THIS IS HOW YOU OVERCOME

“Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”* If you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are an overcomer. You can overcome this world. You can overcome all obstacles, trials and tribulations. You can win many battles and you can come out of difficult situations unscathed. Easier said than done but it is the truth. For one thing, it is important to understand that we are more than conquerors through Christ. It is through Him that we overcome the world. He is our strength and our victory is only in Him. He is the King of Kings who never fails and who never disappoints. “So why am I losing my mind with every battle that I have been losing?” you might ask. The battle, like I often say, starts in your mind. Your mind is the platform that you need to focus on. Clear your mind. Clear your mind of all the negative chatter and fill it up with the words of victory of the Lord. Fill your mind with Jesus. Make Him the subject of your daily meditation.

Meditate on the fact that you can overcome through Christ. The Bible gives you a list of strategies that help you overcome. I mentioned the renewing of the mind and it is a very powerful strategy. Remember that you believe what you hear so be sure to hear the good news of the Lord and to listen to messages about how you can make it. Messages about you making it in this world thanks to the Son of Man.Self-help messages can only get you so far. Messages of help with Jesus at the center will take you to a destination of peace, hope and victory. The Lord is always telling you that you can overcome and you need to listen to Him and to thank Him for His daily encouragement.

I received a very helpful message a while ago when I was seeking God’s face. When I was seeking His kingdom and I was desperate for Him, I learned that praise was the key. Praise is the key to reaching God, to finding God, to experiencing God and to seeing God in action. Praise is also how we overcome this world. When we praise Jesus and we put Him on a pedestal, we receive victory. We have the assurance that He can do all things and that He won’t let us down. Praise Him today and you will overcome. You overcome this world by the words that you choose. You overcome all circumstances by the power behind your words. Use your words wisely and you will see how your world changes. You don’t overcome by standing on a wish. You overcome by speaking the truth of the Lord against the enemy and that truth is found in your worship, your praise, your words of faith and your stand for love. You can be an overcomer through Christ. Believe it. Believe Him and be that amazing overcomer you are meant to be.  May God bless you and protect you and remember that Jesus is alive and well and He will always love you!

Suggested reading:  Romans 8:37; 1 John 5:5*; Revelation 3:5

BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US

“We love because He first loved us.”* I read this verse taken from the book of 1 John the other day and I meditated on it. God first loved us. God first loved me. He loved me before I knew Him. He loved me before I loved me. He loved me first and He never stopped loving me. His love has always existed. He is love and He has always been. Imagine someone who loved you way before you existed. That sounds hard to imagine. That sounds impossible. Yet we have a God who does the impossible. His impossible love remains and it will never go away.

This chapter of 1 John talks about how God so loved the world that He gave His Son as a sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed Himself out of love so we could live through Him after His resurrection. We who have Him as our Lord and Savior, have eternal life through Him because of love. Love is the reason. Love is what started it all. Love is what motivated God and what motivates Him still. God loved you before you faced trials and tribulations and He still loves you today. He loves you now. He will love you tomorrow. His sacrifice is still relevant today and it will still be relevant tomorrow.

Now, because God is love and because He loves us, we love others. It is part of who we are in Christ. We are lovers or people. God loved us first and His love helps us love others. I say that it helps us because we can choose not to follow His love and follow our flesh, our own thoughts and desires. The love is there. It is present and it doesn’t go away but we can bury it. We can stifle it and we can suppress it. Let’s choose love. Let’s choose to always yield to the Spirit of love. He loved us first so we could love the world.

You are loved, friend. You are loved so you can carry the admirable and the beautiful mission of love. Love selflessly. Love extravagantly. Love with no limits. Love with compassion and with God’s passion. Love with God in mind. Love with the intention to bless others and to help others. Love and don’t stop loving. Turn up the volume of God’s love. Let your voice echo His powerful voice. Let your actions speak for His love. Let your walk be a walk of love every single day! May God bless you and protect you and remember that Jesus is alive and well and He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:19*

LIVING WITH GOD’S PEACE

“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.”* This verse is taken from Psalm 4. In this verse David is asking for help and God intervenes by giving him peace and by filling him with joy. Peace is powerful. The peace of God is extremely powerful and you and I have access to it. It belongs to us because we are God’s children. Jesus said “ Peace I give to you.” It is a done deal. Living without peace is living without knowing what is rightfully ours. It is like living poorly when we have a treasure with gold and diamonds that we don’t know about. 

