In this life, we will all have some time of adversity that will test the strongest among us. Adversity is defined as: a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.

Someone said, “He who learns to welcome misfortune learns that adversity is the prosperity of the great.” We will all have to face it. But how we face it, how we act, respond to it, will make the biggest difference in our lives — between success and failures, moving forward, or getting stuck in our past.

The greatest thing about dealing with adversity is that you get to choose: Do you allow it to hinder your life, destroy your beliefs, destroy your family, and destroy your future? Or do you face her (adversity), look her in the eye, and say, “I will overcome you — I will not allow you to hurt me to the point I quit in life, quit believing for the best, quit believing things can and will improve — I believe this too shall pass”?

For most of us, adversity is not permanent: it is only temporary, unless we allow it to become a permanent fixture in our lives. It’s up to us.

Adversity can make us stronger, or we can allow it to become something that remains hurtful in our lives. We are overcomers — we have been given that ability. But, of course, only we can make that decision for our lives. Let’s choose to work through adversity.

Just a thought,

PSS

God can use us to help others in our everyday, mundane lives. God is always speaking, but are we always listening?

God wants people to know Him. He said He desires that none perish (2 Peter 3:9b). We, as the body of Christ, are to live a life that glorifies and reveals God to others by the way we talk, live, work, and act. One way God reveals He is real is for people to see your life — the change, the devotion you have toward Him.

God wants you and me to take responsibility for our lives and share Jesus with a lost and dying world. We do this by allowing God to use us in being examples to all those we come in contact with. God is real — He sees — He knows everything. If we will become vessels, instruments that yield our wills to Him, we will see Him move in people’s lives. We do this so that they won’t perish, but they will come to know Him — our Savior and Lord. Don’t ever think you are nothing or that He can’t use you to help others come to know Him.

We are all called to minister to people. It takes all of us willing to live for Him, willing to pray, study and know about Him to be able to help others to know Him. We should all pray, “God, please send people across my path who need what I have and what I know. And when You do, please give me the wisdom and courage to speak to them so that You will be glorified, and others will know You and not perish. Amen!”

Just a thought,

PSS

Every day you and I get to make decisions and choices on a variety of issues and life’s situations. We get to choose what we wear, what we eat, how we talk, and what we talk about. We decide what we believe and how committed we are to it. We decide how we live our lives and the rules that govern us. We choose to be honest, and we choose how we treat others. We choose our belief in God and in His Son, Jesus, and whether we are willing to live by His commandments, precepts, and His word.

If we say we are believers, then we have to decide to allow our lives to be molded and shaped by the word of God, and put Him first. Either He is Lord of all, or not Lord at all. A decision otherwise is foolishness in God’s sight. We’re either all in, or all out — there’s no middle ground. We decide that God’s word takes first place in our lives, or it has no place. We make a conscious decision when we read the word that we should act on the word. This is the only way we can truly be His disciples — your choice.

Just a thought,

PSS

What does it take to be successful? Why does it seem to happen for others, but not you? No matter what happens in life, some people move forward while others tend to stay stagnant. Why? The answer is courage.

Being courageous means doing what you’re fearful of. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, but the conquest of it. One definition of courage is firmness of mind and will in the face of danger or extreme difficulty. It means doing it while afraid, until you’re no longer afraid. This is why the successful and the happiest of people seem to overcome their fear and do the right thing. They take a calculated risk and see the benefits. If you knew you would never fail, what would you do?

Courage is what makes faith work. Without courage, faith alone can be nothing more than a set of benefits. Learn to overcome your fear. Tremble your way to confidence. Without courage, nothing would be built, no one would take a risk, and most people wouldn’t get married.

Courage makes the world go ‘round. It takes courage to discover a new world and to believe God enough to actually do His word.

Just a thought,

PSS

Fear can cause us to do and think the craziest stuff. It can cause us to doubt God and ourselves, to think the worst instead of the best, to see only the negative instead of what is going on in our lives that is positive, and to be overly hard on ourselves.

Fear can cause us to act and react in ways that cause us to fail or consistently come up short in the things we attempt to do. It is so paralyzing. It creates an atmosphere of failure and makes us believe we are not as good as we really are, which in turn will create moments of frustration not only with ourselves but with others as well. Fear is so destructive that it will ruin good relationships with others for no reason — only what we imagine to be true because we will think so little of ourselves.

Fear will always give you a reason why you can’t, or why you shouldn’t, even try. We need to train our minds to believe that with hard work and being committed to God and His word we can overcome anything — we can succeed — we can win. We need to get so addicted to winning and succeeding that we will overcome our fear (fake evidence appearing real) and go for it.

With God all things are possible. It’s about overcoming the doubt that we have in ourselves and especially in God and His word.

Just a thought,

PSS