ANYONE CAN BE A QUITTER His life long ambition was to play professional football. Finally the day was scheduled for him to try out before the coaches of the San Diego Chargers. But on the day before the try out, Dale lost both of his legs and several fingers in an explosion.

Sixty long days after the explosion, he was discharged from the hospital. As he was wheeled from his room to a waiting car, he looked at the two “stubs” that were now his legs and his right hand that had only a thumb and little finger remaining.

He could have given up in disappointment, gone on welfare and received a life long disability. But he didn’t.

He could have focused on everything he lost in the explosion and chosen to live a life of anger and hatred. But he didn’t.

He could have become filled with resentment for those who made the team that year and were hailed as heroes. But he didn’t.

Instead of giving up or becoming angry and hateful or filled with resentment, he challenged himself with the reality that “Anyone can become a quitter. But I’m going to become the greatest insurance salesman my company has ever seen!” And he did.

Paul said, “I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead.” Fortunately, that same power is available today for Christians who choose to use that power to glorify Him.

Prayer: Help us, Heavenly Father, to accept the challenges You bring into our lives as opportunities to trust in Your power to accomplish great things for You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture for Today: Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

We all have had days filled with discouragement and disappointments. Perhaps more than we care to recall. Often they can be used by the devil to defeat and destroy us.

Think of discouragement. It comes from being dissatisfied with things in the past, a distaste of the present or quite possibly a distrust of the future. When we allow ourselves to become discouraged, we are surrendering our courage to what we have allowed to overcome us. Discouragement is a signal from God that the devil is trying to take away the hope He has given us in Christ. When we feel discouraged we need to take away the “d” and replace it with an “H” and call for “His-courage” to enable us to be victorious.

We also need to realize that our disappointments are, in fact, His-appointments! Nothing enters our life by chance - only by and through Christ. Often when things do not go as we intended them to go, we consider them to be one of life’s disappointments. However, what we need to realize is that God Himself is intervening in our life. He is attempting to get our attention. He wants us to make an adjustment to what we are doing with our lives that is not in line with the plans He has for us.

Not everything that happens to us can be considered “good” - but everything will eventually be “good” for us.

Prayer: Help us, Heavenly Father, to believe that You love us too much to abandon us, care for us too much to harm us and too gracious to keep what we need from us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture for Today: Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

His lifelong ambition was to become the CEO of the successful business his father founded. He dreamed about the day he would have a corner office overlooking the skyline of New York with a secretary to bring him coffee each morning.

Then reality set in. The day before he was to begin his career his father said, “Son, you'll start at the bottom just as I did. Your first job will to be to water the hundreds of plants in our building.”

His hopes dashed and his dreams shattered, he refused to become discouraged. The next morning he came to work with his new business card that read: “Plant Manager.”

We cannot always control our circumstances but we can control our attitude. Whatever happens in our lives happens because God has something special for us to do in that particular situation. This does not mean that what happens to us is good. Rather, it means that God is able to turn every circumstance of our lives into something that will eventually be good for us. We must remember that God is not working to make us happy. He is working in us to complete the work that began in our lives when we received Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. His goal is to fashion and form us into the likeness of His Son so that we will be enabled and equipped to fulfill the purpose He has for us.

Prayer: Help us, Father, to refuse to be disturbed or destroyed by the disappointments of life. May we accept and believe that all things work together for our good. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Scripture for Today: Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.