We can get a glimpse of that treasure chest. We open it. We take out some gems but then we close it and we forget about it. We are in need of peace and hope but we have kicked the chest under the bed and we can’t remember we have it. God’s peace is not a temporary blessing but it is an eternal gift. When Jesus died and rose from the dead, peace came and stayed among the people who believed in Him. If you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior today, know that the Lord’s peace is yours forever. Accept it. Embrace it. Get to know it. Enjoy it and live with it.

Living with peace is living with power. It is living with a super-power if you will. Why? Because God’s peace is present at all times even in times of trouble. When we constantly tap into it, we can be facing the most horrible situation and still be filled with joy. God’s peace comes with joy. Joy and peace are two friends that go hand in hand. Living with God’s peace is living with what gives us access to the fruit of the Spirit. Love is the most important fruit and it works well with its entire family but peace is a gift from God that keeps us in the family of love. Peace is the anchor that allows you to stay planted in the truth. The truth that no matter what God is King and He reigns supreme.

The Lord tells us not to fear at least 365 times in the Bible. Peace is the enemy of fear and doubt. God has given us ammunition against fear. His weapon of choice is His peace. I love to meditate on the Lord. I receive a lot of peace when I do. I love praying to Jesus. I receive a lot of peace when I do. I love praising the Lord. I receive a lot of peace when I do. I love talking about how Jesus is the King of my life and how He affects my life in the most positive way. I receive a lot of peace when I do. Receive peace today, friend. Pray, praise, hold on to Jesus and you will live with His peace. May God bless you and protect you and remember that Jesus is alive and well and He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Psalm 4:8*; John 16:33; Colossians 3:15

GOD WANTS YOU WELL

God wants you well. This might sound like an obvious statement but I believe it is easy to forget its significance. God doesn’t want us to suffer. He doesn’t want us to be sick. He doesn’t want us to be sad. He doesn’t want us to live in fear. He doesn’t want us to live in pain. Now, does that mean that pain, suffering, sadness and fear will never be part of our lives? No. They will be here as long as we live. We will always be exposed to them and we will always experience them. However, the Lord Himself said He had conquered them. We can recover from them. We can heal from them. We can win against them. That is where the good fight of faith comes in. 

When pain and suffering visit our homes, we need to fill the house with hope and faith in Jesus. We need to make faith the dominant presence in our home so that pain, suffering and doubt leave. When Jesus was walking the earth, He said “Your faith has healed you.” It is our faith in Jesus that heals and that gets the job done. God wants us well. We need to trust and believe that. Our faith in Him needs to be stronger than our fears and our doubts. We can get there. We can get there with daily devotion to God and daily interaction with Him.

Our daily interactions with God will reveal that He wants us well. We can interact with Him by reading the Word. I used to read the Bible the way I would read a novel. It was exciting and interesting but it did very little for my faith. It gave me ideas of who God was but it also depicted Him as a fictional character in a book. He is not fictional. He is real and He is alive. My daily interactions with God now while reading the Bible involve some meditation time and some prayer time. I ask the Holy Spirit to guide me and to help me understand God. I want to know Him better and to trust with my whole heart that He wants me well.

There are many scriptures in the Bible about God wanting us to be well. One of them is Exodus 15:26 that says that the Lord is the One who heals us. Healing can be healing of a situation or of a condition. Once I started thinking that way, it helped me tremendously. When things get bad, I know that I have a healer who can heal my situation and in time things are going to be fixed and they are going to be great. God wants my life to be well. I know He does and that same goes for you. He wants you well all the time. If we cling on to Him and we make Him a part of our daily lives, things change for the better.

Faith is not an easy thing. Having faith in the Lord who wants us well all the time can be challenging but I am encouraging you to keep walking in faith. Keep declaring that your God wants you well and that He makes all things good and new again. You will face trials and tribulations but you have Jesus to help you handle anything and everything. Don’t fear and don’t worry. Pray and praise instead. Worship and give thanks instead. Speak life into your situation in the name of Jesus instead. God wants you well and you are going to get a better understanding of what that entails when you keep your eyes on Jesus. May God bless you and protect you and remember that Jesus is alive and well and He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Exodus 15:26; Psalm 107:20; 1 Peter 2:24

10 NUGGETS OF WISDOM FOR YOUR SATURDAY (Part 333)

God says you are going to make it. God knows you are going to make it. God will

 make sure that you make it. Put all your trust in Him and you will make it!

