Thursday, November 17, 2011

OUR GOD TAKES DELIGHT IN YOU!!

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)

In this world I find it interesting how many have actually been discouraged by parents, leaders, friends etc. and never really have felt encouragement from the people closest to them. How difficult it is in life to feel like you are alone with no one standing alongside believing and speaking life into the dreams that God gave you!  I have heard the comment time and time again, “I never heard anyone say they believed in me!” The challenge with that statement is that it becomes an anchor holding back that person’s growth and attempts at moving forward. Friends it is easy for us to get stuck and sometimes we need a gentle push and reminder that God desires relationship. In the quiet times I sense the peace and confidence of God’s love and power in my life which empowers me to move forward.

In our relationship with God we can walk with a limp feeling of never receiving the approval and encouragement we so deeply desired at the point we were beginning this walk of faith to complete and live out this dream God placed in us. We must stand up and proclaim our Father God, creator of all things, finds value in us even to the point He delights in us! Incredible! How can he do that? Simply, He has deposited life in us and put in us a dream to be lived out. Really inside each of us there is a dream that wants to break free. Remember that people around might not encourage but give it to God and watch what He will do.  He delights in us, loves and affirms us. If that’s you today, the good news is that when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you become His child. You may not have received the blessing from the significant people around you, but your heavenly Father is rejoicing over you! He’s saying, “I’m proud of you. I love you. You are amazing. You are talented. You are beautiful. You’re going to do great things in life!” He’s releasing favor and hope into your future.

Today, no matter what’s happened in our lives, no matter what anybody else has said to us or about us, know that our God loves us with unending love. He’s proud of us, and we must receive His love today. We can receive His approval and hope today. Today, let’s join together to walk thru life with clarity and confidence to pursue the dream God placed in us because we have the blessing of our God!
Blessings,

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Yes we can, we must believe!

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 1:6, NIV)

Learning to walk in God’s plan that he has designed for you and I best defined as being in process. The first step is to get an understanding, a clear picture of how God sees you and me. The next step is to trust Him—to believe in faith that combining our natural abilities with God‘s super will cause us to live a supernatural life. Boldly, I can say it will happen because it has happened in my life. My wife Terri has some amazing events in her life that attest to this as well. There were times on our journey things were dark but we believed we were in process. We trusted God had an order for us to walk in. We trusted He was capable of doing what He promised. And then finally, you take a step of faith and live out what God has promised no matter what your circumstances or people around you have to say.
“Yes we can, WE must believe” is a motto I chose to live by. Every promise from God’s Word I’ve ever chosen to receive from God has followed this same pattern. We see in scripture that even the great men and women of the Bible walked through this process. They had to overcome doubts, they struggled on their journey, but they held fast to what God said knowing that He is faithful to complete what He started in us!  There is power in understanding that God does His part and expects us to do ours—so it becomes “we”.

Today, if you are having a hard time believing what God has promised will come to pass, understand that you are in a process. Don’t empower doubt with your words. Instead, keep declaring that He who promised is faithful! Keep the vision in front of you knowing that it is for an appointed time. Yes it won’t be long until you are living the life God has prepared for you!

Blessings,