“I never thought of losing, but now that it’s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believed in me. We all have to take defeats in life.”
-Muhammad Ali
Forward Thinkers, June is the beginning of the halfway point of 2016. New Year’s resolutions have been long broken and forgotten. Goals to get fit physically, financially, and spiritually have been pushed to the backdrop and thrown in the closet with the other resolutions from past years.
Forward Thinkers, we have a choice to make now to look at June as half-time and evaluate our current situation and then make the necessary adjustments needed to win in this thing called life.
Let’s define, recover and identify how we can claim June 2016 as a time of recovery and adjustment.
Recover:
- To return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength
- To be well again
- To find or regain possession of something stolen or lost
- To regain control of oneself physically or mentally
Side-note: Forward Thinkers, don’t let your normal be reduced to the opinion of others or the difficulties of your past. Forward Thinkers, our normal should be based on what God said we could be. We should want everything God said we could have and we should desire for all connected to us to live the life Jesus claimed in John 10:10 that we could live. For those not familiar with the bible, Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
1 Samuel 30:7-8, 16-19
7Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, 8and David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?”
“Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”
16He led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah. 17David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled. 18David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. 19Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back
Forward Thinkers, David is faced with a difficult half-time situation. The enemy has come in and invaded his camp and taken everything David is down for the count. At this point things don’t look good for David and I’m sure many reading this article have been in a similar situation of temporary defeat. Notice Forward Thinkers I called it a temporary defeat because trouble doesn’t last always.
Forward Thinkers, David like most of us dropped his head in defeat at first but David quickly picked up his head and turned to the Lord for hope. The Lord can quickly turn losses into wins if we follow his game plan.
Forward Thinkers, I love to hear interviews and read the testimonies of people who have overcome great difficulties. Tracy Morgan overcame a major wreck with a Wal-Mart truck and the doctors gave him only a 2% chance of living but he said God gave him a second chance at life. Forward Thinkers, Tracy said while he was in the coma his mind kept repeating that he had more funny left in him and he was not going to die because he had a testimony to share on his funny journey.
Tracy Morgan had so much passion for comedy that it kept him alive and David’s desire to recover his family and the families of his men caused him to get up and continue to battle. Forward Thinkers, I have a question: have you found something strong enough to keep you alive and worthy enough to you for you to battle for it this season of your life?
Forward Thinkers, it’s easy to quit when you are not connected to something bigger than yourself.
I want you to notice a major point in this text. Some of the men on David’s team turned against him and many of the men on David’s team got tired and gave up as he continued to battle for them. Forward Thinkers, as I was watching a basketball game between the Thunder and Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, I noticed while up 3 games to 1, the Thunder players started to point fingers at each other and appeared to lose faith in their game plan and at that point they lost 3 straight games and were eliminated from the playoffs.
Forward Thinkers, you can’t win blaming others, pointing fingers, and making excuses; if you desire to bounce back and win, you must regroup and make the adjustments needed.
This is a hard fact but as long as you continue to roll with blamers, finger pointers, and excuse makers you will never gain the faith needed to win.
Forward Thinkers, David believed no matter what things looked like at the time he could come back and be victorious. David had faith in God’s track-record with him. David had trusted the Lord on many occasions when it looked like his team was the underdog and the Lord gave David the victory.
The problem with many of us is we forget how the Lord has already brought us out of something before we got to this point of our life. Forward Thinkers, the same God that gave David, Moses, Paul, and the Children of Israel victory over their enemies in the bible and the same God that gave you victory over a past situation is the same God in control today waiting for you to reconnect with him.
Forward Thinkers, the men looked to David but David looked to God. Forward Thinkers, what you look to this year for hope, strength, and power will play a major role in how well you perform the second half of 2016.
When David got to the enemies’ camp, they were partying and having a good time. The enemy thought it was over for you but they didn’t realize how much faith you had inside of you. Forward Thinkers, in honor of the late Muhammad Ali, “If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.” Forward Thinkers, hold on to the word of God and get ready to interrupt your enemies’ celebration with a bold declaration that you’re not done.
Forward Thinkers, David had this word to hold on to: “Pursue them you will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.” Forward Thinkers, you must believe you are able to overtake your enemy and succeed. Forward Thinkers, also notice David prayed, then he pursued and fought. We can’t spend half-time talking about what we are going to do and then do nothing when it’s time to pursue, fight, and overcome.
In that basketball game I was watching, the Warriors were down 3 games to 1 when Stephen Curry, a player many said was too short and fragile to be great in the NBA, shouted out loud, “We not going home defeated; we believe in our team”. Forward Thinkers, the Warriors have not lost a game since that declaration.
Forward Thinkers, can you shout today, “I believe I’m going to regroup and recover everything I lost and like David, I’m coming home a winner”?
Pastor E. A. Deckard is the Senior Pastor/Founder of the Green House International Church now located, in both Houston, Texas, and the Woodlands, Texas. To contact Pastor Deckard for speaking engagements contact him at pr.ghic@gmail.com, follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Periscope @ Pastor E A Deckard or the church website www.ghic.net