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Romans 12:12 says that we are to be joyful in hope. But when we examine our lives and our pattern of thinking can we honestly say that we have been applying this scripture to our lives? Well for me I can honestly say I have not.

I was lying on my bed one night just thinking and talking to the Holy Spirit but my mind drifted for a moment and the Holy Spirit quickly drew my attention to what was going through my mind at that very moment. I realized that my thoughts were heading in a direction that if allowed to continue will lead me to feel depressed and sad. I was thinking about things that I don't have and that I desired to have. But with each thought, I could feel joy and peace of mind being sucked out of me. Upon noticing my thought direction I immediately grabbed hold of it and began to speak to myself. I said ok, I agree I do not have those things now and that's ok, but what I have I can use and be proactive with as I wait for God’s timing to give me access to the things that I desire to have. The Holy Spirit then quickened my heart and reminded me of Romans 12:12 which says that I am to be joyful in hope. Meaning that as I wait to see my prayers answered I am to use what I have and be contented with those things until God fulfils His promises to me. As I began to change the way I was thinking my whole outlook on the situation changed.

The lesson I learnt was to do what you need to do with what you have and leave what you cannot do to God. So I encourage you today my friends let us do our part by continuing in the joy of the Lord and be grateful and content with what God has already blessed us with as we stand in faith, patiently awaiting His help. For I lift up my eyes unto the hills, from where comes my help, my help comes from Lord.

WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OTHERS? 

John Maxwell says “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Do you desire to be successful and to make a positive impact on your world? If your answer is yes then you need the ability to understand others. Why? Because understanding others gives you the potential to influence every area of life. For example, look at how understanding people helped this mother of a four-year-old. She said: Leaving my four-year-old son in the house, I ran out to throw out the garbage. When I tried to open the door to get back inside, it was locked. I knew that insisting that my son open the door would have resulted in an hour-long battle of the wills. So in a sad voice, I said, “Oh, too bad. You just locked yourself in the house.” The door opened at once. No doubt, understanding people certainly impacts your ability to communicate with others. David Burns, a medical doctor and professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, observed, “The biggest mistake you can make in trying to talk convincingly is to put your highest priority on expressing your ideas and feelings. What most people really want is to be listened to, respected, and understood. The moment people see that they are being understood, they become more motivated to understand your point of view.” My friends if you can learn to understand people—how they think, what they feel, what inspires them, how they’re likely to act and react in a given situation—then you can motivate and influence them in a positive way.

God’s glory is about to be released amongst His people with mighty signs and wonders on the earth. The question is ‘Are we ready for this new move of God?’ Can you say that you have fully prepared your heart for this next move? If you have been paying attention to what God has been repeatedly saying and diligently doing what is required of you by examining and changing your ways and sanctifying your heart before God, you are in a much better place than you were previously. But wait, have you done ALL that is required of you? Have you continued to renew your mind with God's word? What has He said to you in the past that you have not yet applied to your life? 2 Corinthians 13:5 calls on us to examine ourselves and see whether we are in the faith and living our lives as committed believers of Jesus Christ, lest we fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit. So arise people of God let us all examine our lives carefully before God and steadfastly pursue after Him. Let us keep doing ALL that is required of us so we can all readily be a part of His next move on the earth.

The Confrontation Principle

Caring for people should precede confronting people.

Conflict is like cancer: Early detection increases the possibility of a healthy outcome. While intellectually it’s simple to resolve conflict, emotionally it can be difficult.

It requires honesty, humility and dedication to the relationship. Take these steps when confronting someone:

● Confront a person only if you care about that person. It is more productive to go into a confrontation keeping the other person’s interests in mind.

● Meet together as soon as possible. Putting off confrontation only causes the situation to fester.

● First seek understanding, not necessarily agreement. The person who gives an opinion before he or she understands is human, but the person who gives a

judgment before he or she understands is a fool.

● Outline the issue. Be positive, describe your perceptions, state how this situation makes you feel, and explain why this is important to you.

● Encourage a response.

● Agree to an action plan that clearly identifies the issue and spells out concrete steps that will be taken.

The action plan should include a commitment by both parties to put the issue to rest once resolved.

Remember life is not a rehearsal and it is short for many of us, believe it or not. We may not have a second chance.

