The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.—Isaiah 10:27 KJV

When God speaks to you about an issue that needs to be dealt with in your life, you should not put it off. You can trust that the anointing, which is the power and ability of the Holy Spirit, is present to break its grip on you. If you put off confronting the problem until you want to deal with it, you may have to face trying to change without God’s power or anointing.

We often want to do things in our own timing, and we struggle and struggle because it is not anointed by God at the time we are trying to deal with it. For example, there are times when I feel like I want to confront an issue with an employee, but I know that it would be wiser for me to pray about it for a while and let God prepare that person’s heart. When I follow God’s timetable, I always have His anointing to get it done. I have learned to deal with issues when God wants to deal with them and leave them alone when He wants me to wait. I have also had the frustrating experience of trying over and over to change myself without waiting on God’s help and timing. God’s anointing must be present for anything to work right in our lives.

When God convicts us of something that needs to change in our lives that means He has prepared us to face it. We may not feel that we are ready, but we can trust that His timing is perfect and His anointing is present to break the yoke that is hindering our full freedom. I have learned to say, “Lord, I may not feel ready, but if You say the time is now then I trust that Your power is with me and I am willing to be obedient to You.” As you step out in faith to deal with issues you will find that the wisdom, grace, power, and ability that you need are present.

God’s word for you today: Don’t put off until another day what He wants you to deal with today.

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltiness be restored? . . . You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. —Matthew 5:13-14

When people learn you’re a Christian, they want to know if you are “for real.” Many people have tried “religion” and had a bad experience. God uses us to reach the world. If you are to be effective salt, you must allow Jesus to shine through your life.

You probably know someone who just lights up a room. In the same way, Christians who let the light of Jesus shine can change the whole atmosphere around them. Unbelievers ought to feel as though the power has suddenly come on—even if they don’t understand why. When you arrive at your job in the morning, be salt and light so those around you know that your relationship with Jesus is the real thing.

Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me. —John 14:6

Have you ever faced a situation and said, “There is no way”? Maybe some of these thoughts weigh on your mind:

There is no way I can handle the pressure at work.

There is no way I can pay my bills at the end of the month. There is no way I can save my marriage.

There is no way I can keep my house clean and straight. There is no way I can lose the weight I need to lose.

There is always a way. It may not be easy, it may not be convenient, it may not come quickly; but if you will simply keep on keeping on and refuse to give up, you will find a way. Jesus is the Way, and He will help you find a way where there doesn’t seem to be one.

Power Thought: I refuse to say “no way”; Jesus is the Way.

When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” -Luke 5:4 NKJV

The only way we ever reach our final destination and succeed at being our true selves is to take many, many steps of faith. Stepping out into the unknown—into something we have never done before—can leave us shaking in our boots. Because of feelings of fear, many people never “step out,” therefore they never “find out” what they are capable of.

I believe we are very close to the time when Jesus will return for His Church, and I don’t think He has time to spend months and months convincing each of us to obey when He wants us to step out into something. I believe the more we progress into what we call “the last days,” the more God is going to require radical steps of obedience.

Many people are missing the will of God for their lives because they are “playing it safe.” I don’t want to come to the end of my life and say, “I was safe, but I’m sorry.” The world has a little saying: “Better safe than sorry.” I am not sure that always works in God’s economy. If I had tried to be safe all the time, I am sure I would not be where I am today.

Lord, there truly is no safe place apart from being with You, walking in Your will for my life. I refuse to play it safe as long as I know what You want. Amen.

And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for his victory].—Isaiah 30:18

This verse has become one of my favorites, and it has often been a source of encouragement to me when I’ve had hard times. The Living Bible paraphrases the verse like this: “Yet the Lord still waits for you to come to him, so he can show you his love; he will conquer you to bless you, just as he said. For the Lord is faithful to his promises. Blessed are all those who wait for him to help them.” Let’s think of the implication of the promise. God waits for us. As I think of that promise, it staggers my mind. The Creator of the universe and the Giver of all life has chosen to wait for us—waits for us to come to our senses, waits for us to respond to His love, waits for us to turn to Him for help.