God is a giant of blessings. A giant with a love that is higher than all the mountains of fear and defeat. A giant that has conquered the world so that you could enjoy your world. God is a giant of miracles who can do the impossible!

Embrace God’s peace. Invite it into your day every day. Call it into your life through prayer and meditation. Let it fill you. Let it bless you!

Walk in doubt and you will stall. You will fall, crash and burn. Walk in faith and you will find peace, hope and victory. Walk in faith and walk in love and you will walk in victory!

God is love. Period. Too many people put conditions on His love. Let His love condition you so you can love others as yourself.

The Lord will put things on your path to remind you that He is still God and He still reigns. He will clue you in and you will remember that He is the same yesterday , today and forever!

God is a specialist when it comes to everything. He knows everything and He can do everything. Trust the One who knows it all and who can do exceedingly more than you can imagine!

God raises the bar. He raises the bar of your expectations. He pulls them up to a level that is out of this world. Expect extraordinary things with Him!

You can’t go wrong with God so follow Him. He will take you places that your mind never dared to visit. He will show you a world of wonders and miracles. Let your faith take you as far as possible. Trust God!

Keep praying. Keep praying to your God who is the King of miracles. He can really do anything. Don’t lose hope. Something great is coming!

Suggested reading: Exodus 15:26; Jeremiah 32:27; John 2:11

IN THE SCHOOL OF LIFE

I teach high school. I have been teaching for a long time. I love teaching. I love learning. What helps me in my job is remembering that even though I am the one giving the instructions, I have many opportunities to learn and grow. I learn a lot from professional development, from interaction with my colleagues and from my students. Students can teach us a lot. I have learned to pay more attention, to be more patient, to be more loving and to be more compassionate and to be more open-minded. Every year I have new students with new perspectives, new challenges, new passions, new lives. I discover new ways of thinking and new ways of loving. I have to care for them differently. I have to let the Holy Spirit squeeze my preconceived notions so new learning can take place. I have to humble myself and be a servant of love instead of a judge of character. Teaching is humbling. If I don’t put myself at the mercy of God’s love, teaching becomes a chore. It becomes a burden but it is my gift from God. It is the present that God gave me so I could glorify Him and serve Him and serve others.

I don’t know what your profession is or if you are a student or if you have a job or not. What I know is that what you do, what you are meant to do, you should do it with love, patience, compassion, open-mindedness and long-suffering. We all have a mission here on earth and its main theme is loving God, loving others and loving ourselves. Whether you are in the classroom or not, you are in the school of life and you can learn a lot and teach a lot. Be that teacher of love and hope that you are supposed to be. You are here to teach God and teach love. You don’t need to preach. You don’t need to talk people down. You don’t need to have a degree. All you need is a willing heart, a teachable spirit and an open-mind. God will instruct you and lead you. He will show you what you can teach people around you. He will show you how to walk in love, walk in faith and walk in peace. Give in to the Holy Spirit and humble yourself. Be taught by God, Teach with love and learn without discrimination.

This school of life has many tests and you can be faced with many challenges. Some of those challenges will keep you up at night. They will keep you in front of the board of life and you will scratch your head until you lose your mind. Thankfully the Holy Spirit, the Master Teacher comes to your rescue. Call on Him. Ask to be taught and to be transformed in the image of God. It should be a life goal to become more like Jesus so you can impact many lives and make changes in the world around you. You learn from God so you can teach people. Not just people you love but people that He loves and that is everyone you will ever meet. Teaching has humbled me and taught me to love those I didn’t want to care about. The school of life will give you lessons where you will either grow or you will regress. Choose to grow with God! See the lessons in this school of life as situations that will help you solidify your faith. You are never alone in the school of life. The Headmaster is always in the room with you. Remember that! May God bless you and protect you and remember that Jesus is alive and well and He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Psalm 143:10; John 14:15-17; Romans 5:1-5

GOD OF INFINITE POSSIBILITIES

When Jesus walked the earth, He performed a lot of miracles. He turned water into wine. He walked on water. He fed thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and some fish. The way that food was multiplied was mind-blowing. He did what no one else had done before. He did great things out of nothing or out of very few things. With Him the possibilities were endless. With Him the possibilities are still endless. He still does the impossible and the incredible. He can still turn water into wine. He can still walk on water. He can still feed huge crowds. Do you believe it? Do you know it? Put Him to the test. Stretch your faith and ask for a miracle. Believe that your water is going to turn into wine. Your water is your current situation. It could be bad. It could be dismal or it could even be good. Whatever it is, God can make it better. God can take it and give it a new color, a new aroma, a new taste and a new twist. Jesus can improve anything. Just give what you have and trust that He can do great things with it. He will!

