June 5

2 Chronicles 16:9
9 For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”

When God gives you a dream, you can be sure you'll run into delays, difficulties, detours and dead ends along the way. They are a natural part of life. But you can be ready for them.

Now if anybody had a right to be discouraged, it was Noah. Do you know how long it took Noah to build the ark? 120 years. Could you go 120 years on a project without one word of encouragement from anybody else in society?

Noah trusted God. And when he heard God's warning about the future, Noah believed him even though there was no sign of a flood. I bet there were many days that Noah didn't feel like going to work, but for 43,800 days, he went to the same place and he worked. He never gave up.

Don't give up on your dream either. Don't give up on the marriage. Don't give up on your health. Don't, don't, don't give up. God is in control. You haven't read the final chapter of your life. God's already written it, but you haven't read it yet.

The Bible says, "God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him." God is looking for people that he can bless. I want you to be one of those people.

Don't give up!

This devo reminded me of the sermon that Pastor Daniel did a few weeks back! It was the one about not being afraid of failure and to have more "I'm glad I did" moments rather than "I wish I had" moments.
Failure isn't a bad thing. You always learn from it! Everyone is going to fail and then be discouraged or judged, but if you listen to the negative criticism and let it get to you, there is absolutely no way you'll succeed. Ok you failed the first few times. But that doesn't mean you should try again. God never said anything was going to be easy. But that also proves to God how faithful you are! If you give up on your dream, then you've given up on God's dream.

There are somethings that we don't yet understand. But God has something in plan in the long term. Everything you've done for God, it builds up and moves you toward which path you'll take in life. For spme things that God wants us to do, we tend to question and doubt. But if we are sure this is what God is telling is to do, we must obey and keep going and not stopping halfway.
In Noah's story, he had to build this thing for his life.....think about how you would react if God told you to spend your life building an arc for your life. It's even worse with all the discouragement that goes to him throughout his whole time building this thing. But in the end, Noah is able to see and appreciate what he has done and be proud of obeying God. He could have backed down at any time, but he had strong trust and faith, so he kept on going.....for 120 years.
It reminds me of a recent topic in one of Dan's sermon:
Have more of those, "I'm glad I did" than, "I wish I had" moments.

~Audrey~

I found this devo to be a bit of an elaboration of "no short cuts"
Giving up is the easy alternative when times get rough.
The mentality that we might be familiar with in terms of giving up might be just to let it go when it's hard but really, we need to see that it's a set back. IF we stopped, halted, or gave up everytime there was a hindrance, how far back would we be? If we let every little thing hold us back, how far back would we be in our faith. Keep the faith strong, because difficulties are a constant.

I'm feeling quite cut on time, considering that I managed to forget doing this yesterday.

So in a short paragraph form, I think this message says to "Just Do It."
God gives instructions and results. At the same time actually. So just complete the instructions; that simple.
All of God's demands from you are very simple Yes or No situations: "Talk to that person." "Help this person." "Spend some time with me."

They're all things we can either refuse or accept, and to refuse these is to refuse God.
Why push something away when doing so will only ultimately hurt your soul?