Sermonettes for a Sunday Morning BOOK 2

By Pastor Novella Harris

PASTOR NOVELLA HARRIS, AAS, BA, BRE, TH.B, MSE

Pastor Novella Harris has been married to Bishop R.W. Harris for 59 years. They have four (4) children, four (4) grandchildren, and three (3) great-grandchildren. On March 31, 1996, Novella Harris was consecrated as Pastor. She pastors under Bishop R.W. Harris Sr., Prelate, Grace Cathedral Int

• Language: English
• Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing
• Release date: Oct 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888876947

Pastor Novella Harris

Pastor Harris became a VIP member of the National Association of Professional Women (August 2011) and was selected by the VIP Division as the 2011/2012 "Professional Woman of the Year." Pastor Harris received the Sojourner Truth Award from the National Association of Negro Business & Professional Women's Club. (August 2011) She is a lifetime member of the NAACP. She is a member of the NuConcepts Drama Guild and the American Cancer Society. She is a past PTA President, Girl Scout Leader, and former member of 100 Black Women. Pastor Harris received an NAACP award for "Changing The Lives of Children in 2008. She became a member of Who's Who Among America's Teachers from 2004-to 2005. She received the NAACP " Educational" Award in 2004. The Woman Substance honored Pastor Harris as The Woman of The Year in 2003. She received the 2002-2003 Teacher Of The Year Award for her Outstanding Commitment And Dedication To The Children Of The Malverne School District." She became a member of Who's Who Among America Executives for her successful work in organizing a Nationally accredited Child Care Center, servicing over 80 children. (1998) She published her first book, 'Sermonettes For A Sunday Morning' in 2017.

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Copyright © 2023 by Pastor Novella Harris.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Contents

Forward for Book 2

Dedication

Prologue

A Closer Encounter With GOD

A Good Friend Is Hard To Find

A Morning Reflection

A Terrifying line of the LORD’s Prayer

ADAPT

Ahithophel’s Revenge

Am I The Tin Man?

Are We The Chisel?

Are You The Real Thing Or Just A Good Imitation?

What Doesn’t Break Me, Makes Me

Bag Lady, Let It Go

Behind Closed Doors

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Big Things Come In Small Packages

Called And Chosen To Labor

Can We Be Real?

Can We Learn From Euodia and Syntyche?

Cancel My Reservation I Don’t Want To Go.

Come And Go With Me

Come See A Man

Commitment

Cumbered In Our Service

Dancing With The devil

Dangerous Liaisons

Do The Right Thing

Do We Have A Crown Waiting For Us In Heaven?

Don’t Give Up; Hang In There.

Don’t Get Distracted By The Spirit of Sanballat

Failure Isn’t Fatal

Faith That Will Not Take No For An Answer

Garbage Can People

Give Me Something To Believe In by Darain Metz

GOD, Don’t Miss A Thing

GOD Is The Ram In Our Situation

GOD Will Make It Alright

Hold On To Your Peace

House Call

How Did I Get In This Mess?

I Can Breathe

I Can Walk On Water Too

I Made A Vow To The LORD, And I Can’t Take It Back

I Think Myself Happy; Overcoming Depression

It’s My Last Time To Cry Over This

I’m Still Holding On And Going Strong

Immediate Obedience Produces Instant Results

It’s A Done Deal

Job’s Wife

Lazy Bones

Leadership Letter

Learning How To Praise GOD In A Hurricane

Mother’s Day

Murphy’s Law, Yes or No

My Friend Barbara

My Rope Is Busting, But I’m Still Trusting

My Sister’s Eulogy

Never The Less

No Experience Necessary

No Form Or Comeliness

No More Drama

No Spiritual Progress In The Mud

A Prayer

Now Faith

Obedience Is Mandated By GOD

Obeying GOD When Faced With An Impossible Outcome

Our Haters Can Be Our Elevators

Our Strength Is in the Joy Of The LORD

Out Of The Wreck, I Rise (Revisited)

Panic Will Cause Us To Drown

Passing The Buck

Patience and Desire To Keep Going

Persevering, Protecting, And Surviving Our Purpose

Piece to Peace

Prayer

Presumptuous Sins

Psalms 56

Right Qualifications Necessary For The Job

Rebuilding Our Spiritual Wall

Remove The Surface Bandage; The Wound Is Deep Down Within

Running Without A Message

Seasons

Silent Screamers

Sitting In An Unproductive Situation

Somebody Touched Me

Stand Your Ground

Stay or Go

Team Work Makes The Dream Work

Temporary Death

Thank GOD For The Fourth Watch

The Best Way Is GOD’s Way

The Fragrance Of Our Praise

The Wound First, Then The Blessing

Thoughts For A New Year

Turning Fear Into A Fight

Use What You Got Left

Value Your Birthright

Waiting To Say Hello To Our Season

We Can’t Be Angry With GOD For Taking Back What Belongs To HIM

We Can’t Forget About The Little Boy

We Need A Vision

We Need To Know The whole Story

What Happened To The Other Little Ships

What Happens When GOD Answers Our Prayer?

What Was Gehazi’s Problem?

When The Brook Dries Up

Whether We Feel Like It Or Not

Who Is Pulling Your Strings?

Will The Real Fathers Stand Up?

FORWARD FOR BOOK 2

Pastor Novella Harris’ first book, Sermonettes For A Sunday Morning, was a beautiful collection of brief sermons that could be preached to a congregation or also used in private devotions.

