You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

— Isaiah 26:3 (AMPC)

God never told us to have a busy mind, but a mind that is filled with peace. I recently experienced several days in which I was extremely tired. Actually, exhausted was more like it, and I couldn’t understand why. I was getting good sleep, and, yes, I had a lot going on, but that is not unusual for me.

After putting up with it for a couple of days and complaining frequently, I finally asked God why I was so tired. I just didn’t understand. He showed me that it wasn’t physical tiredness that I felt, but mental tiredness. I had been thinking too much! I must say I was surprised, but as I took an honest look at all the things that were on my mind—while I was simultaneously doing a lot of things like recording for television, working on a book, and traveling—I understood what God was showing me.

In addition to all that, I was attempting to do a lot of creative thinking about upcoming teaching seminars, books, making changes in some ministry areas, finances, and other things. But I should have been giving my mind to what I was doing, instead of doing one thing and thinking about lots of other things. With God’s help, I made a change and decided to give my mind a short vacation, and it helped a lot. Perhaps this example will help you too!

Prayer of the Day: Father, please help me keep my mind on what I am doing and remember that You want me to have peace of mind, not a busy mind!

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Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

— Hebrews 10:23 (NIV)

One way to manage the negative emotions of discouragement and despair, which we all feel at times, is to follow the advice of today’s scripture and “hold unswervingly” to the hope we have in Christ. We hear the word hope often in secular settings, but godly hope has a different quality than worldly hope.

Many times, when people say they hope something will or will not happen, they are vaguely hoping, but clearly doubting. They speak negatively about their circumstances and then wonder why things don’t go well for them. True biblical hope is a solid foundation, a springboard for our faith to take off from and actually take hold of the promises of God. When we have godly hope, we speak and think positively, not negatively.

Prayer of the Day: God, I believe and declare that You are faithful, and I choose today to hope unswervingly in You.

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He was guilty of no sin, neither was deceit (guile) ever found on His lips. When He was reviled and insulted, He did not revile or offer insult in return; [when] He was abused and suffered, He made no threats [of vengeance]; but He trusted [Himself and everything] to Him Who judges fairly.

— 1 Peter 2:22-23 (AMPC)

One definition of charisma is “great personal magnetism; charm,” but character is “moral or ethical strength, integrity.” There are a lot of people who have charisma, but no character. We see this all the time in life.

Our character is revealed by what we do when nobody is watching. This is a key to walking in confidence with God. Many people will do the right thing when somebody is watching them, but they won’t do the right thing when nobody sees but God. As Christians, our commitment should be, “I am going to do the right thing simply because it is right.”

Character is also seen when we do the right thing to others even though the right thing is not yet happening to us. As demonstrated by Jesus, one test of our character is, will we treat somebody right who is not treating us right? Will we bless someone who is not blessing us? It all comes down to what’s in our heart, whether we trust Him who judges fairly.

Prayer of the Day: Lord Jesus, how You responded to those who reviled and mistreated You was amazing, and humbling. May Your Spirit

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The Lord is on my side, He is among those who help me; therefore I will look [in triumph] on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

— Psalm 118:7-8 (AMP)

Jesus did not enjoy the acceptance or approval of most people while He was on earth. He was despised and rejected by men. But He knew His heavenly Father loved Him. He knew who He was, and it gave Him confidence.

Everything that Jesus endured and suffered was for our sake. He went through rejection so that when we face it, we too can go through it and not be damaged by it, or if we have already been damaged, then we can completely recover.

There will always be some people who will not accept you, but their acceptance isn’t what ultimately matters. God loves you unconditionally; He approves of you and accepts you. That is all the acceptance you will ever truly need.

Prayer of the Day: Father God, thank You for loving me. Please remind me of Your love and acceptance, especially when facing rejection. Please strengthen my confidence in who I am in You, amen.

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For in posing as judge and passing sentence on another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge are habitually practicing the very same things [that you censure and denounce].

— Romans 2:1 (AMPC)

Humility is defined as “freedom from pride and arrogance…a modest estimate of one’s own worth.” In theology, it means having a consciousness of your own defects. We often judge other people because we don’t really have a conscious awareness of our own flaws. We look at everybody else through a magnifying glass, but we look at ourselves through rose-colored glasses. For others who make mistakes, “there is no excuse,” but it seems for us, there is always a reason why our behavior is acceptable.

