en-us Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:33:23 -0400 http://www.joelosteen.com Ephesians 2:10 says that “We are God’s masterpiece.” That means you are not average. You are not ordinary. You are one of a kind. When God created you He went to great lengths to make you exactly the way He wanted. You didn’t just happen to get your personality. You didn’t just accidentally get your nose, your skin color, your gifts or abilities. God designed you the way you are on purpose, for a purpose. The Apostle Paul said, “We should be to the praise of God’s glory.” In this passage, he’s not talking about giving God praise with our words, although that is important. He’s encouraging us to make our lives a living praise to Him! When you understand your value, and not only who you are but Whose you are, then your very existence will give God praise. When you are secure in who God made you, and you go out each day being your best, your life will give God praise. In other words, driving to work you’re giving God praise. Mowing the lawn you’re giving God praise. Going to the grocery store you’re giving God praise. Walking through the mall you’re giving God praise! Honor God today by accepting who you are. Make the decision to be the best you can be. Get up every morning and set your mind in the right direction by making positive affirmations over your life: “I’m the apple of God’s eye. I’m His masterpiece. His fingerprints are all over me.” If you will learn to accept and approve yourself and have a right opinion about who you are then you’re going to rise higher. God is going to pour out His blessings and you will live that life of victory that God has in store! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 01:01:03 -0500 932394 Everyone has things that would be considered in-completions: dreams that have not yet come to pass, promises that have not yet been fulfilled in our health, finances, or family. Maybe you’ve been praying and believing for something for many years. Don’t be tempted to think that it’s never going to happen. God desires to finish what He started in your life. The Scripture says in Philippians 1:6, “Be confident of this: He who began a good work in you will continue to perform it until it’s perfectly complete.” Be encouraged today because God is called the Author and the Finisher of your faith�'which means He’s constantly working behind the scenes in your life. Anything He began, any dream He put in your heart, He is well-able to finish. Stay in faith, guard your heart, and keep your hopes up! God has promised He will complete your in-completions! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:49 -0500 725042 Do you ever feel overburdened by the cares of this world or have days full of anxiety or stress? God wants to make your life easier. He wants you to be free and living each day full of peace. He wants to assist you and give you special advantages every single day. Isaiah 30:18 says, “ God earnestly longs to be gracious to you … to have mercy on you and show you His loving-kindness.” His grace, mercy and loving-kindness are all part of His favor. When you learn how to tap into God’s favor, you’ll have a tremendous advantage! God’s favor will cause you to be promoted even though you weren’t the most qualified. God’s favor will open a door for you that may not open for someone else. Endless advantages come when you learn to walk in God’s favor. Activate your faith in this area by declaring God’s favor in your life everyday. As you expect His favor, God will do unusual and extraordinary things in your life and you’ll live the life of victory that God has in store for you today! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:47 -0500 735319 http://www.joelosteen.com Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:45 -0500 749035 http://www.joelosteen.com Your imagination is extremely powerful! God created you as a visual being. Choosing the right images in your mind’s eye is important because your life will move in the direction of your thoughts. Visualization is simply seeing yourself the way you want to be. It’s creating a picture in your mind of you accomplishing your goals, overcoming obstacles, and fulfilling your God-given destiny. The Bible says in Proverbs that “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The way you see yourself in your mind’s eye, over time, will drop down into your heart. If you’ll create a picture in your imagination of something you want or a dream coming to pass and keep it in front of you, then you will move in that direction. Get up every morning and picture yourself succeeding! Picture yourself healthy and whole! Picture yourself and your family not only being blessed, but being a bigger blessing to others. If you’ll keep the right images in front of you and always submit them to the Lord through prayer and thanksgiving, God promises that nothing will be impossible to you! