The Lord has laid a couple of things on my heart.  The first is that when we enlarge our vision of what God is capable of, we take the limits off of what God can do.  The second is when the enemy seems to be fighting us the hardest, it is because he knows that God has something so great in store for us and he absolutely does not want to see it come to fruition.  I urge you, wherever you are in life, to hold on just a little longer and to trust God to do the impossible.  Remember, it is always darkest before dawn, but when the light comes, it overcomes the darkness by illuminating the greatness of our Lord.  Though our hardships may last for a night, we must hold onto the promises of our Savior, who assures us that joy and peace will come in the morning.

One of the most important life lessons I have learned through the years is even though we can’t always control our circumstances, we can control how we react to them.  I have read that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how we respond.  This truth is hard for most to swallow, myself included.  For me it is difficult, because I love to plan; part of my plan is to make a plan.  So what I do now is factor God’s will into my plans, prayers, and petitions.  You see, I don’t want my best, I want God’s best.  I recently read a book by Joel Osteen that said, “Never pray for God to change somebody without first saying God change me.”  Sometimes God is more interested in changing us than He is in changing our circumstances.  It is up to us to be the change and light we seek in others and it begins with a choice.  Are we going to go through life allowing people and circumstances to impact us and essentially control us, or are we going to let the light of Jesus shine through us and impact the people around us as well as our circumstances?  I pray you answered the latter because God calls us to do the right thing, even when the wrong things are happening.  When you get to a place where no matter what happens, you trust God, you will begin to see that God will fight your battles for you.

We are called to repay evil with kindness and a spoon full of sugar does not make this medicine go down; not even Mary Poppins herself can make this any easier.  I love how David J. Pollay put it, “Many people are like garbage trucks.  They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment.  As their garbage piles up, they look for a place to dump it.  And if you let them, they will dump it on you.  So when someone wants to dump on you, don’t take it personally.  It doesn’t have anything to do with you.  Just smile, wave, and wish them well, and move on.  Believe me, you will be happier.”  The real problem arises when we allow someone to dump on us, because eventually we have to dump that same load somewhere and if it is not at the feet of Jesus, we are sinning.  We are not qualified to carry anyone’s burdens; Jesus died on the cross so we wouldn’t have to.  The problem we run into as humans is our DNA is ingrained with the sinful desire to pay people back or to get even.  This in itself is a very dangerous road to walk because God is the only one qualified to judge or repay any action.  To have true abundant life we must stay connected to God; He will repay all the evil done to you, He will never let you down, and He only wants what is best for you.  Trust in Him alone and you will never be disappointed.