The Bible says to humble yourselves…under the mighty hand of God (1 Peter 5:6 AMPC). Examine your own heart and actions and humble yourself before Him. God gives us an opportunity to humble ourselves, but if we refuse, He will do it for us. So, pray for God to make you aware of areas that need attention and refuse to sit in judgment on others.

Prayer of the Day: Father God, help me to always stay clear of pride and arrogance. Cause me to examine my own heart and actions, and to be aware of those areas that need attention. Help me never to sit in judgment on anyone else, amen.

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All of you must keep awake (give strict attention, be cautious and active) and watch and pray, that you may not come into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

— Matthew 26:41 (AMPC)

Fear is Satan’s way of trying to prevent us from going forward so we cannot enjoy the life Jesus died to give us. And fear attacks everyone at some time. But fears are not realities. Fears are False Evidence Appearing Real.

Fear is a force that can weaken our lives if we give in to it, but God desires to strengthen us as we fellowship with Him in prayer. Faith is released through prayer, which makes tremendous power available for our lives.

The Bible teaches us to “watch and pray.” With God’s help, we can watch ourselves and the circumstances around us and be alert to the attacks the enemy launches against our minds and emotions. When these attacks are detected, we can go to God immediately in prayer. He is our strong tower, and when we are in Him there is nothing to fear.

The best way to resist the devil is to pray. Our honest, sincere prayers draw us closer to God. And the closer we are to God, the easier it is to dismiss fear.

Prayer of the Day: Father, I want to be generous. I want to be a giver. Please cultivate in me a generous heart. Cause me to be eager to bless and serve others, amen.

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But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].

— Hebrews 11:6 (AMPC)

Faith is a powerful force that we have access to and should be very thankful for. When we live by faith, we release God to do amazing things for us and through us. Faith is the leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness (see Colossians 1:4). We can come to God in childlike faith, simply believing His Word and placing our faith in Him to do what He has promised.

Some people say that they have no faith, but that is not true. We all have faith, but we may not choose to put it in God. When you sit in a chair, you have faith that it will hold you up. When you deposit money in the bank, you have faith that you will be able to go back and get it when you need it. What, or whom, are you placing your faith in?

I urge you not to put your faith in something unstable and shaky but put it in God who is a solid Rock and never changes. He is faithful and will always do what He promises to do.

Prayer of the Day: Thank You, Father, for the way You take up residence in my heart. You are not distant or out of reach. I thank You that You dwell in me and are involved in every area of my life.

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But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience).

— James 1:25 (AMPC)

Many people agree with a sermon or a scripture, but they don’t apply it in their everyday life, so nothing changes. They think that just because they agree with the Word, it should bring change into their life.

But change doesn’t happen automatically; a person has to be a doer of the Word, not a hearer only. Jesus said, Keep awake (give strict attention, be cautious and active) and watch and pray, that you may not come into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41 AMPC).

Every time you have an opportunity to believe God for something, you will have a temptation to give up on it. Pray that you will overcome temptation when it comes.

Prayer of the Day: Father God, please help me be a doer of Your Word and strengthen me to resist temptation and remain steadfast in faith, amen.

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Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support….

— Hebrews 13:5 (AMPC)

I recently heard an interesting story about the difference between real and imagined problems—something that all of us have probably faced at one time or another. This story involved a man who was in his second year of Bible college. He was faced with financial challenges and couldn’t figure out how to pay his bills, support his family, and remain in school. He and his wife were expecting their second child, and because of health problems, she required total bed rest. He finally made an appointment with the financial aid office.

He nervously walked in and sat down. Then the man across the desk asked him an interesting question, “Do you need money, or do you have real problems?”

That question changed his life. Why? Because he had seen money as his biggest and most-difficult-to-solve problem. His bills and financial needs were constantly on his mind. It was as if his need for money had become the most important thing in his life.

Before this young student could say anything more, the financial counselor smiled and said, “Most of the students come in because they need money. Money becomes the center of their lives, and it steals their victory and peace.”

