Anything under God’s control is never out of control.
When the Lord makes it clear you’re to follow Him in this new direction, focus fully on Him and refuse to be distracted by comparisons with others.
It takes faith to find personal significance in your relationship with God rather than how much money you earn, how beautiful you look, how many toys you own, how many trophies you collect, or how much territory you conquer and control.
God gave laws to His people to bless them, not to burden them. Every rule either elevates the quality of human life or restores one’s relationship with God after a breach. He makes no extraneous demands and He is never capricious.
God doesn’t work on our timetable. He has a plan that He will execute perfectly and for the highest, greatest good of all, and for His ultimate glory.
God never calls His people to accomplish anything without promising to supply their every need.
Boldness in the course of a noble fight is worth the risk…If you stand on truth, you’ll only regret your timidity later, but you’ll never regret being bold.
Sin may have the power to kill and destroy, but God is the Creator of life. He can create it from nothing, and He can restore it from death.(John 11:25-26)
The matters we or the world might consider trivial, He cares about and wants to remedy. He longs to relieve our worries and has promised to supply our most fundamental needs.
Israel’s first king, Saul, looked like he was born for the role. He was tall, handsome, intelligent, and sensitive to God’s leading. But he eventually lost most of his attractive qualities, the most important being obedience.
God presents the Sabbath rest as a shelter we can enter. (Hebrews 4:1-11)
Life…as God intended it enables us to live above the drag of fear, superstition, shame, pessimism, guilt, anxiety, worry, and all the negativity that keeps people from seizing each day as a gift from Him.
The crisis of physical hunger is essentially a crisis of faith. What or whom will you trust to meet your most basic needs? Will you trust the God who made human bodies, or will you seek your own way? (Deuteronomy 8:1-3)
While God, for the most part, allows this cosmos [creation] to work according to the laws of nature, there is never a time when He is not actively involved in every detail of life.
When we panic, we instinctively turn to our own internal resources because we doubt Him.
Faith itself cannot accomplish anything, yet without faith, no one can fly.
To require God to prove that He is able and willing to fulfill His promises would be proof positive that one does not trust Him.
It’s not enough merely to believe there is a God. You must believe in the God who is there.
Elizabeth’s barreness and advanced age–a double symbol of hopelessness–became the means by which God would announce to the world that nothing is impossible for Him.
Consistent, Timely encouragement has the staggering magnetic power to draw an immortal soul to the God of Hope. The one whose name is Wonderful Counselor.
The devil, darkness, and death may swagger and boast, the pangs of life will sting for a while longer, but don’t worry; the forces of evil are breathing their last. Not to worry…He’s risen!
If you allow it, [suffering] can be the means by which God brings you His greatest blessings.
Deep, contended joy comes from a place of complete security and confidence [in God] – even in the midst of trial.
Peter’s destiny lay along a different path from John’s. And your calling is unlike anyone else’s. But the call remains the same: “Follow Me!
While I wholeheartedly believe in choosing to approach every challenge with a great attitude, I don’t mean that we should abandon authenticity and live in fantasyland.
Joy is a deeply felt contentment that transcends difficult circumstances and derives maximum enjoyment from every good experience.
Peter must have thought, “Who am I compared to Mr. Faithfulness (John)?” But Jesus clarified the issue. John was responsible for John. Peter was responsible for Peter. And each had only one command to heed: “Follow Me.” (John 21:20-22)
Good intentions and earnest effort are not enough. Only Jesus can make an otherwise futile life productive.
Whatever we do, we must not treat the Great Commission like it’s the Great Suggestion.
Let your passion become a passionate pursuit of Me. And as you follow, the sheep will follow.’ (John 21:20-22)
In order to cease our striving, we must transfer our trust away from our own abilities, our own accomplishments, our own strength, and place it on His provision.
The abundance Jesus offers is a spiritual abundance that transcends circumstances, like income, health, living conditions, and even death. The abundant life is eternal.
Which should be an excellent reminder that when God tells you to do something, you’d better do it; He always has a reason.
God doesn’t mock us. He never gives us a goal that we cannot accomplish in His strength. I want to assure you, you can glorify God, you MUST glorify God. But you have to determine deep within your heart that you’re going to do it His way.
Hope doesn’t require a massive chain where heavy links of logic hold it together. A thin wire will do…just strong enough to get us through the night until the winds die down.
Give us an intense distaste for things that displease You and a renewed pleasure in things that bring You honor and magnify Your truth.
…goals not bathed in prayer or brought in humility before the Lord turn out to be downright useless. They don’t go anywhere. They don’t accomplish anything.
…when you trust the Lord God to give you the next step, when you wait in humility upon Him, *He* will open the doors or close them, and you’ll get to rest and relax until He says, ‘Go.
When you suffer and lose, that does not mean you are being disobedient to God. In fact, it might mean you’re right in the center of His will. The path of obedience is often marked by times of suffering and loss.
Like sin itself, Satan appeals to the senses. He originated and perfected the art of disguising evil as good.
Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters.Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
When I have a wrong attitude, I look at life humanly. When I have a right attitude, I look at life divinely.
If you life is an example of glorifying God, others won’t see your good works and glorify YOU, because they’ll know what you are doing is for God’s glory.
If your motive is in any way to promote greatness for yourself, you’re in the wrong calling.
…ask yourself, “Who’s getting the glory in this ministry?” You see, if we do ministry OUR way, it won’t be for His glory, because our ways are not His ways.
The ministry of the church is a genuine concern for others. We need to stop talking about it and start doing it. Rise.Rise and shine, friend. Everyone you meet today is on heaven’s Most Wanted list.
In many (most?) churches there are programs and activities… but so little worship. There are songs and anthems and musicals… but so little worship. There are announcements and readings and prayers… but so little worship.
[Jesus] plan called for action, and how He expressed it predicted its success. He didn’t say “you *might* be my witnesses,” or “you *could* be my witnesses,” or even “you *should* be my witnesses.” He said “you *will* be my witnesses.
We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.
The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
When you have vision it affects your attitude. Your attitude is optimistic rather than pessimistic.
Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.
There is nothing more fearful for the average person in our society than to stand before a group of people and speak.
A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.
The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail.
The world has changed and it’s going to keep changing, but God never changes; so we are safe when we cling to Him.
We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.
We can’t solve modern problems by going back in time. Retreating to the safety of the familiar is an understandable response, but God has called us to a life of faith. And faith requires us to face the unknown while trusting Him completely.
I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.
It’s the most exciting thing to watch God work when I’ve asked him about something, to listen to him and watch him work. It’s like this friendship, and it just grows and grows and grows and grows.
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.