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Life Lessons From the Road! Keys

Hey everyone, we sure hope that we can encourage you by sharing lessons we’ve learned on our travels.  It’s our desire that our lesson’s will give you idea’s on how to use your experiences to teach those the Lord has put in your sphere of influence. 
Last time I told you about one of my ministry trips to Japan and how busy the trips are.  I learned another lesson on that same trip.  On this day we got up very early, dressed in comfortable cloths for a long drive and took off to speak at a church in the morning.
When we arrived, it was all hands on deck.  We had to get all of the resources out of the car and set them up.  We also had to set up the screen, projector, and connect with the churches sound system.
We’d run into traffic on the way over so we were running a little behind schedule and everything was rushed.  We finished with just enough time for us to change into our formal cloths and greet the arriving people.
After I finished speaking there were a number of people that wanted to talk, so I spent time speaking with them.  We then packed everything back up, and hurried to get in the car so that we could get to the next place.
As I get in the car the driver looks at me with a nervous look on his face and says, “I can’t find my keys!”  
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.  We were already late and needed to get on the road.
We looked throughout the car.  Nothing!
We went back into the church and searched everywhere.  Nothing!
We unpacked the car and went through all of the materials.  Nothing!
We were getting pretty nervous and you could tell frustration levels were rising.
At one point we just stopped and were thinking about what to do next.  It struck us that we’d not done the one thing we should have and that was to pray!  After we prayed we were talking and I said to the driver.  “When is the last time that you remember having the keys?” 
He thought about it and said that it was when we had first arrived at the church.  So I said we had to think back to that time and work our way forward.  I asked the driver,  “What were you wearing?” 
He thought about it and remembered that he had his comfortable cloths on when we first arrived.  So, he went to his suitcase and found the pants that he had on at that time and sure enough, the keys were there.
Have you ever lost your keys?  That’s like a daily occurrence at my house.  For whatever reason I am constantly misplacing my keys.  When you do this, everything can get out of control and stress take over.
What I learned from that experience is that when everything starts getting crazy and life is falling apart, we have to have a place from which to start to get back in control.
We’d been running around, looking everywhere, getting frustrated until we just stopped and prayed!  After we prayed we approached the situation more thoughtfully and less with our emotions.
May we offer some suggestions for dealing with the crazy times and break each of them down:
  1. Pray!
Prayer should always be our first step to dealing with struggles. (Isaiah 8:20, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) That’s easy for me to say, but harder for me to do.  My tendency is to try and fix things in my own strength, and not rely on His strength with is beyond measure.  (Psalm 27:1, Philippians 4:13)
  1. Remember who God is!
God is the one who created everything from nothing.  (Genesis 1)  There’s nothing too difficult for Him.  (Jeremiah 32:27)
  1. Remember what He wants for you!
God doesn’t just want us to have our “best” life now, He wants for us to have an amazing life, which will only come about by obedience.  (Jeremiah 29:11)  Which doesn’t mean that everything in our life is going to be “nice”!  (John 15:18-25)  But, even in the midst of persecution we can have peace.  (Philippians 4:12-13)
  1. Remember what He has already done for you!
He died for us, while we were rejecting Him!  ‘Nuff said!  (Romans 5:8, 1 Peter 3:18)
  1. Turn it over to Him!
If we think we can do anything in our own strength, we will fail!  We ultimately turn it over to God, or destroy ourselves.  (Psalm 55:22, Philippians 4:6-7, 1 Peter 5:7)
May the Lord give us wisdom in applying His truth in the everyday circumstances that we encounter.  Blessings and . . .
Stay Bold!
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