One of the greatest lessons that you will learn in your lifetime is  how to wait on God. Waiting on God is tough on some people. Waiting is never easy. Waiting is challenging but it is always rewarded.  The truth of the matter is struggle is always there when you are waiting upon God because you begin to understand it’s his timing and not your timing.  We have a tendency to think that we are ready for every blessing God has for us. Little do we know how much we must grow before we are positioned to receive God’s best for us.

Waiting is designed to increase our faith. If God instantly gave you what you wanted, you would never learn to live by faith. Just give me that car. Give me that house. Give me that job. Make me great. Your faith has to be tested. In the middle of unfavorable circumstances, God finds out how much faith you really have and how much you trust Him. A lot of people don’t yet have the type of faith that anchors them while they are going through the impossible. They let their doubts take control instead of allowing God to take control.

Waiting is also designed to teach us endurance. A mature person who has developed endurance trusts in God more than they trust in their circumstances. They have learned that trouble doesn’t last always and that God has promised never to leave or forsake us so they are able to wait. Endurance enables you to do everything you need to do without giving up knowing that beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is faithful.

It’s imperative that as a child of God you learn to wait upon the Lord.

Why?

Because nothing is impossible with God

Because God is in control

Because God is working behind the scenes on your behalf

Because God promised to reward those who wait on him

There is an old legend about a man who found the barn where Satan kept his seeds to be sown into human hearts.  He saw piles of seeds of lack, seeds of addictions, seeds of hatred, seeds of jealousy, seeds of lying.  He came upon the seeds of discouragement and noticed that there were many more discouragement seeds than any other kind.  He asked Satan ‘why do you have so many discouragement seeds?’  Satan reluctantly said ‘there is one place that I have not been able to grow these seeds.’  The man asked ‘where is that?’ Satan replied ‘in the heart of a grateful person.’

Well, it’s that time of the year when we set aside time to reflect on the blessings of God.  I suppose that there are some who believe that in our society today there is very little to be thankful for especially when terrorism seems to be at an all time high.  So, one may ask ‘what is there to be thankful for?  In 1621, the Pilgrims set aside a day of thanksgiving despite all the hardships they had to endure. They could have become bitter. After all they had to make seven times more graves than they did homes.  1 Thessalonians 5:18 “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  This is a tall order because the word ‘everything’ means just that – everything! Nothing is to be excluded.  Since we are told to give thanks, if we fail to do so, we are violating the will of God, and if we are doers of the word, we should constantly be giving thanks to God; but giving thanks is probably one thing that Christians do not do enough of.  We do not always get what we ask from God, but we always have reasons to thank Him.

Many people would rather complain than give thanks.  Thanksgiving Day is one of the most celebrated national holidays in the United States. Other countries also observe Thanksgiving but on different dates.  Traditionally, Thanksgiving is meant to be a time to give thanks and express our gratitude to God.  But for believers, Thanksgiving should not be limited to only one day in the year.  If we are to give thanks as we have been commanded to do, one day in the year simply isn’t enough.  Happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have; but rather we need to recognize and appreciate what we do have!

With little effort, all of us could create a list of reasons why we should give God thanks.  We our thankful for our freedom; Americans enjoy a lot more freedom than people in other parts of the world.  We are thankful for our families, our friends and the fact that we have a roof over our head and food to eat.  We need to thank God on a daily basis because we enjoy these things only because of the goodness of God.  God is good; He is patient and He is kind; He is slow to anger. He promised never to leave or forsake us. Thank God for who He is and honor Him for what He has done for you.  During this past year you may have suffered loss of one kind of another, and you might be asking deep within your heart ‘what do I have to be thankful for?’  If you are not satisfied with what you have, be thankful for what you have escaped! Look around you. There are people going through much worse than you. You don’t know everything that God has spared you from. When you compare what you want with what you have, you will be unhappy.  But compare what you deserve with what you have, and you will be happy!

Question: What do you have to be thankful for?

Answer: EVERYTHING!

Do you have a situation in your life that has been going on for a long time and you would like for it to change? The first thing you must do is ask yourself ‘do you want to be made well?” It’s not unusual that some people really don’t want to be healed. They want people to feel sorry for them. They love being a victim. If God changed their situation, they then have to ‘take up their bed and walk.’ They would then have to leave the past behind and live the life they should be living. The fact is that some people will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid unwelcome changes in their lives. Their lives are dysfunctional. They are paralyzed in heart and mind. They have never considered that God might have something for them to accomplish.

