There’s something each of us does at least once per week that can feel like an annoying obligation, but we know we have to do it, so we do. Can you think what it is?

No! It’s not going to church!

It’s taking out the garbage.

Think about it for a second; if no one took out the trash, what would happen in our homes outside of the smell? They’d get flooded with trash. No one wakes up in the morning and says, I’d like to make ten gallons of trash today. But we just do. Trash happens and this also applies to spiritual trash like envy, bitterness, hate, worry, fear, etc.

There’s an old adage or saying: ‘garbage in, garbage out’. The Bible puts it this way, in Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” In other words, where your mind goes, your feet follows.

To combat this debilitating mindset, Paul wrote in Philippians 4:8-9, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

My beloved brothers and sisters, the best way to keep garbage out is to let God’s word consume your thoughts (2 Cor 10:5). This isn’t just about the power of positive thinking. This is about making room for the things of God in our minds and giving God ample space to communicate to us.

Undoubtedly, when we dispose of the garbage that contaminates and jeopardizes our peace and sanity, we literally make room for joy, light and love in our lives. With that being said, what trash do you need to throw out today?

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Then He [Jesus] said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

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#LiveLikeYourDying

#DieToSelf

As mortal humans, we often have to be strong even in difficult circumstances. The world and the devil throw things our way that can be tough to handle, which is the perfect time to remember that our strength to overcome these battles come only from God.

The choice to fully embrace this biblical truth is ours to accept or reject.

Let’s be honest, sometimes we all need a little push to stay on track and/or need to be reminded that God’s strength is always there for us to rely on even in the absence of hope.

If you’re anything like me and I am speaking to you, the good news is the Bible is full of scriptures that reminds us that physical strength is not the most important thing. In our everyday lives we may want to focus on being healthy, but God’s word reminds us that strength of faith is what we really need most of all. It’s that strength and belief that God has our best intentions in mind that will help us successfully power through even the hardest of trials and tribulations.

David reminds us in Psalm 73:26, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Paul encouraged us in 2 Corinthians 13:9, “For we are glad when we are weak and You are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for.”

A snippet from Hannah’s prayer written in 1 Samuel 2:4 offers hope, “The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength.”

Solomon reminded us the true test of strength is built in our adversities. In Proverbs 24:10, “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”

As I mentioned, the Bible is filled with even more encouraging food for you to chew on. So I encourage you to read the menu today!

My brothers and sisters, I want to humbly remind you there are no secret formulas or magic potions in overcoming life’s many challenges and obstacles. But thankfully we serve a God that will never leave us alone or broken!

Psalm 18:39 confirms that God equipped us with strength for the battle! God will not only prepare us for hard or frustrating tasks, He will clear the way or He will make a way where there is no way! That is what having faith in the Lord will always bring!!

The fact still remains today as it did in the days of old; behind every strong person, there is God!

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#GodIsMyStrength

Noel Pinnock, CEO of Texas Cops & Communities has partnered with Be Strong to help advance the vision and mission for both initiatives!

Vision Statement:

To encourage, empower and inspire people to have faith through challenging times in the absence of hope!

Mission Statement:

The mission of Be Strong is to build a community of faith as people around the globe are adversely impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic.

5 Core Values:

•Encouragement
•Empowerment
•Inspiration
•Faith
•Communciation

Father God, I come before you today with a firm decision to trust you and you alone in everything. In my weakness, your grace is sufficient. In fact, Your power is perfected in my weaknesses. Therefore O’ God, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

Father God, I am convinced through You, I can do anything, but I need help from You to consistently set my eyes on Jesus in whom I am made righteous, perfect and a conqueror. Help me to run my race with the endurance so that I am able to soar high on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, and walk and not faint.

In closing Father God, I want thank You right now because as I am praying this prayer, I feel my elevation rising in Jesus’ life healing, preserving, and restoring name, Amen and Amen!

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#ElevationRising

#SoaringWithEagles

In Psalm 91:14-16, we see and read declaratory words like rescue, protect, answer, honor, reward, long life, and salvation.

Now in order for us to become recipients of these promises, the Lord prefaces that we must both love and trust Him.

For the most part, I really don’t believe that we have a hard time loving and trusting God when things are going well in our lives, but what happens when life takes an unexpected twist? What do we do when we believe God failed to meet our expectations?

The brutal and sometimes abrasive reality is that life is not always predictable and circumstances don’t always go our way! Life has taught me there will always be ups and downs and highs and lows. However, I’ve also learned to appreciate that the God on top of the mountain is the same God in the valley.

I believe it’s safe to opine that most of us know how to love God because loving Him is easy. The challenge most of us face is in trusting God while hanging in the balance.

