Be Prepared

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For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. --Hebrews 12:11   When you face adversity, you have two choices. You can choose bitterness or you can choose happiness. But you can’t choose both. You can choose to allow the trails in your live by God’s grace to make you better…or to make you bitter. In Psalm 105:18, the Darby Translation says of Joseph, “They afflicted his feet with fetters; his soul came into irons.” I love that! Joseph was being developed as God was putting iron in his soul. God knew difficult days would lie ahead for Egypt, and that it would require Joseph to have a durable and doable faith. There in prison, God taught Joseph wisdom and courage and character and perseverance and endurance as his fetters produced faith and his chains produced character! God steeled Joseph’s soul without Joseph hardening his heart. And as a result, he became a veritable velvet covered brick – soft on the outside, but strong on the inside. And you know, God is looking for some strong and steely saints today…believers with iron in their souls! I know there are some who teach that life is a dream if you’re a Christian. That all you need to do is name it and claim it and you’ll be healthy, happy, and all the rest. But that kind of teaching isn’t biblical teaching. And it produces wimps instead of warriors for God. And in these uncertain days, we need Christians who have steel and iron in their souls! But be prepared, as God uses adversity to bring about that kind of maturity. As today’s verse says, you are trained into righteousness…and problems and pressure and adversities and trails are God’s gifts to you to make you stronger…to make you better in your faith and your walk with Him!   GOD IS LOOKING FOR SOME STRONG AND STEELY SAINTS TODAY. WILL YOU RESPOND TO HIS CALL?

The Power of Rewards

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.”
2 John 1:6–8

For many years Reader’s Digest has published first person accounts of humorous happenings. In 1994, they ran a story from Marion Gilbert: “One morning I opened the door to get the newspaper and was surprised to see a strange little dog with our paper in his mouth. Delighted with this unexpected ‘delivery service,’ I fed him some treats. The following morning I was horrified to see the same dog sitting in front of our door, wagging his tail, surrounded by eight newspapers. I spent the rest of that morning returning the papers to their owners.”
There is enormous power in rewarding good behavior, and that is the way God has created us. In fact, God Himself offers us rewards for our service on earth. “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 9:25). Our greatest reward will be to hear our Lord say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
Recognizing the power of rewards, it is very important for those of us who lead—parents, teachers, bosses, and influencers in any venue—to review the behavior we are encouraging. Our words of praise or tangible rewards will encourage others to continue the behavior that gained them. Yet many times we do not realize that we are rewarding the very things we want to stop. Instead, we should be sure that we are using the power of rewards to encourage the right actions.
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Be sure that the things you are rewarding are the things you actually want to have happen.