4GIVEN

RULE #1: Put GOD at the center of everything! Why? Well, because, “The Lamb who is at the center of the throne will shepherd you; He will guide you to springs of living waters, and God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.” Revelation 7:17 Putting God first in our lives simplifies our life-challenges and will turn bitter waters into springs of living waters! Now doesn’t that sound refreshing?! You must remember it doesn’t matter whether or not you feel God to be at the center of your life! His omnipresence is not experienced through our feeling rather by activating our faith. It’s incumbent on us to acknowledge that God doesn’t break His promises, and that Jesus says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no way cast out.” (John 6:37) BOTTOM LINE is that God will never force his way into your life. We are all free moral agents and because God didn’t create robots, He has given us the power of choice! So what do you choose? God wants to be at the center of your life and He deserves to be at the center of your life! So if anything else is taking up lease space, I invite to serve whatever that is squatting in God’s position a writ of eviction today! We have been called out by God from this world, before the worlds were even formed (Ephesians 1:4) to be His own possession and, therefore, He is at the center of our lives as long as we trust Him over and above our life-circumstances or anyone or anything else! Jesus ain’t got to take the steering wheel, if He is already commandeering the vehicle (you)!!

Simply put, prayer is you communicating to God and God communicating to you! Martin Luther once said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” The MSG paraphrase of Matthew 6:7-13 is spot on, “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything you want! You’re ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.” If you failed to notice, this is the model prayer Jesus taught the disciples to pray. Jesus knew the power of prayer and He found it necessary to make sure that we too discovered its power! Prayer is a gift that we can give each other. We can give prayer when we can give nothing else. Prayer is to me, the glue that holds together the relationship between God and His people through Christ Jesus by His Holy Spirit!

The struggle is real but so is our God and to wake up believing that God is on your side should be enough to make you want to jump out of bed and face whatever comes your way! We all get tired and frustrated,but even when we want to give up, God’s word tells us to get up!! Here are 3 scripts from the OT that confirms my statement: Nehemiah 8:10, “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Isaiah 41:10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Exodus 15:2,”The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” God commanded us to be strong and courageous. He also said , “Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD my God is with us wherever we go.”(Joshua 1:9). Lastly, I’ve heard it said, God has intention for our pain, a reason for our struggle, and a reward for our faithfulness! God doesn’t necessarily ask us to understand our struggles, but He does ask us to trust Him in our struggles!

Proverbs 18:24 (MSG), says, “Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family!” I’ve heard it said, “Many people will walk in and out of your life , but only a true friend will leave footprints in your heart! Fact is, a true friends has your back, they are honest/ authentic, they accept you for you, they want the best for you, and they don’t abandon you. Much like our personal styles, we all may have different needs and desires when coming to friendship. You may also come to recognize that some differences are able to support you in some areas of life while you may have another friend that you rely on for support in another area of your life. Expanding the friendships that make up your support system can help ensure that your needs are adequately being met. No friend is perfect, and no friend will be able to be everything to you. Even true friends will sometimes disappoint us. What matters most is how they respond to your feelings and the patterns they establish. C.S. Lewis said, “Friendship… has survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”

Are we family?

Faithfully trust God today no matter what. Although we don’t know what to tomorrow holds, we do know who holds tomorrow! God will never leave lonely or abandoned. Jesus said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). He remains with us through our most uncertain and difficulty trials. Even if our suffering doesn’t end on this side of eternity, God is and always will be mighty, trustworthy, dependable, good, righteous, and He is able to do exceedingly-abundantly above all that you could ever ask or think through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:20)! You can always faithfully rely on God’s constant and loving presence. The God we serve is [always ready] and able to deliver us (Daniel 3:17) no matter what!!

Even when you ‘feel’ like God is absent, He is with you. You may be saying really!? Well, you got to remember God is OMNIPRESENT; meaning He exist everywhere at the same time! Beloved, it’s imperative to know that God’s presence is not based on ‘feelings’. During seasons of difficulty, too many Christians fail to dig into God’s promises and they find ways to justify that God is absent i/l/o discovering His presence. This type of emotionalism is not Christian discipleship. Christians discern the will of God by examining and applying Scripture. Furthermore, Scripture tells us that our heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), trusting in our heart is foolish (Proverbs 28:26), and the way that leads to death almost always seems right at the time (Proverbs 14:12). In other words, the will of God cannot be determined emotionally. If you’re going through a storm right now listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 6:34 (MSG), “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Therefore, I encourage you to search God’s word to know His will and the reality of His OMNIPRESENCE. Obey the gospel of Jesus Christ so that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17). And know that, if you are a Christian, God is uniquely present within you no matter where you are, no matter your circumstance, and no matter how you feel.

If God can love the ugly unlovable in us, we should love the ugly unlovable in others. Now many will say, “I can’t do that because of ______ or I can do this if they will do ________.” Fact is, we are commanded to love everyone including our enemies. The ‘thin line’ between love and hate only exist because of unreciprocated love and ambivalence. Matthew 5:44 (MSG) says, “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.” What we need to do is start with that dividing thin line, use it as a footing and ‘BUILD A WALL’ between love and hate (pun intended).

We have been redeemed, called by name, and we belong to God! So whenever you feel like you’re trapped between a rock and a hard place it won’t be a dead end! Because God through Christ Jesus is our Champion, Victor, and Savior! Isaiah 43:2 confirms, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” We don’t need to know what the future holds because our God holds the future omnisciently, omnipresently, and omnipotently! If this message doesn’t stir something up in your spirit, I suggest you re-read because the only two things El Shaddi will never do is lie or fail!!

We have a lot of bad stuff happening in our world today. So much that, it’s easy to grow angry, weary, restless, and bitter. However, Psalm 121:1 is a bold word for the weary impaired. “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” I want to encourage all to remember God never slumbers or sleep. He is eternally awake. Isaiah in the OT added, “Those who wait on the Lord will find renewed strength” (Isaiah 40:31). Fact is, God alone renews our strength to parent another day. Our earthly, mortal supply of strength is not an eternal reservoir like the Almighty’s. We need rest for our bodies and our minds, but even when we do, “God does not faint nor grow weary” (Isaiah 40:38). Having said that, no one has the magic antidote for the mess we see going on in our world today. However, in Matthew 24:33 Jesus cautiously said, “In the same way, when you see all ‘these things’, you can know His return is very near, right at the door.” So, I advise you to take a vacation from social media, fake news etc and spend some time relishing on what God has in stored for us believers; an incredible and victorious conclusion. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulations: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

🙏🏾PRAY WITH ME🙏🏾

Father, I thank You that You sent Jesus — and that Jesus has overcome the world in every respect. Regardless of what the devil or wicked and heartless people tries to do, Jesus has already overcome it. I do not have to grow weary, lose heart or become angry or bitter. I can lift my head, throw my shoulders back, raise my arms to You and rejoice, because Jesus has overcome the world and deprived it of its power to adversely augment or change your upper story ending. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen!

Colossians 3:13 – Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.