IT'S YOUR TIME

Courtesy of Dale Brown...http://coachdalebrown.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-your-time.html

I hope you will enjoy summary from Joel Osteen's book, It's Your Time.

A global recession has forced many to postpone their dreams and cancel their
plans. You may have lost your job. You may have lost your savings, maybe even
your home. It could be that you have health concerns or relationship problems.
Maybe you are frustrated because it’s taking so long to get where you want to be
in your life. Yet now is not the time to talk yourself out of your goals and
dreams. Now is not the time to get discouraged. You may feel you have so far
to go. But the truth is, you don’t know. Your dream may just be up around the
corner. You may think it will take another two years. But if you stay in
faith, who knows? It may just be two more months. You are closer than you
think.

God wants to breathe new life into your dreams. He wants to breathe new hope
into your heart. You may be about to give up on a marriage, on a troubled
child, on a lifelong goal. But God wants you to hold on. He says that if
you’ll get your second wind, if you’ll put on a new attitude and press forward
like you’re headed down the final stretch, you’ll see Him begin to do amazing
things.

You are closer than you think to a better life, a richer relationship, a
healthier body.

Rewards await you if you stay steadfast in your faith.

Before you see a new level of God’s favor, don’t be surprised if things come
against you to try to discourage you. People may try to talk you out of your
dreams, to convince you to just settle where you are.

It’s difficult when we go through a time of loss. There’s a proper time for
grieving. But we can’t let a season of mourning turn into a lifetime of
mourning.

When you feel like dying, you should talk about living. When you feel like
giving up, you should talk about pressing forward. When you don’t see any way
out, you must talk about how God can make a way. And know this: The enemy
always fights you the hardest when he knows God has something great in store.

When the bottom falls out and it looks like you hit an all-time low . . . when
it just couldn’t get any worse . . . you don’t know what God has around the
corner. That is not the time to get bitter. That’s not the time to get
negative. That is the time to put your shoulders back and boldly declare: “My
time is coming. I am a victor and not a victim.”

No matter how long it’s been, no matter how tempted you are to get discouraged,
get up every morning and just declare it by faith: “My time is coming. The
promise is in me, and I will not die until I see it come to pass.”

When you feel intimidated, like you can’t do something that you know on the
inside you should do, just remind yourself: “I have the DNA of Almighty God.
He breathed His life into me. I will not drag around feeling discouraged,
intimidated, and inferior. I know I’ve been equipped with everything I need. I
can do all things through Christ, and I will fulfill my God-given destiny.”

If you’ll have that attitude and keep pressing forward, believing, expecting,
then those genes of favor, increase, talent, and promotion will activate and
help take you to new levels.

If you get rid of any kind of negative, defeated attitude and simply stay in
faith, you will see good things released in your future—new seasons of increase,
new seasons of favor.

You must shake off any feelings of inferiority or low self-esteem. Put your
shoulders back. Hold your head up high. You are a child of the Most High God.
You have His royal blood flowing through your veins.

Maybe you’ve made mistakes, poor choices. You feel like you’re washed up or
that you are supposed to just endure life. But God is saying, “If you’ll ask,
I’ll give you a new beginning.”

Keep your faith flowing even when there is no hope in sight. Dare to dream big
and pray boldly, especially—yes, especially—when there is no hope in sight!

Challenging times have served as catalysts for creativity, innovation, and
accomplishment throughout human history.

Make up your mind that no matter what comes your way, no matter how difficult,
no matter how unfair, you will do more than simply survive. You will thrive in
spite of it.

Keeping God first, believing and expecting His favor, then as His branches, we
will not survive, we will thrive!

Still, you have to keep your faith out there. Negative voices will try to steal
your dreams and talk you into settling for life as it is.

If you believe to barely get by, you will barely get by.

If you believe that you will have a tough year, your faith will draw that in.

You must believe it before you see it.

Psychologists and researchers who study “hope theory” have found that focusing
on solutions increases our capacity to reach our goals while lifting our spirits
in the process.

What you mediate on takes root. If you go around all day thinking about your
fears, and you play those fears out over and over again in your mind, they will
become your reality.

Your fears are almost always greater than the reality.

Don’t accept difficult days as the way it will always be. You may be a little
bent right now because of hard winds, but that’s not permanent. Those winds,
that storm, that trouble, that sickness, will not last forever. When the ill
winds stop blowing, and they will, know that this too shall pass.

You will rise again. Why? You’ve got that bounce-back power. Life will hand
you disappointments and setbacks. You and I are like the palm tree. We may bet
battered and beat up, but we will return stronger than we were before.

Nothing you are going through can keep you from your God-given destiny. You
have bounced back before and you will do it again. You may be a little bent
because of the strong winds, but the good news is, you’re not broken and you
will bounce back again.

Everyone goes through adversity. We’ve all had hard times. Maybe you were
struck down by an illness or laid off from your job. Your savings were cut in
half. A relationship went bad.

It’s easy to become negative and bitter and to lose your enthusiasm for life.
So many people live in the past and focus on who hurt them. They have a victim
mentality, always blaming someone else.

Maybe you’ve made poor choices. You’ve made some mistakes and opened the door
to trouble. Now comes the condemning voice. The accuser tells you, “You blew
it. It’s your fault. You can’t expect anything good.”

No, you’ve got to shake that off and say, “I may have brought trouble upon
myself, but I know God’s mercy is bigger than any mistakes I’ve made. I will
not live with guilt. I will not give up on my dreams. I know I’m growing. I’m
learning. And in the end, God will use it all to my advantage.”

If you run from your problems and turn negative and sour, really, you’re running
from your destiny. If you’ll learn to run to your problem, face it in faith,
knowing that God is in control, knowing that He can become what you need, then
you are running to your destiny.

To stay focused on your dreams, you may have to tune out negative voices coming
from others and from within too.

Many people let doubts take a stronghold in their minds. Something negative was
spoken over them, they believed it, and suddenly it’s holding them back. The
first step to dealing with doubts is to determine how they were planted. Was it
a family member who said you’d never be successful? Was it a teacher who
predicted you’d never get an A? Was it a friend who said you’ll never break
your addiction?

Just because they didn’t see it, just because they couldn’t do it, doesn’t mean
you can’t make it happen. Reprogram your thinking. Break free from the
strongholds of doubt.

Ask yourself, “Who told me I don’t have what it takes?” “Who told me I’m just
average?” “Who told me I’m not talented enough?”

People don’t determine our destiny; God does.

Don’t make the mistake of comparing yourself with others.

It’s when we try to be something we’re not that life gets frustrating.

Don’t get discouraged, give up, or settle just because it didn’t happen one
way. Keep knocking. Keep believing. Keep hoping. Keep dreaming. You may
hear ten people tell you no before you come to that one yes. But that one yes
will make up for all the other noes. You may have a dozen things that you’ve
tried that didn’t work out, but if you’ll stay in faith, you’ll come to that one
thing that does work out.

When you truly believe, it sets a series of events into motion.