The student felt as if this man had been reading his mail. Until that moment, he had been one of those students the man had described. In his quest to figure out how to make ends meet, victory and peace had completely eluded him.

The wise financial counselor made some very interesting observations that day. He said, “The problem isn’t money, son, the problem is trust. We have a few financial loans we can make, but that won’t solve your problem. You see, your problem is inside your head and your heart. If you can get those things in the right order, money will no longer be the focus of your life.”

No one had ever spoken to him like that before. “Not only did the loan counselor force me to rethink my life and my priorities,” the student said, “but he pointed me in the right direction.”

The loan counselor pulled out his Bible and asked the student to read three verses that had been underlined in red and highlighted in yellow. The steps of a [good] man are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way [and He busies Himself with his every step]. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord grasps his hand in support and upholds him. I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the [uncompromisingly] righteous forsaken or their seed begging bread (Psalm 37:23–25 AMPC).

“So, look at yourself, son,” the man said. “Are you a good man? Are you a righteous person? If you are, what does that say about you and your relationship with God?”

The student read those verses aloud twice and recognized that those words were a picture of himself. He had fallen—he had allowed himself to become discouraged—and he had been ready to give up. But he knew he was in Bible college because that’s where God wanted him to be.

As he left the financial aid office, he had received no money and no offer for aid, but he left with a lighter heart and an assurance that he would not have to leave school. He was a little slow in paying some of his bills—and a few times, he had to get an extension on paying his tuition—but he was able to stay and complete his education. Today he is in full-time pastoral ministry.

God takes great care of His own, and He will take care of you. Hebrews 13:5 offers you assurance that you don’t have to set your mind on money, wondering and worrying how you can take care of yourself. God has promised to take care of you, so what more is there to say?

Prayer of the Day: Father God, I’m ashamed that I’ve allowed money or other problems to become so important that I’ve lost my perspective. I now understand that my problem isn’t money; my problem is my lack of trust in You. As I meditate on Your promises, help me to truly believe that You will perform Your Word in my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, amen.

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Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.

— Psalm 142:6 (NIV)

Now that you have read portions of almost all of the Book of Psalms, I’m sure you can see that David, who wrote more psalms than anyone else, was a person through whom deep emotions ran. In many ways, David teaches us through his psalms how to manage our emotions.

In Psalm 142, David feels overwhelmed, and in our scripture for today, he cries out to God, saying that he is in desperate need. He is hiding in a cave because King Saul wants to kill him, and he knows that King Saul and his troops are too strong for him.

His response to his feelings of depression and being “wrapped in darkness” (Psalm 142:3 AMP) was not to meditate on his problem. Instead, he dealt with his problem in this psalm by choosing to cry out to the Lord, his refuge and portion in the land of the living (v. 5). In other words, he thought about the Lord, his Deliverer, and it helped him to overcome desperation.

Perhaps you are in a desperate situation today. You may feel, as David did, that your enemies are too strong for you. Your enemies may not be people; they may be situations that cause you to feel alone, overwhelmed, depressed, frustrated, or confused. Whatever your circumstances, the same God who heard David’s cry will hear you when you cry out to Him.

Prayer of the Day: Lord, teach me to manage my emotions. When my feelings are deep and intense, help me to cry out to You.

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So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me….

— Ecclesiastes 2:17 (NIV)

We can learn an important lesson about the words from today’s scripture. The writer says that he “hated life.” Have you ever heard anyone say that? Have you ever felt that way? To hear that someone hates life is very sad.

Though the phrase I hate is common, it is one we would be wise to eliminate from our speech. Hate is a strong word and a destructive force. Remember, words are powerful. To hate something fills us with negativity toward that thing, and the negativity can easily seep into our thoughts and words, poisoning other situations as well.

We all face problems and encounter circumstances we do not like. They may be merely unpleasant, or they may be terribly unjust or even tragic. Our negative feelings toward these things may cause us to say, “I hate this!” But by God’s grace, we can endure them, and we may even learn valuable lessons from them.

