Friend, you don’t have space for both the positive and the negative. When you let the negative things in, they take up space for the positive things that are meant to reside there. If you’ll empty out the negative, if you’ll make room, God will fill your life with good things. He’ll fill you with peace, joy, confidence, health, creativity, and favor.
Today's Word: Nov 18, 2020
Sometimes God will inconvenience you in order to help somebody else. Instead of getting frustrated when our plans don't work out, we need to remember that it's not all about us. "I don't like my job. The people are so negative. When is God going to move me out?" Maybe God has you there on purpose to let your light shine and be a good influence on them.
Quit fighting everything you don't like. If God has you there, He's ordered your steps. It may be uncomfortable, but instead of resisting it, trying to pray it away, why don't you embrace it? Say, "God, this is where You have me right now, so I'm going to be my best. I may not like it, but I know a secret: it's all good." If you'll stay in faith, everything that was meant to stop you, God is going to use to push you forward. He's bringing it all together right now.
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It's interesting that King David says, "What shall I offer to the Lord for all the good things He has done for me?" (Psalm 116:12). I believe that his words foreshadowed the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross centuries later. He was saying, "What can I possibly give back to the Lord for all His grace and mercy, for the eternal life He has given me?" David realized that he could never pay God back, so he added, "I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord." He was saying, "Lord, I will take all that You have done for me and lift it up. You didn't have to give Your life for me and freely forgive my sin and shame. You rose from the dead and gave me new life and made me a new creation. So I am going to call upon Your name."
Does that make sense to you? Most of us have the mentality that we have to win God's favor. We feel that we have to do good works so God will approve us. But David says, "What shall I give to the Lord? I'll give back to Him what He's given me and live a resurrection life in Him." David had a resurrection mentality and was going to move forward and not let anything stop him from exalting what God had done for him.
The apostle Paul had the same mentality. He says, "I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me" (Philippians 3:12). He wanted to not just know about what Jesus had done, but he wanted to experience all of it. Paul knew that despite shipwrecks and prisons, despite the battles to fight, God had an assignment for him, and that he had the power to win. He was saying, "You have to press on and take hold of what Jesus Christ has done for you. Press into that grace and mercy."
Jesus never said the abundant life was going to be easy. It wasn't easy for Him. It cost Him His life on the cross. But on the third day when He came out of that grave alive again, He turned that bad situation around and brought it out for our good. He wants to take the situations in your life and turn them around for your good. His plan is still working. It worked the day He was raised from the grave, and it is still working for us today. But we have to press on and take hold of all the good things that Christ has done for us.
If you’re going to overflow with hope, you can’t consider all the circumstances. If you stay focused on how big the problem is, what the experts said, and how impossible it looks, you’re going to be discouraged.
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