Try Seeing the Big Picture

People who remain self-centred and self-serving will always have a hard time getting along with others. To help them break that pattern of living, they need to see the big picture, which requires perspective, maturity and responsibility. Here are some steps to follow:

Get out of your “own little world.” Go places you have never gone, meet the kinds of people you do not know, visit an orphanage or even a hospital for sick children or a differently-abled institution. Begin doing things you have not done before.

Check your ego at the door. The truth is if your focus is always on yourself, you’ll never be able to build positive relationships. Understand what brings fulfilment. Ultimately, the things that bring fulfilment involve others. A person who is entirely self-focused will always feel restless and empty because he or she separates him- or herself from what’s most important in life: PEOPLE.

All relationships need cultivation. You cannot neglect a relationship and expect it to grow. That’s not to say that all relationships are the same and need the same amount of attention. The nature and purpose of the relationship will

determine the energy and time needed to cultivate it.

You can start to cultivate a healthy, growing relationship by focusing on the following things:

1. Commitment. Every long-lasting relationship suffers strains and setbacks. No two people agree on everything.

Even the best friendships can expect to face conflict. The question is: What are you going to do when trouble comes?

2. Communication. A relationship begins with easy communication. It deepens with more difficult communication. And it is sustained with intentional communication.

3. Friendship. Critic Samuel Johnson remarked, “If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone; a man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.” That goes for old

friendships as well as new ones. We sometimes take for granted the people closest to us, and as a result, we neglect to try to be good friends to them first.

4. Memories. Shared memories are a wonderful source of connection and bonding for people.

5. Growth. When you begin any friendship, it is filled with promise. But you have to find ways to keep it fresh and strong so that it continues to have potential and not

just good memories.

If I were to ask you if you love the LORD, I am sure I will get a resounding yes. And If I asked how you measure this love you profess, I’m sure you would rattle off all the wonderful things you do for him, like how much you read your bible and pray and serve in ministry, right? Well, what if I told you these things do not necessarily prove that we love HIM. In fact, they don’t…if He isn’t the goal. 

You may say “of course He is the goal, everything I am doing is for Him”. But consider, are you doing them for Him because you are after some reward (even the eternal one) or are you doing it to draw nearer to Him? What if you did all those things and he never blessed you, never used you as you desire to be used? What if your lot was to stay hidden with Him until He returned, would you still be so zealous to do all these things?

The danger is that we have forgotten that His presence is the present. When we first got saved, we knew how wretched our souls were and how much we did not deserve the grace of God. This is why it was easy for us to only want Jesus, His love amazed us. He was the foundation of our Christian life because we knew our nothingness.

But sadly, as we grew in the Lord, we forgot about the Cross and our first love and began pursuing the things of God. And many of us would insist that we don’t serve God for things. Well truthfully, that may be in your limited concept of things being only material things. But we all are guilty of pursuing God for things, whether is it emotional things like wholeness, affirmation, love, peace, or spiritual things like, fulfilling our destiny and our assignment, doing well in ministry and hearing “well done”…We ALL do it.

The trick is, these are considered “good” things, so we don’t see how much they contaminate the purity of our pursuit. 

Think on this: Do you just lay in the presence of God and think “wow” how blessed I am to just be in His presence?” Not asking for anything, not pursuing for anything not listening for anything, just happy to be near. I don’t mean once in a while. Is this the type of relationship you cultivate where you adore Jesus Your first love. Where you continue to be breathless for His love, awe struck by the wonder of His beautiful face?

God is calling us back to the place of our first love, where everything we did was focused on loving Him and being near to Him because we were so fascinated by His grace! 

Let us examine ourselves and repent for where we have fallen short as we read Jesus’ admonition below:

Rev 2:2-5 TLB

2 I know how many good things you are doing. I have watched your hard work and your patience; I know you don’t tolerate sin among your members, and you have carefully examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but aren’t. You have found out how they lie. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.

4 “Yet there is one thing wrong; you don’t love me as at first! 5 Think about those times of your first love (how different now!) and turn back to me again and work as you did before; or else I will come and remove your candlestick from its place among the churches.

Prayer: Lord purify my motives for pursuing you. Remove the blinders so that I can see what is really in my heart and help me to love you for YOU! Bring me back to my first love so that my heart could adore you again. In Jesus name. Amen