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:42 -0500 758665 The people you choose to associate with and the people you choose as friends have tremendous impact on whether or not you fulfill your God-given destiny. You will become like the people you continually spend time with. If you associate with successful people, you increase your chances of being successful. If you associate with people who have a big vision, people who have big dreams, and people who are going places, they will inspire you to accomplish more than you ever thought possible! But remember, just the opposite is also true. If you hang around lazy, undisciplined people who are negative and critical, then their defeated mentality will affect you. That’s why it’s so important that you choose the right people to associate with. If you’ll be selective about whom you associate with, you will rise higher and higher. God will pour out His blessings and favor, and you’ll live the life of victory He has in store for you! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:38 -0500 770120 Every day, the opportunity to get upset and offended presents itself. In the Bible, the word “offense” comes from the Greek word that means, “bait.” When you’re tempted to be offended, when someone is rude to you or inconsiderate, recognize that the enemy is offering you bait. He knows that if he can steal your peace, he can steal your victory. The good news is that you don’t have to take the bait! You don’t have to go around upset, bitter, and offended�'even when someone wrongs you. Keeping peace in your heart is more important than holding on to anger and bitterness. You can wake up every morning and decide to live free from offenses. You can choose to live in God’s peace. When offenses do come, learn to forgive quickly. Don’t allow the offense to take root in your heart. If you’ll do your part and keep your heart free from offenses, you’ll not only enjoy life more, but your relationships with others will improve. God will pour out His abundant blessing and favor in your life and you’ll live in freedom the way God intends! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:34 -0500 790289 http://www.joelosteen.com Did you know that the quality of your relationships directly effect your happiness? You can have all the money in the world, you can have your health, you can have great opportunities in front of you, but if you don’t have good relationships you’re not going to enjoy your life very much. Most of the time, it’s not the big things that hold people back in relationships, it’s the small things. If you will be willing to make minor adjustments, very often, you’ll see major improvements. Study those around you and learn what they like and don’t like. Look for ways that you can improve your relationships. Maybe you can change your voice tones so people can receive from you more easily. Maybe you can become a better listener. Do your part to come up higher in this area. Take time to sow into the people that you really love. I believe if you’ll make some of these simple changes you’ll see major improvements. Your relationships will get better and better. You’ll have more peace, more joy, more harmony in your homes�'and you’ll live the life of victory that God has in store! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:31 -0500 800130 http://www.joelosteen.com God has placed dreams and desires in each of our hearts. Are you believing for something that seems to be taking a long time? Are you tempted to quit? Maybe you’ve already given up on that dream. Today is a new day�'it’s time for you to get your fire back! It may be taking a long time, but God is faithful! He promises to complete the work He began in your life. Don’t fall into the temptation to get complacent and think it’s never going to happen. Right now, whether you see it or not, God is working behind the scenes and arranging things in your favor. When you develop an attitude of expectancy, you open the door to His miracle-working power in your life. Decide today to declare His Word and speak words of victory. Start declaring today, “My time is coming...God is working behind the scenes on my behalf…I will fulfill my destiny…I will fulfill the plan God has for my life!” As you declare and expect God to move, your faith will grow. Your hope will grow. Keep expecting and waiting for the appointed time. As you do, you’ll step into the victorious destiny God has planned for you! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:29 -0500 807152 http://www.joelosteen.com God created you to be successful. Before the foundation of the world, He laid out an exact plan for your life. In this plan, He has marked moments that come across your path. These moments are not ordinary. They are destiny-altering moments. They are designed to thrust you years ahead. It says in Ecclesiastes 9:11 that “time and chance come together for every person.” That means you’ll have opportunities to meet the right people, opportunities to advance in your career, opportunities to fulfill your dreams. God has already pre-arranged times of increase and blessing. You may not be seeing a lot of breaks right now, but in your future, there are seasons of favor and increase. There are God-ordained moments that He’s already planned out for you. Don’t miss these moments! Don’t get distracted by the cares of this world, and don’t stop believing! If you’ll go out each day with an attitude of expectancy, you’ll rise higher and higher, and you will see more of God’s blessing and favor in your life. As you embrace those God-given opportunities, you will live the life of victory He has in store! