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

Everything you need

Everything you need is in the Lord. Everything you will ever need is in the Lord. In Him you can find peace, hope, joy, love, success, truth, wisdom, freedom and blessings for every single day. God has it all and He wants to give it all to you. Your salvation is in Jesus and with it comes the best life you can have. It is one thing to be saved and it is another thing to live in the fullness of your salvation. God has an array of amazing experiences and amazing events that He wants you to enjoy. Life in Jesus is life lived with Love. He is love and He has a lot of love for you.

 Every day you should be experiencing His love. Every day you should be recognizing His love. His love is truly all you need. Everything you need is in God’s love. Do you embrace His love or do you find yourself not worthy of it? If you want to have a fulfilled life, acknowledge God in all your ways, walk in the power of His love and accept His mightily love. Trust that you are worthy of His love all the time. You will walk in peace and you will walk in victory. You will realize that you have everything you need and more. You have Jesus. You have everything!

I can think of a whole list of things I need on a daily basis. A lot of the items on that list are more wants than needs. What do I really need? What do I really want? Some of the needs are basic needs that are necessary. However, I have been on a journey of discovery. I have been discovering what I truly need. I used to think that my primordial needs were material and physical. God is helping me rethink my needs and He is remodeling my thinking. Jesus is what I need first and foremost. He is always there but I need to get to the point where He is my number one priority. I need to see Him as my unique source for life and as my number one resource. He is my fountain of life and it is that awareness that matters greatly. 

Jesus is my number one need. I am learning to share His mind and to be more like Him. I am learning to tap into the fruit of His Spirit and to let Him dominate my life. A “Jesus domination” is what I need. It sounds funny but it describes the best thing that could happen to me and to all of us. He deserves to dominate my mind, my actions and my words. I need to be possessed by His Spirit and to be led by His love. I need to fully embrace His love and to stay in the peace of His presence. I have Jesus. I have all I need. Jesus is everything to me and that should be an everyday reality. 

When we lack something we can panic and we can try to fill the gap any way we can. People turn to pills, to drugs, to different venues to make up for what’s missing. When we don’t feel love, we look for it in all the wrong places at times. We crave human love. It is a natural need but we don’t look for the love that covers all loves. God’s love is the most powerful force in the universe and beyond. God’s love is everything and when we agree that His love is available for us, we are on the right track. Once I started thanking God for His love a long time ago, my life changed.

 My life changed because I declared a truth that my spirit had been longing to hear. We have God’s love. We are all set. We have God’s love. We are extremely blessed. The Lord said that we should seek His kingdom and everything else will be added unto us. This means that when we pursue His love, when we walk in His steps and we remain in Him, we have everything we need. The material needs will be met. The physical needs will be met. The spiritual needs will be met. The emotional needs will be met. When our heart is running after God’s heart, we have the right attitude and it will produce some great fruit in our lives. Friend, you have everything you will ever need in Jesus. Praise Him. Remain in Him. Hold on to Him. May God bless you and protect and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Philippians 4:19; Hebrews 4:16; 1 Peter 3:15

Bad days

Bad days don’t change God. I have said that before and I will keep declaring it. God is the same all the time. Bad days don’t change His identity and they don’t take away His power. Why are bad days so bad then? How come we can feel like God is distant on bad days? He is not. He is still around. The bad things that happen on bad days blur our vision and chip away at our faith. When things go wrong, our feelings and emotions are heightened. Our flesh is on alert and wide awake. Our minds get bombarded with negative thoughts and with overwhelming thoughts. Bad days magnify our weaknesses. It is on those days that we ought to rely on the Lord more. He tells us that He is our strength when we are weak. Friend, Jesus is your strength on bad days. He is the power you need to make it through all the bad days of your life. Take all the bad days you have had and add all the ones you will have and you will get a season of bad days that is not too bad for the Lord. Jesus can deal with anything and He can do anything. He is the God of miracles and He is the God who can take care of everything that is happening in your life including all the trials and tribulations. If you are having a bad day today, remember that greater is the One who is in you than the one who is causing all the bad things today.

