EYES UP! STOP, BREATHE, TRUST

As I speak to the Greatness of God within you, my target is your heart and motivation to finish your race. Your race is won in your daily press. Learning to press my way through has been an adventure, but also overwhelming at times. The normal press comes as we go about our daily lives, focused upon all the things requiring our attention, priorities like our families, jobs, relationships, and commitments. Our press begins the moment we awake as our minds are filled with the demands of the day while unaware of what the day holds or what will divert our attention and shift us into a supernatural press. I like to call it supernatural because supernatural forces are coming against our daily pursuit of holiness and all of those forces have been allowed by God. whatever you are facing today, remember that it had to first pass through God to touch you, don't give up! God hasn't called us to be timid or afraid, He has called us to be Overcomers and that requires pressing your way through to victory. Don't give out!

Allow God to work in your hearts through this trial/ affliction and permit Him to use it to strengthen and build up your faith. Learn to trust God's method of proving you, become skilled in trusting His will and way through His Word, His Spirit and the trying of your faith. Keep Pressing your way through, beloved. You are built for this trial, predestined for it, so don't wallow in self-pity, resist the trial or sabotage yourselves by doubting what God has promised by becoming fearful or questioning His ways. Instead, turn to Him for the help that you need. You may believe that this is all about you, but it is really all about God and His glory as He perfects all things concerning you. So stop and breath for a moment, God has already made provision for your victory. My favorite Scripture to declare over myself in times of pressing situations is on this wise, "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place." I stop, take a deep breath and declare victory over this trial.

The enemy desires to distract us and focus our attention on the worst-case scenario and speak negativity into our hearing, but stop and breathe, 2Cor 4:8 says, "We are troubled on every side, we are afflicted in every way we are hard-pressed on every side, yet not distressed, not crushed and broken. We are perplexed (at a loss, doubting, wondering which way to go), but we don't give up and quit. The enemy's attempts to confuse us and cause us to lose confidence in God, His Word and His way are met with confidence.

Stop and breathe as Hebrews 10:35 encourages us, "to cast not away, therefore, our confidence, which hath great recompense of reward." Stick around for the reward, "For we have need of patience that after we have done the will of God we might receive the promise." Don't give up Beloved! There are always conditions to the promise andHebrews 10:35 reveals that one condition is to "hold on to your confidence." This is one of the Scriptures that changed my life forever. We have the responsibility of remaining steadfast and confident in the Lord during trials and storms through the grace He continually provides us. I embraced the Scripture and vs. 36, "For you have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." What? Patience wasn't a virtue I was seeking but God knew that I needed it right now in this particular place in my transformation process. It was about enduring the working and willing of God in my life through these trials and storms as He developed my character and all of this is for your good and His glory.

Times spent in His Presence remove our anxiety as we breathe in God's tender loving care and embrace His hope, confidence, and victory in our hearts. We remain confident given, that 1 John 4:4 tells us that we are of God, overcomers, and God inside of us is greater than anything or anyone coming against us. When the enemy comes upon you like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Breathe deeply beloved, as the Holy Spirit does the heavy lifting for you as He brings to your remembrance the words that you've hidden in your heart to the decree, declare and apply to this moment.

Even though you must work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, God, (Greater) is inside, both working and willing in you of His good pleasure. In this particular trial, God was working patience within me to continue doing His will throughout this trying time in my life, because the promise was mine I only needed to follow His instructions to take hold of it. This Scripture saved my life because, time and time again, I had to knowingly, with purpose, hunker down and weather the storm, I had to stay in and walk through the fire until God released the promise. And when the promise manifested, I was grateful for the lessons endured and learned how to lay hold of God's promises. Don't give up, beloved, don't give out and don't give in, learn and apply the whole counsel of God's Word to your situation and trust His method. Sometimes it is by testing that we learn the will of God, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect to Him and I believe patience is a critical ingredient in understanding His will. ( Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:17) God knows the plans that He has for us, plans for our highest good and His glory, plans to give us hope and a future. (Jer. 29:11) Always remember that God is perfecting all that concerns you, He will not forsake you in your time of need for you are the works of His hands, Beloved. (Psalm 138:8) STOP, BREATHE and KEEP PRESSING to JESUS!