As you know any house that is built to last must be able to withstand pressures – pressures from the weather and anything else that could cause its ruin.  The foundation has to be solid; it has to be secure and once it has settled and become solidified, the rest of the house can be built on top of it.  The same is true with our walk with the Lord.  The foundation must start with the act of repentance.  All of us have sinned and need to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our one and only Savior because He is the only one who can save us and make forgiveness and reconciliation possible.  Once we acknowledge our need for Jesus, we must purpose in our hearts to turn away from the life we use to live where we selfishly did whatever we wanted to do, and begin to live a life that honors God and gives Him first place in our life.

The second brick that must be used in the foundation of building a Christ centered life is faith.  Faith is being assured of something you can’t see but you firmly believe that it will come to pass.  The Bible tells us that without faith we will not be able to please God.  Faith is so important because you will need it for the rest of your life.  You must believe that God is.  You must believe that His Word is true because when the wind blows against your house, you will be able to withstand the force of any storm.  In this life you will have to go through test after test and if your foundation is not built on faith, you will succumb and lose the battle.  Your faith will enable you to persevere and hold you steady when all else is crumbling around you.

Build your house upon the rocks of repentance and faith and one day you will hear “well done thy good and faithful servant.”

Brokenness is a tool that God uses to put us in a position to make us realize that we can do nothing without Him.  The state of brokenness forces us to surrender to God everything that we thought we had total control of.  Everyone will go through painful experiences in their life.  The Bible tells us that in this life we would have trouble, but some of us will be put in a position where we are stripped of everything most of all our jealousy and our pride, and realize that somewhere, somehow we got all mixed up and confused about what is important in life.  We will feel lost and alone and finally do the one thing that will get God’s attention.  We will cry out to our heavenly Father because only He can take our mess and turn it all around for our good.

Humility is the key that unlocks the prison of despair and places us in a position to be healed.  Although brokenness has a purpose, God does not want us to remain there.  Satan’s goal is to steal, kill and destroy but the answer to getting back what Satan has stolen from us is found in our relationship with Jesus Christ.  Once we let go and let God we acquire the wisdom we need to push forward and get the victory.  Being broken is so valuable and if you were to ask any Believer who is successful today, they all have a story of brokenness behind them, and without going through everything they had to go through, they would not have reached their pennicle of success they enjoy today.

You are the sum total of the good and the bad experiences of your life.  Your heart must be strong enough to allow the broken pieces to co-exist with the wonderful memories you hold dear.  Do not get stuck on the past because there are some things that need to be left behind, but the lessons learned through brokenness are to be used to help you avoid making the same mistakes you did in the past.  God also wants you to pass on to others your wisdom so that they will be warned of the consequences of certain actions and attitudes not becoming a child of God.

Keep your eyes upon Jesus and don’t get angry at the trials and tribulations that come your way.  God is faithful and He has a plan for you but the only way out is to go through brokenness.  You will come out a much better person that will be fit for the master’s use.  God is the potter and you are the clay.  He alone knows how long you must stay in the fire to be refined so that you come out as pure gold.

Everyone wants one thing in life and that is to be happy.  Happiness cannot be bought; it is not found in material things nor can it be found in another person.  It’s possible to have weath yet elude happiness.  It’s also possible to lack wealth yet be extremely happy.  Why?  The source of happiness is having a personal, intmate relationship with God, and if you have found this treasure, you will know that it doesn’t matter what  emotional, marital, financial or physical state you are in, happiness is always there.  Many people make the mistake of looking for happiness in all the wrong places but eventually discover that it is not found in a person, place or thing because all of those things are temporal and are constantly changing.  God has promised to never leave nor forsake those who do have a relationship with Him and He will never change – never!

Following are some practical things you can do if you have already established the foundation of knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.  Put them into practice and you will have the secret that many people have not yet discovered.

1) Live life one day at  time

2) Count your blessings and not your problems

3) Be a giver and not a taker

4) Be anxious for nothing

5) Learn to laugh and learn to cry

God wants His children, who are called by His name, to seek Him and His kingdom first and then He has promised to add everything that we need to our lives.  Being anxious will do you more harm than good – both emotionally and physically.  Tomorrow is not promised to anyone and worrying will not change your situation.  Either you trust God or you don’t; so worry or trust – don’t do both.