When you face a challenging situation or simply have a bad day, resist saying “I hate.” Instead, remind yourself to think and say by faith that you can do all things through Christ, who gives you strength (Philippians 4:13); that God’s grace is sufficient for you (2 Corinthians 12:9); and that you are more than a conqueror through Christ because He loves you (Romans 8:37).

Prayer of the Day: Father, help me to face challenges in Your strength and with a positive attitude. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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That [Spirit] is the guarantee of our inheritance [the firstfruits, the pledge and foretaste, the down payment on our heritage], in anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring [complete] possession of it—to the praise of His glory.

— Ephesians 1:14 (AMPC)

The Holy Spirit is our guarantee of the good things that are to come. I often say, especially when I feel really filled with the Holy Spirit, “This is so good, I cannot imagine the glory of what the complete fullness will be like.” If we only experience 10 percent (a typical down payment) of what belongs to us because of our inheritance, just think of what it will be like to actually see God face to face, to have no more tears, no more sorrow, no more dying.

These thoughts leave me totally awestruck. In Ephesians 1:13–14, the Bible says that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and He guarantees that we will arrive safe, preserved from all destruction on the final day of deliverance from sin and all its effects. Think of the wonder of it—the Holy Spirit in us, preserving us for our final resting place, which is in not a grave but in heaven, in the presence of God. The Holy Spirit does wonderful things for us here and now. He speaks to us, leads us, helps us, teaches us, gives us counsel, empowers us to fulfill God’s exciting plans for our lives, and so much more. But no matter how wonderful our experiences with Him are in our earthly lives, they are only a foretaste of what we can look forward to. We have the down payment, but there’s more to come!

Prayer of the Day: Lord, thank You for the Holy Spirit, and the guarantee of heaven. Thank You for these glimpses of what the fullness of Your glory will be like. Help me stay to always stay excited, amen.

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O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His compassion and lovingkindness endure forever!

— Psalm 107:1 (AMPC)

To help you achieve and maintain a new level of contentment in your life, I encourage you to use some of your quiet time with God to make a list of everything you have to be thankful for. It should be a long list, one that includes little things as well as big things. Why should it be long? Because we all have a lot of things to be thankful for if we just look for them.

Get out a piece of paper and start listing things you have to be thankful for. Keep the list and add to it frequently. Make it a point to think about the things that you’re grateful for when you’re driving the kids to an activity or waiting in line at the post office or whatever you may be doing throughout the day. You can only learn the power of thankfulness by practicing it every day. Meditating on what you have to be grateful for every day and verbalizing it will be amazingly helpful to you.

Prayer of the Day: Father, thank You so much! You are only good, and I should always be mindful of the many blessings I enjoy. Please open my eyes to the good and cultivate a heart of gratitude in me on the daily, amen.

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The mind of the flesh…[is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit]…but the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace.

— Romans 8:6 (AMPC)

As a young Christian I was always trying to figure out the “why” behind everything and planning excessively for what was ahead. But one day God required me to give it up. He showed me that reasoning is the opposite of trust.

The Bible tells us that the mind of the flesh is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit. It is being hostile to God and refusing to submit to His ways. But the mind of the Spirit is life and soul peace.

If you want to be free of trying to figure everything out, you can develop the mind of the Spirit by constantly renewing your mind with the Word. Little by little, the Word will wash away the wrong thinking and replace it with truth…follow that truth instead of your own ability to reason things out and you’ll have new life and peace.

Prayer of the Day: Father, help me to only trust You and never my own reasoning–as difficult as that sometimes is. Please renew my mind with Your Word and bring life and peace to my life, amen.

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It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.

— Lamentations 3:22-23 (AMPC)

I like the way God has divided up the days and nights. No matter how difficult or challenging a specific day may be, the breaking of dawn brings new hope. God wants us to regularly put the past behind and find a place of “new beginnings.”

Perhaps you have felt trapped in some sin or addiction, and although you have repented, you still feel guilty. If that is the case, be assured that sincere repentance brings a fresh, new start because of God’s promise of forgiveness.

Only when you understand the great mercy of God and begin receiving it are you more inclined to give mercy to others. You may be hurting from an emotional wound. The way to put the past behind is to forgive the person who hurt you. You do yourself a favor when you forgive.

