When Life Just doesn't Add Up

Psalm 138:8
The LORD will perfect that which concerns me: your mercy, O LORD, endures forever: forsake not the works of your own hands.

Today, I want to talk a bit about the ups and downs of life; the positives and the negatives.....additions and subtractions! If I were to ask some people to give me a sum total of how life was for them in 2012, I would get an abundance of answers, that reveal to me, all of the negative things; the disappointments, the hurts, and the failures that they have experienced. The truth of the matter is, that we as Christians, seem to have it kind of rough some times; dealing with the World and all of it's cares. We are at a time, when we are faced with the reality of 2012. Where did 2012 leave you spiritually? Did it leave you in increase or lack? With knowledge or confusion? Did you win or did you lose? Did your territory indeed see an enlargement or were you bound by invisible borders, that kept you trapped in one spot?  Some will say that I found myself, with an increase of faith, knowledge, and a deeper relationship with Christ...my territory was enlarged and I am dancing to the beat of Jubilee!! And there are others saying, what about me? I love the Lord, but I seem to have come up short! I feel that I have missed out on things, unable to accomplish my goals, tapped out financially, sapped out emotionally, and drained out spiritually!
Did 2012 leave you trying to calculate your outcome? Trying to figure out why life didn't balance out at the end of the year? Why things just didn't add up? The feeling that "I should be there; but I'm still here!....I should have that, but I have this!...I should've experienced gain; but I experienced loss! I should be healthy; but sickness has been persistent!"  ...And you just want to ask the Lord to RE-calculate what is in your spiritual bank account? Ask him to take another look at your yearly increases? Well, I did! (at least I thought it!), but since God knows my thoughts he was more than happy to go over my spiritual portfolio with me. 
As I sat in my room, reading in the book of 1 Peter, I turned the page to find a recent church bulletin, that I had put there, only to keep from leaving it on the church pew...so I thought! As I picked the bulletin up, I payed closer attention to the picture of the calculator that was on the front of it. I could not seem to look at anything else. My eyes were fixed on the addition and subtraction buttons. The fact that the addition button (+) is so much larger than the subtraction (-) button...why is that I wondered? I heard the Spirit beginning to teach this lesson. He told me that the addition button represented the promises of God, and the subtraction button represents trials and burdens. And that wherever promises are, trials are near by. He told me that the promises of God are sure and that although the trials are close by, they are but a light thing for Him and have no effect on those promises! In life, we tend to focus on the negative button! It represents your problems, your lack, and your disappointments; it's aim is to take away what God has added to you. But, God is saying that those things don't represent your future, those things are not who you are! I want you to focus on the addition button....it's the "cast your cares upon me" button; It's bigger because I'm bigger! Your life is not adding up because you continue to count your problems and not your promises! When I do the calculating, I see increase! When I sum it all up, I see favor! Then I've added grace and mercy! Followed by wisdom and power! And because my thoughts are higher than your thoughts, you will never be able to calculate all of my benefits towards you, but you can rest assured that, because I am a perfect God,  my will for your life will always render a perfect answer.

Why Not Trust God Again, in 2013? (song Included)

Trust God Again in 2013!




2012 was an interesting year. It was filled with lots of uncertainties, frustrations, fears, doubts, pain, and tears...lots of tears. I don't think that I have cried any year, more than in 2012. Ironically, though, I must say that God was quite busy with my life in 2012.....more than any other year! How was your 2012? Did everything work out as you planned? Were all of your questions answered? Did you feel that sought after "fulfillment" at the close of the year? that feeling that, "I am better than ever?!" ....OR did 2012 leave you broken... dismayed... feeling betrayed... uncertain of your future... alone... and perplexed? Have I touched your circumstance yet? Well, I just want you to know that, you are not alone! 2012 was a rough year, and most people would not want a repeat of any part of it!
God has a way of bringing us to our knees in order that He can become all of the "missing pieces" in our lives. So many times, we have put all of our hope and trust into things or persons who have absolutely no power to complete us. Think about it. We put our faith into things that tend to break down and deteriorate...then we put our hope into people who are able to fall subject to failure themselves. Everything we put our faith into has the ability to fail! But not God! He is the only constant in a world of one million variables. When our car breaks down, what do we do? We try our best to get another one....If we lose our job, what do we do? Do we just sit around and declare that "I will never get a job and therefore I refuse to look for another one!? ....of course not! We start all over again! ......When miscarriage or a broken marriage threatens every ounce of faith that is left in us, we somehow, some way find ourselves reaching again to attain that which we so desperately want in our lives. Well, I just want to encourage you to trust God again in 2013! No matter what you went through in 2012, you are still here and God has given you all that you need to make it through another year. I know that some of you feel that God didn't come through for you last year, but I want you to know that God did everything that He was supposed to do in 2012. You may beg to differ, however, God wants us to know that, even if you didn't physically see your change, it is there! God already has a perfect plan for your life and as with all else; patience is the key! Don't ever give up on God! Trust him again and again, until what you are praying for becomes reality. You are not alone! We will face 2013 together! Believing, trusting, and hoping in the God of our Salvation. 2 Corinthians 4:8 lets us know that although life is hard, we have not been destroyed and we will make it! And although we go through the fire, we are renewed daily by a God who is able to do anything, but fail.....go ahead, trust God again! and watch him work miracles in you and through you! God bless!  

