One of the gifts from God is to Accept your lot for now.

One of the gifts from God is to "Accept your lot--for now Ecclesiastes 5:19 If you get quiet in your spirit and allow yourself to discern the Lord's voice; you will realize that He is telling you, "Accept your lot--for now." He wants you to be satisfied and content with your present circumstances, while you wait on Him to lead you into better things. Actively pray and stand in faith for His very best outcome in your situation. And through the process, maintain an attitude of gratitude, and a sense of peace.

"Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, with prayer and petition be thankful, and continue to make your wants known to God." (Philippians 4:6) Even if you’re in a disappointing situation, keep your heart filled with gratitude for what He's already done in your life.

Once you decide to be "content with [your] earthly lot," you will experience the peace of mind and heart that will enable you to go on and enjoy your life while you wait for the Lord to act on your behalf.

Never being satisfied with your circumstances will rob you of your peace, and steal your joy, which is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10) Then you’ll become weak and weary over even the littlest things. You’ll lose your focus and become unfruitful. Your lack of satisfaction will begin to consume you, and it eventually affects your relationships and your health.

As long as you are looking to God to meet your needs, you can be sure that His help is on the way. "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Being grateful and content with your circumstances opens the door to divine blessings, rewards, and opportunities.

If you are in a disappointing place right now, make a quality decision to get joyful and thankful right where you are. Believe God for better things--and The Father will open the door to peace and provision that belong to those who are Saved through Christ!

Don’t just act joyful Be genuinely joyful.

You are not just to act joyful, but to be genuinely joyful. It is a matter of will, not of feelings, and should be your conscious, determined commitment from you as a faithful believer. And because God commands it, it is within your ability, the Spirit’s provides, to every true Christian. When you have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, even the worst of troubles should be cause for thanksgiving and rejoicing.

The more you rejoice in your trials, the more you realize that they are not liabilities but privileges, ultimately beneficial and not harmful, no matter how destructive and painful the immediate experience of them might appear. When you face trials with the attitude that God is giving a warning, you can discover that the greatest part of the joy is drawing closer to the Source of all joy the Lord. Through Gods warnings you become more sensitive to His presence, His goodness, His love, and His grace. Your prayer life increases, as does your interest in and study of the Word, and in each of those ways your joy increases all the more.

You will learn to be content in whatever circumstances you are in. You’ll know how to get along with humble means, and you’ll also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance you learn the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and in suffering. Your values determine your evaluations. If you value comfort more than character, then trials will upset you. If you value the material and physical more than the spiritual, you will not be able to ‘count it all joy!’ If you live only for the present and forget the future, the trials will make you bitter, not better.

You will develop sturdiness by repeatedly being tested and prevailing. The more tests you pass, the more strength you will have. “No temptation has overtaken you but what is common to humans; and God is faithful, He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

This is the end result of trials: Maturity, Completeness, Not Lacking in anything of spiritual importance and value. “After you have suffered for a little while,” 1 Pet. 5:10: “The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” Trials are Privileges they bring you closer to the Source of all joy.

When doubting the truth of God's Word

When doubting the truth of God's Word, you open the door for Satan to come into your family to “steal, kill and destroy.” (John 10:10) When you don't take God at His Word, you become open to all kinds of wrong philosophies--those belonging to the world and Satan. In Colossians 2:8: Don't let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world. But what's just as important is for you to BELIEVE it. Hebrews 4:2 says that when you don't believe the Word of God, it will have “no value” to you. It's up to you to choose to believe it. When you do, the Lord promises to make it effectual for you so you can walk in victory in every area of your life.

When you study the Bible and believe the Word as the words from Living God, you will receive more joy and peace in your life than ever before. But let doubt and unbelief creep in, and you’ll begin to experience depression, anxiety and despair. When you begin to doubt God's Word, you open the door for the enemy to come in and invade your mind with destructive thoughts and attitudes.

