REHEARSAL TIME!!!

As this year winds down let’s be encouraged to enter into reflection mode.  Let’s take the time and think about the trials and triumphs and give God Glory. Think about the great things that happened that you may have overlooked and forgotten to express gratitude for and do it now. Psalm 75:1 AMP says, “We give praise and thanks to You, O God, we praise and give thanks; Your wondrous works declare that Your Name is near and they who invoke Your Name rehearse Your wonders.” To rehearse God’s wonders means to recount them, to bring them to the forefront of your mind or to recite them. God is gracious, He has granted us life, He has made the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, so all have something to give God thanks for.

The Lord Jesus is big on gratitude and memorials. As humans, we are more inclined to invest more in anyone that does well with what we give and when they express gratitude. God is no different.  We would see throughout the Old Testament different symbols God would have shown, or different instructions He would have given to set up signs/memorials so Israel would remember and rehearse what the sign meant. For example, the rainbow in the sky was set as a memorial in the heavens to remind us that God will never destroy the entire earth by a flood again. In rehearsing, it solidifies the lesson being taught or the revelations granted. Every time we see that rainbow, as a Christian, we remember that our God is a covenant keeping God and that He is true to His Word. It builds confidence in God and His promises, it keeps us settled in our identity and helps us never to forget! When we rehearse the goodness and wonders of God, we also inform the next generation about our God, His Acts, His promises and His commandments. Rehearsing also sparks reverence and honor for the Sovereignty of God.

As we wrap up this year and look forward to the next, let’s find the time to quiet our hearts and focus on our walk with Christ. If you haven’t started your journey, please do so as it’s a journey worth taking. In your relax time do a personal S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the exiting year. This does not have to be limited to your walk with Christ but your life on a whole. In the S.W.O.T your strengths and weaknesses account for anything that was within your control while the opportunities and threats focus on external factors. Example of how to do a S.W.O.T. analysis:

• Strengths – Search within yourself to identify strength. Praise God for the strengths and ask Him to continue to supply the grace to remain strong in those areas.
• Weaknesses – Identify weaknesses, do not feel ashamed about them. Pray and ask God for the wisdom, grace and strategies to improve or make the necessary adjustments in those places or with what was identified.
• Opportunities – Examine current resources to determine if you have what is required to help to achieve your goals or do you need to source it. Look if there were missed opportunities that can be revisited and properly utilized. Pray and ask the God who opens doors that no man can shut to cause you to be at the right place at the right time to meet the right people to access the right opportunity.
• Threats – Discover what were the hindrances. Were any of your weaknesses actually threats? Do you have unfriendly friends?  Pray and ask God to expose the threats in both the physical and spiritual realms. When they are revealed, pray as led and also arm yourself with scriptures to help with believing and praying.