I was reading a book when I came across a powerful quote by Pastor Joel Osteen who said:

“Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you're doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.”

Have you ever had someone say something to you that cut you to the quick?  Something that wounded you deeply even though you knew they were wrong in their assessment?

I had such an experience and it wasn’t fun. . .it fact, it hurt very deeply.

This person is someone for whom I’d done many things for over the years . . . made decisions and suggestions that literally made them millions of dollars.

These friends had listened to a third voice. . .one that sought to advance himself at my expense.  These friends assumed the third voice was correct. . . because he was part of their family.

Though he was wrong. . . their perception of the events he described or alluded to. . .became their reality even without hearing the other side.

I’ll be honest … the things they said brought me to the point of offense.  But then, I realized what the enemy was trying to do.  He wanted me offended and hurt. . .thus opening myself to further and greater attacks by him.

Thanks be to God that I realized this first. You see, offense is a foul trick of the devil. 

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) to administer immediate assistance or provide transportation?

I remember when a volunteer Rescue Squad was formed in my hometown of LaGrange, North Carolina.  This dedicated group of men and women donated their time for training and responding to emergency situations.

I also remember that every time the LaGrange Rescue Squad was dispatched on an emergency call. . .it was reported in our local newspaper, The Weekly Gazette.  It’s a bit humorous (kinda) that everything reported from having a baby to having a heart attack was referred to as a “sudden illness.” 

We know because when they rushed to our home on a Thursday evening and took our newly arrived baby girl and us to the hospital, our precious bundle of joy was described as a ‘sudden illness’ … even though she was 9 months in the making.

Over the years, the title of the organization evolved into EMTs. . .truthfully, the name does have a little more pizazz than rescue squad.

The protocols used by EMTs have an amazing parallel to spiritual EMTs otherwise known as “Emergency Miracle Technician.”

Now you’re probably wondering who in the world is an Emergency Miracle Technician and how in the world. . .do you become designated, trained and identified as such?

Is the spiritual EMT your pastor. . .it could be.

I’m convinced that it’s time . . . really past time for believers who want to avoid a catastrophic financial 911 to make a 9-1-1 call to their Heavenly Father.

When you call. . .He always answers. . .you’re one of His favorites

Jeremiah 33:3 in the Amplified Bible says:

“Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).”

Psalm 50:15 in the New Living Translation says:

“Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”

What is the first Bible verse that you ever learned?  For most believers it’s John 3:16:

““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

God seeks to give. . .man, left to his unrefined nature. . .seeks to get.

Giving is God’s way

If you desire to be closer to God and be more like Him … begin by giving.

The problem is that man—our human nature seeks to obtain and increase its money, clothes, food, possessions, houses, lands and businesses by expending energy in getting more and more things……

Consider the words of John 6:31-33 in the King James Version which says….

“Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.  32Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.  33For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.”

When we focus on seeking the ways of God (being a giver) then things will come to us….

Giving is completely relinquishing control of something of yours into the control of another person to do with as he/she pleases.

Would you like to be known as a successful person or as someone who just gets by?

Would you like to meet and socialize with important people?  And by the way, there is a difference between important and successful people.

Seem impossible to you?  It’s not. . .according to the Word of God specifically in Proverbs 22:29 in the King James Version which says:

^“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.” 

The key to meeting, working and socializing with important people is to be “diligent” in your business.

It’s important to understand that being diligent in your business does not necessarily mean you have to own your own business.

The word diligent is the Hebrew word mahiyr (H4106) which means:

“quick, prompt, skilled, ready.”

The Message Bible translation of Proverbs 22:9 says:

“Observe people who are good at their work—skilled workers are always in demand and admired; they don't take a backseat to anyone.”