of success. The blessings that are coming are going to make you forget your present suffering. God is faithful!

When I feel like giving up, the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit tells me to keep going. I get these encouraging speeches deep down on the inside. I listen to the Lord but I don’t always act like I heard Him. I am learning to be more diligent and to completely yield to the Holy Spirit. He knows best. He knows what to do and He never leads us in the wrong direction. When God says keep going, He says it because He is the One who makes it up. We keep going because He is our strength. We keep going because He has what it takes to help us get to the finish line. In our own strength we can’t do it all. In our own strength we can’t go past the point of pain and suffering. 

Thanks to the Lord we can go beyond that point and keep going. I can’t count how many times the Lord has carried me. He has given me the ability to keep going and to stay hopeful. He promises a change for the better. He promises that there is a way and that a breakthrough is coming. Let’s trust Him. Let’s rely on Him. Let’s stay close to Him. Let’s stay close to hope. Let’s go in the Lord’s direction. Better days are on the way! Keep going, friend! May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 12:2; 1 Peter 5:10

God is not asleep

God is not asleep. God is not taking a break and He is not on vacation. He is an ever-present God and He is always around. You might be thinking today that God is gone and that He has left the building but He is with you. He might be silent but He is always talking. God will never abandon you. God said He would never leave you nor forsake you. He is going to be with you all week long. He is going to take care of you and He is your refuge forever. Don’t let your mind write a scenario where you are on your own and God is not around. You don’t need to “feel God.”  

You just need to know that He is there. He is not taking a nap. When you pray and you turn to Him, you are not bothering Him and you are not waking Him up. Today I want to encourage you to trust that God is going to be with you all week long. Nothing, absolutely nothing can separate you from His love. He is the God who keeps His promises and He promised to bless you, to help you and to stay with you. This week could be a great week or a bad week but your God Almighty is going to be good all week long. Rely on His goodness. Believe He is always around. Talk to Him. Be with Him. He is not asleep. He is very much awake.

I remember a time when I felt that God had left me. I didn’t see anything happening in my life that was good. I couldn’t understand it but the negative thoughts in my mind were telling me that God was not happy with me so He had gone to sleep on me and I couldn’t do anything to wake Him up. It was as if I were on a boat with the Lord like the disciples were with Jesus. A storm came and I tried to wake up the Lord but in my scenario, nothing could wake Him up. He was fast asleep as the storm was fast approaching. I was at a loss and I was scared. I kept thinking that I had done something that made God mad or that disappointed Him. 

Friend, the enemy is full of lies and when we fall for his lies, we fall hard. I fell inside the pit of worry and despair. I got to the point where praying was not something I wanted to do. In my mind, God had tuned me out. God never ever does that. If that is what you are thinking now, remove that lie from your head and replace it with the truth of God’s love. God is with you on the boat and He is alert, very present and He is listening to you. Your faith in Him will calm any storm. Keep in mind that He is not sleeping and He is not ignoring you.

No storm is too big for God. No request is too big for God. No problem is too big for God. No difficulty is too big for God. As you are cruising on the boat of life, you will encounter storms and difficulties but you have to trust and believe that God Almighty is with you on that boat. He is quietly doing life with you and He is calm. Your God is not frantic and He doesn’t panic. Now, when a storm comes your way, the Lord doesn’t change His way. He remains calm and collected. Your anxiety and your fear could be blinding you to the calm composure of the Lord and make you think that He is not there or that He is not helping you. God is on the boat to not only keep you company but He is also there to talk to you, to comfort you, to encourage you, to protect you, to give you hope and to love you unconditionally.

 Unconditional love doesn’t jump the boat. Unconditional love doesn’t take a snooze and turn its back on you. God is with you and you can talk to Him all the time. Develop the mindset that there can always be communication with God and He stays with you through thick and thin. God stays awake when you are asleep. He watches over you at night. He watches over you when you take a spiritual nap and you don’t acknowledge Him. He is always awake. Celebrate that truth. Remember this week that He is with you no matter what. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Isaiah 41:10; Matthew 28:20; 1 Peter 5:7

Going back home

With everything that is going on in our lives, it’s easy to step away from God to attend to the affairs of life. We are invited to pray without ceasing and to thank God all the time. This great invitation is not always received. There are days when life keeps us busy and we miss the invitation. We have to take care of x, y and z and we don’t have time for the a, b,c’s of our faith. The basics of our faith take a backseat and when we have time for God again we find it hard to connect with Him again. I have been there. I have ignored the invitation and I have made myself a guest of other venues and sometimes a guest of not the best places. What I am learning is that carving time for God through the busy times is not only possible but it is primordial.