The devil is a defeated foe. He doesn’t act like he is and he wants all us to believe that he has the power to steal, kill and destroy and that no one can stop him. Jesus stopped him. Jesus conquered him. Now, the enemy is the king of this world until Jesus comes back but that doesn’t mean he will destroy you. You have Jesus, the King of Kings on your side. You have the One who put a stop to death. Your Jesus can reverse what the enemy does. Every bad break, every trial and every tribulation can be reversed by the Lord. If the enemy is only here to steal, kill and destroy, keep in mind that the Lord is here for the exact opposite. The Lord is here to give, revive, build and restore. Your bad days are not going to be the end of you. Lift up the name of Jesus, the giver of life and the builder of a better today and tomorrow. When you are having a bad day, turn on the switch of praise and celebration. It won’t be easy and it won’t always feel natural but it is a great way to get out of the funk. Celebrate Jesus today and your day will get better. Bad days are real but they are also a matter of perspective. Change your thinking and your reasoning during a bad day. See the silver lining and keep your eyes on Jesus. Your bad will start looking pretty good in no time.

Bad days are inevitable and the best answer to a bad day is a good reaction or what I call a God reaction. How would God react to your bad day? He would react with hope, peace and joy. Easier said than done. I know but there is power in your spirit for you to get to hope, peace and joy. That power is the Holy Spirit. What He wants is for you to jump on board His train. On His train there are only good things. To get on the train you have to move from the mental space you are in and get into the peace space. A lot of it starts in our thinking. We have to tear down the thoughts that come with the bad day and replace them with words of hope. The Word of God has mountains of words of hope and when I have a bad day, I climb those mountains and I get myself to a higher place where my thinking is positive and my mind is on the Lord. It works so well. Sometimes I have to push myself and make myself do it but once I am there, the bad day looks a lot different. Jesus said we would have bad days but we should be of good cheer because He had conquered the world. The world here includes all the bad days, all the suffering, all the pain, all the problems and tribulations. Jesus will turn your bad day into a great day. Hold on to Him. Put Him first. Don’t focus on the bad that is taking place but keep your mind on Jesus. Bad days will come but Jesus will be there waiting for them with you. You are going to make it through your next bad days in Jesus’ name. Stay encouraged! May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: John 10:10; John 16:33; Revelation 7:14

What lies ahead of you

Do you ever wonder what will happen in the future? Do you ever think about tomorrow and get scared? Do you ever predict bad things in your life because of the bad experiences in your past? What lies ahead of us is a mystery but the Lord knows what’s coming. He knows everything there is to know about our future. He is never taken aback by anything. He doesn’t share much about what’s going to take place but there is one thing He shared in His Word about our future. He said that our future is in His hands and we have nothing to worry about and nothing to fear. The future might be looking bleak. We might have a bad feeling about what’s coming but that bad feeling doesn’t matter. Any bad feelings and emotions we have when thinking about the future should not be entertained. The Lord is in charge and we can rest assured that He will make things work for our best. When we trust and believe that our lives are in His hands, great things happen. When we rely on the Lord and we don’t lean on our understanding, we open the door to amazing blessings. When we give Him free reign, He reigns in our lives with power and love. Friend, your future is secured and it is in God’s hands. God knows what’s ahead of you and He knows how He is going to get you through anything. Do not worry. God is going to stay with you and assist you every step of the way.

What lies ahead of you could be a series of great days or a string of awful days. On good days and on bad days God is still God. He is by our side no matter what we go through. The bad days ahead are not intimidating God. The bad days ahead can’t strip God off His power. God is going to be almighty and powerful every day of your life, friend. Think about that. Meditate on that truth. There are no days in the future where God is not going to be able to perform a miracle or to bless you. God is going to do exceedingly more than you expect. That is the kind of God He is. He also promised that if we stay in Him, we will go from glory to glory. There are many glorious days ahead of you, friend. Brace yourself for blessings. Don’t think about the bad things that could take place. The Lord wants you to think about whatever is pure and holy. Negative thoughts are not pure and holy and they should be rejected. The Bible tells us that the way we think is extremely important. When we have positive Bible-based thoughts, wonderful things take place in our lives. That positive thinking is a magnet for blessings because it stirs our faith and our faith produces miracles.

