future

He Is Well Pleased With You

“He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’” – 2 Peter 1:17 Let me re-emphasize two points today! First, no matter what challenges you are facing,  know that Christ died for you and that God loves you right where you are. You are the beloved child of God. Secondly, He is well pleased with you. Believe that he is happy with you. And not just in what you do, but just as the Father was pleased with Jesus, He’s pleased with you and loves you. It’s a truth we must believe and accept. In response to this, we must build our whole lives around it. Can we do that today? As we build our lives in response to God’s love, we can trust Him in

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Focus on What You Have

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” – Colossians 2:6,7 Today, we continue with our discussion on the importance of our daily thoughts. What we consume and think about is an excellent indicator of what our future can become. Here’s something my grandfather Dr. Schuller taught me: “Focus not on what you’ve lost; focus on what you have.” It is easier said than done to always look at what you have left, never at what you have lost. I recognize it takes constant vigilance to make sure that I’m focusing not on what I’ve lost but on what I have, and as I stated yesterday, to focus not on what I can’t control but on what I can control.  It’s vital to

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Heavenly Treasures

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21 As we continue to explore Jesus’ perspective on treasures, I want to pose a question. What kind of heavenly treasures should we store or build up? We could easily compile an extensive list, but I will share just a few. What about manners? Good manners are a heavenly treasure! I remember at 15 years old, I had this radical change in my life when I became a believer. On one occasion, I was rude to my older sister because she took too long in the bathroom getting ready for school. I acknowledged my wrongdoing and told her, “The Bible says love is not rude. I’m sorry.” Then I hugged her. We can always err on the side of good manners! We add to the list of Godly treasures: confidence, the ability to lead, make crucial decisions,

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Believe in Your Future

“There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.” – Proverbs 23:18 Happy New Year! I pray that you have joyful anticipation and excitement for this year! We serve a great and loving God, and in this new year, I want to encourage you that life gets better when you get better. When a seed is planted, it grows down before it grows up. The roots must grow to anchor the seed before it sprouts. We must respect this universal principle: “You must grow deep before you grow wide.” This is the treasure you should seek, developing the personality, attitude, skills, methods, and rhythms of life that build into who you want to become. You must believe you can be transformed into the kind of person you envision!   Interestingly, you actually don’t have to believe in yourself to get better. In fact, that

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Your Best is Yet to Come

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” – 2 Corinthians 3:18 When you are in a relationship and fellowship with Jesus, your best is yet to come. When I say this, many of you will assume that I’m talking about Heaven, and while that is part of it, I also mean that God is ready, willing, and able to do a miracle in your life right now while you are still alive on this earth!  God is an eleventh-hour God and tends to frustrate us with His timing. I don’t know if it’s His sense of humor or His Sovereignty, but I’ve seen over and over again what Tolkien called the eucatastrophe or the good catastrophe. The Lord’s timing is rarely our timing, but He always shows up

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Be Tender-Hearted

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.” – Philippians 2:1-3 Yesterday, I talked about faith and used the analogy that we are soft clay in God’s hands, ready for him to mold us into tender-hearted people. Faith allows us to be full of compassion! It makes it possible to be soft to God’s word and will, and guess what? This is a great place to be! Can we unashamedly state that tough-minded faith always comes from tender-hearted people? We will ask the Lord to shape us in whatever way He wills because we trust that the future He can shape is better than any future we can shape.

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Let Faith Shape Your Future

“He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ ” – Mark 4:40 Today I want to encourage you to let faith, not fear, shape your future. There is something about living a life of real faith. Whether you’re a new or seasoned believer, we’ve all experienced moments when things around us seem to be falling apart — but then something inside us changes and gives way to feeling a real sense of hope. It’s hard to explain why, but you just feel something good is about to happen. In your heart, you believe a door is about to open, or the situation you’re struggling with is about to change.  We need faith to embrace this sense that something good is about to happen. How can you love your neighbor or your enemy without faith? How can you truly love your neighbor, especially

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Time is on Our Side

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:” – Ecclesiastes 3:1 We can look at the concept of time from so many different angles. Every minute of your free time is planting a seed for your future. There it is, you just put it in the ground, and the more of that act, deed, or work you do, the more it grows; whether it’s bad or good, you’re planting seeds in your free time. When we take responsibility and use our free time to become the person we want to be, the better our lives become.  There are so many opportunities to choose how we use our time. The next time you have a free moment, instead of reaching for your phone, try quieting your heart and pray the Lord’s Prayer. As you find yourself with a few moments alone, instead of reaching

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Winter is a Gift

“He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.” – Psalm 104:19 If you’re anything like me, you are now completely immersed in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, which is (hopefully) filled with time with family and friends, the warmth of excellent food, the glow of decorations, and the shine of lights. It is, however, winter, which is naturally the coldest and darkest season of the year. As a result, the warmth of Christmas counters the chill of winter. The question I pose to you today is which one will you embrace? As we enter this season, there is a natural tendency to be negative. You might even hear that suicides are at an all-time high in December, but did you know that isn’t the case? It’s an old myth because the biggest rates of suicide occur in the spring.

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Don’t Predict the Outcome

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” – Romans 11:33 Something that a lot of us like to do is predict the future. Especially if we’re intelligent and good at assimilating information, we think we know what will happen based on our knowledge and past experience. And as much doing this provides a sense of security and the illusion of being in control, it leads only to lost energy. You see, we all think we’re smarter than we are, so writing the story of our future gives us a feeling of power, but it also robs us of the focus we need to make it through today. There’s a reason Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow, because when we learn to take Him at His Word, our lives get much better. Right now,

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