4GIVEN

Peter was in a pickle and in Acts 12:5-7 we learn the church was praying for him after his arrest and the night before his trial, he was sleeping, handcuffed between two soldiers. Then suddenly a bright light illuminated the cell and an angel of the Lord appeared. Peter was sleeping so good and I mean good because the angel had to strike him on the side to wake him up!! I don’t know about you but if I was awaiting a death sentencing and I had ‘Thing 1’ on my left and ‘Thing 2’ on my right, my eyes would have been wide open like a soldier in a watchtower. Watch this; the church prayed for Peter and I can opine based on Peter’s response to his false imprisonment they prayed for his strength and unshakeable peace! Let’s be honest, when storms and trouble hit us on the left and the right we find it hard to get any sleep. However, the same key that unlocked Peter from his shackles is the same key they unlocks the breakthroughs, deliverance, healing, and peace in our lives!! Perhaps, after learning of this miracle it inspired Paul to write Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, PRAY about everything. TELL God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will EXPERIENCE God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” I don’t know what’s chained to you today but I do know that you don’t need pharmaceuticals to find rest for your mind, body, and soul! The life hack or prescription to insomnia is prayer! Peter wasn’t sleeping because he was tired….he was sleeping because of intercessory prayer and his ability to trust God’s to deliver him from the hands of his enemy!

My freshman year at Lamar High School, I vividly remember that I couldn’t bench press a 125lbs and boy was I discouraged. However, my ‘determination was greater than my discouragement’. Therefore, I ask my mom and dad for a weight set and when Christmas came boy did I started hitting dem boys everyday before and after school!!! Now, fast forward to the end of my freshman year, my max bench press was 250lbs and at the end of my sophomore year my max bench press was 300lbs. Here’s the kicker guys, I only weighed 125lbs and some change!! I will never forget when Coach Evans left his 5th period History class just to personally award my 300lbs club t-shirt. So what does this have anything to do with this morning’s devotion?? No, I am not bragging nor I am living in the past and I hate to answer a question with a question but are you living out your Christian life to the MAX? I get it the ‘weight’ of this world can be extremely and exhaustingly overwhelming however, maxing out the fruits of the spirit listed in Gal 5:22-23 will certainly assist in conditioning you to achieving the goal of becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ! Which by the way, is how we live out our Christian life to the MAX! Saying ‘Yes’ to Jesus secures our salvation but it is only the beginning to living out our Christian lives to the MAX. Beloved, God is working a extraordinarily magnificent work in each of our lives and make no mistakes whatever He starts, He brings to perfect completion. Well, at least for me that’s my conviction and at the end of my life I am not looking to receive a ‘t-shirt’ as I will be eagerly with great anticipation listening for my

MASTER to say, “’Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’” (Matt 25:23)

Father God, please forgive me for every time I have asked you for what I think I needed in my life. Starting today, I have chosen to shut my mouth so that I can listen to what You are saying and to see where Your leading me. Your word declares that my steps are ordered by you when you delight in my ways. Therefore Father God, I decrease so that Your righteousness is increased in my life. I am not the boss of me…You are!! Lord, I fully submit, turn over, and relinquish all title and rights over my life to You! As Jesus said, “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.” Yes O’God, I surrender not only my spirit but my flesh also!! Have your way Lord in my life, my marriage, my family, my job, my goals, my finances, and all of my desires both carnal and spiritual! Fill me Lord with Your spirit and hide me in Your word so that I may not sin against You! Father God, I humble myself, under Your mighty and righteous hand so that at the proper time You may exalt me as I cast all my worries and anxieties to You, because I know you care for me. Order and direct my steps today and forevermore; in Jesus’ name I pray and ask all these things believing by faith, amen and amen!

