Honor God

How are you? Is there anything you need prayer for? As I woke up this morning, I felt compelled to write to you, to encourage and pour blessings on you. I was thinking about the different trials we’ve all faced this year, and a thought came to mind: “tough times don’t break good people—they make great people.” I’m not sure if anyone has said it before, but it feels true to my core. 

friend, have the challenges of the last 12 months tried to break you? They tried to break me for sure, but I discovered a few truths that have kept me fighting, thinking, and solving problems. Here are my top five strategies to overcome our trials and tribulations:

1. Trials and tribulations are normal. You are not weird or abnormal. “‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’” (John 16:33, NIV) 
2. Honor God no matter what, and He will honor you. “...But now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.’” (1 Samuel 2:30, NIV)   
3. Focus on the positive while processing the hurt, anger, and fear. “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” (Philippians 3:13, NIV)   
4. Ask God to forgive you and be sure to forgive all others: “‘For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.’” (Matthew 6:14, NIV)  
5. Sow seeds in times of famine. Don’t let fear stop you. Make progress while others are hiding. “There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham...Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.” (Genesis 26:1,12, NKJV) 

These strategies may sound too simple, but they have become core values in my life. They’ve helped me weather rough waters. Jesus said, “‘Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.’” (Matthew 7:24-25, NKJV)

friend, storms will come again, but you can choose to build your family, business, and life on godly values, principles, and the Rock. Because you are a miracle.