Happiness is putting a smile on someone else’s face.  If we are focused on ourselves, we will never experience the joy of making another person happy.  The Bible tells us that it is better to give than to receive.  You will never be able to out give God, so when you give, He will give it back to you in a larger measure than you used.  Givers are under an open Heaven and not only will the receiver be blessed but the giver will cause God to notice them and reward them because giving is part of God’s heart.  He loved mankind so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that we might have eternal life.  There is no greater display of love than that.

Happiness is not found under a mask.  Many people put on their daily masks and try to make others think that they are happy.  Do not be afraid to reach other to your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ if you need help and allow them to help you.  God has put people in our lives that we can trust and depend on.  They will cry with us, pray with us and rejoice with us.  Those kinds of relationships are most dear and if you do not have such friends, ask your heavenly Father to bring them into your life and you will see what a difference it makes when two walk together as one.

Are you happy?  If your answer is no, begin with reaching out to God and let him come into your heart and heal you and then He will bless you with His joy, His peace and His happiness.

Thank you God for today.

This is the beginning of a new day.  I can waste it or use it for good.

What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.

When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever – leaving in its place something I traded in its place for it.

I want it to be gain – not loss; good not evil; success not failure so that I do not regret the price I paid for it.

Life doesn’t have a remote control.  If you want something to change in your life, you must do it.  Don’t settle; don’t compromise; don’t let life pass you by while you sit on the sidelines watching others passionately engaged in what brings them joy.  Tomorrow is not promised to any one.  Make the best of today.  Offer no excuses – just make up your mind to do that one thing you have been thinking about for so long but have yet to act upon it.  The Bible tells us to acknowledge Him in all our ways and He will direct our paths. (Proverbs 3:6).  This is a day that the Lord has made, make it count!

I can say with confidence that the Lord is on your side!  God’s Word repeatedly tells us ‘to fear not.’  It doesn’t matter what the nature of the battle you are fighting, you are not fighting alone because God has promised to never leave nor forsake you.  Your battles are His battles and if He is with you, you will always win for if God be with you, who can be against you? If you are living life depending on your own strength, chances are you will have a limited amount of success.  Your education, personality and talents might serve you well in some things and only with some people.  But Believers have an weapon that few are taking advantage of.  God’s arm is not too short that He cannot save.  You owe it to yourself to live your life knowing that with God all things are possible.

In the wrestling arena there is a matched called ‘tag team wrestling.’  In it, two men are fighting against two opponents but there can be only one person from each team in the ring at one time.  When one fighter gets tired or is getting beaten all he has to do is tag his partner and his partner can step in and he can leave the ring.  Believers have the Lord Jesus Christ as their tag team partner.  When they have done all they can do and it isn’t enough, all they have to do is  call on the Lord.  He will come running with the victory in His hand because at the name of Jesus every knee must bow!

The Lord is your helper.  He will come running when you call upon His name.  Do not allow yourself to be defeated.  The enemy of your soul wants you to believe that you are in this world all alone but nothing could be further from the truth.  The Word of God tells us how much we are loved and that we have a friend that sticks closer than a brother.  When you are weary, call upon Jesus and He will be there right when you need Him.  If you need encouragement, sit down and spend time reading God’s Word and let your faith grow in the knowledge that God is on your side.

Many of you know what it is like to have a “mid-night hour” experience. A mid-night hour experience is the time when things are the darkest.  It is the time when you need to be rescued because you are virtually blinded by your situation. You know it is the time when you need a miracle, because only a miracle can bring you the urgent relief you so desperately need. When everything is falling apart; when your plans don’t seem to be working, the good news is God has a plan to miraculously rescue you.

The Apostle Peter went through a mid-night experience.  King Herod had him arrested and had him chained to a guard on his left and a guard on his right.  His hands and feet were also chained.  Peter was going to be executed the next morning but that was not the will of God.  The church was praying for him and those prayers prevailed.  God sent an angel down and released Peter from his chains without waking up the guards.  The angel showed him the way out and set him on his way.  This all happened so quickly that Peter thought he was dreaming. When Peter appeared at the door of those praying for him, they were shocked and didn’t believe at first that Peter was actually in their midst.  It took a miracle to rescue Peter and a miracle is what he received.