The number one cause of death is truly based on how we view and/or interpret our lives. So the real question is are we living a stressed free life or a stressed filled life? Scientist have proven that the only difference between anxiety and excitement is how we interpret it!Shakespeare once said, “A tragedy is a comedy, misunderstood!!” Harvard researcher Shawn Achor said that, “75% of job and school success is predicted by optimism level and the remaining 25% is predicted by intelligence and technical skills.” Optimistic people are not only healthier but they also recover from illnesses quicker and they live longer than those who choose the former rather than the latter. Beloved, you’re more powerful than you give yourself credit. You have the power of choice. Every morning you have the choice to a have good day, great day, or a fantastic day! In any case, whether good, bad, or indifferent at least you can be thankful that God saw fit to see you through your day! He protected you from unknown dangers both spiritually and carnally!! According to the Oxford English Dictionary, optimism is hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something. HOPE is the expectation of something desired; desire combined with expectation and Hebrews 11:1 reminds us that, “Faith is the substance of things HOPE for and the evidence of things yet seen.”

Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins” and due to the power of sin no one is righteous (Romans 3:9-10). Having said that, there are no perfect people, families, churches, jobs, relationships, schools, police departments, court systems, and no perfect governments. Romans 3:23-24 reminds us that, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” And that’s just it…although we miss the mark of perfection we are made righteous through Christ and him alone!! So if we can continue to believe in our Perfect Savior and persevere by serving one another, despite our imperfections we will experience perfect moments in our lives.

Pray with me:

Gracious Father and precious God, we lift up people, families, churches, jobs, relationships, schools, police departments, court systems, and governments. Fill them with all truth in all peace. Where it is corruption, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son, our Savior. Amen.

God will always honor a humble spirit. Therefore, it behooves us to humble ourselves and turn our burden(s) over to God. Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)” and I Peter 5:7 reminds us to, “Give all our worries [burdens] and cares to God, for he cares about us.” The fact is God doesn’t want us to be inundated with burdens however; when we do get hit with troubles he wants us to exchange them for his peace! Somebody said when you’re in a tug-a-war with the burdens of this world, and it seems like the rope of your faith is about to break. You need to reach beyond the break. The songwriter said hold on a little while longer, hold on a little while longer, hold on a little while longer everything going to be alright.”

Pray with me:

Lord, I am laying my burden(s) at the foot of the cross and I choose to recenter my focus off my burden(s) and I center my focus on Jesus, my Burden Bearer! In Jesus peace exchanging and dispensing name I pray, amen and amen!!

Talking about setting the record straight and intrinsically defining your purpose and calling in life. Paul revealed the APPOINTED work for all MINISTRIES in 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (MSG) and he said, “He [God]wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.” My primary goal in life is to help in God’s pursuit of exposing the truth to any and everyone I do and don’t know! This is one truth that I unequivocally believe can change the course of someone’s life as it was this same exposition that changed and shaped the course of my life. In our Christian walk our goal is to live in the light of ‘the truth’ – expressing in all of our relationships the perceptions, passions, principles and priorities revealed in and by Jesus Christ, ‘the truth’.

It’s not spiritually beneficial to place your focus on pleasing people. I’ve learned that ‘people-pleasing’ wears you out and stifles your ability to bring glory to God! In fact, many people-pleasers believe this kind of behavior is commendable because it involves ‘serving others’, but it isn’t—it’s motivated by approval. Now then, pleasing those we love can be rewarding, and this may not be wrong in and of itself. But pleasing God is a higher calling and much more fulfilling. Disappointment looms in the shadows when our desire to please people and gain their approval becomes as important as pleasing God and sensing his approval. Paul said in Galatians 1:10, “Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” Beloved of God, our primary focus should be on pleasing God not people!! Paul reminds us in Romans 12:1 that we are to “present [our] bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.” But if we are going to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice (and people-pleasers do this), then it must be to God alone. We are to please him first, and he is the only one we are to worship!

What’s your handicap? In others words, what are your areas of weakness? One method used to highlight weak areas in a business or individuals is to use a S.W.O.T. This tool or technique is used to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. In most cases people love to embellish about their strengths however, let’s focus on the one area of this analysis matrix we like to avoid or not admit; our weaknesses. In the carnal eye weaknesses are viewed as bad thing whereas in spiritual reality God uses our weaknesses to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27) and to humble pride-filled people (2 Cor 12:10). Paul said, “Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become (2 Cor 12:7-10).” Our weaknesses are actual great reminders. They remind us that our life depends on God, we deserve wrath but we receive grace, and when we are weak we are strong! At the end of the day, God uses our weaknesses or handicaps to refine our trust and dependence on Him!