GOOD MORNING : )

HOPE EVERYONE ENJOYS THIS SONG AS MUCH AS I DO!!

Joy

What are speaking to yourself?  Are speaking positive or negative?  If your words are going in the right directions then your life will go in the right direction.  We can talk ourselves out of things or into doubt.  Why support doubt in your life?  If you speak things like, "I am not worthy" or "I am not good enough" or "I am so stupid".....you ARE supporting doubt in your life.  Speaking these things gives your joy away .....will be going around upset and frustrated.  This is a choice.  Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond.  You can control your response but you can't control what happens.  The key is to decide how to respond ahead of time and then when things come against you then you will be prepared.  You have the power to be happy where you are, nothing can take your joy, you have to give it away.  Don't get me wrong things happen to you and you will get upset I'm not asking you not to get upset.  I am asking you to choose not to give your joy away.  Make up your mind and CHOOSE to keep your joy.  Take inventory of your life, think about what is making you stressed or what gets under your skin or what do you tell yourself you haven't the patience for?  How many times do you get upset about things that really isn't a big deal.  When we are frustrated or up tight we don't make good decisions.  Having a relaxed attitude lengthens your life.
You have the power within you to Decide today............I will not give my joy away today!  And I will stop allowing things to upset me!

Holy Spirit

  We thank You, Holy Spirit for producing in us repentance. We thank You for leading us, for regenerating us and thank You for giving us life to live for Your Glory in Your glorious truth.  We are called to bring glory to You and acknowledge You in our lives.  O Holy Spirit please forgive us for shutting You out and not acknowledge Your presence in our lives.  May You give us new desire to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh.  According to Galatians 5:16  “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”  

Make us faithful  and may we honor You in our lives as we walk according to Your will and in Your power.  We pray in Christ’s name..Amen!

Don't Worry

Our Heavenly Father knows about all the things you need before ask Him.  So stop worrying and focus your attention on the one who is able to provide everything you need, AND MORE!!!

Many people worry about everything, including what they will or will not eat or wear, or what they will do if a certain situation happens.  Most of us have enough clothes, adequate food, comfortable houses, and cars.  But when things get tough  and you are faced with situations that seem impossible, Satan says, "What are you to do now?"  The temptation comes to worry but that isn't the answer.

Today, you can choose to have a different spirit.  Don't listen to what everyone else says; listen to what God says.  Choose to  believe His Word, choose to obey Him, and He will lead you into your promise land!

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]? Matthew 6:25-27 (NIV)

Father God, today we choose to tune out the negative voices of the world. We choose to trust in You even when no one else around me will.  We thank You for the good things You are doing in our lives and trust that You will fulfill every promise You've made to me in Jesus' name. Amen!

Increase? or Limits?

Are you making room for increase? Are you taking off the limits in your thinking?  Are you preparing for increase?  Are you speaking to your mountains? Are you believing for victory? Get rid of all those old thoughts that you have gone as far as you can.  Get rid of thoughts of destruction and negative like....I can only do so much....or I am not good enough.  You ARE!  You ARE a child of the Most High and He made you good enough!  He planned your extinctions, He knew you BEFORE you were conceived.  God does NOT make mistakes!  

Take me for example....I always believed I was an outcast and most of the time my parents would confirm my fears and insecurities.  What was amazing to me, I knew in my heart that I was not and I knew my purpose.  In denial of my true purpose my choice was to believe and let my insecurities fester into becoming less than who I am, that is a child of God.  Everywhere I went from as far as I could remember I was able to connect with people on a level that was always very deep and intimate. That was God showing me my purpose...helping people.  I was gonna learn that the requirements of helping people was to have thick skin and  an understanding certainties of life could be opposition.  But to push forward by giving and letting God. 

Why am I writing this? So what, you say!  Well, this is a message for all of you that are questioning your place in the kingdom.  Or even if there is a kingdom at all!  Some of you have thought that  you just never get a break.  This is for those that have been told you are weird or strange or even bull headed and will never get anywhere.  God didn't put that there, SATAN DID!  Satan DOES NOT want you to carry out God's plan for your life.  He breeds fear and insecurity  ...your not strange, weird or bull headed...God IS preparing you for whatever.  He wants you to look to Him!  Look to Him and ask this question......What do You want me to do for You Father?   Don't give yourself limits because He doesn't! God is unlimited! Limiting ourselves we are limiting God, we are putting God in a box so to speak because God is within us.  We choose not to let the Holy Spirit lead us.  Remember, Satan can not touch you unless God permits him to. So you have to look Him for knowledge and understanding!! 

 "Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.' Matthew 7:7 

DO NOT LIMIT YOURSELF!! 