Make note, to trust is to believe in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of something. So, when it comes to trusting God, that means believing in His reliability, His Word, His ability, and His strength.

Watch this, I didn’t say nor did I make reference to your reliability, word, ability, and strength. I said God’s…..

The challenge we often find in trusting God is typically found embedded in the depths of our emotions. Truth is, trusting God is more than a feeling; it’s a choice to have faith in what He says even when your feelings or circumstances would have you believe something different. Your feelings and circumstances matter and are very much worth paying attention to and God cares about them both. But those things alone are not reliable enough to base your life on. They can change at any moment, even in an instant. God, on the other hand, does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8) and therefore He is worthy of your trust.

If you haven’t already take time to read the verses in the pic attached to this message and really allow God’s word to infiltrate and permeate your heart and mind today.

Also, never forget these biblical truths: God cannot lie and God cannot fail! He always keeps His promises. That He loves you and has good in store for you.

My brothers and sisters, trusting in God means believing what He says about Himself, about the world and about you is true.

Lastly, don’t ever forget that if you choose to both love and trust God when you call out to Him Psalm 91:15-16 says, “God will answer; He will be with you in trouble. He will rescue and honor you. He will reward you with a long life and give you His salvation.”

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#HeWillAnswer

According to Statista, the total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed in the world is forecast to increase rapidly, reaching 59 zettabytes in 2020.

Just so you know, one ‘zettabyte’ is approximately equal to a thousand Exabytes, a billion Terabytes, or atrillion Gigabytes.

Trust me, I’m not a renowned mathematician, but simple addition tells me that’s a heck of a lot data being consumed!

The ever increasing global digital market place makes it difficult for one kilobyte information to reach one device. Talk about getting lost in a crowd….

For tech giants and online retailers this perfect storm produces slight edge opportunities that fuels increase profitability.

The good news for consumers is that we have a plethora of options to choose from because the online community/ commerce are clamoring for our attention, commitment (like or follow), and money!

With that said, there is so much content out there to be consumed it’s easy to become overwhelmed and shut down all your devices. However, before you do let me offer you one kilobyte of truth. God’s kingdom is coming and because of digital technological advancement this empirical truth is reaching even the remotest indigenous villages across the globe (5G).

Jesus revealed a very important sign for His second coming in Matthew 24:14. He said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

We all have plenty options of what data we consume and my prayer is that if this kilobyte of information reaches your device and you have not opened your heart to Jesus that you will give Him the opportunity to change the trajectory of your life today!

God desires His people to be saved, and He desires to have us spend eternity with Him (John 3:16). And as we both know, 59 zettabytes of circulating data is not enough to drown out God’s word (Luke 19:10) nor stop God’s will from manifesting in your life(Romans 8:38-39).

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#JesusIsComingBack

You don’t know how many times I have to stop myself from thinking I am blessed because of something good I’ve done.

What a sobering reminder for all of us to know and fully embrace that God’s blessings come into our lives because we serve a good God.

Think about it; how many times have your behavior not mirrored the character of Christ and yet God, still blessed you?

Psalm 150:2 says, “Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him for His immense greatness.”

We’ve all heard and have probably repeated this declaration, “God is good all the time and all the time God is good.” This Affirmation of Faith is typically echoed on our best days, but in our worst days, we most certainly doubt it.

If I could rephrase and insert one additional sentence it would read something like this, “God good all the time and all the time God is good even when we or things in our lives are not good.”

I am thankful and grateful that God’s goodness is based solely on who He is and not on who I am.

In Matthew 26:41 we are introduced to the battle between the spirit and the flesh. Jesus said, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

I pray daily for God to help me win the victory over my flesh and everyday my shortcomings remind me how desperately I need God’s mercy and grace in my life. Psalm 107:1 also reminds us to, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His loves endures forever.”

What a humbling and life restoring reminder!

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#GodIsGoodAllOfTheTime…..even when we are not!

Father God, as we enter into the second day of the second month of this new year, most of us are already feeling weary, worried and worn. There are things in our personal lives and events in our decaying world that make us want throw in the towel and give up, but we know that we can’t do that!! Therefore, we ask that You O’God please help and guide us through this ambiguous and ominous season! Pour into each of us Your inexhaustible strength to endure so that at the proper time we can all look back and see how You provided for us in this season. Father God, continue drawing our hearts closer to You and align our minds, mouths, and feet with Your word, will, plan, and purpose. In Jesus’ name, we will continue doing what is good! We will continue fighting this good fight of faith and not give up because we know that in due season we will reap a harvest of blessings, if we faint not!Amen and Amen!!

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