As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55:9, NIV
God’s dream for your life is so much bigger than your own. He wants to bless you and enlarge your territory. His ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours, and His plan is so much bigger than we can imagine. Choose today to focus on the good things God has in store for you. Don’t allow the circumstances of life to drag your thoughts down. Choose God’s thoughts by meditating on His Word.
The Scripture says to “set your mind on things above.” Those “things above” are God’s thoughts and His ways. Having higher thoughts means thinking, “I am blessed and highly favored. I am above only and not beneath. I am the head and not the tail. I am a victor, not a victim. I am righteous, and my path shines brighter and brighter to the full day!”
When you allow those higher thoughts to fill your mind, they will direct your steps. You will see yourself as an overcomer and live the abundant life God has in store for you!
GET RID OF YOUR SCARCITY MENTALITY
'...God will generously provide all you need...' 2 Corinthians 9:8 NLT
‘…God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory.’ (Philippians4:19 NKJV) Whose riches? God’s! And His ability to bless you is not limited by the job market, the stock market or the housing market. For forty years He fed His people in the wilderness with manna from Heaven. He sent ravens to deliver meat to Elijah during a famine. He fed over five thousand people with a boy’s lunch. Paul writes, ‘God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others…Yes, you will be enriched in every way…’ (2 Corinthians 9:8, 11 NLT) The scarcity attitude is rooted in fear and shows distrust of the awesome power of God to supply all our needs according to His unlimited resources. It’s based upon the faulty assumption that if someone else has something, you can’t have it because there’s only one pie, and every slice that someone else gets means less is available for you. It makes you believe that the blessings of others come at your expense. It says, ‘You win, I lose.’ That’s no way to live the abundant life! Start today to reprogramme your thinking. Remind yourself that you’re not in competition with anybody, for anything, in any area of your life. Cling to the words of Jesus: ‘…I have come that [you] may have life, and that [you] may have it more abundantly.’ (John 10:10 NKJV) Pray: ‘Father, help me to reject all thoughts of scarcity. Show me how to help others achieve their goals by sharing my time, talents, treasure. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.’
FROM ‘DELIVERANCE’ TO ‘NO EVIL SHALL TOUCH YOU’
Job 5:19 - He shall deliver you in six troubles, yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.
God will deliver you from all your troubles. (Psalm 34:19, 2 Timothy 4:18) But deliverance is actually not the best that God has for you because it implies that you are in trouble. God’s best for you is the place where no trouble or evil can touch you. And with His help, you will come to that place because the Bible says, “He shall deliver you in six troubles, yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.”
This does not mean that God will only deliver you six times. It just means that as you keep believing God’s promises of protection, after some time, you will come to a place where no evil will touch you!
So when trouble comes, God does not want you to be discouraged. He wants you to know that it is only the devil trying to steal His Word from your heart. The devil is afraid of leaving God’s Word in your heart for even one second because he knows that it will lead you to a place where no evil will touch you. That is why he comes immediately to steal God’s Word from your heart.
He will do so by telling you, “Look, your child is sick. Where is God now?” You must not respond by saying, “Well, I guess it does not work. Maybe God’s promises of deliverance are not for my family.”
No, you must continue to stand on God’s promises. Say, “The previous flu my child had did not stay. God promises me deliverance and He did deliver my child then. So I will live life believing His promises of deliverance because His Word is true. And I will come to a place where no evil can touch me and my family!”
Beloved, even if in the next moment you happen to stub your toe against something hard, don’t be discouraged and wonder why God did not protect your toe. The devil had meant to cause greater harm to you, but thank God that he could not because God is watching over you. And keep standing on His promises until you come to the place where no evil will touch you!
UNDER SIEGE
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. —Philippians 2:4
During the Bosnian War (1992-1996), more than 10,000 people—civilians and soldiers—were killed in the city of Sarajevo as gunfire and mortar rounds rained down from the surrounding hills. Steven Galloway’s gripping novel The Cellist of Sarajevo unfolds there, during the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare. The book follows three fictional characters who must decide if they will become completely self-absorbed in their struggle to survive, or will somehow rise above their numbing circumstances to consider others during a time of great adversity.
From a prison in Rome, Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi, saying: “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4). Paul cited Jesus as the great example of a selfless focus on others: “Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, . . . made Himself of no reputation . . . humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (vv. 5-8). Rather than seeking sympathy from others, Jesus gave all He had to rescue us from the tyranny of sin.
Our continuing challenge as followers of Jesus is to see through His eyes and respond to the needs of others in His strength, even in our own difficult times.
Are you going through something hard right now? What can you still do for another?
Embracing God’s love for us is the key to loving others.
DIVORCE IS NOT GOD'S BEST
And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. - Mark 10:2-6
The Pharisees didn't really want to know what Jesus taught on divorce and remarriage. They didn't value His opinion but were tempting Him and desired to get Him mired in the big dispute of their day between liberal and conservative views on divorce. This was a very emotional issue then, just as it is today, and they thought they had Jesus in a "no win" situation.
However, as always, Jesus proved to be more than their match and He gave them much more than they asked for.
The Pharisees didn't question whether or not divorce was right. They took the right to divorce for granted. But Jesus, instead of expounding on acceptable grounds for divorce, went to the very root of the problem and showed that God never intended there to be any divorce at all. If they really understood the extent of the one flesh covenant between a man and his wife, they would not be looking for an excuse to get out of marriage. This approach amazed the Pharisees and brough forth the question "why did Moses in the law make provision for divorce?"
Once a person begins to question, "How can I get a divorce?" instead of, "How can I keep this marriage together?" indicates, that there is already a serious breach in the marriage, that Jesus calls a hardened heart.
Jesus answered that divorce was permitted but never intended. God allowed something that He hated because of the hardness of people's hearts. This was also true of polygamy and slavery. Jesus came to remove our stony heart and give us a heart of flesh so that we could walk in God's best for us.
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