Alive Magazine July-August 2014 | Page 14

God of my Season By: Lacie L. Jones But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:28-30 There I was, standing center stage, with a microphone in my hand and a church full of people gazing at me anticipating some profound message from God, and for about thirty seconds I couldn't even remember my name.....! It was absolutely horrible. Was I afraid, was I nervous, or maybe I was intimidated because there was a great preacher in the congregation...? Nope, none of the above. So what was the problem? Why couldn't I speak? Why wasn't I able to walk in God's will for my life? I was suffering from Life-burden. Two weeks away from having to go through what would be the greatest disappointment of my life, suddenly it all became too real, too much, too heavy for me in the moment. So I froze, I stopped breathing, I stopped being! Today, let's look longer, larger, wider, let's look at the BIG picture. Why...., because in order to defeat Satan, proper life-perspective is everything! Many of the problems/disappointments that threaten your life are only attempts to stop forward progress. It's not about your house, your car, your health..... NO it’s not about any of the things that fill up our lives, instead, it’s about the people that define our lives! “Satan's goal is to put so much pressure, so much weight on our personal lives that we become paralyzed. He say's to his army of angels, "If we put enough burden on their shoulders, then they won't be able to be productive in Christ!”