Run your race. Be who God made you to be. Others can’t do what you can do. They don’t have your gifts and talents. They don’t have your beauty.

Gospel Corner

17/05/25

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
Today’s Word

Today’s Scripture
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
1 Corinthians 9:24, NIV

Take the Pressure Off.
There’s so much pressure on people to perform these days. Research shows that the largest increase in anxiety has been among young people. Especially with social media, there’s the constant pressure to compare. “Am I good enough, pretty enough, funny enough? Do I have enough followers? Am I popular?” If you fall into that trap, you’ll never feel good about yourself because you’ll always see someone who seems more talented, more beautiful, more successful. There will be the pressure to outperform, outdress, have more friends, more talents, more compliments. That’s a never-ending cycle that will wear you out, take your joy and peace, and cause you to miss becoming who you were created to be.

Take the pressure off yourself. That’s what’s causing the anxiety. You don’t have to keep up. You’re not competing with them. Run your race. Be who God made you to be. Others can’t do what you can do. They don’t have your gifts and talents. They don’t have your beauty. You’re a masterpiece. You’re made in the image of God. Nobody can beat you at being you.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You that Your favor, Your blessing, and Your grace are unique to my life. Thank You that I am just right for the race You’ve called me to run and that I’m not in a competition with anyone else. Help me to be the best me that I can be and enjoy my journey. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

When God becomes Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace, in your life, He doesn’t just soothe your emotions. He will lead you with His peace.

For example, you may be making some decisions at your work, for your children, or perhaps even where and when to travel for your vacation. Talk to Jesus about it. He will lead and guide you with His peace.

If there is peace from the Lord, go with that decision. If there is an absence of peace and you feel a sense of restraint, back away from it.

You will find that guidance from the Lord comes very easily when God manifests Himself as Jehovah Shalom. In His peace, decisions don’t feel forced and full of strife. In His peace, there is a rest. His peace will guide you supernaturally to be at the right place, at the right time, with the right people.

After our Lord called Gideon a man of valor, his response was: “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites” (Judg. 6:13).

Doesn’t Gideon remind us of ourselves? Instead of hearing what the Lord had just called him, he began to complain. “Why has the Lord forsaken us?”

Astoundingly, the Lord simply turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (Judg. 6:14).

What? First, the Lord Jesus calls this man who is in hiding “a man of valor.” Now, He calls this complaining man, who is mad at God, to go in that might of his and save Israel? Shouldn’t it be, “Be gone from My presence, you stinking complainer, I must have found the wrong guy”?

I am so glad that the Lord is not like you and me. He always calls the things that are not as though they are (Rom. 4:17).

And I believe that as you receive a revelation of how the Lord is the God of peace in your life, you may be fearful and complaining now, but like Gideon, God will send you to be a testimony of His protection. He will send you to all your friends, coworkers, and loved ones who are bound by fear, and He will use you to deliver them from fear!