THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

LET GOD GUIDE YOU AND ORDER YOUR STEPS

It’s amazing how taking a few minutes at the START of each day to plan and set your thoughts in the right direction can help you get ahead and EMPOWER you to accomplish SO much more. But too often, people get so caught up in the activity of life that they tend to just “go with the flow” instead. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be flexible, but when it comes to your life, YOU should be the one setting the flow. Of course, unexpected things happen. Our days won’t always go according to plan, but if you’ll take time each day to set your heart and mind in the right DIRECTION, you’ll be EQUIPPED for whatever comes your way!

Today I encourage you to make plans to start your day right and set your thoughts in the right DIRECTION. Say something such as “This IS going to be a GREAT day. God IS guiding and DIRECTING my steps. His FAVOR is surrounding me.” Put God first place. Let Him GUIDE you and order your steps. Even if it’s just five minutes a day, make spending time with Him a HABIT. PLAN your day with Him because CAREFUL planning is the way to get ahead.

Today’s Scripture:

Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind.

Proverbs 21:5, MSG

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

STAY TRUE TO WHO GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO BE AND YOU’LL HAVE NO REGRETS…

I read a report from a nurse who takes care of people who are close to death. She asked hundreds of patients in the last twelve weeks of their life what their biggest REGRET was. The number one regret reported was, “I wish I had been true to who I was and not just lived to meet the expectations of others.”

How many people today are not being TRUE to who GOD created them to be simply because they are afraid they’re going to disappoint somebody? They’re afraid they may fall out of someone else’s good grace. They worry about not being accepted into a certain group. I say this respectfully, but you cannot live trying to be who your parents want you to be, or who your boss wants you to be, or who your friends want you to be. You’ve got to stay TRUE to who GOD has called you to be.

Today, make the DECISION to live life with NO regrets. Surrender yourself WHOLEHEARTEDLY to who God CREATED you to be. Let Him MOLD and SHAPE your character. Let HIM order your steps. As you submit your ways to HIM, He will SHINE DOWN on you, and you will live the FULFILLED, ABUNDANT life He has prepared for you!

Today’s Scripture:

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Galatians 1:10, NIV

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

WHEN YOU ARE LIVING YOUR LIFE TO PLEASE GOD, IT’S LIKE A BEAUTIFUL FRAGRANCE THAT CAPTURES HIS ATTENTION

Our lives are supposed to be a sweet fragrance to God. Think about how a wonderful AROMA affects you personally. When it’s springtime and the flowers are blossoming, everything FEELS new again. The sweet aroma in the air is a sign that the flowers are FRESH and ALIVE. It catches your ATTENTION! It makes you want to take a deep breath and partake of the wonderful sweet fragrance.

God feels the same way about YOU! He loves wonderful aromas, and when you are living your life to please HIM, it’s a beautiful fragrance that captures His ATTENTION! Just like the aroma in springtime is a sign that the flowers are alive, the aroma of your LIFE is a sign that Christ is ALIVE in you. It is PLEASING to the Father! The next time you experience a fresh fragrance, remember that YOUR LIFE is a fragrance unto GOD. You can rest in knowing that He is PLEASED with a heart that seeks after Him. As you continue to SEEK Him, YOU will be that sweet fragrance and experience His wonderful hand of BLESSING in every area of YOUR life.

Today’s Scripture:

“For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God…”

2 Corinthians 2:15, AMP

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

GOD’S FAVOR LASTS A LIFETIME, AND THEN SOME….

God wants to release FAVOR and BLESSING into your life. He longs to be GOOD to you. Some blessings are STORED UP for you because someone in your family line HONORED Him. It may have been a parent or grandparent, or maybe someone WAY back in your history that you don’t even know; but because they lived a life of FAITH, now you are going to reap the REWARDS. It may have been a hundred years ago, but God wants to increase you a thousand times OVER your ancestors. When you have those moments where you feel like you’ve received “favor out of nowhere,” that’s the time to thank God for His GRACE and MERCY. Thank Him for His promise to pass down BLESSINGS from generation to generation.

We serve a gracious and MIGHTY God, and His favor lasts a LIFETIME! Open your heart with an attitude of EXPECTANCY because blessings ARE coming your way!

Today’s Scripture:

“May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!”

Deuteronomy 1:11, NIV

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

OPEN YOUR HEART AND RECEIVE GOD’S MERCY

Isn’t it good to know that no matter what happened yesterday, no matter what you said, no matter what you did, God’s MERCY is new for you TODAY? Mercy is EMPOWERING. It gives us the chance to let go of the our mistakes and move forward in Him. We have to always remember that God is not condemning us. Romans tells us that there is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ. God wants to LOVE us and EQUIP us to OVERCOME in this life.

Do you need NEW MERCY today? Receive it by FAITH. You don’t have to beg God to forgive you. He forgives you the FIRST time you ask, but it’s up to YOU to RECIEVE that forgiveness. Open your heart today and RECEIVE His mercy. Let Him wash over you with His PEACE and JOY. Then choose to extend that mercy to OTHERS. Remember, you are God’s REPRESENTATIVE in the earth. As you show His love and character to OTHERS, He’ll pour out His blessing on YOU and use you in ways you never DREAMED!