God has new plans on the horizon of your life, and you can begin to realize them by choosing to live in the present rather than the past. Thinking and talking about the past keeps you trapped in it. Let go of what happened yesterday, make the choice to receive God’s love and forgiveness today, so that you can get excited about His plan for tomorrow.

Prayer of the Day: Father God, please help me embrace change and new beginnings. Help me to forgive past hurts, and full receive Your mercy and Your promises for tomorrow, amen.

http://www.joycemeyer.org

 Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.

— Ephesians 5:17 (AMPC)

It’s God’s will for us to grow up and mature spiritually. It’s God’s will for us to have good relationships. It’s God’s will for us to have good lives.

If you’ve had a negative past, it’s because the enemy interfered and got in. No matter what you went through or what you might be going through right now, you can be positive about your future. Think about it positively; talk about it positively.

It’s a bad attitude to say, “I guess I’ll just have more of what I’ve always had.” I encourage you to have a positive vision for your future. God says people without vision perish (see Proverbs 29:18). No matter what has happened in the past, no matter what is going on right now, you can believe something great will happen in your future.

Prayer of the Day: Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus and ask that you help me be more positive, and not waste time looking back to the past. Lead me and guide me toward the positive future You have planned for me, amen.

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Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].

— 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (AMPC)

Someone once told me there are more exhortations in the Bible to praise God than there are of any other kind. I don’t know if that’s true, but it ought to be. When our minds flow with thanksgiving and praise, we develop immunity to the devil’s infectious ways.

If we complain or grumble, the opposite is true. The more we complain, the worse life gets, the more victorious the devil becomes, and the more defeated we feel.

If we are going to live in victory, praise has to be one of our major weapons. A wise pastor once told me, “Praise fills the heaven and the earth with God’s presence and drives away the darkness. So if you want to live in the sunshine, praise the Lord.”

When good things happen to us, most of us turn to praise. It’s easy to lift our hands and our voices when God answers our prayers and delivers us from problems. But it’s not always as easy when things go wrong. What do we do when we’re sick or lose our jobs or people talk against us? How do we fill our minds with joyful thanksgiving in those situations?

If we read the verse above and add Philippians 4:4: Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice! we have options.

The negative option is to take the attitude of Job’s wife, who was so shaken up by the loss of her children and their possessions that she cried out, Do you still hold fast your blameless uprightness? Renounce God and die! (Job 2:9).

Job answered with great wisdom: You speak as one of the impious and foolish women would speak. What? Shall we accept [only] good at the hand of God and shall we not accept [also] misfortune and what is of a bad nature? (v. 10). Job understood that a righteous life doesn’t mean that everything always runs smoothly and that only blessings will ever fall on top of blessings.

We have two positive options open to us, and most of us can practice the first, but not all of us can accept the second. The first is to praise God in spite of what’s going on in our lives. Or another way to say that is in the midst of our troubles and hardships, we can rejoice over the things that are not wrong in our lives. It may take effort, but if we can turn our eyes away from the immediate problems, we can see that everything in life isn’t bad. We also can rejoice because God has faithfully taken us through the turmoil of the past, and we can rejoice and know that He’ll do the same thing again.

The second option is to ask, “God, what can I learn from this? What do You want to teach me through this so that I may be closer to You and rejoice more fully in Your goodness?” That’s not an easy question, and the answers are often even harder.

Sometimes we only grasp the important lessons in our lives when we fall flat on our faces. It’s as if we’re running as fast as we can and God trips us. The psalmist says: Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now Your word do I keep [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it] (Psalm 119:67 AMPC). It’s not that God is out to hurt us, but God loves us enough to stop us, to give us the opportunity to change our ways, and to follow Him.

Throughout my many years in ministry, I’ve heard stories from people who had wonderful jobs or great ministries or made a great deal of money—and then their lives fell apart. One man—someone who had once been a millionaire—came to our meetings after he had spent three years in prison. The first words that came out of his mouth were, “I’m glad I was convicted and sent to prison. I had run from God for a long time. The Lord finally got my attention when someone gave me a copy of Joyce Meyer’s book Healing the Brokenhearted.”

