THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

YOU NEED TO THANK GOD FOR WHAT ‘DIDN’T’ HAPPEN IN YOUR LIFE

Saul was one of the greatest enemies of the early church. He was headed STRAIGHT toward Damascus with authority to ARREST any followers of Christ. The believers in Damascus didn’t even KNOW it. He was going to cause them TREMENDOUS heartache and pain. It looked INEVITABLE. But suddenly a bright LIGHT shone down on Saul from HEAVEN, knocking him to the ground. In a SPLIT second, God stopped the persecutor in his TRACKS…and in the PROCESS changed him into an APOSTLE.

We ALL need to realize there were times in our PAST when we knew NOTHING about it, but SOMETHING was coming our WAY–a bad break, an accident, a sickness. It should have finished us OFF, but GOD said, “NO, that’s MY child. I’m putting a STOP to it.” There have been MANY things you knew nothing about, but God stopped a cancer, stopped a betrayal, or stopped a rejection. It was ALL BEHIND the scenes. That’s the MERCIES of God. You need to THANK God for what DIDN’T happen in your life.

Today’s Scripture:

Acts 9:1, NIV

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

…IT’S GOING TO BE BIGGER, BETTER AND MORE REWARDING THAN YOU EVER EXPECTED…..

In the Scripture, Joseph’s brothers sold him into SLAVERY, brought his bloody robe to their father, Jacob, and told him that Joseph had been KILLED by a wild ANIMAL. Jacob was CERTAIN Joseph was dead and lived heartbroken YEAR after year. When Jacob was an old man, those same brothers brought him the news that Joseph was still ALIVE and in charge of the nation of EGYPT. Jacob was OVERWHELMED to see not only Joseph again but to meet Joseph’s SONS.

God is going to bring things to life that YOU thought were dead or too far GONE. Dreams you’ve given UP on–SUDDENLY the right people show up, you get the BREAK you need, the FUNDING all of a SUDDEN comes through. You better get READY. He’s already arranging the BREAKS you need, moving the wrong people out of the WAY, lining up the favor and ADVANTAGES. GOD knows how to bring it all TOGETHER, and when He DOES, it’s going to be BIGGER, BETTER, and more REWARDING than you EVER expected.

Today’s Scripture:

Genesis 48:11, NLT

Then Jacob said to Joseph, “I never thought I would see your face again, but now God has let me see your children, too!”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

GOD’S WAY IS ALWAYS THE BEST WAY, EVEN IF WE DON’T UNDERSTAND IT YET…..

I read a story about a teenage boy who was killed in a CAR accident. You can imagine how devastated and heartbroken his PARENTS were. MANY couples would get ANGRY and let the tragedy sour the rest of their LIVES. They went through a dark time, but they came through it and explained HOW: “We made the decision that we weren’t going to exchange what we DO know for what we DON’T know. We KNW that God is GOOD, that He’s loving, that He’s FOR us. We would not let one situation that we don’t understand cancel all that OUT.”

If you’re always trying to figure out WHY something happened, you’re going to get frustrated and BITTER. If God wants you to know WHY, He’ll TELL you why. But there are some things God doesn’t WANT us to know yet. If you’re going to TRUST God, you have to be MATURE enough to drop it and say, “God, I don’t HAVE to have all the answers. You’re GOD. Your ways are BETTER than mine.”

Today’s Scripture:

Proverbs 25:2, NLT

It is God’s privilege to conceal things…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

QUIT LETTING THE PROBLEM STEAL YOUR JOY…..

Today’s Scripture talks about how we have TREASURE “in earthen VESSELS.” Yet all of us have IMPERFECTIONS and WEAKNESSES within our clay pot–seeming CONTRADICTIONS. There’s something that’s not being removed or changed that could easily IRRITATE us and cause us to live FRUSTRATED. What is it for YOU? Perhaps you say, “If I didn’t have this BACK pain or this WEIGHT problem, I would be HAPPY.” It might be a COWORKER who gets on your nerves or a FAMILY member who’s not doing right. For MANY people, it’s the hurts from going through a bad CHILDHOOD, then a DIVORCE.

WHATEVER it is, GOD is saying to you, “My grace is SUFFICIENT. Quit FIGHTING it. Quit letting that PROBLEM steal your JOY because it hasn’t turned AROUND yet. When I am ready to remove it, I WILL, and the excellence of My GRACE will be SEEN in you; but until THEN, tap into My GRACE. TRUST Me. Come back to the place of PEACE and keep moving FORWARD.”

Today’s Scripture:

2 Corinthians 4:7, NKJV

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

YOU GET TO MAKE THE FINAL CHOICE, WHICH WAY WILL YOU GO

Today, my message is really SIMPLE: God is FOR you, and the enemy is AGANST you. YOU get to make the FINAL choice. Which way will you GO? Believe the enemy’s LIES, live guilty, thinking you can’t be good enough for God to ACCEPT you? The Scripture says that God has ALREADY accepted you, He’s already shed His BLOOD, He’s already blotted OUT your sins. It’s not if He’s GOING to do it; He’s ALREADY done it. The question is, will you RECEIVE it? Will you start living as though you’re a child of the Most High GOD? After all Christ has DONE, after the incredible PRICE He paid on the cross, it doesn’t bring Him any HONOR for us to go around feeling unworthy and CONDEMNED. I can imagine God saying to the angels, “I gave My BEST, sent My only SON, paid the ULTIMATE price. What more could I DO?” Let’s do OUR part and BELIEVE that we’re forgiven, redeemed, that we have an everlasting RELEASE from our sins.