One of the most valuable aspects about taking God at His Word is that it will give you stability. Ephesians 5:14-15 : “You will no longer be like children, forever changing your mind about what you believe because someone has told you something different and made the lie sound like the truth. Instead hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ.” Satan is constantly looking for ways he can cause you to doubt God's Word, because he knows that if he can succeed, if he can get you to believe his lies, he can control your life and rob you of the good things that God has in store for you.

Ask God to give you a renewed and steadfast faith in His Word. And if you’re tempted to doubt that The Bible is Gods divine Words remind yourself that your unbelief will cost you a lot more than you’re willing to pay.

The PRODIGAL SON breaks his father’s heart

The PRODIGAL SON does not break the rules as much as he breaks his father’s heart. Do you know when you have broken your Heavenly Father’s heart? You do it every time you resist his control, refuse his guidance and renounce his goodness as the source of your life. You have packed up your share of the inheritance and have left the Father as if never to come back. The PRODIGAL son goes off to the “far Country” which in life means the realm of rebellion. It is a deliberate act of departure. He renounced his dependent son ship. Each has DRIFTED into a similar condition.  First it is little things. Then you’re plans, your money, your deepest relationships, finally your heart. And too proud to admit your lost condition to others or even yourself. Prayer becomes difficult or hardly exists at all. God’s guidance for your life seems irrelevant. He seems too far away.

The PRODIGAL son’s money runs out. His hunger along with famine drives him to become a day laborer, essentially a slave without rights. He had left his home because he wanted to be free to be himself, but attached to his new master, he found out how shallow that was.

And at the bottom he saw himself as he truly was. It isn’t easy to take an honest look at yourself. You resist it as long as you can. To face your complicated personality traits which are the real you it’s hard and frightening to see the destructiveness of your behavior and the selfishness of your actions. When you see the independence of your ways and you call it all by its right name: SIN. And that leads to the realization “Why am I living this way? Just get up and go to the Father and say to him, ‘Father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight!’”Notice that the PRODIGAL son’s father did not step in to save his son from life’s reality in the far country. There were no guardians to soften the blows he felt. The father loved him so much that he allowed him to experience the shame and come to himself. That’s prodigal love. Ever asked why God do you send trials and difficulties. He doesn’t have to. Life offers and sends enough of its own. God waits until you ask, “What is the meaning in this?” “What am I to learn?”

If you come a little way to God, when you are "yet a great way off" He will run to meet you. God has a way of seeing you the way you cannot understand. He sees right through you at a glance, as if you were made of glass; He sees all your past, present and future. The grace of God does not operate as you think All God wants is for you to come home and receive forgiveness. (Luke 15:11-32)

Just as Paul: God has allowed you a thorn in the flesh.

Just as Paul: God has allowed you a thorn in the flesh, a something to remind you that while you’re in the Flesh your Incomplete, you’re unclean, Deserving of Punishment without Jesus. The Thorn is to keep you from exalting yourself! 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

You live in a world of instant self-gratification and most even promote this attitude…they teach that “you deserve to be healthy and wealthy, and free of pain. You have the Worlds expectations of the kind of life you’re suppose to have or what you’ve been taught you should have. The kind of life that you feel you are entitled to, and so when things don’t go the way you expect (which of course, hardly ever does), you feel betrayed, that somehow God has let you down. You see, many have made an hidden bargain with God – “God, I’ll believe in you, and come to church on Sunday, and put my two cents into the basket, and try to lead a good life. And in exchange, you make sure that things go smoothly for me. See to it that nothing really bad happens, and that I’m able to enjoy at least a comfortable middle class existence. Because that’s what I deserve as a faithful, obedient Christian.

God’s primary purpose for you in this life is not to make you happy, but to make you holy. And since He is sovereign over everything, that means that everything in your life – your job, your family, and your church – everything in your life is designed to accomplish that goal. God is not opposed to you being happy, but He wants your happiness to come from knowing Him. He wants you to experience peace and Joy in His presence. These are things that go deeper than happiness, and will not be found in your ideal about what you deserve. The most loving thing that God can do for you is give you what is best for you. And you need to trust that He knows what is best better than what you do.