You might be in a situation that only God can get you out of.  It doesn’t matter how difficult it looks; just know that God can do anything and everything.  There isn’t a problem that God can’t solve.  God can step in and release the chains that bind you.  The Bible says that the effectual, fervent prayers of the righteous avails much. (James 5:16). Although you may be going through the most humbling experience of your life, although you may feel as if God has forgotten you, or that your friends have forsaken you, God will provide a way of escape for you.  Many saints have experienced  a miracle at mid-night.  If you need one, humble yourself and pray and God will show Himself to you.  He will break the chains that bind you and He will do it in such a way that even you will think that you are dreaming.

If you take a dollar bill and crush it up in your hand, that act does not lessen the value of that dollar bill.  Even if you were to take that dollar bill and stomp on it and walk all over it, the value of the dollar bill does not change.  Life has a way of pressing us to the point that we are so crushed and beaten up that we are made to fill like we are not of any value to anyone.  Friends are plentiful when we are prospering, but unfortunately, they are hard to find when we are going through a crisis in our life that changes what we are able to do. The good news is that this is not true as far as our heavenly Father is concerned.  It doesn’t matter what our situation may be, God’s love for us will never change.  God never changes.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

If you think about Joseph’s story for a moment, it is hard to understand why his brothers sold him into slavery and he was taken from his home into a country where he had never been and was forced to become a servant whereas he once was a person who was served by others.  For 13 years he endured separation from his family and for a period of time, he was put in prison due to the lies told about him.  These events made no sense at all especially after he experienced God given dreams as a young man that one day everyone including his own family would bow down to him.  Joseph must have been confused since the events of his life took him down a path that seemed to be in the opposite direction than he had anticipated.  But once you remember how his life turned out, you realize that all of it had to happen in order for God’s plan for him to be fulfilled.  Rejection by his brothers, slavery and imprisonment all had to take place – it was all a part of the plan. How often do we find ourselves in situations that make no sense and we begin to doubt God’s plan for our lives.  Could it be that certain situations have to happen and we have to experience certain events so that it places us exactly where we need to be so that we are in the position we need to be in to move into our destiny?

You might be feeling that God has forgotten all about you or that He doesn’t really care about what you are going through.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  God loves you so much that He sacrificed His only Son so that you could have eternal life.  All things are working for your good because you love God, and you must hold onto the confession of your faith through it all.  The enemy of your soul, Satan, wants to steal, kill and destroy you, but the Son of God came to give you life and life more abundantly.  God has showed us through the story of Joseph that we must go through a process to inherit His promises.  Your problems are to make you stronger; they are to deepen the level of your faith to the point that you are totally surrendered and committed to God.  Your faith and trust in God must remain unmoveable and undeniable.  You must know who you are in Christ even if everything else has been stripped away from you.  You must believe in your heart that you are precious to God and He will do whatever it takes to complete His work in you.

God has not forgotten about you and He never will.  From your mouth speak words of faith over yourself; encourage yourself and accept that whatever God allows you to experience will bring life and not death.  Your identity is in Jesus Christ and you will never lose your value – never!

In the news today we can find several stories about the wars going on in other nations.  The nation of Israel is fighting a war with the rebels in Gaza.  The nation of Ukraine is fighting pro-Russian rebels.  Afghanistan and Iraq are figting civil wars just to name a few.  The war that I want to call attention to today is the battle going on in the minds of many Christians.  This battle is between faith and doubt, and the side that wins will be the side that is fed the most.

At times, the challenges of life can cause even the strongest Believer to stop for a moment and question whether or not God will answer their prayers.  This opens the door for the enemy to feed on this negatism and he will then flood your mind with all kinds of thoughts that can lead to loss of hope.  That is Satan’s goal – to aggravate the Believer to the point that they lose hope in God.  Losing hope in other people is one thing, but to lose hope in God is fatal.  Pain can drive a person to the end of their rope, be it physical, mental or spiritual, but once you are traveling down this road, you are certain that God doesn’t care about you or what you are going through.  Being in this position is sad and the only way out is to reach out to another fellow brother or sister in the Lord who will lead you back to your heavenly Father.

