4GIVEN

I DECLARE it is not too late to accomplish everything God has purposed in your heart. You have not missed the window of opportunity. God has moments of favor in your future. He is preparing you right now because He is about to release His special grace to help you accomplished that dream. Don’t give up or give into doubt, frustration, and aggravation. Remember God is faithful in keeping His promises. So today DECLARE His Word and hold on to your confession of hope . Be confident that God can make a way when there seems to be no way. Even when your mind may waver, don’t allow your confession to waver. DECLARE that God is working behind the scenes on your behalf. DECLARE that He Who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it and have a DECLARING GOD’s PROMISES SATURDAY!

As Christians we don’t fit in rather we fit out. In John 15:19 Jesus said, “The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.” The world will hate on you but they also hated on Jesus too and He was sinless! Look at it this will adults are not the only one that struggle with fitting in. Our children face a similar struggle. Their world has expanded from the halls and classrooms to cyber space! Bottom line, God has called us to be different. To stand against the grain. To be a city on a hilltop (Matthew 5:14). And to be the change for a world that lacks hope. The good news for today is that realizing we don’t fit in is a good thing. We weren’t made to fit in. We were made to fulfill our calling in Christ. We were made to fit out.

Don’t hold on to anger, hurt, or pain. Sometimes it’s best just to Iet things go and move on. “The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). When we experience pain the people of this world gives us God will not respond to our anger rather, He will respond to our cooperation as we submit to doing things His way (Proverbs 3:5–6). And God’s way is always to forgive as He has forgiven us (Matthew 18:35; Ephesians 4:32).

Who and what defines you? Well, all I can say is you’re not defined by your feelings. You’re not defined by the opinions of others or by your circumstances. You’re not defined by your successes or failures. You’re not defined by the car you drive, the money you make, or the house you say you own when the bank really does. However, you are defined by God and God alone. He identifies you as his own (2 Corinthians 1:22). So start believing what God says about you, that he is pleased with how he created you, and that only God defines you.

When life’s punches tries to shake your faith just remember that God packs the bigger punch. However, sometimes God allows things to be shaken in our lives only to reveal the power of His unshakeable Kingdom. Hebrews 12:28 says, “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.” So the good word for today is that our faith is unshakable in Christ! 

Life has a way of knocking you down at times but remember the knock down is never as great as the comeback! In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 Paul said, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.” In vv 17-18 Paul also said, “For your present troubles are small and they won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.” So the good news for today is ‘GET UP’ and don’t count God out! 

God will never compromise His righteousness to accommodate our unrighteousness!
#SimpleAsThat

Why does God have to break us before He use us? Well, for obvious reasons but, C.H. Spurgeon speaks about the way in which God likes to bring people to the very end of themselves before taking ahold of them and using them for his glory: “Is it not a curious thing that whenever God means to make a man great, He always first breaks him in pieces? There was a man whom the Lord meant to make into a prince. How did He do it? Why, He met him one night and wrestled with him! You always hear about Jacob’s wrestling. Well, I dare say he did, but it was not Jacob who was the principal wres- tler—“There wrestled a man with Him until the breaking of the day.” God touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh and put it out of joint before He called him “Israel,” that is, “a Prince of God.” The wrestling was to take all his strength out of him and when his strength was gone, then God called him a prince (Sermon 2282).

The more good we do, the more our Lord is glorified. But it’s important to know that in order to bear good fruit, we must abide in Christ, we must have union with him by faith. John 15:1-2, “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.” Believe it we are all God’s masterpiece and He created each of us for a specific purpose. Check out Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Therefore, every good fruit we produce comes from the good Father that gave life to the branch to produce it!

The best Valentine gift ever was given to us on a rugged cross. His love poured out in red to make things right before God on our behalf. Sinless and spotless Jesus rewarded us by sacrificing His life for us despite our sins and stains. This gift never gets old, it never dies, and it’s always brand new! Happy Valentines Day and may God bless and keep you all!!