 “Busy” happens to all of us but it shouldn’t prevent us from making God our priority. When we go astray or when we walk away from the daily invitation to communicate with God, there is hope for a comeback. We are never too far gone that we can’t come home. Home will always wait for us. God is our home and He is always waiting with open arms. The enemy will try to make us feel guilty and he will tell us that we have gone too far from God and there is no way home. That is a lie. There is always a way back home to the Lord. Today I want to encourage you to believe and trust that God is still welcoming you and that your busy life is not a make it or break it factor. God is with you when you are busy and when you have time for Him. Take the time to acknowledge Him in all you do!

When you are so busy that you can’t have any “God time”, you might start to feel like God is far. You might think that He has abandoned you or that He is nowhere to be found. The reality is that He has been there the whole time and you can always tap into His love and His goodness. The key here like I said is to acknowledge Him in all we do. It takes only a few words of acknowledgement. Before entering a busy period, we can thank the Lord for always being there for us. We can thank Him for the work He has provided and for taking care of our lives. I love to tell Him that He is the best part of my life and He is with me through thick and thin.

 I am on His mind even when my mind is a thousand miles away from Him. He is by my side even when I decide to sit with other people and entertain other situations. He is my best situation. He is the best part of every day and I whisper that into His heart silently throughout the day. A whisper, a sigh, a short word is all it takes. Repetition is necessary so that my mind is more aware of His never ending presence. I go home every day at the end of the day. I go home to God every day at the end of the day. I do my best to speak to Him during the day and I make sure I spend quality time with Him at the end of the day.

Going back home is a daily habit so going to God is a daily habit as well. I know in my mind and in my spirit that I will always make time for God at some point. This helps me shut up the enemy when he tells me that I don’t give enough time for God and He will punish me for that. God is love. God is the essence of love. Nothing we do can separate us from His love. We need to step away from the guilt and from the negative feelings the enemy wants us to experience. God is always ready to take us back so to speak but we have to remember that life gets busy and God understands that we have to take care of business. I used to feel so depleted when I didn’t have time for God. I used to feel spiritually drained when I didn’t have time to pray. The problem was coming from my mind. The way I perceived the whole thing was wrong. My mind had the wrong approach. 

The truth was that I could always have my going back home moment and God wasn’t mad at me. He gave me the life I had and He rejoiced over me and over my life. What mattered was that I was always going back home. I didn’t choose to go to places that would alienate me even more. Friend, God is always there and we need to see Him as the Father that He is. He is a Father who is always excited when we come home. If you have been away from home for a long time, trust that the way home is paved with peace, love and acceptance. God will always accept you and love you. Go home every day and go home even if you have been away for a long season. God will always welcome you home. May God bless you and protect you and remember He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Isaiah 54:7; Jeremiah 24:7; James 4:8

Keep praying

I can’t write enough about prayer. Prayer changes everything. Prayer changes you, it changes your circumstances and it changes your perspective. Prayer is the backbone of our faith. We pray because we believe in God. We pray to stay in touch with God. We pray because we understand that it is crucial to listen to the Lord and to talk to the Lord. Prayer is part of our lifestyle or at least it should be. We can’t pray too much. We can’t pray enough. Prayer is an ongoing offering. It is how we tap into the power of Heaven. It is how we make Heaven collide with earth and with our circumstances. Prayer is supernatural. It is more powerful than we think at times. It is more than words spoken in desperation. 

Prayer is words spoken to our Father who hears us every time we pray. There isn’t a word spoken in prayer that the Lord hasn’t already heard. He knows what we are going to say. He knows what we need. He knows what we need to hear. To Him prayer is an expression of the heart that He loves to hear even though He knows it all. He loves it when we express our faith and when we pray, that is exactly what we do. Today I want to encourage you to keep praying and to keep expressing your faith. Keep listening to the Lord and keep communicating with Him. Pray as much as you can. Pray when you feel like it and when you don’t. Let your prayers be ongoing.

