What’s up everyone! As Will Smith would say, “HAPPY SUMMER TIME” to you. Our next AfterHours Experience will be held outside on Friday, July 3rd @ 6:30p – come join us and experience live hip-hop, spoken word, Chef Jeff BBQ, and some real good connection. Our spiritual conversation is on the subject of Urban Legends…Catch the VIBE and bring a friend!
AfterHours Rewind: Last month in the AfterHours Experience we explored what it meant to feel LOCKED UP!
Spiritually speaking, we have all been through what we might call “prison experiences” in life. Times in our life when we feel LOCKED UP in affliction and adversity for reasons beyond us. Have you ever wondered where God was in your pain ? And why adversity and affliction was a part of His plan for us? Many of us have lost our passion, our sense of mission, our sense of direction, and abandoned our dreams as a result of feeling LOCKED UP in our difficult circumstances.
What do we do? In chapter four of the book of Philippians Paul urges his readers to maintain a tough mind, fixing on what is right and profitable. Paul looks to discipline, contentment, and focus as a way to help him get through challenging times. Although many of us find ourselves in positions of adversity, nevertheless, we should be challenged to display attitudes of joy, peace, and conquest. Why? Because God is the source of our joy, peace, and conquering spirit. Paul was able to stay of mission, even in prison, because he knew God was going to see him through…Paul had hope and so can we!
Our challenge is to be pro-active people of mission. We can either surrender to God and His purpose/mission for our life or we can surrender to the adversity and difficult circumstances we are experiencing. The Apostle lived in constant adversity, however, he was a leader who was determined and able to leave his mark and never drift from his sense of mission.
How did Paul’s sense of mission and purpose keep him in the fight of life as he literally sat in prison? What did he learn behind bars? John Maxwell points out 5 things Paul learned from being “LOCKED UP”:
1. A purpose will motivate you.
2. A purpose will keep your priorities straight.
3. A purpose will develop your potential.
4. A purpose will give you power to live in the present.
5. A purpose will help you get through difficult times.
“Those who don’t know how to fight worry, die young.” This ominous advice is worth listening to, because many of us put on our “worried shoes” in the morning, and walk in anxiety all day long…we can’t find peace. Walking in worry and anxiety has a way of keeping us from enjoying the life that God has called us to live.
jameyjohnson