Don’t be deceived by the world by your ideals. If you live a life for Christ it isn’t going to be a cake walk. You’re going to find very difficult times. You will experience trials, and hardships, just like every other person on earth. The truth of the matter is, you are blessed to not get what you deserve. God’s whole purpose for you is to make you Holy. That is, He is going to keep you Humble.

The way to move faith

The way to move faith from that 'head stuff' to a living faith is Prayer. In prayer you go from thinking about or talking about God or even talking to God, to talking with God and listening when God calls. It's a trust commitment in God; who you cannot by normal earthly means even know is there. You pray trusting, or maybe just hoping, that God will act on what you pray about. The life of faith is a life of trusting that God is at work on your concerns and working on you. When you discover that the world around you is both natural and supernatural, then it make sense that communicating with God is of great value.

The Spirit moves you to turn to God in prayer and He brings to your mind that there is hope in doing so, and makes you aware of the truth and the need. The Spirit prays with you, and when you reach the point where your praying becomes too much for you, the Spirit picks it up and keeps it running.  

Praying is not a form of wishing. A wish is a desire or longing for some specific thing. Wishful thinking is expressed almost like a petition: I wish I could have it. A wish is not rooted in reality, but fantasy; it is, something the wish-er knows they can't or shouldn't have. You want your wish to come true because it's something that would please you. A wish is not entirely a bad thing; it may be the way you start to dream of what is to come. You have to be part of making it happen. It is merely a 'wish' when you ask God to send you a woman to love, yet you rarely leave your home and even more rarely meet anyone new. It is merely a 'wish' if you ask to be healthy, but then chain-smoke, lounge on the couch. God does not honor that. God honors it when you start exercising and dieting -- that is, when you take responsibility for your part in it.

When you pray and specifically trust God with the matter. You're calling on God to act, trusting that God will do what is ultimately best. It is a "thy will be done" way of being. You're asking God to expand your understanding and insight, to give guidance, to grant forgiveness, to show you what gifts have been given to you, or to act for the sake of someone else. This is not about longings or short-lived concerns. Prayer is a crucial step in your doing your part of what God is doing in this world. For in it, you discover what your part is. Your will may not be done; something better may well be done instead. God makes what is prayed for become real, by working in you and in others to make it happen.

You will experience problems in this life.

You will experience problems in this life. Some are more severe than others, but all are of Satan. Read the story of creation and you will not find where God created problems for Humans. He did not create financial woes. He did not create mental anguish. He did not create sickness. All those things are born of the devil. What God did create, though, is help for you when you experience those problems. Things can be going okay in your life, and then out of nowhere, you can be hit hard with something very hard to cope with. And from that point on, you are no longer the same as you were. There are times when your life can seem broken and in need of fixing. Instead of going to the Father for help, you try your best to figure out how to fix it yourself. And most of the time your unable to fix it.

The most difficult thing to understand in life is why pain, problems and suffering are a part of it. If you’re not careful, contemplating "Why?” will leave you bitter and cynical. Spending all your time pondering about why your world is broken does little to mend it. Be very careful when trying to figure things out. You don’t like to admit it, but you are severely limited in your abilities to do it. It is better to pray about things you don’t understand and then just turn them over to God. If He wants you to understand them, He will give me that understanding. If He doesn’t, don’t waste your time or His by trying to fix something that may or may not be broken.

Everyone who finds refuge in God will find redemption and not be condemned. In other words, if you take refuge in the Lord, He will take care of you when you are broken. That does not mean He will take all your problems away, though. Problems actually do you good. When you are broken, go to the Lord and let Him fix the pieces back together again. He is your delight. He is your Healer. He is your great physician. And it is He who covers you with His love and protection. Seek shelter in Him with a spirit that willingly yields control of your life over to Him. A spirit that says, “Okay, Lord. I cannot help myself any more. I need help and You are the only One who can give it to me.”