What lies ahead of you doesn’t matter. What matters is the One who is with you when these things happen. Like I said, God is always there. We should lift Him up and praise Him all the time. Our praises should be heard when we are having good days and when we are having bad days. Our days don’t dictate what our God can do. Our God dictates how our days will go. It is crucial that we keep praising God and thanking Him every day. Let’s be sure to praise Him today for what lies ahead and let’s be sure to praise Him tomorrow no matter what. God has been to the future and He has seen it all. He has seen your victory. He has seen your blessings. He has seen how you are going to get out of trouble. He has seen how great things are going to turn out. He has seen the pain ahead but He has also seen the joy that will come. What lies ahead might not always be fun but it will change for the best in the name of Jesus. Don’t forget that the Lord goes before you and He is always, always with you. You are going to make it. Tomorrow will bring joy and pain but tomorrow will not empty the day of Jesus’ presence. It is a guarantee. You are going into the future with the best companion. Stay encouraged! May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Proverbs 23:7; Psalm 12:2; Ephesians 3:20

10 nuggets of wisdom for your Saturday (Part 243)

Out of nowhere God will take you everywhere. He can do anything, anytime, anywhere. Keep trusting Him!

If God could part the seas, He certainly can part the problems that are in front of you. He is going to move them to the side so you can walk on solid ground of blessings. Stay in faith!

A miracle is coming. Stay in faith a little longer. Your faith is paving the way for something great. The Lord has not forgotten you!

Jesus is the provider of all providers! All you need is in Him and through Him. He gives you more than enough and He doesn’t spare anything. Trust Him!

God is telling you today that there is hope and you are going to make it. Don’t get discouraged because the Lord goes before you and He always makes a way for you. Stay strong!

Dive into faith and keep swimming. Jesus will keep you afloat and His Word will lead you to the safest shore. Keep going!

There is hope above the cloud that is sitting on top of you. Remember that greater is the Lord that is in you. He is the silver lining and He is the Sun behind the clouds. Stay encouraged!

God’s grace is for you, friend. It is following you and it will bless you even when you don’t feel like you deserve God’s best. Embrace His grace and accept His love!

You are an overcomer in Jesus’ name. You are not a giver-upper so keep going. Keep fighting the good fight of faith. You are a winner and you have the victory. Stay encouraged!

Suggested reading : Exodus 34:6; Ezra 3:11; Mark 10:18

Your daily praise

Every day we have a chance to sing a song of praise to the Lord. Every day we have the opportunity to lift up the name of Jesus and to exalt Him. Every day could be a praise song. Every day we could be that song that puts Jesus over everything. It’s up to us how we are going to use the day and how we are going to behave during the day. Circumstances and situations will toss us around and make us want to quit or to be negative. There will always be something that will try to steal our song. There will always be a reason for us to give up but we should stay strong in the Lord and sing His song no matter what. We should start the day with praise and end the day with praise. We should walk in praise and run in praise before we go to bed with a song of praise on our lips. We are the song of praise. We were meant to praise the Lord and we can do it because it is in our spiritual DNA. We are vessels of worship and what we do, say and think can vibrate with lyrics of praise. Today I invite you to be the best praise song you can be. Praise Jesus all day long with your actions. Praise Jesus with your beautiful words. Praise Jesus by keeping your mind set on Him. 

What kind of a song of praise are you? Are you upbeat? Are you all about Jesus? Are you lamenting anything? Are you filled with joy and hope? There are so many types of praise songs these days. I was once talking to a friend about songs of praise telling her that some songs barely mention Jesus. They sound great and engaging but they engage you in a melancholic feeling of praise that is not total praise. I go for total praise and not for the feelings. Praise is about Jesus. It is about our Savior. It is not about feeling good. It is not about us experiencing emotions that bring us to tears. Total praise or genuine praise can definitely bring us to tears but it is not the goal. The goal is to pay homage to Jesus and to fix our eyes on Him. Praise is a way of looking at life. It is looking at life with Jesus in mind and in our hearts. It is putting on the lenses of faith and looking at the beauty of Jesus. Praise is giving Jesus priority. Praise is putting ourselves behind Jesus and giving Him the first row in our lives. When we play the song, we are behind Jesus. We don’t put ourselves first. We put love first. Our daily praise is a song of hope that cherishes Jesus, that puts others before us and that has love as a default setting. 

