cannyben

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:15 God has seen everything that’s happened in your life—the injustice, the bad breaks, the person who did you wrong. Those people cannot pay you back. They cannot make you whole. No matter how good a person is, they can’t give you everything you need. Only God can meet your needs. He said He will give you beauty for ashes. He said He will pay you back double for the unfair things that have happened. When you let people off the hook and quit trying to make them perform perfectly and keep you fixed, not only will their life be better, but your relationships will improve. Let people off the hook. If you go to God, He’ll bring you out better. He’ll make the rest of your life more rewarding and more fulfilling than if those negative things hadn’t happened in the first place.

Fight the good fight the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you…. 1 Timothy 6:12 There are things that you’re believing for—you know God has planted those seeds. The start is exciting, and the end will be rewarding; but the truth is, the middle can be messy. In some way we’re all in the middle; we’re all on a journey. You know God gave you a promise, but every circumstance says just the opposite. Over time it’s easy to give up and think, “There are too many obstacles. It’s never going to happen.” When you study the heroes of faith, one common denominator you’ll find is that they had faith in the middle. When the promise seemed impossible, they kept moving forward, knowing it was a part of the process. They refused to surrender to the trials or dark places. At times worry would come, fear would come, doubt would come. They stirred their faith back up and believed that the promise would happen. Now do your part as they did—have faith in the mid...

You have crowned him with glory and honour. Psalm 8:5 When life throws you a curve, you have to have the right perspective when dark times linger. A bad break, a disappointment, or a sickness can’t stop you. Keep hoping on in faith. God didn’t crown you with favor and give you a royal robe so you could go around anchored to doubt, fear, and bitterness. Being hopeful is about your soul being anchored to the right thing. If you’re not anchored to hope, you’ll become anchored to something else. You can become anchored to discouragement and see everything with a tainted perspective. It’s time to cut that anchor and come over into hope.

So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.’ Zechariah 4:6 In Numbers 21, the Israelites were desperate for water in the barren wilderness when they came upon an old dry well. Here the people sang, “Spring up, O well!” even though they couldn’t see, taste, feel, or smell water. There was no reason, logically speaking, to believe water would flow out of the well. That’s why the Scripture tells us to walk by faith and not by sight. If they had gone by what they saw rather than had faith in the might and power of God, they would have missed this abundance. In difficult times, you’re either going to be singing about the problem or singing about how big your God is. He is not limited by the laws of nature. He’s limited by what we believe. You have to make declarations of faith when you’re in the drought and break forth into song, and God will show out in your life in ways you’ve nev...

So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines ? Will You deliver them into my hand ? 2 Samuel 5:19 When the Philistines heard that David had just been made king over all Israel, notice his humility in today’s Scripture. David was a great warrior who had won many battles, yet he was not proud. He was saying, “God, I don’t want to go if You’re not going with me.” He showed his dependence on God. He recognized where his strength, his favor, and his ability came from. Sometimes when we face a challenge, we assume God is on our side and there’s no question about whether we go to battle. But a wiser approach is, “God, what do You want me to do with this opposition. Shall I attack, or shall I be still and let You fight for me. We’ve all fought battles where we didn’t come out like we thought. Maybe it was because we didn’t inquire of the Lord.

For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken…. Luke 5:9 After Peter and his companions had fished all night and caught nothing, he obeyed Jesus’ instructions to try again and caught so many fish that his nets began to break. Peter was a professional fisherman and had never caught so many fish that his nets began to break, and he had to call on another boat of companions to help him. He was astonished by it, awestruck by what followed his obedience to Jesus’ word. You may have been working hard, doing the right thing, but you feel like you’ve caught nothing. There weren’t any fish out there the last time, but God controls the fish. Start dreaming again, start taking steps of faith. God is going to do things in your life that astonish you. It’s not going to be a normal catch, an average contract, an ordinary promotion. It’s going to be a net-breaking blessing—something unprecedented, favor so heavy that it starts to sink the boat.