God has plans for you. Big ones.

God's plans for your life are so much greater than you can imagine. Whenever you experience trouble, challenges and difficulty — the lemons of life — God's desire isn't just to bring you through it or for you to just survive! His purpose is to reward you by making something GREAT out of what seems hopeless or feels painful. God's promise is so amazing to us! When we get a dose of trouble, when we get lemons in life, God's heart for us isn't to just pay us back. He wants to give us double for our trouble. Maybe you've lost your job or had some really bad financial breaks lately. You can get discouraged and cynical and feel bad for yourself. Or you can trust that God's going to "make some lemonade"; you can stay encouraged and believe that He's preparing a much better job for you even now.

Or it could be you've had a major blow-up in one of your most cherished relationships. You can cast blame, hold on to your pain and refuse to forgive. Or you can choose to forgive, keep loving that person, and believe that through this misunderstanding God is going to take your relationship to a whole new level of trust and enjoyment. Whenever you go through challenges, God's desire isn't to "reimburse" you. He wants to promote you beyond where you were before! I want to encourage you today to continue trusting in the goodness of God. He won't let you down. Continue to put your hope and trust in Him!

Expect to come out BETTER than you were before. Enlarge your vision and allow God to breathe new life into your situation. Stop talking about how big your problems are and start talking about how big your God is! God loves you so much, and I want you to know you've not yet begun to see all that God has prepared for your life. It's so much better than you've ever imagined! The secrete is simple; "JUST BELIEVE IN HIM ALONE!"

Do not be unequally yoked, says the Lord

Part I:
For a Christian, dating a non-Christian is UNWISE, and marrying one is NOT an OPTION. 2 Corinthians 6:14 (KJV) tells us not to be “UNEQUALLY YOKED” with an unbeliever. While this passage does not specifically mention marriage, it definitely has implications for marriage. There is no how an unbeliever will be able to separate his fleshly desires from the spiritual desires. Some people let their feelings and/or fleshly love make decisions for them; they claim that, it is ok to date/marry an unbeliever because at the end of the day, we can win them to God. Well, we need to look at the motives and foundation of a relationship first. Do we date to win someone to God or because there is sexual attraction? What guarantees do we have, that we can win them to God as opposed to them win us to the world? If the primary motive is the former, why then do we claim is what God wants for us? Most of the time we love with the eyes not with the heart. For example, when BMW is advertised, they say, "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder." This is so true because, a lot of people love BMW not because of its performance but because it is well marketed and of cause appeals to the eyes. This we can liken it to a situation were we fall in love with people's appearance but not their spiritual man. satan markets lust as love, and he is good at what he do. This is the reason why, you will find people with multiple partners, or people cheating simply because, they buy into the adverts. They fall in love with the looks not the real person inside those looks. True love, is that which remains when all this rush to pick the beautiful one is over. We should understand that, falling in love with someone's inner man enables us to yoke with people we are spiritually connected with. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit will be our helper, therefore let us adhere to the Holy Spirit and Word of God.

The passage goes on to say that there is no HARMONY between Christ and belial (satan). There can be no spiritual harmony in a marriage/relationship between a Christian and a non-Christian. Paul goes on to remind believers that they are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, who inhabits their hearts at salvation (2 Corinthians 6:15-17). Because of that, they are to be separate from the world—in the world, BUT NOT OF THE WORLD—and nowhere is that more important than in life’s most intimate relationship—MARRIAGE.

To be continued
Amen and Amen.