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:28 -0500 819577 http://www.joelosteen.com It’s easy to get stuck in a rut in life�'to stop expecting things to improve, to quit growing or pressing forward. That’s when negative thoughts come that say you’ve reached your limits, or you’re never going to accomplish your goals. But you don’t have to accept those lies. Our God is a God of increase. He never wants us to go backwards, only forward. Sure, there are seasons when you may not see a lot of growth. There are seasons when you have to dig your heels in and fight the good fight of faith. Stand and believe that no matter what’s come against you, no matter how unfair something was, things are shifting in your favor. Every setback is simply a setup for a comeback! God not only wants to bring you out, He wants to bring you out better off than you were before. Begin to declare this over your life today. Declare that you are walking into new seasons of increase, new seasons in your health, new seasons in your finances, new seasons in your relationships. This is your set time for favor. You may have been rejected in the past, but you’re going to be accepted in the future. You may have been pushed down in days gone by, but in this season, you’re going to be lifted up. God is going to make your enemies your footstools. Thank Him that your set time for favor is here. Thank Him that your hour of deliverance has come. As you do, you’ll rise out of mediocrity. You’ll defeat every enemy, overcome every obstacle, and you’ll live that life of victory God has in store! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:26 -0500 829170 http://www.joelosteen.com God has already released good things into your future. When God laid out the plan for your life, He lined up the right people, the right circumstances, and the right breaks. In your future, He's already released favor, supernatural opportunities, and divine connections. The breaks you need in life have already been preordained to come across your path. If you will stay in faith and go out each day and be a person of excellence, you'll walk into these appointments of favor. It will be just as if you stumbled into God's blessings! When you really understand this principal, you'll begin to get excited about every sing day! You'll have a spring in your step as you think about what blessing is coming next! It could be today. It could be tomorrow. It could be next week. Keep expecting. Keep believing. Stay focused on the fact that God has already released into your future everything you need to fulfill your destiny. Start declaring seasons of increase over your life. Declare that the favor is on you and opportunities are coming. As you do, you'll move forward into the favor and blessing God has ordered for you! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:23 -0500 843390 http://www.joelosteen.com Everyone has times in life when they receive criticism from others. Someone may be talking about you, trying to make you look bad or blowing things out of proportion. Don’t sink down to their level, become defensive and try to prove that you are right and they are wrong. When you encounter criticism, shake it off and let it go. This is what Jesus told his disciples. He sent them out to different towns to teach people and care for their needs, but Jesus knew they would suffer rejection. In Matthew 10:14, Jesus said, “When you go into a town, whoever will not receive and welcome your message, when you leave that place, shake the dust off of your feet.” In other words, let God be your vindicator. Everyone will not understand you or accept you so just run your race and stay focused on what God has called you to do. Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:22 -0500 520582 http://www.joelosteen.com God desires that you be so blessed that you can turn around and be a blessing everywhere you go! He wants you to have so much peace, so much joy, so much victory that when other people get around you it spills over onto them! In the book of Psalms, David said, “My cup runs over.” He was overflowing with the anointing�'the tangible, effective power of God. Too many people today have a barely-get-by-mentality. They settle for thoughts like, “I can barely pay my bills…I have an okay job…I have an okay marriage.” But Jesus came so we can live an abundant life! That means an abundance of joy, an abundance of peace, an abundance of health, an abundance of finances. You may not see it right now, and maybe you haven’t experienced it in the past, but don’t get complacent and just settle for where you are. Get a vision for your future! Get a vision for increase! Get a vision for Abundance! Psalm 35:27 says, “Let them say continually, ‘Let the Lord be magnified Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His children.’” God delights to see you prosperous and successful. When you choose to think God’s thoughts and choose God’s way, you’ll see that increase and victory in every area of your life. Now is the time to move forward and live the abundant life God has planned for you! