THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

YOU WON’T BECOME ALL THAT YOU WERE CREATED TO BE WITHOUT TROUBLE

When troubles come our way, it’s easy to get discouraged, but God uses difficulties to move us toward our destiny. You won’t become all you were created to be without trouble. You don’t grow in the good times; you grow in the tough times, the dark times. Trouble prepares you for the next level. Trouble develops something in you that you can’t get when it’s easy and everything is going your way. In the difficult times, your spiritual muscles are developed, and you gain strength, endurance, and wisdom.

Every challenge you’ve been through has deposited something in you. Through every relationship that didn’t work out, through those times when somebody did you wrong, you gained insight. The times when you failed, when you blew it weren’t wasted—you gained experience that will transport you in the future. The truth is that trouble was transportation. It was all a part of God’s plan.

Today’s Scripture

Proverbs 20:24, NLT

The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

GOD KNOWS WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF…..

There was a man in the Scripture named Gideon whom God wanted to lead the people of Israel against an opposing army. The angel appeared to him and said, “Hello, Gideon, you MIGHTY man of FEARLESS courage,” I can imagine Gideon looking around thinking, Who is he TALKING to? Gideon was afraid, intimidated, and insecure. But notice that God didn’t call him what he WAS. God called him what he could BECOME.

God sees your POTENTIAL. God knows what you’re CAPABLE of. You may FEEL weak, but God calls you STRONG. You may be intimidated TODAY, but God calls you CONFIDENT. You may feel less than, but God calls you well ABLE. If the Angel of the Lord were to appear to YOU today, He would say the same THING he said to Gideon. “Hello, you MIGHTY man, you MIGHTY woman of fearless COURAGE.” Why don’t you get in AGREEMENT with God and start BELIEVING what HE says about you?

Today’s Scripture

Judges 6:12, 14, NLT

The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!… Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

YOU CAN TALK YOURSELF INTO DEFEAT, OR INTO VICTORY

Thirteen years after David was anointed to be the next king of Israel, he was STILL living as a fugitive from King Saul. Then one day, he and his six hundred men came home and found their city had been BURNED, their possessions TAKEN, and their families taken CAPTIVE. It was the worst DEFEAT of David’s life. He and his men WEPT until they could not weep anymore. He was tempted to think, God, I’ve been FAITHFUL year after year. This is the final straw. But David made a decision: “I am NOT allowing this discouragement to STAY. I am STRONG in the Lord. I am His ANOINTED.” You can talk yourself into DEFEAT or into VICTORY. When you speak the RIGHT way, STRENGTH comes, COURAGE comes, VISION comes, HEALING comes. Turn the discouragement around and say, “YES, this is TOUGH, but I am STRONG in the Lord. No weapon formed against ME will prosper.” STRENGTHEN yourself in the Lord.

Today’s Scripture

1 Samuel 30:6, ESV

David was greatly distressed…But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

ONE GOOD BREAK CAN PUT YOU INTO OVERFLOW

We all have dreams we’re believing to ACCOMPLISH, problems we’re HOPING will turn around. Many times in the NATURAL it looks as though it’s going to take YEARS to happen. But God doesn’t always FOLLOW a natural timeline. He knows how to open the windows of HEAVEN. ONE good break can put you into OVERFLOW. You’re going to look up and think, How did I GET here so QUICKLY? What was THAT? The God of ACCELERATION, speeding it UP, MAKING things happen that you COULDN’T make happen. This is what the prophet Amos said. Things are going to happen SO fast—breakthroughs in your FINANCES, PROMOTIONS, HEALING—that your HEAD will swim. Yes, there are seasons of patiently WAITING, being FAITHFUL, passing the TESTS, but there are also seasons where God will ACCELERATE the work and do things SO fast, so AMAZING that your HEAD will spin. God works where there’s FAITH, where there’s EXPECTANCY. Take the LIMITS off of God.

Today’s Scripture

Amos 9:13, MSG

“Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once—and everywhere you look, blessings!”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME TRYING TO CONVINCE THE WRONG PEOPLE

As was true for DANIEL in today’s Scripture, critics are always going to be around YOU. There will ALWAYS be SOMEBODY who doesn’t understand you, doesn’t like what you’re DOING, and who’s NEVER going to be for you. What a shame to waste TIME trying to convince them OTHERWISE when the FACT is that they’re NEVER going to change. I’m asking you to let GOD be your defender. He can make things happen that you can’t MAKE happen. He’s ALREADY lined up the right people to like you, the right people to CELEBRATE you, and the right people to push you into your PURPOSE just as Daniel did. Don’t waste your time trying to convince the wrong PEOPLE. Just keep running YOUR race, honoring God, and being a person of EXCELLENCE. If you DO this, all the forces of darkness cannot hold you back. GOD will settle your cases. He’s preparing a table before you right NOW in the presence of your enemies. He’s going to VINDICATE you, PROMOTE you, and HONOR you.

