Treasured Truth

We must respond to God’s plan and also rest in His promises. Pastor Ford describes how the more we depend upon God, the more dependable we find Him to be. No matter what comes our way, we follow God’s plan and He’s going to execute it and bring it to pass.

The quantity of your wisdom determines the quality of your life. The more wisdom you get the better you’re going to be able to live life. So, the challenge in life then becomes getting more wisdom.

No one is exempt from temptation. The Bible says, “…let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” Your Bible knowledge is not going to exempt you. Your service, your singing in the choir, your giving is not going to exempt you. So, this is a warning to the super saints—the people who say, “It won’t happen to me.” None of us should ever say that, since we can’t know in advance what we will or will not do.

Whenever we overcome temptation, it purifies us. It makes us stronger and better; it builds us up. Our roots grow deeper into our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we become more like Him.

Sometimes we can be criticized unfairly by others who don’t really have our best interests at heart. But Pastor Ford reminds us that we shouldn’t let that stop us from doing what we know is good and right. Just keep doing what God has placed before us. Because the Bible says, “Don’t be weary in well doing for you shall reap if you faint not.” In other words, don’t give up!

As we continue to look at how God commanded Joshua to take that land that was promised to the children of Israel, Pastor Ford explains that sometimes the problem with us as believers is that we take the things that we shouldn’t be taking and we don’t take the things that we should be taking. But we have to be careful to determine what it is that God really wants us to take.

When you want to thrive when you’re being criticized the first thing you have to do is get comprehension of the criticism you are facing. You have to analyze and scrutinize it. You have to try and get behind what the motivation is for that accusation. That will help you determine if it’s true or not.

Do you sometimes feel held back by criticism? Does it really bother you when someone criticizes you? Pastor Ford reminds us that there are too many of us who are stuck on a lower level of success in life because we can’t stand to have somebody be critical of us. In order for us to thrive when we are criticized, we must accept the criticism then discover if there is truth behind it.

When you are criticized, it usually demonstrates you’re making a difference or at least trying to. If no one is criticizing you, then you’re probably not doing anything, saying anything, or trying to be anything that will make a difference. As Christians, we all ought to be receiving criticism simply for being associated with Jesus Christ.

Have you noticed that people will often put expectations on you for things that they’re not even capable of themselves? And often those expectations are just too high and don’t make sense? You have to understand that you’re simply not going to be able to be everything that everyone expects you to be and you can’t make everyone happy.