You Are Not Alone
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9
When was the last time that you had doubt?
You are not alone my friend. I have doubt every single day. That doubt is Satan working his crafty magic. The same as the Egyptian magicians worked their magic when Moses talked to Pharaoh.
Satan loves to make us doubt God’s plans for us. He loves to make us have doubt in ourselves. He loves it when we give up because we get discouraged.
Here’s the good thing. God still loves us. He loves us so much that he continues to give us support, even when we doubt his plans. There is one thing that you can count on, God never gives up! No matter the cost.
A few things that you can do today to help keep your courage is to believe that whatever happening right now, IS happening for a reason. If you just lost job, God has your back and is going to open a better door. If you just got a promotion, give that credit to God. No matter what is happening God deserves credit for it.
What if Joseph would have lost his courage when Potiphar’s wife all but begged him to sleep with her? Would he have been able to save his entire family throughout the famine? What if Daniel’s friends would have doubted God’s ability to keep them from burning to death in furnace? A whole kingdom would have not been able to see how mighty and powerful our God is.
Life if full of “truths” like these. If you look back at your life, can you see any? Do you find any times where you wanted something other than what you received but still didn’t lose courage. You continued to persevere God’s knowledge and wisdom. A time where it cost you so much, or so you thought, but in the end it really happened so that you would be in the right place.
I remember in the past I applied for an awesome job. It had great pay, great benefits, great work environment, and to top it off it was local. God knew that if I had gotten that job then I would have not been motivated to move to where we are today. I would have never started writing devotionals. We would have never created the God First, Life Next website. www.GodFirstLN.org He knew where I needed to be. All I had to do was trust in him and not lose courage that he should guide me to where I really needed to be.
The next time you start to get discouraged, take a moment, and look around. What has God given you?
I encourage you to stay strong and not loose courage. Don’t doubt God’s plan for you. Don’t let Satan win.
Prayer
Lord we come to you today asking for help. We ask for your help to keep us strong, help us to have courage, and also to help us to not have fear. Lord, we know that YOU have a plan for us. We know that you knew us before we were ever born. We know that you are awesome. Help us to know that we are awesome too. God we pray that you would help to open our eyes, heart, and mind to know that your plan for us is so much bigger then we could ever imagine. We thank you for never losing sight in us. We thank you for giving us the strength and courage to move forward, throughout every situation. Lord we thank you for the sacrifices that you have made for us. Thank you for everything.
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
All those suffering from the effects of COVID-19
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