We have a God of infinite possibilities but our faith is what activates His hand. I have mentioned it a few times before but I need to repeat that message. I need to hear it myself and to put it into practice but trusting that my God of endless possibilities is never, ever limited. I want to expand my faith and let it grow as big as it can grow. I want to have Jesus-size faith and know and believe that I can move mountains and I can walk on water. I have gone through deep waters. I have survived in the middle of troubled waters and I have rarely been able to walk all over tough situations with blind faith. Faith that allows me to walk on any water and to be stable on my path in this life. It is possible and you and I can do it. We can walk hand in hand with Jesus on any water that comes our way. We don’t have to be afraid to drown in the river of problems and difficulties. We can walk and rise above anything and everything.

I love the word “infinite.” It defines a world of abundance. A world of endless creations and endless blessings when we put our trust in the Lord. Think about the most amazing thing that could happen to you. With God, anything can happen and you can experience even more than what you imagine to be the best. You can walk on dry land in the middle of a storm. You can have joy when you should be crying. You can have seasons after seasons of outstanding miracles. God wants to do great things in your life and He is waiting for you to give Him the green light. Your faith is the green light. Your faith is the ignition. Your faith is the flame that can cause a giant fire of blessings to take place in your life. You have a God of infinite possibilities so don’t limit Him. Seek His kingdom and everything will be added unto you. You can have more than you imagine. The possibilities are endless and they are gigantic. 

Suggested reading: Deuteronomy 10:21; John 2:11;  Acts 3:16

YOU MIGHT BE DOWN BUT YOU WILL STAND UP AGAIN

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” * Have you ever felt pressed on every side? Have you ever been in despair? I think most of us would answer yes to these questions or we will eventually. Paul wrote this chapter of the Bible. He had learned that the Church was suffering and believers struggled. There was a good amount of persecution for following the Gospel. The persecution still exists today. It takes on different forms. There are extreme forms of persecution of Christians in places where Christianity is not recognized. There is another form of persecution that all believers and non believers experience. It is the everyday persecution caused by the enemy. When it comes to Christians, the enemy does whatever it takes to make them lose their faith. His main goal is to make believers fall out of faith and reject God. He does it many different ways and one of them is to make believers think that nothing and no one can save them from their suffering. The truth is that even in the middle of our suffering, there is hope and there is peace. We don’t access them and we ignore them but they are present.

We fall down but we stand up again. I fall down. I fall down and sometimes I fall under the ground, it feels like. Trials come rushing in from nowhere and my world is shaken up. It is not unusual for me and I know that the enemy tries to push my buttons. However, I have a God who keeps me strong and who keeps me in peace. I push the button of faith and the light of hope comes on. Paul said that he was struck down and not destroyed. I have been there. I might have a day or two of feeling lousy but even during those days, there is a voice of victory in the back of my mind and faith resonates. Friend, I don’t know what you are facing today but know that you might be down but you will stand up again. God has not given up on your situation. He is working on it and He has already planned an end to your misery.

Keep your eyes on Jesus as you are lying there on the ground. Whatever struck you down is not going to win. Look up at the horizon. There is a beautiful day about to emerge. The day when you are going to stand in triumph and victory. That day will be here before you know it and as you wait for it, declare that it is here. Say and declare that in Christ Jesus you are going to make it and things are turning around. Things are changing. Things are moving. God is making old things new. God is designing a new day with you in mind. God is going to do something very amazing for you. Look up. He is giving you a hand so you can stand up again and this message is part of His help. Receive it. Embrace Him and stay in faith. Do not lose heart but fill your heart with positive thoughts of blessings and breakthroughs. They will come to pass and your suffering will end.  May God bless you and protect you and remember that Jesus is alive and well and He will always love you!

