How Will You Finish?

How Will You Finish? TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7, NIV. TODAY'S WORD: So often when people make mistakes, they get down on themselves and think, “If only…” “I should have…” “What if…?” It’s easy to feel like you’ve missed the best plan for your life. That’s when people get discouraged and stop pursuing their God-given dreams. But understand today, just because you’ve made a mistake or failed in some way doesn’t cancel God’s plan. God never disqualifies you. He never says, “Go sit on the sidelines. You’ve blown it too many times. You’ve got too many weaknesses.” No, God always gives you another chance! Some of the great people in the Bible made very poor choices. The apostle Paul started off as a murderer, yet his destiny was bigger than his mistakes. He ended up becoming a great leader and writing over half of the New Testament. What am I saying? Our mistakes, our failures, our poor choices don’t have to keep us from our God-given destiny. With God, it’s not about the way you start in life, it’s about the way you finish. Receive His grace today and embrace the bright future He has in store for you! PRAYER FOR TODAY: Father, thank You for Your grace and mercy. I trust that my days are ordered by You. I ask that You strengthen and empower me to fulfill Your call on my life. I love You and bless You today in Jesus’ name. Amen. Make Time To Be Quiet by Rick Warren “Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.” (Matthew 6:6 MSG) God isn’t going to speak to you if there’s a bunch of noise going on in your life. You’ve got to get alone, and you’ve got to get quiet. We call this a quiet time. Jesus says it like this in Matthew 6:6: “Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace” (MSG). The key to hearing God speak and getting his vision for your life is this: God wants to meet with you. You need to realize you’re not waiting on God; he’s waiting on you. God made you to have a relationship with him. He wants you to spend time with him on a daily basis. He wants you to schedule a date with him every day. God is waiting. Getting alone in a quiet place is pretty difficult today. I don’t know if you realize how much noise there is in your life. You’ve always got the radio on in the car or you’ve got earbuds in or Bluetooth turned on. Every waiting room, grocery store, and elevator has music. There’s very little time in your life that’s absolutely quiet. If you’ve got kids at home, it’s even more difficult! But let me give you some hope. Susanna Wesley, one of the great women of history, had 18 children. One of her sons, John, founded the Methodist church and spread Christianity across the western part of America with Methodist revival preachers, and another, Charles, wrote more than 6,000 hymns. How do you find time alone when you have 18 children? In her biography, it says that Susanna Wesley would go and sit in her favorite rocker every afternoon, and she would throw her apron over her head for an hour. Her kids knew that Mom with apron over her head means, “No child bothers Mom or you die!” Wesley said it was the prayers of his mom that shaped his life. You can find time alone if you are that desperate. Make time to be quiet and meet with the Lord. Talk It Over How much of your day is spent in silence? What do you need to help your family understand so that they can support you in and not distract from your quiet time? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEFYl0tGus4