Our daily praise is a dedication to Jesus. It is the commitment that we will walk in faith and that we will make Jesus go viral with our attitude, our reactions and our action. We can praise Jesus everywhere we go without uttering a word. Our disposition should be a song of praise. Our intentions should be a song of praise. The way we treat people should be a song of praise. The way we deal with situations should be a song of praise. Everything we do should be about Jesus and through Jesus. That is how we can keep the music going. That is how we can keep the praise flowing. We can stay in the Lord all day long by singing His praises with our behavior and our mindset. I want Jesus to be on my mind as much as possible. I can have Jesus on my mind more as I praise Him more. It is a powerful mindset to have. The mindset of the one who is devoted to Jesus. Friend, check what your daily song of praise sounds like. Make adjustments to it if necessary. Sing it as much as you can through what you do and what you say. Let others hear your song without you having to necessarily say a way. Let praise be in your mouth, in your mind, in your heart and in your attitude. Your daily song of praise is a beautiful refrain that Jesus loves to hear. Sing it away and sing it loud and proud. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Isaiah 25:1; Psalm 150:6; Revelation 5:13

I choose God

When I pray early in the morning I am more open to God. I am more sensitive to the voice of the Spirit and my spirit is willing to communicate with God and to spend time in His loving presence. However, there are times when the attacks of the enemy on my mind are virulent early in the morning and I have to deal with them. I have to stand my ground and fight the battle of faith and the battle of remaining in prayer. Sometimes my flesh gets in the way and tries to pull me away from God. The other day, I was having one of those mornings when the mental assaults were strong. My first reaction was to speak up and give a voice to the Lord in me. Friend, when we speak in the name of Jesus and we don’t let the enemy get a foothold in our minds, we win those mental battles. The Lord gave me exactly the words I needed to speak. He whispered to my spirit that I had to choose Him and I had to say it out loud. I said “I choose God.”  I said that I chose God that day and God was my strength, my refuge, my rock and my solution. I chose God and I let the enemy and my flesh know. I spoke God and lifted Him up. I spoke against the way I was feeling and how I was thinking. We all have a choice and that choice can be made first thing in the morning. As a matter of fact the choice lies with us all day long and I suggest that we choose God verbally in all situations.

Today I am inviting you to choose God early in the morning and to keep choosing Him all day long. There will always be distractions and thoughts that will try to steal our choice but we can stand with God and win the daily battles. Choosing God means refusing to succumb to fear and to doubt. Choosing God means that we agree with His Word and we are on His side. Choosing God means it doesn’t matter what the world says about us, what matters is how God made us and what He says about us. Choosing God means that complaining is not an option but praising Him is our default setting. Choosing God means that we know without a doubt that greater is the One who lives in us than the devil that lives in this world. Let’s choose God when it feels great and when it feels bad. Let’s choose God when He seems active in our lives and when He seems far far away. Let’s choose God when it is convenient and when it is not comfortable. Let’s choose God and let’s declare that we do so that the negative chatter takes a seat back and leaves. I choose God. Are you ready to choose Him as well?

When I say that I choose God, hope shows up. When I constantly say that I choose God, faith rises. I say it and I stick to my confession. There is a lot of power in what we say. Power to destabilize the negative thoughts and power to amplify the joy and the peace that live in us through the Holy Spirit. I often see my positive declarations in the name of Jesus as activation of the Holy Spirit in me. It is not that the Spirit actually needs to be activated but my connection with Him needs to be jump started or fueled and that happens when I say that I choose God. Use those simple and yet powerful words. Declare “I choose God” and see what happens to your spiritual life. You will get a spiritual boost and you will gain more confidence in your relationship with the Lord. Say it and meditate on it. When the battles of the mind are bad, be sure that the confession of your mouth is good. Keep at it. Keep choosing God. Keep choosing hope. Keep choosing love. Keep choosing Jesus. That great choice will put the enemy in a state of madness and he will run away as you keep choosing God. We have choices all the time and it is easy to lean on our flesh and on negativity but we can overcome them with the words of our testimony. “I choose God ” is a testimony to our faith and to our salvation. It is a declaration of trust and of victory. We choose the Savior. We choose the One who conquered death. We choose the best. Choose God all day long, friend. He is worth it and He will get you through anything. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Deuteronomy 30:19; Romans 10:9; Revelation 3:20

The seeds of the Word in your life

The other day during prayer I kept getting images of seeds being sown in my life. I could see some of them and I completely missed other ones. I saw myself walking around on a soil that looked very fertile but at times I was blind to the fertile soil and to the potential for a great harvest from the seeds in that great soil. I looked up the meaning of the seeds by going through some chapters in the Bible and this is what I found: “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the Word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the Word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the Word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” These verses are verses 22 and 23 in Matthew chapter 13. They nicely illustrate the vision I was given in prayer. We receive the Word of God as a seed. It gets planted in the soil of our lives. Now, we can hold on to the seed and it can grow or we can get carried away with the things of the world and lose the seed. I don’t want to keep losing the seeds of the Lord. I refuse to produce a mediocre crop just because the world is getting the best of me. Please join me in being a harvester for God. Join me in finding the seeds and watering them. It’s time we let the Word of God grow in our lives despite the words of the enemy in our minds.