Today’s Scripture:

Daniel 6:4, NLT

Then the other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize or condemn. He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

STAY IN PEACE AND STOP LETTING THINGS RUIN YOUR DAY…

The apostle Paul went through all kinds of UNFAIR situations. He was falsely ACCUSED of crimes, beaten with RODS, LIED about, put in PRISON, and SHOPWRECKED. In Acts 20, he gives us the secret of living a VICTORIOUS life: “NONE of these things MOVE me.” He was saying, “YES, there were setbacks and disappointments, but I did NOT lose my joy. GOD is still on the throne. Even being put in prison gave me the OPPORTUNITY to write about half of the books of the New Testament.” There’s ALWAYS something trying to move us, to pull us out of PEACE, to pull us OUT of rest. Are YOU allowing these things to move YOU? You can’t PRAY them AWAY. These are tests we ALL have to pass. Jesus said, “Do NOT let your hearts be TROUBLED.” He said troubles will BE there, but you don’t have to be MOVED by them. Stay in PEACE. Quit letting these THINGS ruin your DAY.

Today’s Scripture

Acts 20:24, NKJV

“None of these things move me.”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

DON’T CONFUSE WHERE YOU ARE, WITH WHO YOU ARE

The Scripture speaks of how we are in the world, but we are not of the world. You may be in a LIMITED environment, but you don’t have to be OF it. Don’t let that environment get in YOU. If you see struggle, lack, and poverty LONG enough, your mind can become conditioned to thinking, THIS is who I am. I’ll NEVER have enough. NO, that’s WHERE you are, that’s not WHO you are. That may be what’s BEEN normal. The good news is, you’re a BARRIER BREAKER. SOME people try to put you in a box. They’ll tell you such things as, “You’ll never afford a nice house, never get well, never meet the right person.” Because THEIR thinking is LIMITED, they’ll try to put THIER limitations on YOU. You have to put your foot down and say, “I REFUSE to be mediocre because people AROUND me are mediocre. I AM a barrier breaker. I’m going to set a NEW standard.”

Today’s Scripture

John 17:14, NIV

“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

GOD HAS A PROMISED LAND FOR YOU

The Israelites had been in slavery for HUNDREDS of years. That was the land of barely ENOUGH. They were just SURVIVING, barely making it through. One day God brought them OUT of slavery and took them into the desert, the land of JUST enough. Their NEEDS were supplied, but nothing EXTRA. God EVENTUALLY took them into the PROMISED Land, the land of MORE than enough. The food and supplies were PLENTEOUS. It’s called “the land FLOWING with milk and honey.” FLOWING means it didn’t STOP. Its ABUNDANCE NEVER ran out. That’s where God is taking YOU. You may be in the land of barely enough or just enough right NOW. Don’t WORRY. God has NOT forgotten about you. He is saying, “Those are SEASONS. Don’t put your stakes down. You’re passing through.” God has a Promised Land for YOU. He has a place of ABUNDANCE, of MORE than enough, where it’s FLOWING with PROVISION, not just ONE time, but you’ll CONTINUE to have PLENTY.

Today’s Scripture

Leviticus 20:24, NIV

“You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

TAKE THAT STEP, KNOWING THAT GOD KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING

God told Abraham to pack up his household, leave his extended family behind, and head out to a land that God was going to give him. The only problem was that God didn’t give him any details of where to go. But Abraham understood that just because you don’t have all the answers and you’re uncomfortable doesn’t mean you aren’t supposed to do it. God doesn’t give you a blueprint for your whole life. If you had all the details of what He wants you to do and how it will work out, you wouldn’t need any faith. He’s going to send you out, not knowing everything. It’s not always going to make sense. Other people may try to talk you out of it. Your own thoughts will tell you, What if it doesn’t work out? But if you take that step, trusting that God knows what He’s doing, then each step of the way there will be provision, favor, and protection.

Today’s Scripture

Hebrews 11:8, NIV

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

WE ALL HAVE POTENTIAL, ONCE WE GET RID OF THE CHAFF

Throughout the Scripture, there are many references to “the threshing floor.” This was where the wheat was separated from the chaff. They would lay the sheaves of wheat on the floor and have oxen and cattle walk over them repeatedly, which separated the valuable grain from the worthless chaff. Without that process, the grain wouldn’t do them any good. For us to reach our highest potential, God will take us through some threshing floors. We start off like a stalk of wheat. The potential is there; we have seeds of greatness, but we have some chaff—some pride, insecurity, impatience—along with the valuable grain. Unless God takes us through the threshing floor—being stuck in traffic, an irritating coworker, a friend who walks away—we will never become what we were created to be. Even though it’s uncomfortable, if you have the right attitude, you’re going to come out refined, more valuable, and separated from the things that are holding you back.

Today’s Scripture

Isaiah 28:28, NIV

Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever.