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 24, 2020
Samson was given supernatural strength to deliver God's people from their enemies and couldn't be defeated, but he let his moral guard down and ended up losing his strength, was blinded, and made a slave. It was his fault, but God never gives up on us. One day while Samson was being ridiculed by his captors, he prayed for strength "just one more time," and God gave Samson the strength to push the middle pillars of the temple, collapsing the building, and killing more enemies in his death than he had during his lifetime.
You may have made mistakes, but that is not how your story ends. You have not seen your greatest victories. You have not sung your best song. You have not written your best book. You have not played your best play. If you shake off the guilt, God has a one more time coming your way. He has something bigger, more rewarding than you've ever imagined.
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Have you noticed how easy it is to get so busy with your own life that you hardly notice the people around you? We have jobs, families, and a long list of other responsibilities that can keep us so focused on what we need to get done that we forget that the people around us may need something from us. God wants to flow through us to other people and use us as an instrument of His love, to be His hands and feet to them, but we're never going to be that until we begin to open our eyes and hearts of compassion to see the needs around us.
I love the parable of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told in Luke 10. Unlike the priest and the religious Levite who both saw the wounded man lying at the side of the road and kept on walking, the Samaritan "saw him and had compassion on him." He bandaged him up, put him on his donkey, took him to an inn, gave the innkeeper money for his care, and promised to return and pay for any more expenses incurred. Jesus simple word to us is, "Go and do likewise. Love your neighbor as yourself. Open your heart of compassion. Let Me use you to help others in need."
All through the Gospels we read that wherever Jesus went He was moved with compassion for people. He didn't just feel sorry for those in need. He didn't say, "Oh, well, that's too bad." No, His compassion moved Him to action. In the same way, the Scripture says about us, "If anyone...sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live in him?" (1 John 3:17). We all have a heart of compassion that God wants to work through toward others, and it can either be open or shut. If it is shut off, God's love cannot flow out of it. If we're going to live the abundant life that God has given us, we need to stir up our heart of compassion and say, "God, open my heart and my eyes to see the people who need my love today."
Compassion is powerful. Compassion brings forth miracles. We need to be aware of the people whom God puts on our heart. Maybe your spouse or child said something yesterday and you just realized, "Wow, they were hurting, and I missed it." God wants you to act on that compassion. Recognize that God is saying, "Move now. Reach out. Be there. Listen. Tell them you love them and want to help in any way you can." You never know. It might just heal a heart and change the course of their destiny!
God never asked you to figure out the how. In fact, the scripture says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.” If you lean to your own understanding, you’re going to get frustrated because sometimes there is no logical solution.
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