I have recently watched a few videos of people planting seeds, watering them and conditioning them so they can turn into plants or fruit trees. This one guy was using the seed inside a mango husk. He said that you had to use a ripe mango otherwise the seed is not mature enough to produce a fruit plant. He took the seed, planted it in soil, watered it and put a plastic bottle over it to condition it. This made me think of the seed of the Word. We need to extract it from the husk. This process happens when we are open to hearing the Word and we prayerfully listen to it so we can extract the meaning of those precious words. Then we plant that seed of the Word by meditating on it. We let it marinate in our spirit. We plant it in the soil of faith by standing on that word and believing it. We have to condition it with faith and with daily communication with God. His Word comes alive when we interact with Him. He is the Word and He gives it meaning. That is when we find the power of the Word. We need to engage with it in our heads and in our hearts. We can’t leave the seed without water. Our interaction with it is the water.  When we speak those words over our lives, we allow the seed to grow and to produce a beautiful plant of faith in our lives. Let’s be vigilant and let’s water the seeds. There are many of them and we don’t want to miss them.

In the vision I had, I definitely missed some seeds. I believe that God is always speaking and we are not always listening. I believe there are seeds that fall to the wayside and we walk over them without knowing it. I pray not to miss the seeds of God. I pray and I am learning that I have to be more active when it comes to the Word. I have to keep seeking God and leaning on Him. The world offers a lot of seeds that can be major distractions. Those seeds corrupt the good seed of the Word of God if we don’t pay attention to them. There are worries and fears that can ruin the seeds of the Word. Sometimes worries and doubt change the soil of our good intentions and the seeds of God fall on a soil that can’t produce anything. This is why we have to guard our minds and our hearts and stay focused on Jesus so that the soil within us is fertile and strong. We can have great crops in the name of Jesus. We ought to remember that God’s seeds are for our edification and they are filled with power. We need to keep in mind that watering the seeds is crucial and it shouldn’t just happen on Sundays. We should also pray over the seeds and pray for revelation and wisdom. Our fervent prayers will help us and when we keep at it, faith will yield a harvest of spiritual blessings from the Word. There are seeds of wisdom from the Lord in your life, friend. Don’t miss them. Cherish them and let them grow in the name of Jesus. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Psalm 85:12; Matthew 13; John 4:35-38

It is not too late for you

“It’s too late”, says the enemy to our minds all the time. At least that is what he tells me more and more as I am getting older. He likes to outline a timeline that is discouraging and that is limiting. The enemy is an expert at speaking negativity and failure. He loves telling us that there is no way out or that there is no way something will happen because of time. He is glued to timeframes and he wants everyone to see time as an issue and as a major obstacle. “Time is of the essence” is an expression the enemy uses as well to make us feel rushed and to put us under the spell of his unjustified urgency. Everything has to happen here and now when we listen to the adversity. Now, remember that he is the opposite of God. God says that there is still time. God says that it is not too late. God says that He can make a way. God says that nothing is impossible to Him. If you are going through a tough time now thinking that it is too late for you, take a deep breath. Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Close your eyes and talk to the Lord. Tell Him that He is the God of the impossible and every good thing happens in His perfect timing. God knows what’s best and when it is time He makes things happen.

Don’t let your age get you down and make you believe that it is too late for you to achieve God’s goals for your life. Don’t look at other people and compare yourself with them. Don’t compare timeframes and accomplishments. God has set a time for you to get where you need to be. Stick with the program. Stick with God’s program. In His program there is time for everything and you will not miss your opportunities and you will do great things. You will do what God wants you to do and nothing less than that. Today I want you to tell yourself that it is not too late. God has you in the palm of His hand and He has prepared a great plan for you. If you think you have to wait a long time to see certain things come to pass, know that you are in great company. You probably know that Abraham had to wait a long time to have a son. David waited 15 years to be king. Moses waited 40 years to get the Israelites out of Egypt. I was a little kid when I was told that someday I would share the Word of God. Now, decades later it is happening and things are unfolding before my very eyes. I am not saying that you are going to have to wait for a few decades to reach some goals. You might have to but when you trust the Lord, it all happens at the right time.