Even after we are saved, we continue to be confronted by issues in our lives that need to be changed, like bitterness, unresolved conflicts and things that have lie hidden within us for years. The question is, “Do we really want to change?” You must decide not to continue making excuses. That is the victim mentality. It is only when we stop making excuses that we discover that we have the power to change. When Jesus told the lame man to take up his bed and walk, the Lord was telling him not to go back to the way he had been. In other words, anyone who really wants to change must forget the past and move forward. You must not look back because the past has passed and you can’t use it or see it as a crutch anymore. Once you have made a decision to move forward you must stick to it and let go of anything that might hinder you from seizing the opportunities that lie ahead of you. No one drives looking in their rear view mirror. The front window of your car allows you to see what is in front of you. Your determination and faith in God is your front window in your life and the possibilities are unlimited.

God not only cares about you, but He also has a plan and a purpose for your life.  God wants each of us to fulfill His destiny for us.  The Bible says that Satan comes to ‘kill, steal and destroy.’  Satan can steal from you in so many ways.  Not only can he manipulate other people to steal from you, but he can allow you to get caught up in emotions and situations that are not of the Holy Spirit that they hold you in bondage and keep you from receiving God’s best for you.  Activate the power of God that lies within you and keep moving towards the mark of the high calling on your life.  God loves you and in Him you can do all things.

There is one thing that I have learned in life and that is everything begins with God, is controlled by God, and will one day end in God and if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you cannot, and will not, be successful without turning everything you love in this life over to God and submit to His will.  Someone once said that ‘if you want to make God laugh tell Him your plans.’ Well, it’s time to put our plans under the will of God. Every day rise up and thank God for a new day. It wasn’t promised to you; every day you wake up is a gift. Don’t plan your day and leave God out of it. Put your plans under the will of God, not above them! if our plans fail; even if our dream doesn’t materialize; even if we lose someone we love; we must take a stand and declare that God is God no matter what!

God has given each of us a measure of faith but has your faith grown any? Do you trust God more today than you did yesterday, last year or five years ago? If you don’t, something is wrong. You are not focusing on the right things. Maybe you are stuck – stuck in unforgiveness or bitterness or stuck in the pain that someone caused you 20 years ago, but you must move forward. You will not have victory in this present day if you don’t release anything that is holding you back from being filled with the Holy Spirit.

We live and learn, and if you are close to God, God will let you know when you do not have the mind of Christ. It’s important is that we learn from our mistakes; we are to learn but not to get stuck in the past. So you made a bad decision – learn from it but let the mistake go and keep the wisdom. Embrace the grace of God and thank Him that He got right in the middle of your mistake and worked it out so that you can fulfill His plans for you. Your destiny doesn’t change – you change! No one can keep you from what God has planned for you except you, but, once you have an ‘aw haw’ moment and you realize that you just might have missed it on some level, repent and submit.

God loves you and wants to give you His best.  God’s power is manifested in our weakness and He wants nothing more than to show you who He really is.  Keep believing; hold steady and submit to God’s will for your life.  Your best days are ahead of you.

Has life ever thrown you a curve ball – something that came suddenly and unexpectedly and changed your life forever? Very seldom does life happen exactly the way we’d like it to. It’s good to make plans, but often things happen and circumstances change that remind us that we are not in control. Our response to curve balls can range from being miserable, frustrated, unhappy and even angry, but even when our circumstances are not favorable, there is a grace in God that can sustain you until your breakthrough arrives. God is never going to put us into a situation or permit us to be in one, without giving us the ability to stand firm with a peace that passes all understanding. This grace causes other people to look at us and wonder how we are able to handle it with such dignity and faith. Our attitude will speak to the people around us much more than if we try to preach to them. It’s about how we live our life in front of them, especially when things are not going perfectly. The grace of God empowers us to do whatever we must do when we are called upon to do it.

Grace comes to us through faith. The Bible tells us that God has given each of us a certain measure of grace. We must use this grace to overcome and not rely on our own strength to see us through. God’s grace will enable us to do with ease what we could never do on our own for God’s grace is sufficient. We won’t have to struggle and hope that whatever we do will be good enough. Faith in God places us in position to know that there is nothing impossible with God, and if we allow God to work on our behalf, everything will turn out for our good. Don’t force God to watch you try to solve your problems on your own. God will wait until you come to the end of yourself and ask for His help before He steps in. Depend upon your heavenly Father for everything. God will give you the victory every day of your life.

The grace of God is sufficient and it is truly amazing and it is there for each of us who know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. There is no price tag to be put on grace. It can’t be bought. The blood of Jesus has made it available and God loves us so much that He gives it to us – many times when we don’t deserve it and that is why it is called God’s unmerited favor. I don’t know about you but I would not be here today without it!