Are You Allowing Your Trials To Bring You Down or You Turning Them Into Testimonies So That You Can Help Build Others Up?

Will your trial be what brings you down or what you use to build others up? Will you let what you have been through be the testimony that helps others get through? Understand, sometimes people think they are the only ones going through. Sometimes they feel as though they can't overcome what has been holding them down. Are you willing to let your testimony be the tool that God uses to help strengthen and encourage someone else. 

You didn't go through all that you have been through for nothing. So often in life we ask God why.  Why are things happening in our lives?  Why us?  You have to understand that your testimony is not just for you. It is so that you can help someone else get through what they are going through in life. 

We have to stop being ashamed of where we have been.   We have to know that God saves one so that they can help bring deliverance to His people.    God saved Joseph for his family and God saved Moses for a nation.   You have to understand that He has a purpose behind saving you as well and that purpose will bring deliverance to more than just you and your household if you allow Him to use your life and your testimony for His glory.   

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Mark 5:19

 King James Version (KJV)

Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

How Are You Handling The Situations In Your Life? Are You Giving Up In The Midst Of The Process?

So what happens if things don't work out the way you expected?   What happens if people don't treat you the way you think you ought to be treated?   What happens if the door that you thought was open is actually closed?   What happens if you don't see the immediate manifestation of your healing taking place?   What happens if you don't get the finances when you felt like you needed them to come through?   What do you do at these points in your life?  

Do you continue to trust God?   Do you continue to go to Him and to ask of Him to do whatever is needed?   Do you be still and know that He is God and that His plan is perfect for your life?   Do you wait on  Him and remain hopeful in Him?  

We have to make sure we are not giving up.   We have to make sure that we are continuing to trust in the fact that God knows all, sees all, and can do all things.   We have to believe Him when he says that He knows the things we have need of in our lives and that He is faithful and just to bring it to pass.   We have to trust in the sovereignty of God.   We have to trust God to fulfill "His Plan" in our lives.  

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION 

Isaiah 58:11 

And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Do You Trust and Believe That You Are Valuable To God?

Do you know your value?   Do you realize how valuable you are to God?    You are priceless.   You are not less than.   As a matter of fact, you are worth more than you could ever imagine.

So often in life we live by other peoples evaluation of our lives.   We allow what they think to determine what we think and how we see ourselves.   We have to begin to see ourselves the way God sees us.   We have to know that we have been set in place for the glory of God and not the accolades of man.  

God has deemed you to be valuable.   He paid the ultimate price for your life and you have to understand who you are in Him.    Understanding who we are in God is not always easy.    Receiving His love and His forgiveness is not always easy.    Yet he told us who we are and His love and forgiveness is readily available for us to receive.  

Remember, you are who God says you are and you can do what He has said you can do.  

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Are You Staying On Track With God? Understand God Has A Plan But We Have A Choice ...

Are you staying on track with God?   When we talk about staying on track, we are talking about staying focused and working towards our goals.   We are talking about not being distracted when it comes to the things of God.

It's easy to get off track.   Our day to day activities put a demand on our time but we have to make up in our mind that nothing and no one will ever come before God and what He has told us to do.   We have to remember that what God is telling us to do for Him is for the betterment of our lives and the lives of others.    The word betterment means to make something better.   It means to improve and to advance.   God wants us to advance in every area of our lives.   When we advance in life, we move forward with purpose.  

Think about what it means to have purpose in life.   When you understand your purpose in life, you know why you are doing what you are doing.   Your life has meaning because you understand God's design and intent for your life.    We have to understand that we were created to worship, praise, and to bring glory to God.    Is that what you are doing with your life?   When others look at you, can they see God working in you and through you? 

Understand God has a plan but He has given you a choice.   The question is, will you trust Him to fulfill His plan in your life or will you get off track following your own directives.   In most cases, our own directives are based on what our flesh wants and not what God wants.   Make up your mind that you are going to stay on track with God.   

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Galatians 5:16 

[This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Are You Just Saying You Want Your Life To Be Different or Are You Doing What It Takes To Be Different?

Are you still going back?  Are you going back to what used to be instead of what God said would be?   Are you doing things your way instead of seeking out God's way?  

We say we want our lives to be different.   We say we want God to move in us and for us and yet  we continue to operate the same way.   We continue to make the same mistakes.  We have to get to the point of understanding that God changes NOT.   Knowing that God does not change, we have to understand what He said was wrong before, is still wrong.   We have to learn how to do the right things so that we can produce the right fruit in our lives.  

It's time to stop going back.   It's time to let God be God in our lives.   It's time to release the old and to expect the new.   It's time to walk in the hope and expectation of your future and not the pain and defeat of your past.    It's time to realize that God chose you and because He did, you have the assurance that He will take care of you.  
 

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Philippians 3:13

 ¹³ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 

¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Are You Being Discouraged By Someone Else's Outcome or Are You Trusting God For The Outcome You Need?

How often do you start off believing God and allow the pain or disappointment of others to hinder your faith?   How often do you look at how something turned out for someone else and start thinking that "may" be your outcome and fail to trust God for His best?   How often do you ride the coattails of someone else's failure instead of looking at the examples that God gave us in the Bible of men who "lived" by faith?  

It's time to stop allowing the pain, hurt, and disappointments of others to cause you to fail to walk in faith.   God told us in His Word that the just are to live by faith.    Faith is complete trust and confidence in someone or something.    Where is your faith?   Who or what have you put your complete trust and confidence into?   Is it in God?   Is it in what He has said that He will do or is it in what you think you can do on your own?  

We have to know which examples to follow.   We have to follow examples of faith.   We have to follow those who are examples that show us how to place our trust and our hope in God no matter what is going on in our lives.   As we begin to walk in faith, we have to understand that we then become the examples for others to follow.

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Hebrews 6:12

That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Are You Taking God At His Word and Understanding That With Him, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE?

Are you taking God at His Word?   Are you trusting that what He has said is true?    If the Bible says that He is your healer, do you believe that He will heal YOU?  We have to stop just believing for others and begin to take the Word of God personal.  

If the Bible says that God knows the things you have need of and that He is faithful and just to provide you with those things, do you believe that He will pay the bill and take care of the needs of your household?  Again, we have to stop just praying and believing for others and believe that He will do it for us as well.

If the Word of God says that He will never leave you nor forsake you, why are you thinking that you are alone?   Have you entered a room by yourself just to turn around to see other people had come into the room and you never knew they were there?   What we have to understand is, God is already in the room before we get there.   In others words, God is omnipresent.   He is everywhere present and we are NEVER alone.   

We have to take God at His Word and we have to know that with Him, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.   

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION 

Luke 1:37

“For with God nothing shall be impossible.”