Jesus said that whatever we ask in His name we shall receive. He did not say that we would receive it right away. He said that if we stayed in faith it would happen. Let’s stay in faith and let’s continue to believe in miracles, breakthroughs and great destinies fulfilled. We should understand that it is not too late and that God has the timeframes for His blessings and not the devil. We are not limited by the world and by its standards and its expectations. Our gauge is Jesus. He is the One who knows it all and who has the final say. It is ok to have big dreams in the name of Jesus and to trust that it is not too late for them to materialize. The dreams the Lord put in our hearts do not have an expiration date. They will come to life and God has a time stamp on them that will not be interfered with by the enemy. God has it all planned out and when the time comes, your joy will make you forget the wait and the suffering. Whatever you are hoping for is still in your future. Near or distant future but it is in your future. Hold on to God’s promises. Great things will come. It is not too late for God to do something amazing in your life and He will do it over and over again. Stay strong. Stay encouraged. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Isaiah 30:18; Psalm 27:14; John 14:13

Your portrait

Do you ever wonder how God sees you? What would your portrait look like if God were to draw it or paint it for you? Would it look like your self-portrait? I can guarantee you that God’s portrait of you would be very different. It would be a better and well-crafted portrait. You wouldn’t recognize yourself. You would think that God had painted someone else. You would try to see yourself in the portrait and you would find very few similarities. God is never wrong. His vision of you is much better than how you see yourself. To Him, you are a masterpiece. He created you in His image and He loves and adores you. He doesn’t want you to see yourself the way the world depicts you. You are not the world’s creation. You are God’s creation. Get in sync with the creator. Refine yourself in your mind. Define yourself based on God’s definition of your traits and characteristics. He says that you were wonderfully and fearfully made. That says a lot about how He sees you. You are amazing in His eyes and you are not a mistake. You can’t think of yourself following the lies of the enemy. Trust me. The lies of the enemy are abundant because he wants everyone to have low esteem. He hates that we are God’s creation and he will do what he can to destroy that beautiful portrait. You are a child of God, friend and I am encouraging you to change your self-portrait in your head and to see God’s image that is shining in you.

You were made in God’s image. How amazing is that? You might say, “Well how come I don’t look like the models on Instagram?” We are all beautiful in God’s eyes. You see, the world has set standards of beauty based on the flesh. They are based on what we see and how we feel when we see them. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and God is looking at us all the time. He sees beauty in every single person. Everyone you will ever meet is a beautiful creation of the Lord. Now, your mind will not allow you to always see that. Our minds can be very critical and very worldly-directed. God is the right direction for everything. We should always follow His lead and His lead is telling us that we are beautiful in many ways. It is time we learned to see ourselves more like the Lord sees us. We ought to speak about ourselves the way the Lord talks about us. He is the best source of inspiration for that. Let’s get into His Word and learn step by step about the beauty that lies within. Let’s use positive and beautiful words about ourselves so we don’t insult God by saying negative things about who we are. We are not children of the devil. We are children of the most high God!

Your portrait is radiant with a lot of love surrounding it. It is because you are so loved by God. He is with you and in you and He loves you more than you will ever know. Think of your portrait as a painting in a glorious golden frame. It is very precious. It is precious to the Lord. It is worth a lot more than you could ever imagine. There is no price tag in the world that can match your true value. Ask God to reveal His portrait of you to you. Ask Him to open your eyes to what He sees in you. Ask Him to talk to you about you and start using His words about you every day. Ask Him to guide you in this great revelation and take your time to digest what He tells you. You are going to learn a lot about yourself. You are going to appreciate yourself more and to be so thankful for the Lord and for how He made you. Your portrait is filled with God because He made you and He sees Himself in you. Remove the negative chatter in your head by replacing it with the gorgeous words of the Lord. “Gorgeous” is how He sees you. Start your journey of self-discovery today and walk with the Lord your creator. You are going to love what you see in your portrait and you are going to learn how to love others better. May God bless you and protect you and remember that He will always love you! He adores you, child of God!

Suggested reading: Psalm 36:5-7Psalm 139:13-14; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7