Not everyone can rejoice and give thanks for their suffering, but we can all give thanks in the midst of it.

Prayer of the Day: God, I’m thankful for Your love and Your presence. Forgive me for grumbling when things go wrong and remind me of how many things go right in my life. Enable me to rejoice in You always, amen.

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.

— Psalm 126:4-6 (NIV)

Psalm 126 speaks of those who sow with tears, and sometimes this is what we need to do. It means that while we are still hurting, we keep doing the right thing—keep helping others, keep praying, and keep studying God’s Word. As we do, we sow seeds for an eventual harvest. I used to wonder why God wouldn’t give me the ability to solve my own problems or help myself, but at the same time I was hurting, He would give me the ability to help others. Then I learned that He wants us to reach out to others, and when we do, we are sowing seed for our future harvest.

Those who sow in tears will reap sheaves (a harvest) with songs of joy. Nothing is more joyful than experiencing a reversal of bad circumstances and having them turn into something good. It is exciting and makes us happy.

The Bible says that weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5 NKJV). Admittedly, it often takes more than one night for our problems to be solved, but this Psalm teaches us a principle: God always comes through and gives us victory. Your problems will end, and your sorrow will turn to joy.

Prayer of the Day: Father, I am grateful that I can depend on You to turn my weeping into joy. You are good, and You always bring good things. I wait on You and put my trust in You, amen.

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Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

— Matthew 7:1-2 (NIV)

Satan loves to put judgmental, critical, suspicious thoughts about other people into our minds. If you do have an opinion about someone, unless it is encouraging, keep it to yourself. Instead of gossiping, pray. How often do you give your opinion when no one has asked for it? I think we all do this to some degree, but at one time, I had a big problem with it. Thankfully, God has helped me to change, and I find that I am much happier now that I tend to withhold my opinion unless someone wants it.

Because we have God’s Spirit, we can recognize sinful behavior. Paul told the Galatians to try to bring the sinner to repentance and restoration, but to do so in an attitude of humility and gentleness and to …watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted (Galatians 6:1 NIV). I would never approach anyone about their sin unless I had prayed diligently and truly felt the Lord wanted me to speak with them.

Finding fault with others can cause us to ignore our own problems. I have known people who were very sinful, yet they were very judgmental and critical of others. I finally realized that they viewed and spoke about others so negatively because that kept them from having to face the truth about themselves.

Pray for people to see truth and be very careful about forming and sharing hasty or premature opinions.

Prayer of the Day: Father, I don’t want to judge people harshly or criticize them. Rather, I want to pray for them. Please help me to believe the best about others, but also to discern when You do want me to see something and deal with it. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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 …Fear not, for I have redeemed you…I have called you by your name; you are Mine.

— Isaiah 43:1 (AMPC)

Have you ever had a possession that is extremely valuable to you, one you cherish and admire? If you saw someone tossing it around carelessly, leaving it out in bad weather, or otherwise risking damage to it, wouldn’t you be grieved? God feels about His possessions the same way we feel about ours. People belong to God. They are His creations, and His Spirit is grieved when He sees them being mistreated. And since that same Spirit dwells in all believers, naturally those who are mistreated also feel grieved.

God has assignments for every individual. Not everyone shares the same calling in life, but every born-again person is an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. Every individual has a right to peace, righteousness, and joy. Every individual has the right to have their needs met, to be used by God, and to see His anointing flow through them.

Everyone has an equal opportunity to see fruit in their ministry, but their willingness to love others has a lot to do with how much fruit they are going to see. The Holy Spirit spoke to me years ago: “One of the main reasons people don’t walk in love is that it requires effort. Anytime they walk in love, it’s going to cost them something.”

Love requires us to withhold some things we would like to say. Love demands that we not do some things we would like to do and that we give away some things we would like to keep. Love requires us to be patient with people.

Relationships are not always easy, but they are always important to God because He values people. We need to make the effort and the sacrifices needed to love people as God wants us to love them, so we do not grieve Him.

Prayer of the Day: Father, thank You for all creation. Help me to see things the way You see them, and to cherish what You cherish. Give me the strength I need to love selflessly, even if it hurts. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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