I went through a season earlier this year when I needed to hear from God a lot so I could make it and so I could stay encouraged. I had a lot going on and it was easy for me to doubt and to feel like no help was coming to me. I knew in my heart that my thinking had to be changed and I stayed in faith. I stayed in faith by going through a narrow door of hope. I barely made it. That doorway was so narrow that I squeezed myself in and it hurt. My faith hurt and it was diminished by the pressure of my circumstances. How did I get through it? I prayed. The Holy Spirit led me to pray every single day. I didn’t miss a day and I remained steadfast. It is amazing what the Spirit of God will do in us and through us when we yield to Him.

 

Prayer is a natural reaction when you have a yielded spirit. It is the natural language of faith. I prayed and I praised the Lord. I surrendered every day through prayer. You see, prayer changes our disposition and it makes us more sensitive to the Spirit of the Lord. When we make it a point to pray and we keep doing it, we pave the way for communication with God and for victory. Prayer always leads to victory so we have to keep praying. Let’s keep praying despite our mind, despite what is happening to us and despite our feelings and emotions. Emotions don’t dictate our faith so they shouldn’t dictate our prayers as well.

I kept praying. I kept opening myself up to the Lord. I kept waiting on Him and I kept listening and I have to say that He never let me down. There wasn’t a day that the Lord did not speak encouragement to my spirit. Day after day He poured His love into me during prayer time. Day after day He reminded me that there was nothing to worry about and nothing to fear. Day after day He inhabited my praises during prayer time and He made His presence known. He took me to a higher level of faith. He showed me the way to victory. He showed me that His love for me never changed. He spoke life into me when my hope was dead. He smiled at me when the world was frowning at me. He encouraged me to declare His truth over the lies of the enemy. He gave me the right words to say when my mind was experiencing negativity overload. He stood by me in prayer. 

The Lord lifted me up when I was going down. He demonstrated the power of prayer. He changed me during that process and He stood by me. Prayer not only changes everything but it is also everything. It should be everything to us believers because that is our number one way of communion with God. Friend, don’t get discouraged. Keep praying. Keep pushing. Keep lifting your hands up to Heaven. Keep listening to the words of love and to the encouragement of the Lord. Keep going. Your prayers are never in vain and the Lord is always, always listening. Things will change for you. Things are going to get much better for you. Stay in faith and keep praying. Something very good is coming your way. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Jeremiah 29:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; 1 John 5:14

The love that truly matters

Sometimes when I am around people, I get these huge waves of love that are bigger than me. I get these big impressions of God’s love for people. It is beautiful and it is very powerful. I sense how great God’s love is and I stand there marveling at the amount of love that comes from Him. I can’t fathom His love but I know that it is larger than life. I also know that it is available to everyone. God doesn’t just love a certain type of people. He loves everyone. He even loves the people you and I have a hard time loving. That love that is beyond human love is the love that truly matters. I am not saying that human love doesn’t matter but the love of God takes precedence and it is the love we should focus on when dealing with people. 

His love is what changes everything. His love is the biggest force in the universe. His love is the impossible made possible. His love is a miracle and we are all recipients of it.  As believers we are carriers of His love but we have to be willing to display it and be willing to spread it. Can we love the way God does? I think we get a portion of His love but His unconditional love is unique and specific to Him. Can we love unconditionally? We are called to love others as ourselves and that is a step toward unconditional love. However, we ought to learn to love ourselves before we can love others well. As we work on that process, we should acknowledge that there is a love that is out of this world and it has entered the world to make a difference in our lives.The Lord made this love possible and it is stronger than the hatred in this world.

Not everyone is going to love us. Not everyone is going to accept us. Rejection is part of life. It is not pleasant and it is not a good experience. Hate is everywhere and people express it freely. If we focus on hate, we lose sight of the love that truly matters. God’s love trumps all the hate in this world and we need to make it a priority to focus on His love. We can spend the day feeling unloved and unwanted without any effort. That is what the enemy wants. The enemy’s goal is to separate us from the love of God. Nothing can separate us from His love except for our mindset and our belief. 

We can’t believe like the world. We can’t let those thoughts dominate our minds. Let’s work on changing our minds about God’s love. Let’s work on embracing the love that truly matters. It is more important than the hate of the world. It is more important than the harsh words that we hear. It is more important than the opinions of men. God’s love heals all pain. God’s love heals the wounds left by hatred. God’s love erases the hurt. It can heal you and me from hatred but we have to spend time learning about it, accepting it and embracing it. Let’s make that acceptance part of our prayers. Let’s be diligent seekers of God’s love. Hate won’t win. Hate did not win. Now is the time to make that our reality.