SPEAK VICTORY IN JESUS' NAME!!!

Love...

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 
1 Corinthians 13 4-7







What does love mean or look like to you?  This well-known chapter by Paul on love tells us.... The Corinthian church was emphasizing a good thing, spiritual gifts, to the neglect of the best. They were using their gifts apart from love. Paul makes the point that the use of their God-given gifts would amount to nothing if the Corinthians did not make love their priority.  
Selfless love is the priority for every Christian.  Using spiritual gifts without love is empty and meaningless.  Maybe you are using them at all.  We are not serving in God's full grace if we do what we think we should be doing or not doing.  Love is humble and selfless.  Acts done in love just happen, just because!  A lot of the times there is no explanation.  Nowadays....our brothers and sisters are surprised when something nice is done for them.  With no agenda or motivate, there's seems to be more often than not, a look of confusion or disbelief border-lining fear of expectation.  Why? And how this beautiful gift of LOVE could have gotten so....so uncomfortable?  I'm sure that is even the correct word.  The sadness I feel is overwhelming.  Helping one another or not letting another help us because of a payoff really does……get under my skin. UGH!!!  I gave someone a quarter the other day for 20 pennies and you would have thought I gave them the world.  In other words they could not believe that I was giving them more than they asked. Why is this happening?  God doesn’t want this for His kingdom.  What I am trying to say is do something nice for someone. A random person, the girl/guy at the drive-thru, a cashier, maybe  a co-worker, your spouse/significant other…..and not just for someone that is asking for a favor or whatever but for someone that you hear God telling you to do to.  Pay attention and Listen very closely God will speak Love into your heart. 

♥Love is selfless, humble, pure, slow to anger and patient.

Jonathon Edwards wrote   “The devils and damned spirits see much of their comparative littleness before God in some respects. They know that God is infinitely above them in power, and knowledge, and majesty. And yet, not knowing and feeling his loveliness and excellence, their wills and dispositions by no means comply with and conform to what is becoming their meanness, and so they have no humility, but are full of pride.” 




Father, open our hearts and ears so that we can hear You.  Help those of us that have trouble hearing You. We speak love into each others hearts and lives.  And proclaim blessing over each other, young and old, fortunate and less fortunate, to be more Christlike.  Through Your love and our knowing that we all apart of Your kingdom, we will lift our brothers and sisters up, in Jesus' name. Amen

Focus II

Where am I gonna focus?

On Him,

and as I focus on Him,

I'll be like Him.

As I'm like Him,

I'll manifest His attributes. 

As I manifest His attributes,

God gets the glory.

If God gets the glory,

I get a promised reward.

As I think about the promised reward,

I get happy, and that is 

what I want!

The joy of knowing I please my Lord!

Focus

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  Hebrews 12:1-3 NIV


I was reading my daily devotional this morning, the title "Make Me (Jesus) Your focal Point".  Hmmm.... "Focal Point" or when I think of focal point I think of "Focus".   Thought about it a bit and what does "focus" really mean?  Looked it up.....these are just a few of the definitions that popped out at me. 

1.  A point at which rays of light or other radiation converge or from which they appear to diverge, as after refraction or reflection in an optical system: the focus of a lens. Also called focal point.

2. A center of interest or activity.   

and then I checked out the Thesaurus:

~ concentrate

~ engrossment

~ absorption

~ immersion

~ clarity

 There are tons more..

Our focus can get fuzzy when our thoughts and sights are not concentrated on Him.  If we gaze too long at our clarity of our circumstances we will become dizzy and confused.  A spinning dancer returning their eyes back to a given point to maintain balance. So we need to keep returning to Jesus to keep our balance when the circumstances of the world is whirling around us. This is what "fix your eyes on Jesus" means.  

Why not focus on Jesus?  We focus on our kids, our careers, our bodies, our homes and some on status or position.  Why not focus on Jesus? 

Jesus serves as a good example of how to focus on God. He said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work”, John 4:34.  He also said in John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me”.  Jesus could do so many things, yet He chose to do only the things that the Father wanted Him to do.  When we focus on God, He can show us what He wants us to do. It will not make us less busy, but it will make us more productive in our very busy day! Everyday we must learn to say to God, with David when he was being hunted, “My times are in your hands” Psalm 31:15.

As Christians we can lead by example.
Father God, thank You for Your faithfulness in our lives.  Today, we choose to trust and focus on You. Trusting You with our past, present and future.  Give us wisdom to discern the seasons of our lives and teach us to embrace the new things You have in store for us.  Help us with clear understanding our focus.  Show us what things are in our lives that keeps us from focusing fully on You in Jesus' name...Amen!!