Recognize Jesus
“As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Luke 1:44-45
Isn’t it amazing that the first person to recognize Jesus was an unborn child?
We could take this devotional a million different directions, but today we are going to focus on recognizing Jesus and God in every aspect of your life.
When something happens, good or bad, can you see God’s hand in it? Do you take time to give him credit for the experience he just gave you?
Elizabeth did. She exclaimed after the baby leaped in her womb, “blessed are you among women.” She knew God was there and she gave full credit to him for the baby recognizing Jesus.
Take a second to look around you. Can you see where God is working in your life? Maybe it was finding what you needed at the grocery store. Or getting a promotion, or maybe not getting that promotion. Possibly it was getting to see sea turtles released back into the ocean. Being able to eat, having the senses you do (sight, hearing, smell, touch). You see God is in every aspect of our lives. We just have to recognize it and give him FULL credit.
Why is it then that we struggle to recognize him today when an unborn child can feel his presence.
One reason, that I know of, is that we try to find answers to everything. Here are a few examples. Rainbows appear because the water allows us to see the ultraviolet rays that come from the sun. The Grand Canyon was formed by “100 of millions of years” of water erosion. We got to work safely today because we have a nice reliable vehicle.
While some of these are true, the fact is that without God none of these would be possible.
Even more, we need to give God full credit for everything. From the smallest details of our lives to the biggest events that happen.
Today take a few moments to think about how God is working in your life. But don’t stop there. Next, give him FULL credit for everything! From the smallest details all the way up to the most amazing thing has happened in your life. Give him credit because he is the one that shows you where to go and what to do.
Prayer
God, today we come to you to give you full credit for everything in our lives. We want to give you credit for designing the rainbow, for making the Grand Canyon, the deep blue oceans, the tides that go in and out every day. We want to give you credit for allowing us to be able to feel and to see the wonders you made. Thank you for everything that you have ever given to us. Thank you for the things that we might not see as blessings, but we know that you always have our best interests at heart. God, we know that you are alive and working every day in our lives in so many ways. We want to give you FULL credit for everything. Thank you for allowing John, Elizabeth’s baby, to recognize Jesus to help give us faith. Thank you.
Amen
Will you pray with us?
Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation
All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel
For all military personal serving our country and their families
Those in Leadership positions throughout the world
Prayer
Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts. We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us. We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us. And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.
We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name
Amen
A Little More
The other day I got a call from one of our clients.
I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.
“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”
My smile immediately vanished.
I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.
So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?”
To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.
They gave me the details.
My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.
But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.
My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.
I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.
so……
I made sure not to smile when I made the call. I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!
That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.
Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!
Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal. I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad.
Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.
The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.
No problem. Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.
Well……..
After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.
Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.
I told him that I would NOT make any promises.
But my team went to work!
Guess what????
We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.
My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.
Here’s the point of all this.
When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.
That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.
Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol
Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!
Dan Greer