The love that truly matters came from Heaven, became man and died for our sins. The love that truly matters changed the course of history and revolutionized the world. The love that truly matters gave us the Holy Spirit. The love that truly matters created a new life that you and I can enjoy. The love that truly matters came and stayed and it is with you and me every single day. The love that truly matters will never leave us nor forsake us. The love that truly matters listens to us and talks to us. The love that truly matters covers us and protects us. The love that truly matters puts us in contact with God. The love that truly matters is patient, humble and yet extremely powerful. 

The love that truly matters can bless you today and every day. The love that truly matters will save the day every day when you hold on to it and put your trust in it. The love that truly matters is the Lord Almighty and He will always, always love you. Embrace His love. Embrace the Lord. Embrace the love that truly matters even when people are not being nice to you. The Lord will give you people that love you and He will never stop shining His love on you and through you. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Psalm 143:8; 1 Corinthians 13:4-5; 1 Corinthians 16:14

Staying calm

Years ago there were a lot of popular phrases that started with the words “Stay calm.” Staying calm is so important. It is a lot more important than you think. God calls us to be calm. God wants us all to be calm and to trust Him. When we are calm, He can operate in our lives in a great way. Staying calm is an act of faith. Staying calm is a posture of faith. Staying calm allows us to pray and to stay in peace. Peace and calm go hand in hand. Practicing calmness is a great habit. I start my day being still and waiting on the Lord. I wait on the Lord a few times a day. I love those moments. 

The presence of the Lord is stronger during those moments because the Lord is calm. He is always still, calm and collected. When we are still, we are on God’s wavelength. There is no chaos and commotion in the Lord. There is always peace. Invite the peace of the Lord every day. Embrace it. Spend time on it and give it to others. You and I have the Spirit of the Lord in us and we can tap into His peace anytime. We don’t have to make special arrangements and special appointments to receive the Lord’s peace. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit and we are fruit bearers in the name of Jesus.

Today I am encouraging you to be still and to enjoy the peace of the Lord. Take the time to slow down and to be still. Be still and know that He is God. Be still and meditate on God. Be still and let peace invade your core. The more you do it and the more peace you will experience every day. I remember when I first became more serious about the Lord, His peace was out of this world. It still is but I am used to it now and I love it so much. One day when I was teaching, my students were rowdy and they were not paying attention to my instructions. I felt anger rise in me. I am a calm person by nature but that day I was getting mad. Then all of a sudden I felt the peace of the Lord squash down the anger and press down the fury that was about to be unleashed.

 It didn’t feel natural. It didn’t feel human. It was the peace of the Lord that surpasses all understanding. It was powerful and I praise the Lord for His out of this world peace. The enemy wants us to let things get under our skin. That is not God’s will for us. When we let people or things get under our skin, we let the enemy win. We let our flesh take control when we should be following the lead of our spirit. When something starts getting under your skin, get under the Spirit of God and focus on the Lord. When things are starting to irritate you, take time to be still and to know that He is God. Anger doesn’t help. Anger doesn’t make things better. Unleashing the beast is not a fruit of the Spirit. It is a fruit of the flesh.

Don’t let anything or anyone get under your skin. Fight those feelings and those emotions. If you are starting to get mad at someone and you don’t have the peace of the Lord, pray for that person. Pray. Talk to the Lord about that person. Thank the Lord for something about that person. Find something nice to say to the Lord about that person. This will seem counterintuitive but it is exactly what the Lord wants you to do. You see, staying calm takes on different forms and one of them is to forgive others, to walk in love with others and to pray for others. The enemy would love for you to gossip about others and to talk behind their back. The Spirit of God wants you to say nice things about others and to pray for them “behind their back.” 

Staying calm is staying in peace with everyone. It is not easy but we can do it with the help of the Spirit of Jesus. Let’s practice being still and being in control of our emotions by turning to the Lord when anger tries to get us. There is so much peace available in the Lord. We have access to it all. We can’t live angry. We can’t live mad. We can’t live with anxiety. Every day we can spend time being still and enjoying the Lord’s presence. Like I said, it will give us peace and it will remove anger and negative feelings toward others. Let’s be vessels of peace who know how to be still and who acknowledge God in all our ways. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you.

Suggested reading: Psalm 37:7; Psalm 46:10; James 1:19