Today, we continue our series entitled “Laser Focus,” emphasizing living with a Laser Focus on the Fixed Purpose God established for us before the world began.
(Proverbs 4:25 TPT)
Set your gaze on the path before you. With fixed purpose, looking straight ahead, ignore life’s distractions.
Scriptures for today:
(James 1:2-4 TPT)
2 My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can!
3 For you know that when your faith is tested, it stirs up power within you to endure all things.
4 And then as your endurance grows even stronger it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking.
(Ecc 3:1 ERV)
There is a right time for everything, and everything on earth will happen at the right time.
(Gen 41:50-52 MSG)
Joseph had two sons born to him before the years of famine came. Asenath, daughter of Potiphera the priest of On, was their mother. Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh (Forget), saying, “God made me forget all my hardships and my parental home.” He named his second son Ephraim (Double Prosperity), saying, “God has prospered me in the land of my sorrow.
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things
1. You will need to encourage yourself along the way.
In this series, I am teaching you how to remain in faith for the long haul. As believers, we must learn to add patience to our faith for the major things in our lives because the major things we believe God for won’t manifest overnight. If we are going to develop the grit, determination, and perseverance required to see the major promises of God come to pass, we will need encouragement from time to time.
Solomon said the following:
(Ecc 3:11 APMC)
God has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
The things I am talking about in this series, things like Joseph’s dream, are so significant that when God grabs them from the halls of eternity and plants them in our hearts and minds (in time), the text says that we will never be satisfied until we become what we saw. We will never be satisfied until we experience what God revealed.
By the end of Genesis 41, Joseph was a blessed man. He had a wife and two kids. He was rich. He had power. He was the Prime Minister of a thriving nation. His plan was working. Everything seemed great. But in the back of his mind and at the bottom of his heart, he was not satisfied yet. Why? Because the dream had not come to pass.
I know what that feels like. I know what it is like to be truly blessed, but I am not totally satisfied because what God said has not yet come to pass yet. A faith-filled believer can be content, while not completely satisfied, if what God said has not come to pass yet.
To be patient and to hold on for the long haul, we must all learn to encourage ourselves by celebrating the victories we experience on the path to our destiny. What you have right now may not be “the thing,” but it is “a thing” you can be happy about. Learning to celebrate these victories will help you remain patient as you wait for God to manifest the MAJOR promise.
How this applies to you:
— Recognize Each Victory as a Step Towards Fulfillment: Each small win on your journey is a building block for the major breakthroughs ahead. Celebrate them as affirmations that you are moving in the right direction.
— Self-Encouragement is Key to Longevity in Faith: Learn to draw strength and encouragement from your journey, not just the destination.
— Celebrate to Sustain Your Spirit: Acknowledge every progress and victory to keep your spirit uplifted. This habit of celebration keeps your focus on the positive, energizing your faith journey.
— Stay Hungry for What’s Next: Let your current successes fuel your desire to complete what God has shown you. Satisfaction comes not from complacency but from pursuing the full manifestation of God’s promises.
— Build Resilience Through Recognition: Regularly acknowledging how far you’ve come. This will keep your heart from discouragement and depression.
2. Take self-inventory from time to time: Count Your Blessings!
To teach this message, I had to meditate on Genesis 41. I could see Joseph with his wife and two boys. I could see him executing God’s plan. I could see the smile on his face. I could see him enjoying his blessings.
Sure, the major promise had not come to pass yet. The dream was still alive in his heart. But if you are going to hold on for the long haul, you will have to learn how to celebrate your victories along the way. You must learn to look around and COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS! This type of praise becomes fuel for your patience.
How this applies to you:
— Count Your Blessings as Fuel for Faith: Regularly looking around and acknowledging God’s hand in your life nurtures a heart of gratitude. This also strengthens your faith, keeping you motivated.
— Inventory Your Life for a Perspective Shift: Periodic self-reflection helps you recognize the abundant blessings already present in your life, shifting your focus from what’s missing to what’s been given already.
— Praise as a Weapon: Use the recognition of your blessings as a form of praise to God, which in turn becomes your strength while you wait on what is next.
— Fuel Patience with Gratitude: Gratitude for your current blessings fuels patience while you walk with God daily for the NOW and the NEXT.
3. Establish altars today that will keep you going tomorrow!
Keeping a record of what God has done in your life will embolden and grow your faith. However you do it, you should keep track of your walk with God. These notes (or a journal) can serve as a tangible reminder of God’s faithfulness, and you will need this type of encouragement during difficult times.
I like to talk about altars of remembrance. Let’s discuss it.
a) Establish some altars in your life.
— In Biblical times, an altar was a place of worship and sacrifice, but it was also a physical place of remembrance. Followers of God established altars to remind themselves and future generations of what God had done.
— If you read the Old Testament, you will see the many times the Israelites established altars that served as memorials of God’s goodness, both for them and for the generations that followed. We all face challenging times. When difficulties come, it is good to take your heart back to a point where God manifested His goodness. The reminder of what God did in the past helps us operate in faith for the future, and it also helps us remain patient.
b) Altars help you patiently endure.
— An altar is a place of worship. It’s a place where you can go to commit and recommit yourself to God. It’s a place you can go back to to show God you appreciate what He did and that you don’t take His blessings lightly.
— An altar is a tool for legacy. In the Old Testament, the older generation would bring the younger generation to an altar to tell the story of what God did to help pass on God’s goodness to the next generation. Your children need to know the true source of your strength. Your children can learn a great deal from the challenges you faced and how God saw you through them, especially while you were waiting on “THE BIG THING!”
— An altar serves as a source of divine encouragement. There will be days when you don’t “feel like” a Christian, when you don’t “feel like” living by faith, and when you don’t “feel like” waiting on God anymore. While you are called to live by faith and not by feelings, you are still human, and there will be times when you need to overcome your feelings. Altars help with that. If you can go back and TRACE the goodness of God in your life (saying, “I remember this…” and, “I remember that…”), you will be encouraged to keep going. You can encourage yourself in the Lord when you are able to look back and see God’s goodness all over your past.
** God is the God of your past, present, and future. He is the God of the already, the God of the right now, and the God of the not yet. The God of your previous victories will also be the God of your future successes! EVERYTHING GOD PROMISED SHALL COME TO PASS IN YOUR LIFE BEFORE YOU DIE. GREATER IS COMING!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for grabbing portions of my destiny from the halls of eternity and implanting them as divine glimpses in my heart and mind (in time).
What You implanted in my heart and mind about my future has become an internally implanted sense of purpose that is working through the ages, and I will never be fully satisfied until I become what I saw.
Since this is going to take some time, I have learned to celebrate the victories You give me along the way. I establish altars of remembrance, and when I need encouragement, I look back.
I don’t look back to get stuck there. I look back to rejoice. I look back to give Your praise. And I then look forward with great expectation.
Living this way, I celebrate each victory, I enjoy each day, I live in the present, and I keep my heart open to the future You planned for me!
GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
