“Made For More” 2

I’ve enjoyed coffee for several years, but when my youth pastor, Tim, bought me a grinder. Now that I grind the coffee beans myself, my love for coffee went to a NEW LEVEL! You can’t get the flavor out of the bean until it goes through the “Grinding Process.” Have you gotten upset about God’s grinding process? Then, a lot of us love our coffee in various ways. My dad loves his black, my wife loves her creamer and sweetener additives, and me, personally I love my Truvia, half and half with whip cream on top. For me, coffee was made for more than just plain black!

Did you realize that God has designed you just the way you are, but has MORE IN STORE for your life? Have you DISCOVERED what God has for your own life? Columbus believed there was more beauty and adventure beyond his own location. Man’s theory in his day was, if you go too far beyond the borders of the sea, you would fall off the earth. But something within him said, “I know there’s more out there that I’ve not seen.” He was driven to discover MORE.

God says, “Eye hath not seen, nor has ear heard the things that God has prepared for them that love him.” (1 Cor 2:9) Are you stuck where you are in your journey with God? Have you gotten content, complacent, and satisfied with your growth in God?  Many times we don’t understand the valleys, storms, setbacks and dilemmas we are going through, but we need to realize that God has a process to bring about progress in our lives. God knows how to bring flavor into our lives, beyond bland.

Who needs to see the testimony that will come out of your test? Who is going to see the miracle that comes out of your mess? Who is it that will experience their own deliverance out of your own dilemma? God’s ways are higher than our ways! What’s hindering God’s Progress in your life?

• Has FEAR hindered God’s Progress? Israel allowed fear to keep them from Progress. The Promise Land was waiting for them. Only Joshua and Caleb used their faith to go in. You cannot defeat giants in your life without believing that God is greater than your setbacks, storms, and struggles.
• Has DOUBT hindered God’s Progress? Doubt tried to keep me away from going into fulltime ministry and being a pastor in Jacksonville, Florida. God brought many challenging processes to bring about His progress in my life. Quit questioning every step toward your progress! God knows what He’s doing and is the MASTER engineer of your destiny.
• Has COMPLACENCY hindered God’s Progress? This is where you become unmoved, apathetic, and unconcerned in life. Years ago after an injury in sports, I developed a frozen shoulder. Because of the pain, I refused to use it. It wasn’t till my doctor gave me instructions to stretch beyond my pain that I was able to get my full motion back in my shoulder.
• Has ANXIETY hindered God’s Progress? Anxieties are part of life. But life is too short to live uptight, flustered, and a bundle of nerves. Break through your uncertainties and be confident that God is for you and has MUCH MORE in store, and that no devil in hell can stop you from God’s design and plan for your life. “Be confident that He will complete what He’s started in your life”

      -Press on through God’s Process and you'll see God’s Progress in your life.-

“Made For More” 1

As a boy, I grew up thinking, “One day, I want to be a professional baseball player.” Playing and being a starting pitcher for my High School brought hope where I might spend my future. But one night in my bedroom, God came to me in a way like I’d never experienced. He spoke to my heart and called me to preach the gospel. Not with an audible voice but way down in my spirit man. What I thought would lead me into the sports arena, God began to declare to me that I was “Made for More” than my thoughts with sports.

Where are you in life? Have you had thoughts that there may be more that God has in store for your life? Satan comes to steal and kill the plans and thoughts that God has ordained for your life. But have you asked, “God, was I Made For MORE”?

What hinders many from “More” is, they focus on where they have been, what they have done and think it’s too late to get where they need to go.

Moses could have easily gotten stuck in the house of Pharaoh. He had it made in the king’s palace. He was Pharaoh’s grandson. Pharaoh’s daughter saved him from the Nile River. He had all the security, provision, power, and stability at his fingertips, but is that what he was Made for?

God had other plans, but God also had a process to get Moses where he needed to be. As he grew up, he noticed all the pain and suffering of Israel. One day in anger, he became fed up with a soldier who was mistreating and beating one of the Hebrews. Moses ended up killing the soldier. He buried him, but someone saw the whole deal. Moses ends up running for his life and ends up on the backside of a desert for forty years.

God always has a PROCESS to get us where we need to go. Most honest people will admit, “There’s no fun in God’s process to bring progress in our life.

Maybe you’re going through your desert season like Moses. Perhaps you’re in your run like David from King Saul. Are you in your own cave experience like Elijah who was ready to die! Possibly you’re in your prison cell like the apostle Paul who questioned: “What good could come from this?” Maybe you’re like Peter who denied Christ three times. Yes, you have made your mistakes, but God IS NOT FINISHED with you. He has not completed the assignment designed for you, nor had he completed His work in these great men of God.

So will you stay on the assembly line that God has ordained for your life?  In spite of your hick-ups, hang ups, and hurts? Will you continue to fertilize the garden He started in your spiritual man? Will you wait for the fruit to blossom, and not give up because there’s only three oranges on the tree this year? That’s all I have on my orange tree at this point, but one day I’m expecting three hundred plus oranges. And in my life, I expect greater things ahead. Because, I was “MADE FOR MORE”.  Friend, so were you.

-Press on through God’s Process and you'll see God's Progress in your life.-