Journey Through Fire

- Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick

I was having a conversation with someone, and at one point he pulled out the classic saying, "“Expect the worst and hope for the best." I know the heart behind this phrase. I know it means we should prepare contingencies in case our plans fail. But still, I find it to be a horrible saying.

The problem is that it misunderstands the nature of expectation. Expectation is a form of faith. Your expectation is the belief that what you'’re hoping for is actually going to happen, not your back up plan to take care of yourself in case it doesn'’t.

You can'’t hope for God'’s best if you’'re believing in the worst. You can’'t hope to get the job you desperately need if you'’re expecting to get turned down. You can’'t hope that God is going to restore your marriage if you’'re expecting to sign divorce papers any day now.

What would Peter have done that day out on the Sea of Galilee if he had expected the worst and hoped for the best? Well, his name means "“Rock,"” and I suppose he would have expected to sink like one. This terrible expectation would have been offset at best by a hope that Jesus would grab his arm and pull him back to the surface before he drowned.

But that’'s not what is going through Peter’'s mind. Peter - —at least at first— - expects the best. Since Jesus calls him out of the boat, well, then Peter apparently thinks he will be able to go to Him walking on the waves.

Now, it’'s true that in just a moment his fear will get the better of him. His faith will cease holding him up, and he will earn a rebuke from the Lord because of it. But let’'s give him his props. At least for a little while, he really believes he can walk on water - —and he does it.

How many of us have such a strong expectation of the best that we are prepared to lower ourselves over the side of the boat and place the ball of our foot onto the uncertainty of water?

Jesus is calling you today. “"Come to Me,"” He says. “"Come toward the future I have for you.”"

As I deepen my relationship with Jesus, God has revealed to me the following truths about parenting.

1. My children are not my everything, God is.

Our children will have failures, and if we look up to them as our “everything” we will always be disappointed. But if we switch our focus to God, we would know that our children’s failures would be their stepping stones to their breakthroughs.

2. There is no such thing as supermommy, only super God.

Time and again, we mums would burn that toast, would spill that milk, would fail to read that book, would forget our child’s checkup and would flare up even at the simplest mistakes they make regardless of how much we claim that we-are-patient-enough. We will never be perfect, but our God is. And in those times that we fail, we should be confident that our God is SUPER and He can fill our shortcomings to our children only if we focus on Him and not on trying so hard to meet this world’s standard of “supermommy”. Because the truth is - we can’t and never will. Let’s relieve ourselves the pressure of being a supermom because we have a super God.

3. My children are not my masters, God is. They are not my investments either.

Our goal as parents is to help them fulfill their destiny in Christ. God entrusted them to us to fulfill His purpose on them not our purpose for them - no matter how much we meant what we thought is the best for them. Their destiny is not to fulfill their parent’s lives but to be the light and the salt of this world. Yes they may give us purpose, a change of heart and a new mindset but they will never satisfy us. Which is why instead of looking at them as investments, we should highly invest on their relationship with God. We should deposit the word of God in their hearts 24/7 so that when the enemy attacks, they will stand firm wearing the full armor of God.

Let us surrender our children’s lives to God because He will NEVER fail us. In this way, our children would do good not to gain their parent’s approval because they know that they are already approved by God. And they would do good out of their love for God not for God to love them.

One day our children would leave our homes and would go out to face the world — we should be ready to answer the question: are they ready to face the world even without us?

You can pray about everything and worry about nothing. When you worry, it says you think you can solve your own problems better than God can. But you were not built to handle problems in your own strength. You were created by God to be dependent upon Him; so bring Him your challenges in life and allow Him to help you with them.

Jesus brings the good news of salvation to the poor. One of the meanings of salvation is to “make whole.” The poor include those in need spiritually, emotionally, mentally, or financially. Part of Jesus’s ministry is to make people spiritually, mentally, and emotionally whole.

Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted. This means he came to put your broken heart back together with his love. He frees people whose lives have been wrecked by their own sins or the sins others have committed against them.

Jesus came to free the captives. Many Christians are held captive by the lies they believe. Jesus frees us from those lies and replaces them with his truth.

Jesus came to provide release from darkness for prisoners. He came to release us from Satan’s oppression. This oppression includes mental and emotional turmoil. It also includes people imprisoned by their habitual sins.

All this is still the ministry of Jesus today. Jesus is our answer for mental and emotional healing. His salvation includes this healing as one of the amazing blessings he wants for us. Though mental and emotional healing is not automatic, it’s still something he wants us to experience.

Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our sins are so forgiven that God doesn’t remember them—ever. This means he never holds them against us because we are forgiven for every sin—past, present, and future—from the moment of our salvation.

What is God’s part in the New Covenant and what is your part? You didn’t find your part because it’s not there. God does his part and he does your part! God made a covenant with himself and we are the beneficiaries.

We are to “do” only one thing in the New Covenant: simply believe. Just as obedience was the condition in the Old Covenant, faith is the condition in the New Covenant. In other words, we are to believe for our salvation and we are to live by faith from then on, relying on Christ in us.

“The whole art of being a great mother is preparing them for when you’re gone. That they’ll be strong enough, smart enough and tough enough to make the right choices when you’re not around.

The whole art of being a great mother is to raise somebody who can make decisions and choices for themselves without you, not with you. So if you control everything, and you manipulate everything, and you put your mouth on everything. You actually cripple who you are trying to raise.