Perfection will wear you out…Trying to be the perfect spouse, parent, friend or employee is exhausting. We end every day wishing we could have done more, regretting what we did that wasn’t quite up to “our standards” or regretting what we didn’t do. Unfortunately, we also carry that need for perfection over to our spiritual life. Always striving but never attaining causes nothing but stress and feelings of guilt. You and I are a work in progress. We will have successes and failures but both are taking us to the place God has planned for us. Relax! God is on your side!

Let’s talk about labels! All kinds of things have labels…designer clothes, cans in the supermarket, even tennis shoes and handbags and that’s just to name a few. The one thing that should never have a label is people! The world loves to stick “labels” on us according to how it judges our “condition”: stupid, failure, defeated, broke, crazy, disorganized and the list goes on and on. Do you know that labels are lies that the enemy sends your way to bring you down and keep you down. But God doesn’t look at us that way! He sees what we CAN be not what we are or what we were. Thank Heaven for that!! Remember Gideon? He was hiding from the Midianites in the bottom of a winepress and God called him O Mighty Man of Valor. Nobody would have called him mighty. He was a coward! But then, that’s a label and God doesn’t like labels. God will always call you by your POSITION and your position is Son or Daughter of the Most High God…Child of the King…and in that “position”, you are joint heirs with Jesus. You, my friend, are living in a kingdom with kingdom rights and…

God is in the details! Think about the Temple. God cared about every detail down to the rings that held the curtains! In your life, God is in the details. Nothing happens by accident. Remember that, the next time you feel like your life is spinning out of control. God is right there working behind the scenes to bring all things together for your good.

Abraham, the father of our faith, was a godly man but he also made mistakes! One of those mistakes came when God told him that he and his wife Sarah would become parents of a child. The promised child seemed like an impossibility so Sarah set about trying to “make it happen”. Of course, WE would never do anything like that! To make a long story short, Sarah convinces Abraham that he needs to sleep with her servant, Hagar. Bad idea right from the start! Hagar has a son named Ishmael and later Sarah has a son named Isaac. Now there are two boys growing up in one household: Ishmael, the son of the flesh and Isaac, the son of the spirit (the promise of God). The flesh will always rise up against the spirit and that’s exactly what happened with Isaac and Ishmael. They were constantly fighting. Sarah has had it and gives Abraham an ultimatum: Genesis 21:10…”Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won’t have it!” Now Abraham loved both of his boys. Genesis 21:12… But God told Abraham, “Do not be upset over…

“Some prayer, some power; more prayer, more power: much prayer, much power”. How much power do YOU want? The more you pray and grab hold of the heart of God, the more He can create miracles in your life!

Peace….there are people who would give all they had just to have peace in their life! Do you know that there is a peace that God can give you that is so amazing that no matter what is happening AROUND you, it’s not happening IN you? Chaos on the outside, peace on the inside! I love the scripture in the Bible that says “He will keep me in perfect peace when my mind is stayed (or anchored) on Him.” Believe me, whatever you go through in life, it’s not worth getting angry, fussing with your family, walking in drama, or flying mad. The next time you get an “opportunity” to blow sky high and rant and rave, remember this thought… I REFUSE to lose my peace! It’s a great feeling to get a good night’s sleep, walk with a bounce in your step, and live in a state of peace and joy! And boy does the enemy hate to see that happen. It’s his goal to make you miserable. He will “rattle your cage”, doing anything and everything to get you to react. He usually uses those closest to you to do it too…I’m talking family and friends here…or other…