Today’s Scripture:

Colossians 2:13–14, NIV

When you were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

LET PEOPLE OFF THE HOOK AND GO TO GOD, HE’LL BRING YOU OUT BETTER

God has seen EVERYTHING that’s happened in your life–the injustice, the bad breaks, the person who did you wrong. Those people CANNOT pay you back. They cannot make you WHOLE. No matter how good a person IS, they can’t give you everything you NEED. Only GOD can meet your NEEDS. He said He will give you BEAUTY for ashes. He said He will pay you back DOUBLE for the unfair things that have happened. Quit looking to PEOPLE to make it up to you. Quit trying to get somebody to APOLOGIZE, to admit they were WRONG, to give you what they don’t have. When you let people off the HOOK and quit trying to make THEM perform perfectly and keep YOU fixed, not only will THEIR life be better, but YOUR relationships will improve.

Let people off the hook. If you go to GOD, He’ll bring you out BETTER. He’ll make the rest of your life more REWARDING and more FULFILLING than if those negative things hadn’t happened in the FIRST place.

Today’s Scripture:

Philippians 4:19, NIV

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

CUT THE ANCHOR AND COME OVER INTO HOPE…..

When life throws you a CURVE, you have to have the right PERSPECTIVE when dark times linger. A bad break, a disappointment, a divorce, or a sickness can’t STOP you. Keep hoping on in FAITH. God didn’t crown you with FAVOR and give you a royal robe so you could go around anchored to DOUBT, FEAR and BITTERNESS. Being HOPEFUL is about your soul being anchored to the right THING. If you’re not anchored to HOPE, you’ll become anchored to something ELSE. You can become ANCHORED to discouragement and see everything with a tainted PERSPECTIVE. EVERYTHING is sour. I know people who are anchored to BITTERNESS. They’re so focused on who HURT them and what wasn’t FAIR that bitterness has poisoned their whole LIVES. You can become anchored to self-PITY and go around with a CHIP on your shoulder, always thinking about how UNFAIR life has been. Being anchored to ANY of those things is going to keep you from your DESTINY. It’s time to CUT that anchor and come over into HOPE.

Today’s Scripture:

Psalm 8:5, NKJV

You have crowned him with glory and honor.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

WHEN THE PROMISE SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE, KEEP MOVING FORWARD

There are things that you’re believing for–you KNOW God has planted those seeds. The start is EXCITING, and the end will be REWARDING; but the TRUTH is, the middle can be MESSY. In some way we’re ALL in the middle; we’re all on a JOURNEY. You know God gave you a PROMISE, but every circumstance says just the OPPOSITE. Over TIME it’s easy to give up and think, “There are too many OBSTACLES. It’s NEVER going to happen.”

When you study the heroes of faith, one common denominator you’ll find is that they had faith in the MIDDLE. When the promise SEEMED impossible, they kept moving FORWARD, knowing it was a part of the PROCESS. They REFUSED to surrender to the trials or dark places. Yes, they had their MOMENTS. At times worry would come, fear would come, doubt would come, but they didn’t allow it to STAY. They stirred their FAITH back up and BELIEVED that the promise would HAPPEN. Now do YOUR part as THEY did–have FAITH in the MIDDLE.

Today’s Scripture:

1 Timothy 6:12, NLT

Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

START SINGING ABOUT HOW BIG OUR GOD IS, HE IS UNLIMITED…

In Numbers 21, the Israelites were desperate for water in the barren wilderness when they came upon an old dry well. Here the people sang, “Spring UP, O well!” even though they couldn’t SEE, TASTE, FEEL, or SMELL water. There was no reason, LOGICALLY speaking, to believe water would flow out of the WELL. That’s why the Scripture tells us to walk by FAITH and NOT by sight. If they had gone by what they SAW rather than had faith in the might and power of GOD, they would have MISSED this abundance.

In difficult times, you’re either going to be singing about the PROBLEM or singing about how BIG your GOD is. He is NOT limited by the laws of nature. He’s limited by what we BELIEVE. You have to make declarations of FAITH when you’re in the drought and break forth into SONG. Start singing to the PROMISE, “Spring up HEALING, spring up FREEDOM, spring up ABUNDANCE, spring up VICTORY,” and God will show out in your life in ways you’ve NEVER seen.

Today’s Scripture:

Zechariah 4:6, NKJV

So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

FREEDOM IS YOURS THE DAY YOU DECLARE IT

Today we celebrate the day our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, declaring our FREEDOM as a nation even though the battle for freedom went ON until 1783. What’s INTERESTING is that the Founders DECLARED their freedom FIRST and CELEBRATED their decision to FIGHT, and THEN they stood their GROUND until they had the VICTORY to live as free men and women.

In the same WAY, we have to be determined to stand against the opposing forces in OUR lives–freedom from an addiction, an anxiety, a lack, a fear. No matter what battle YOU are facing, let THIS be the day you declare you are FREE and CELEBRATE your FREEDOM, because victory IS on the way. You may have to stand and press THROUGH for a little while, but know that freedom is YOURS the day you DECLARE it. Let freedom ring LOUDLY in your life, for he whom the SON sets free is free INDEED!

Today’s Scripture:

Galatians 5:1, NIV

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.