Be blessed by "Why Not Trust God Again" By Kurt Carr Singers


http://youtu.be/gB22TiY7sfE

Beyond Closed Doors

Closed doors! Is there anything harder to deal with than a closed door? Well, for the believer, there are many test and many trials; however, nothing seems to overwhelm us like a "closed door." I mean after all, closed doors yields no answers to our questions; they reveal no hints of what lies beyond them; they are just there, blocking and standing between our request and our desired answer.

Have you ever asked God for something or desired something that seemed to never reveal itself, in any shape, form, or fashion? Ever feel like someone has closed the door on your dreams and threw away the key? Well, you are not alone! Many of us have cried ourselves to sleep, exercised our faith until we had no more strength, held on to hope until hope seemed to let go! and did exactly what Donnie McClurkin told us to do when there was nothing left to do, and that is to "stand", ...yet, the doors remained closed!

What is God trying to tell you, while in this season of "closed doors?" ....Is it the closed door that is the problem or is it your inability to do anything about the closed door that annoys you so? (The fact that you are so limited and powerless as you stand before that closed door). What if I told you that you can begin to live beyond those closed doors? or should I at least say, gain a new way to look at those closed doors!

Every single door that has been shut, has been shut, intentionally and strategically, by God. I hear someone asking, "why would  God purposely close doors that I cannot open? (I asked that exact same question!), well, it is because he wants to increase your vision. Give you a new level of seeing! I believe that God is even ministering to me right now, as he says, "You have come too far to still see a closed door, as a closed door!" God wants to increase not only our vision, but our perception, so that we can begin to see "beyond" those closed doors, and to see him, who is able to move freely amidst our greatest obstacles (and yes! that includes doors). He wants us to realize that a door represents restraints and boundries and that he is not bound by neither. God works best when doors are closed (and I mean closed!) ...some of you know exactly what I am talking about!  He gets to reveal himself, when doors are closed! Just ask the disciples, about the day when they sat in a room, behind a "closed/locked door", afraid of what the Jews were going to do to them. As they sat there afraid, Jesus suddenly appeared in the room, having come through that same closed/locked door! Jesus never even touched the door! Why? Because it was swallowed up by his power! What was he revealing to them by doing that? Jesus wanted them to know, and He wants us to know that he is able to become all that we need, in the midst of shut doors. He does not need an open door in order for him to prove himself. 

Listen, He walked through a closed door and called for "peace" in the midst of their fear (John 20:19). That closed door represented a barrier for them, but Jesus wanted them to "see" that he controls barriers...he moves through barriers. He wanted them to know that even though you may see a door separating you from what's on the other side of it, there is nothing that can separate you from what it is that I have for you.  In John 20:26, Jesus walked through that same locked door on a second occasion, commanding peace in the midst of a doubter named Thomas, who although seeing Jesus walk right through that same locked door, still needed proof that he had victory over the impossible!! God wants you to see Him, beyond the door, beyond the impossible!....the door that you see is a necessary distraction, to test your spiritual vision! 

God is asking, "do you see a door or do you see me! He wants to bless you, beyond the closed doors in your life.  Every closed door that you experience is God teaching you to increase your vision! Praise God! He wants you to know, that you will never look at a closed door the same way again! When the Closed doors represent impossibilities, Jesus is saying, Do you see a door or do you see me?" When they represent failure, dead ends, and defeat, Jesus is saying, "Do you see a closed door or do you see me?" 

 It's time to increase your vision! It's time to begin to see God beyond that closed door; keep praying and fasting, beyond that closed door; keep dancing and singing, beyond that closed door; keep pressing your way to church, beyond that closed door, give God praise, beyond that closed door, and worship him with your life, beyond that closed door! And, the next time a closed door threatens to dismantle your hope, you call on the name of Jesus, and ask him to increase your vision, so that you can look beyond that closed door, and experience HE, who knows no impossibilities!! HE, who has started a good work in you; HE who will finish it;  and HE, who is still  revealing himself, beyond closed doors!