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2 Corinthians 4:17 [NLT] “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”

DAILY READING;; Luke 14:25-35; Genesis 26; Psalm 19

Lars Skrefsrud, was an ex-convict who became Norway’s Famous Missionary.
Lars was serving four years in prison for theft, when a revival movement began sweeping through their city. This revival reached even the prisoners. When Lars heard the Gospel being preached, his heart was pricked and he repented of his sins and surrendered his life to Christ.. Afterwards, he read Christian books and sought to know God more.
Gifted with the ability to master languages, he learned English and German while in prison.
After his release from prison, the next year, in 1862, Lars Skrefsrud asked the Norwegian Missionary Society to send him out as a missionary. But the mission leaders in Stavanger, Norway turned him down. They didn’t want an ex-con representing them on the foreign field.
Lars would not give up because he believed Christ had transformed his life. When the Norwegian Missionary Society rejected him, he turned to the Gossner Mission Society in Germany. At this time, the German language he had learned while in prison came in handy.
This German Baptist mission accepted Lars and gave him the training he needed and sent him to India where he worked among the Santal people who lived north of Calcutta.
He later made friends with another missionary and they formed the Santal Mission. Their work prospered and by 1890, Santal mission had 6,000 baptized church members.
Lars Skrefsrud translated the Bible into the Santal tongue and produced a hymnal using native tunes. Determined to make the Santalese self-sufficient in agriculture, he founded schools that taught farming, animal care, carpentry and other useful skills. Lars Skrefsrud made a huge difference in the life of the people and brought thousands of them to Christ. This ex-convict who was thought unfit to be a missionary eventually became one of Norway’s most famous missionaries..

Certainly, God uses the base things of this life to confound the wise. He will use the weak to confound the strong..
When men wrote Lars off because he was an ex-convict, he refused to write himself off. He chose to trust in God and eventually his life became a sign and a wonder.
Truly, the Heavenly race before us is an individual race and we must nott let anyone hinder us from finishing our course.
You don’t let how someone treated you become the fullstop in your life story. People may reject you or think less of you, but they don’t have the final say over your life, God alone does. Learn to put their negative opinions behind you, and forge ahead to become all that God has destined for you.
People often sit on the sidelines of life’s race, nursing their wounds, not moving forward because of what they’ve been through. But that is not your case as a child of God. You have a victorious destiny in Christ: You may be challenged, but refuse to be defeated.
No matter what life throws your way, get back up and keep moving forward, there is a glorious destiny ahead of you.
If you face a disappointing situation, refuse to sit in the ash and bemoan your fate. Rather get up and keep pressing forward.
Someone said life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you take it or react to it.
Therefore, do not allow people’s actions determine the outcome of your life.
When men think it’s over with you, that’s when God likes to take over and make a show of your life. He likes to overturn men’s expectations so that they will know there is God in Heaven who rules in the affairs of men.
He can change your story in one day, just like He did for Joseph, taking him from the prison to the palace overnight! It doesn’t matter how stagnant any destiny may appear, it is never too late for God to turn t around.
The Bible says in Job 14 that though the stump of a tree may be old in the ground , through the scent of water it will bud again.
Likewise, there’s no closed case with God.
Indeed the grace of God can so color your life that no one sees your scars. Rather what would be seen is the glory of God all around you.
Certainly, God knows how to turn your mourning into dancing, to put off the sackcloth, and gird you with gladness. [Psalm 30:11-12].
Today, as we keep blessing Him and keep judging Him faithful, surely God will cause us to triumph over every trial and give us beauty in the place of ashes.

PRAYER: Lord, I thank You for reversing every disappointing situation into a blessing in my life. I know that even right now, You are causing all things to work together for my good in Jesus Name.
QUOTE
Faith is more than just believing, it is acting upon The Word that you believe. WORDBITE 222