For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11 (NKJV) I’m always inspired by the kids from Watoto Ministry who travel from Uganda to sing and raise funds for their ministry. Many of these kids share testimonies of being abandoned and left to fend for themselves before being taken in by Watoto. Despite the hardships these kids have endured, the joy on their faces as they talk about Jesus is palpable. They light up as they share about the great future they have in Christ and I can’t help but be in awe of their tenacity and strength. We’ve all been given so much. When …

The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 28:8 (NKJV) Do you ever talk yourself out of being blessed? What you repeatedly say about yourself influences you.  If you say, “I’m just not good with people,” you’ll stop expecting to develop rewarding relationships. If there’s distance in your marriage and you’re always saying, “We’re just too different,” you’ll stop working at closeness. Negative words such as, “I’m just not smart enough,” or “I’ll never get ahead,” will cause you to talk yourself out of the blessings Jesus died to gain for you. Meanwhile, it’s not your …

How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. Psalm 78:40–41 (NKJV) If you focus on your own lack and on the size of your problems, you will lose hope. Instead, think big! When the Israelites left Egypt and made their way toward their Promised Land, they grieved and limited God because they expected too little. God had miraculously delivered the Israelites from slavery and He wasn’t about to stop helping them. He had a country prepared for them—a land with herds of cows, flocks of sheep, honey farms, houses and cities already built that the Israelites could fight for and win. This land was God’s …

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). John 10:10 (AMP) Jesus came to give us an overflowing kind of life. Every area of our lives can be abundant. We can have wonderful marriages, health, happiness, energy and joy. Every area of our lives can be so full that it spills over. When something overflows, the overflow is typically unusable. For example, if someone pours you a glass of water and they overfill it, that overflow is wasted. But the kind of overflow Jesus was talking about is different. When your life overflows with God’s blessings, it’s never wasted. The overflow …

Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:22–24 (NLT) We often make excuses for why we can’t change or why things aren’t happening for us. But, to a great degree, we live within the limitations we’ve set for ourselves. We all have what I call an “internal thermostat”—a set point that represents what is normal to us. As an example, you have a level of closeness that you feel is normal in each of your relationships. If things start to feel distant, you’ll work to bring that close feeling back …