A mind that is certain; a mind that is sure; a mind that is confident and full of faith puts the troubles of this world and particularly those in your life in the right perspective.  Faith gives the Believers options that cannot be seen by someone whose mind is full of doubt.  Faith drives you to God instead of away from God.  Faith causes you to remember the goodness of God and how God has been faithful to you in the past.  Faith causes you to experience the presence of God and embrace His love and positions you for healing.  Faith gives you hope and propels you to open the Word of God and find the answers you are seeking.

The spirit of God changes night into day; it turns mourning into dancing and it restores peace where there was chaos and confusion.  Just as night and day cannot exist in the same place at the same time, faith and doubt cannot co-exist.  You must choose one and turn away from the other but it has to be settled in your mind first.  Your mind is the key because your mind will direct your next step whether good or bad.  Your mind will either hold you steady and allow God to perfect those things that concern you or your mind will cause you to become anxious, fearful and doubt who God is.

Let me ask you a question. What’s on your mind today?

Scripture tells us that there were many places that Jesus Christ would not perform miracles because of unbelief.  When He went to Jairus house to heal his daughter, the people were grieving for her even though Jesus told them that she was not dead but only sleeping.  They laughed at Him, so He put them out and took only her parents and His disciples with Him when He went into her room and touched her and she was healed.  In the city of Bethsaida, Jesus remarked that if He had done what He did in any other city, the people there would have immediately repented, but in Bethsaida the people were untouched.  Unbelief puts up a wall that prevents Jesus from doing what He loves to do and that is heal and restore people to wholeness and salvation.

Without faith it is impossible to please God and that is why Christians need to check theirselves to determine where their level of faith is.  If you are asking God to do a miracle in your life, be sure you have no doubt of His ability to do that very thing, and it is important that you surround yourselves with people of like faith.  Do not let the lack of faith of another individual cause your faith to decrease.  If you need to separate yourself from people, do not hesitate to do so – your miracle depends upon it!

God wants us to encourage each other at all times.  If you get to a state that you can’t pray or don’t know what to pray for, reach out to a brother or sister in the faith and allow them to minister to you.  We all will have challenges come our way in one form or another and that is when a fellow believer can speak into your life and help you get through your storm.  The Bible tells us that the just shall live by faith.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17).  Christians must walk by faith and not by sight if they are to be an overcomer.  Because of Jesus Christ, we will have the victory if we keep the faith.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.  Fight the good fight of faith daily and when you see your Lord and Savior face to face, may you hear the words “well done thy good and faithful servant.”

The Bible tells us that with God all things are possible.  Yet, many Christians have yet to get that down deep in their hearts.  It’s easy to assume that if it looks impossible, then nothing can change that.  However, once you add God into the mix of that impossible situation, everything changes.  What is impossible with man is possible with God.

Impossible situations are divine opportunities.  When your abilities end, that is when you must ask your heavenly Father for help and you will see Him prove His faithfulness to you as He has done for so many others.  Your responsibility is to believe, trust and obey and then leave the details up to God.  God will perfect everything that concerns you but if you do not have the faith then you have lost out on seeing a miracle take place.  God created this world out of nothing by just speaking into the darkness.  God divided the Red Sea so that Moses and the children of Israel could walk across it on dry ground. Jesus Christ fed 5,000 with just two fish and five loaves of bread.  Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the tomb and he came forth still wrapped in his burial clothes.  The Lord rose on the third day after his crucifixion.

Job told God “I know that you can do everything.”  It’s important that you believe that as well.  Get rid of the “I can’t” or “it’s not possible” mentality and embrace the “all things are possible” belief system.  The bottom line is based on your level of faith.  Jesus told us that is we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can say to a moutain ‘move’ and it will move.  Mustard seed size faith is not very much but if that is all it takes to move a mountain in your life, imagine how far mature faith will take you.

Turn over the impossible situation you are facing in your life to God and in faith speak to that mountain to move and watch how God will interrupt, invade, or turn everything around for you.  It might look impossible but it really isn’t – not from God’s point of view!