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Today's Word: OCT 02, 2023
We spend a lot of time and energy taking care of our physical body. We want to feel good. But we don’t spend enough time taking care of our soul. We don’t realize how much our emotions, our attitudes, and our thoughts are affecting us physically. I want to encourage you today to pay attention to your inner life. It’s easy to adapt to things that are poisoning us, and we don’t realize it. We end up going through life just treating the symptoms. If we get to the root cause and get our soul healthy, we can have good health and good success. We need to ask ourselves: Am I making myself sick? Am I sabotaging my relationships? Am I limiting my potential, holding myself down because my soul is unhealthy? The writer of the book of Hebrews says, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (12:15, NIV). It describes bitterness as a root. You can’t see a root because it’s underground. But if you let it grow, it’s going to spring forth. Bitter roots produce bitter fruit. What’s inside will show up on the outside. Often, we only try to fix the fruit, but the fruit is not the problem. We need to deal with more than just symptoms. We need to go to the source and get rid of the root. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (NLT). One of our main responsibilities is to keep the toxins out. Keep those roots from springing up. Offenses are going to come. Cranky coworkers will come. You can’t stop disappointments, hurts, jealousy, and anger from coming. The question is, are you going to let them take root, get down in your spirit, contaminate your joy, steal your peace, take your energy, and open you up to sickness, trouble, and defeat? No, keep your soul healthy. You have to be an active gardener. Pull up those roots. Pull up the unforgiveness. Pull up the insecurity. Pull up the guilt and condemnation. Don’t let your soul become poisoned. If your soul is bitter, your life will be bitter. If your emotional well-being is contaminated, it’s going to affect your physical well-being.
The words you speak become your reality! You will be empowered to receive God's goodness, release negativity and watch blessings chase you down.
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When we look at the dreams we want to accomplish and problems we’re hoping will turn around, it can seem like it’s going to take a long time—years to get out of debt, years to recover from a sickness, years to see your business grow. But God doesn’t always follow a normal timeline. He says, “When the time is right, I will do it quickly” (Isaiah 60:22). He knows how to speed things up. He has these moments of favor when He will catapult you ahead. Everything seems routine. You’re going along at the same pace and making the same progress. Then out of nowhere, one good break, one contract, one door opens, and you’re suddenly twenty years down the road. You didn’t see it coming, and you can’t explain it. It’s God accelerating things, propelling you forward.
A friend of mine owns a small business in the graphics industry. For years it’s just been him and a few employees. He’s had this dream to see his business grow and expand, and he’s worked hard, but it's seemed as though he’d make a little progress, then things would slow down. Thoughts would tell him, “You’re falling behind. It’s too late. Just accept that it’s not meant to be.” But despite not seeing anything change, he kept believing and thanking God that He was working. Last year he picked up one new client that brought him more revenue in one year than all the previous twenty years combined. His business has exploded, and now he has over three hundred employees. He said, “Joel, I can’t explain it. I don’t know why this big company chose my small firm.” You know why? God hit fast forward.
Here’s the key: You can’t calculate God’s goodness, and you can’t quantify His blessings, His increase, His favor. There are things that He has already planned for you that are out of the ordinary, uncommon. That’s why the Scripture says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). It may look like you’re falling behind, that the problem will always be there, that the disappointments are permanent, but this is where faith comes in. What you can’t see is that God has the remote. He knows how to speed things up. He can do it quickly. He has some fast forward moments that are going to defy the odds, acceleration you didn’t see coming, good breaks that will catapult you ahead. Be grateful for where you are, stay faithful, but get ready. What looks like it is way off is going to happen sooner than you think. Your time is on God’s schedule. You’re going to see the God of acceleration shooting you into your destiny.
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The reason you need to ask is that God has an awesome future in front of you, things much bigger than you’ve ever imagined. You can't reach your potential praying small prayers, believing for the ordinary, accepting the status quo. God is counting on you to tap into His favor, to see the surpassing greatness of His power. That takes bold prayers; that takes people willing to take the limits off of God, people that won’t be moved by how impossible your dream looks.
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