Today’s Scripture:

“The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”

Lamentations 3:22-23, NLT

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

THOSE WHO SCATTER SEED GENEROUSLY, REAP EVEN MORE…

Every command God gives us in His Word is for our GOOD. He is a good God, and He works ALL things together for our good because He LOVES us. He wants to BLESS us, MULTIPLY us and fill us with His exceeding JOY and PEACE, but we have to do OUR part. We have to obey His commands in order to set the blessing into MOTION.

One of the best ways to see the blessing of God operating in YOUR life is by sowing a seed of your TIME, ABILITIES or RESOURCES. Proverbs says that those who scatter seed GENEROUSLY reap even MORE. That’s because when you give, God promises that it will come back to you in ABUNDANCE- pressed down, shaken together and running over. But, you have to freely RECEIVE in order to have something to GIVE.

Remember, giving is tied to RECEIVING. I have found that the more I freely RECEIVE from God, the more I desire to freely give to OTHERS. Today, I encourage YOU to keep your heart and mind open to what God has for YOU. Look for ways to SOW seeds. Freely GIVE and set the blessing in motion in YOUR life today!

Today’s Scripture:

“…Freely you have received, freely give.”

Matthew 10:8 NKJV

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

WHEN YOU CHOOSE GOD’S PLAN, YOUR FINAL CHAPTER CONCLUDES WITH YOU FULFILLING YOUR DESTINY

Did you know that God has ALREADY recorded every part of your life from the beginning to the end? He knows every disappointment, every loss, every challenge; and the good news is that with Christ, your story ends in VICTORY! God has written out a plan to BLESS and PROSPER you. When you choose HIS plan, your final chapter concludes with you fulfilling your God-given DESTINY. Here’s the key: when you go through a disappointment, when you go through a loss, don’t stop on THAT page in your life. You’ve got to DECIDE to keep moving FORWARD. There’s another chapter in front of you, but you’ve got to be willing to take the next step.

Sometimes, we get so focused on what DIDN’T work out that we stay stuck, RELIVING the disappointment. If that’s you, recognize that you’ve been on that page long enough. It’s time to LET IT GO and turn the page to the NEW chapter God has in store. You may not UNDERSTAND, it may not have been FAIR, but REMEMBER, the NEXT chapter is full of BLESSING, full of FAVOR, and full of VICTORY! Make the decision to LET GO of the old so you can move forward into the ABUNDANT life God has in store for you!

Today’s Scripture:

“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”

(Psalm 139:16, NLT)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

GOD’S GRACE WILL BE THERE AT EVERY STAGE OF YOUR LIFE, TO HELP YOU DO WHATEVER YOU NEED TO DO

In this day and age, many people are filled with worry about their FUTURE. They live stressed out, wondering, “What’s going to happen if I get laid off?” “How am I going to handle it if my loved one doesn’t make it?” Or, “My parents are getting older. How can I take care of them and my own family at the same time?” Here is the answer: God’s GRACE is going to be there at every stage of your life to help you do WHATEVER you need to do. God’s grace is what SAVES us, but that’s not all. His grace is His ENABLING power. His grace will give you the STRENGTH, WISDOM and FAVOR to accomplish what you could not normally accomplish on your own. His GRACE is SUFFICIENT for whatever you need in your future.

If you’re in a difficult marriage, if you’re raising a child that’s hard, if you’re facing a sickness, one thing you can count on is that the GRACE of God will be there. Receive it today by FAITH, and let Him EMPOWER you to walk through the difficulty into a place of VICTORY in Jesus’ name!

Today’s Scripture:

“But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.”

1 Corinthians 15:10, NLT

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

GOD WANTS TO MAKE YOU NEW. HE’LL GIVE YOU A FRESH START…..

When God puts a DREAM or a PROMISE on the inside of you, He deposits within you EVERYTHING you need to accomplish it. He wouldn’t give you the desire to do something without giving you the ABILITY to fulfill it. In fact, the scripture tells us that GOD gives us the desires of our heart. In other words, HE puts the desire inside of us and then works WITH us to bring it to pass.

Oftentimes, people set out to accomplish their DREAMS, but they face a setback or disappointment, and then they feel like their time has passed. But know this: no matter WHERE you’ve come from, no matter WHAT’S happened in your past, God wants to make you NEW. He wants to give you a FRESH START. If you feel like you’ve missed OPPORTUNITIES in your life, if you feel like your time has passed, remember, today is a NEW day. You are a NEW person, and God has NEW OPPORTUNITIES in store for you!

Today’s Scripture:

“And He Who is seated on the throne said, See! I make all things new…”

Revelation 21:5, AMPC

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

GIVE GENEROUSLY TO OTHERS, GOD WILL MULTIPLY THOSE SEEDS

Did you know that when you give to others in need, the Bible says it’s like giving directly to God Himself? When you step out and bless OTHER people, you are HONORING and BLESSING the LORD. The scripture tells us to give our BEST, to give GENEROUSLY. In other words, STRETCH yourself. Go out of your way. It may be uncomfortable to walk over and pay for someone’s gas, but that’s being GENEROUS.

I encourage YOU today, LOOK for ways to give generously and meet the needs of others. Remember, people have many different TYPES of needs. There may be someone who needs some ENCOURAGEMENT. Give GENEROUSLY when you give that encouragement. There may be someone in your life that just needs a FRIEND; they need some quality TIME. Give GENEROUSLY of your time and POUR into that person. As you give GENEROUSLY to OTHERS, God will multiply those seeds in YOUR own life in return!

Today’s Scripture:

” …The righteous give generously”

(Psalm 37:21, NIV)