He Increases Your Strength

He Increases Your Strength TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. Isaiah 40:29, AMP. TODAY'S WORD: In the Bible, Joseph went through seasons of difficulty. He was rejected by his family, sold into slavery, lied about, mistreated, abandoned, falsely accused and thrown in jail. But through it all, Joseph never gave up. He kept pressing through and doing the right thing even though the wrong thing kept happening. The Bible says in Psalm 105 verse 18 that as Joseph lay in prison in those chains of iron, his soul entered into that iron. In other words, as Joseph just kept on fighting life through, his soul became as strong as that steel. God developed a supernatural strength in him that no one could take away. If you are going through difficulty today, God wants to increase your strength. He wants to increase your power to overcome. He wants to make your inner man as strong as steel. When you keep standing, keep believing, keep doing the right thing, you are opening yourself to God’s supernatural strength. That’s when you know you are growing in Him. Be strong today. Keep pressing forward because God is at work increasing strength in you so that you can live in victory in every area of your life! PRAYER FOR TODAY: Father in heaven, today I surrender every difficulty to You. I release the questions, hurts and frustrations. I choose to trust You and do the right thing. Increase Your strength in me so that I can live in the victory You have in store for me in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Everything Is Beautiful for Its Time by Rick Warren “God has made everything beautiful for its own time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11a NLT) The seasons of life include both good and bad times. Life is full of contrasts. We go through mountains, and we go through valleys. We go through successes, and we go through failures. We have wins, and we have losses. In weather, there are four seasons. But in your life, there are dozens of different seasons. Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 gives us a representation of different life experiences: “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace” (NLT). Life is a combination of contrasting seasons. All sunshine and no rain make a desert. If you are following God's will, if you're really trying to live your life according to the way God wants you to live, then all of these experiences have meaning and purpose and value in your life. And they're all God's will! Some of you think that the only time you're in God's will is when you're at church or having a quiet time. You can be in God's will as you’re cleaning out a closet. You can be in God's will mowing your lawn. You can be in God's will moving to a new location or not moving to a new location. There's a time and season for everything. Ray Stevens sang a song called "Everything Is Beautiful in Its Own Way." He lied. It's not true. Everything is not beautiful. Cancer is not beautiful. Child abuse is not beautiful. War is not beautiful. Everything is not beautiful in its own way. He misquoted Ecclesiastes 3:11 which says, "God has made everything beautiful for its own time.” That's very different. God can take even the bad things and, in the proper season, turn them around and use them for good in the way he intends. Some of you are going through a season right now that is not beautiful. It's ugly. Your finances look ugly. Your health looks ugly. Your marriage or a friendship looks ugly. Your future looks ugly. But God can make something good out of it if you'll give him the pieces. Talk It Over What are the pieces of an ugly situation that you need to trust to God today? What does the world tell you is the purpose for a difficult season of life? How do you know if you are in God’s will?