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:20 -0500 864972 http://www.joelosteen.com God has equipped you with everything you need to fulfill your destiny. The Scripture tells us that as believers in Jesus Christ, we are anointed. The word “anointing” is the power of God which gives you courage, strength, and ability. That means you are well-able to do what He has called you to do. You can accomplish your goals. You have the ideas, the creativity and talent to be successful. You can overcome any obstacle! You’ve been armed with strength for every battle! The forces that are with you are greater than the forces that are against you! Being anointed means that you are fully equipped for everything God has called you to. God has already lined up the right people to come across your path. He’s already lined up the right breaks. You have everything you need to live a victorious life. You were created to excel! You have seeds of greatness on the inside of you. You may not have seen it in the past but if you’ll stay in faith it’s just a matter of time. It’s on its way. Don’t settle where you are. Don’t have weak, defeated mentality. No, put your shoulders back. Have the attitude, “I am anointed. I can accomplish my dreams. I can overcome any obstacle. I’ve been equipped and empowered by the Creator of the universe! I am fully equipped to live the abundant life God as in store!” Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:18 -0500 885400 http://www.joelosteen.com Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:17 -0500 908350 http://www.joelosteen.com Have the words and opinions of other people caused you to water down your dreams? One of the most important things you can learn is that other people don’t set the limits for your life. Other people don’t have to believe in you in order for your dreams to come to pass. There will always be critics and naysayers. The negative voices come at everyone. But other people don’t determine your destiny, you do. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:3, “What if they don’t believe? Will their lack of faith make the faith of God of no effect?” This verse is saying, “It doesn’t matter if other people don’t believe. Their unbelief is not going to keep me from believing in my dreams.” When God puts a promise in your heart, it’s not up to other people to bring it to pass, it’s up to you! You don’t need everyone to validate you. You don’t need to get confirmation from all your friends. You have to follow the voice of God for yourself and allow Him to order your steps. God sees the hidden treasures that you’ve had buried on the inside of you. He wants to bring those treasures out and make your dreams reality! As you stir your faith up and water those seeds they will take root, and you will accomplish things that you never even thought possible! It doesn’t matter what negative things have been spoken over you in the past, God’s blessing is greater than any curse! Begin to speak words of life and faith over yourself. As you get rid of those old, defeated thoughts, and replace them with what God says about you, you will rise higher and live the abundant life God has in store for you! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:14 -0500 898896 http://www.joelosteen.com God has equipped each one of us with specific gifts and talents. When God made you He knew how high you could jump, how fast you could run, and how much you could accomplish. He put inside of you a specific set of skills and it’s up to you to not only to identify those gifts, but to be disciplined to develop those gifts. You have to learn to stay in your “strength zone.” What is your strength zone? It’s different for each person according to the gifts and abilities God has placed within. What are you naturally good at? What do you do well? Take the time to identify your strengths and weaknesses and as the Scripture says, give yourself to your gifts. In other words, don’t spend all your time trying to improve your weaknesses. Don’t waste valuable days pursuing things that are outside your main gifting. Focus on your strengths. There is something that you’re good at naturally�'something you can do that comes easy to you. If you have a gift of communication, you shouldn’t be sitting behind a desk all day not interacting with other people. Step out into your area of gifting. Are you good with your hands? Do you have a great voice? Find ways to develop those gifts. Know that your gift’s and talents are a part of your divine destiny. Remember, you are one of kind. If you will stay in your strength zone and develop your gifts, God has promised your gifts will make room for you. Tap into the potential inside of you. Stay focused and work on the things that you’re already good at. If you’ll be comfortable with who God made you, and thank Him for your unique giftings, you’ll not only enjoy your life more, but you’ll be ready to receive the abundant blessing God has in store for you! Joel Osteen Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:55:02 -0500 921939