That’s a staggering thought. God wants to show us love.

Perhaps as much as anywhere else, Satan attempts to build a mental stronghold right there. When we contemplate God’s love for us, many of us can’t take it in. We can only think of our failures, our shortcomings, and dozens of other reasons why God shouldn’t love us.

That reminds me of a kind man I’ve known for many years. One day he took care of a situation for me that he didn’t have to. I was surprised and deeply touched. “You are probably the kindest man I know,” I told him.

He stared at me in shock. “Me? Kind? Oh, I can be mean-spirited and cruel,” he said. For several minutes, he explained to me that he couldn’t possibly be a kind man. “I live with myself all the time, and I see all my defects.”

“Maybe that’s the trouble,” I told him. “You see your defects so clearly, you don’t see your caring, compassionate qualities. You discount all those things.”

He never could accept that he was kind. I also used the word gentle and that surprised him, too.

Perhaps that’s how it is with many of God’s people. We are so absorbed by our failures and all the wrong things we see about ourselves, it’s hard to believe that God wants to bless us. If we read, “God wants to punish you,” we wouldn’t have trouble, saying, “Yes, that’s what I deserve.”

But how would we answer if someone said, “God wants to bless you”? We probably would say, “I don’t deserve that.”

How many of us believe we are entitled to God’s blessings? We want the good things. We want God to love us, encourage us, bless us, and give us victory, but to say we deserve the blessings may be more than we are willing to accept.

Why do we struggle over the concept of deserving? Our tendency is to think that we have to do something to earn the blessings . . . that we have to be good enough or faithful enough. We miss the point of God’s powerful, gracious love. Our blessings from God are not a result of our goodness. They are the result of God’s goodness.

We are entitled to God’s blessings for only one reason: because we are His children. It’s just that simple. Those of us who are parents grasp that concept with regard to our children. We brought them into the world, and they deserve our love. We freely give them our love before they do anything good or bad. They deserve our protection and all the good things we choose to give them. They don’t deserve those things because they’ve done something to earn them, but simply because they are our children.

Satan loves to trip us up on this one. As soon as we think it is right for us to be blessed, he points to our weaknesses or our failures. God points to our relationship. That’s the difference.

[ . . . though He slay me, yet will I wait for and trust Him . . . ] —Job 13:15

One of the great mysteries and facts about our walk with God is that we rarely understand everything He is doing in our lives. If we always understood, we would have no need to trust Him. As believers we often find ourselves in places of not knowing, and we catch ourselves questioning God: “What does my future hold?” “Will I ever get married?” “What will my children be when they grow up?” “Will I have the provision I need in my old age?”

We have to learn to trust God when we do not understand what is happening in our lives, and we need to become comfortable with unanswered questions. You and I may never have every answer we want when we want it, so we need to relax and get comfortable knowing and trusting God, the One Who does know. Without trust, it is impossible to enjoy today and be ready to face tomorrow with expectancy.

Job, who had many reasons to question God as he faced a staggering series of crises and losses, did not understand what was going on in his life, but he made the decision to trust God anyway. I believe that was the only way he could find peace in the midst of his terrible circumstances. Similarly, you and I will never have peace in our lives until we learn how to stop trying to figure everything out and how to start trusting God more.

If you are the kind of person who has to have everything figured out in order to settle down, let me encourage you today to accept the fact you are not likely to receive all the answers you want in this lifetime. Choose to stop demanding explanations and to begin practicing trust. Instead of asking God why, tell Him you trust Him. There have been many times in my life when I wanted with all my heart to know why something was or was not happening, but I knew God wanted my trust, not my questions.