Suggested reading: 2 Corinthians 4:8-9*; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7

WHEN YOU GET TO KNOW JESUS

My prayer for you is that you get to know Jesus. That you get to know Him well. That you understand and believe that He truly loves you. The first thing you will find when getting to know Him is that He is Love. He is not what religion says He is. He is not mean. He is not exclusive. He is not judgmental. He is not there to stare you down and to make you feel bad. He is Love. Love the way no humans can love. He is above all humans in all His ways. No one is like Him. No one compares to Him. He is unfathomable and yet He makes Himself available. He is looking for people who will embrace His love and who will walk with Him. He took me in. I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t deserve His attention.

 As a kid, I used to pray in bed and felt guilty for asking God to change my life. Who was I to ask Him to help me? He heard my prayers. It took years for the change to come but it did. It was all part of His plan. What I didn’t know was that He would show me His love. I had no idea what His love would one day invade my life and make room for peace, love and hope. He is good. “Good” is not strong enough of a word but at the same time it is the perfect adjective for Him. He is good in God’s way. Not good like the world but good like Heaven. He is out of this world. When you get to know Jesus, you get to know that His love is not from here but it changes your life here.

I spent time developing my relationship with Jesus. I saw Him as unique, precious, amazing, outstanding and beautiful. When you get to know Jesus, you are struck by His beauty. The beauty of His Spirit. The beauty of His heart. There are times when I fall into moments of pure worship and adoration and the presence of the Lord is so tangible that my eyes can’t hold off the tears. They are happy tears. They are tears of joy and tears of awe. Our awesome Lord is majestic and He is worthy of all our praises. I have learned that the more I praise Him and the more of Him shows up in my life. It is true what the Bible says; Jesus inhabits the praises of His people. Put it to the test and you will see how wonderful it is to bask in the presence of the King of Kings.

When you get to know Jesus. You get to know peace. I often mention His incredible peace. I pray that you get experience every day. I pray that it becomes your daily companion and that you have it in much bigger ways than I do. I pray that His peace becomes your strength. A strength that stops the enemy in his track because he won’t be able to yank your chain and to steal your joy. Jesus is peace. He has so much peace. It is mind-blowing. You wonder how He can have so much peace when we are facing many terrible things. Friend, you can get to know the Emperor of Love and the King of Peace. May you get close to Him more and more each day. He will make every day an outstanding adventure and a time to rejoice and celebrate. Keep Him in the center of your life! May God bless you and protect you and remember that Jesus is alive and well and He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Psalm 23:4; Luke 14:27; John 14:1

A WEEK WITH THE GIANT OF BLESSINGS

A few years ago I wrote a message called “A week to remember.” Every week is a week to remember. Why? Because I expect God to show up and show off every week. I expect Him to do something good, something great, something amazing. Every morning I thank Him for the wonderful things He is going to do that day. At the start of the week I thank Him for what He is going to do that week. In more recent years, I have shifted my expectations a little bit. I still expect God to do great things but I also expect Him to get me through anything.

I know that there will be tough times. I know that trials and tribulations don’t discriminate. They come into everyone’s lives. They show up unexpectedly. They come into our space and sit there for a while. They get comfortable and they watch us suffer. They are tactics of the enemy to make us lose your faith. They are meant to step our peace and steal our joy. However, God is in our space as well. It is put to us to choose to focus on Him and to fix our eyes on the mountain of negativity in the room. God is a giant. A giant of blessings, peace, love, hope and miracles. If we keep looking at our problems and failures and we don’t pay attention to God, our days are going to be miserable.

 God is here every day and He is here to bless the day no matter what life throws at us.  As this week is starting, be sure to have the right focus. Be sure to set your eyes on the Giant of blessings. Be sure to keep your eyes on the One who can make anything possible. Expect Him to help you through the tests of life. Expect Him to give you peace while you are walking through the fire of trials. Expect Him to guide you and to hold your hand. He is going to show you a path that will take you away from fear and doubts. He is going to give you peace of mind when you should be having a mental crisis. He is going to show up and make things better.

God is in your space wherever you go. Acknowledge Him in all your ways. Pull Him into every part of your day. Don’t ignore Him. Don’t leave Him on the sideline.  Make Him your headline. Make Him the most important One every day. He is going to make this week an incredible week. You can count on Him. You can rely on Him. Be aware of His presence. Meditate more this week. Pray more. Talk to God more. Talk about God more. Fellowship with believers more. Expect God more. Praise God more. This week is one for the books just like every week when you stand on the Book of life and you adore and trust the King of Kings! May God bless you and protect you and remember that Jesus is alive and well and He will always love you!

Suggested reading: Proverbs 3:5-6; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5