"Preservation"

 "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." (John 10:9 KJV)

  "You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever." (Psalm 23:5-6 NLT)

 Whether or not you know this, this is not our home, so we shouldn't stress or lose any sleep over any of things that might be happening in this world. As a matter of fact, this particular verse has a message to us regarding something about living in this world, good or bad, we will always find peace! 

 I know I shared on this before, but anything that reminds me of the peace Jesus gives, becomes another time to share it again. When I got saved, I was in jail, which actually means, I was locked up and not free to go anywhere I wanted to go. Amazingly, that really didn't matter to me anymore, because I had peace and felt as though I was right where God wanted me, no matter where I was, He was there with me! 

 Couple that with the fellowship I had with fellow believers, my life there was always filled with joy and peace; even though I could not be with my family, I always had family with me. I always prayed for my wife and son; and I missed them dearly. But God was doing something special in my life, and I needed to be wherever God would have me to be.

 This might not seem like such a big deal, but no matter what might happen in this crazy world, if you still have breath in your lungs, you still have something to do! Even if that simply requires you to pray, we always need people that will pray; for, pastors need prayer, your families need prayer, your appointed leaders need prayer; if you feel led, you might even pray for yourself! 

 As a matter of fact, don't ever feel as though you shouldn't pray for yourself, as if that is selfish or you really don't need to be concerned with yourself; because you need all the help you can get! Yes, we have peace and joy, guaranteed; but we are also bombarded with disappointment, discouragement, and disasters, more than we might otherwise like.

 Whatever happens, never give up! Keep on praying and never stop believing...

"We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies." (2 Corinthians 4:7-10 NLT)