Trust in Him: Is there something in your life you don’t understand, no matter how long and hard you think about it? Give it to God and put your trust in Him. Whether or not He ever explains it to you, you can trust Him to bless you and bring you through any crisis.

And God said, Let us make man in our image. . . . So God created man in his own image. —Genesis1:26 –27 KJV

According to Genesis, God created everything we see with words! He called them into being:

“And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. . . .

“And God said, Let there be a firmament [the expanse of the sky] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters [below] from the waters [above]. . . .

“And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be collected into one place [of standing], and let the dry land appear. And it was so” (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9).

Everything God said came to pass, and you are created in God’s image, and your words also have power. Your words can call things into being, so use them wisely! Speak in agreement with and believe in God’s plan for your life, and you will see it come to pass.

Power Thought: My words have the power to create my reality.

Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.—Romans 10:9–10

“But I can’t help the way I feel,” Angie moaned.

Most of us hear this statement often. It means that the way the person feels is settled, and they believe they have to go with those feelings. It’s like an unchallenged fact of life.

We have feelings, and sometimes they are strong, but we get confused. We allow our feelings to determine our decisions and, ultimately, our destiny. With that type of mindset, it means that if we feel discouraged, we are discouraged; if we feel victorious, we are victorious. It means that if we feel depressed, we must be depressed.

Someone once said, “My feelings are emotions; they are not reality.” In other words, just because we feel a certain way doesn’t make that feeling a fact. It only means that we feel that way. We must learn to press past our feelings.

Perhaps an example will help. Janet sells real estate, and when she makes a sale, she feels wonderful and successful. Last month she sold five upscale homes and made an excellent commission. This month she has sold only one, and she feels as if she’s a failure. Is Janet a failure? No. It’s just that on dark days, she feels that way; but that doesn’t mean it’s true.

Today I may not feel God at work in my life. But is that true, or is that the way I feel? I know many people who don’t feel loved by God—that’s how they feel, but it isn’t the truth.

The devil gains a stronghold in this area. If he can convince us that our feelings are reality, he has made great progress, and we are easily defeated.

Years ago, I spoke in a church, and many people came up to me to tell me how my message had encouraged them. I beamed because I was still new in the ministry, and I really needed lots of compliments in order to feel successful. One man said, “I didn’t agree with anything you said. You need to get your theology straight.” And he walked away.

Immediately discouragement overwhelmed me. I had tried hard to be God’s instrument to the people, and I had failed. As I left the church, I thought about what had happened. At least fifty people had told me how my words blessed them. One man came to me with a negative message. How did I react? I believed the negative. I allowed his words to shift my thinking, and I convinced myself I had failed.

I hadn’t failed. I had listened to the wrong voice and allowed it to control my feelings. I determined that never again would I allow one negative voice to discourage me and make me feel that I had failed. Perhaps I had failed to help that man—and I couldn’t do anything about it—but my teaching had touched many others. One woman had tears in her eyes when she told me that I had given her exactly the right word she needed to hear.

I did something else that night. I reminded myself that what I experienced had been a negative feeling, but it had not been reality. I began to quote Bible verses, reminding myself that Satan attacks us where we’re weak and vulnerable. I was new to public speaking, and the man with the negative word knew that.

I thought of Romans 10:9–10. We often quote these two verses when we speak to people about their salvation; however, the principle is there no matter what the subject. Paul says that we need to believe in our heart and confess with our lips. I stopped and said aloud, “God, I believe I am in Your service. I believe I did my best for You. I believe You used my words to bless many people. I do not have to listen to that one negative voice.”

Within minutes, I felt better. (See how quickly our feelings can change?) Reality hadn’t changed, but I had. I refused to allow negative, wrong thinking to turn me from reality.

Loving and caring God, forgive me for thinking wrong thoughts and for allowing wrong feelings to determine my attitude. I ask You, in the name of Jesus, to help me believe Your Word and to entertain positive thoughts. Amen.