How wonderful, then, that Pastor Novella has written yet another book of sermonettes, and at a time when the world is crying out for assurance that God is still alive, active, and working to save us, not to destroy us. Preachers from our Preaching Academy have learned a great deal from the sermons in Pastor Novella’s book.

When I read Pastor Novella’s list of accomplishments, I was extremely proud. However, it should be noted that she is also a talented musician. She plays the vibraphone beautifully. Pastor Novella preaches through her sermons but also through her music.

May God bless Pastor Novella for writing this book, and may God bless all who use it to reach out to others.

Reverend Joy Clarke Pastor of St. Peters Lutheran Church Springfield Gardens NY 11413

This book is very enlightening. Many of her sermonettes can really hit home. One in particular, Which Little Pig Are You really stood out among many others, for example, God’s Special Place For US. She has shown how God’s word works in our daily lives. His word is the channel of Love and Peace that can be turned on every day of our lives. We can view it from many aspects of scripture, just like a Whittler, who fashions something beautiful out of ordinary wood. Her Sermonettes, through God’s word, has fashioned a beautifully written book.

Veranda White, RN, Worship Leader at St. Peters Lutheran Church

Dear Pastor Harris, my name is Maureen Serra. Currently, I am an inmate at the Nassau County Correctional Center. Reading your book Sermonettes for a Sunday Morning gave me a spiritual pump at the right time I needed it.

I’m fifty-four years old, a wife and mother of three amazing children. I’ve never been in trouble with the law before, but here I find myself. Reading your book has sparked thoughts in me about why this has happened and even answered my question. Right from the prologue, you had my attention. As I read through the book, I found myself pulling out my notebook to copy down your thoughts so that I’d have them near to read and reread to myself as daily inspiration.

Coincidence or not, all the titles of your chapters and the words within were exactly what I needed to see, feel, comprehend, and those words and scripture references gave me hope and reinforced my Faith that GOD has got this for me. Your chapter 50, When GOD Seems To Lock Down. hit home for me because when you said, find a prayer room and don’t settle until you triumph over your situation, GOD will answer you! To me, powerful! Chapter 6 Unforgiveness Can Block Our Prayers. Before reading your book, I had been finding it very hard to understand why this happened to me and finding it very hard to forgive myself for disappointing my family. Your book has helped me understand that I was not living the way GOD wants me to. There was a reason HE stopped me in my tracks and sent me to this place.

HE put your granddaughter in my path, and she gave me your book, and I see things in a brand-new light. Don’t Be Discouraged or Give Up the Fight or Be Unfaithful in the very little. Be thankful GOD has given us this Time of Discipline and Soul Searching.

So, thank you, Pastor! Thank you for helping me see my faith again, for encouraging my hope and strength, and for giving me the power to forgive myself.

I can’t wait for your next book! Best wishes and GOD bless you.

Sincerely,

Maureen Serra

Dear Pastor Harris, my name is Laura Campos. I am an inmate in Nassau County Correctional Center. I’ve been incarcerated for four years. Ever since I got arrested, I felt that I failed all my loved ones, especially my two sons. These past three years, I felt hopeless, faithless, everything that ends with less. I’ve lost loved ones being in here. My family is Christian, but sometimes we have our downfalls. I’m a very stubborn woman, which I know is not good.

Now I am very grateful to GOD for putting your granddaughter Tamisha in my path because if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t even open the Bible. She told me about your book. At first, I didn’t want to read it because I was like, for what? It’s not going to help me. But as I was going through it, I was like, WOW! LORD, keep on speaking to me. I need YOU.

I never thought I was that broken. I need healing peace in my life, and I needed that faith in GOD again. Your book, Pastor Harris, is helping me become a better person. I’m a work in process. I hope and pray that like it is helping me, it helps other families as well. May GOD bless you more and your family as well.

Sincerely

Laura Campos.

Pastor Harris, reading your book has given me strength when I thought I couldn’t make it another day. Pastor, not only am I blessed that you are my grandmother, but you are my inspiration and strength. When I first got your book, I didn’t really appreciate it. To be honest, it wasn’t the typical book you read while you are incarcerated. I wasn’t focused on seeking GOD. I was lost, hurt, in pain, and needed guidance. It came to a point where I had no choice but to fall to my knees and cry out to JESUS because there was no one else, and the pain was too much.

I needed something, so I picked up your book. I read about The Ark, Breaking Chains, Such & Such, When GOD seems To Lock Down, just to name a few that really ministered to me and still do when I need to be uplifted and encouraged. Your book of Sermonettes is not like an ordinary book;

Instead of having a pastor here to uplift us and speak with us, we have your book. It’s very powerful and makes us feel as if we went to a mini-sermon because we will either sit down and read it together or talk about the Sermonette.

Being incarcerated having your book of sermonettes makes a difference.

I just want to thank you because your book has helped all of us get through a lot of tough days. It gets hard in here but knowing JESUS is here and having a word (your sermonettes), we will be okay. So again, thank you, and we look forward to your next book.

Tamisha Harris

DEDICATION

Sermonettes for A Sunday Morning Book 2 is dedicated to my only sibling Alice and my best friend, Barbara. Barbara and Alice were my Aaron and Hur. They were my crutches for over seventy years. They supported and held me up through my good, bad, and some ugly days. In 2021, GOD called them both home to be with HIM.

I praise GOD that my book, ‘Sermonettes for a Sunday Morning’ reached female inmates at Nassau County Correctional Facility. Their letters thanking me for my book and how their lives were impacted by it became the impetus for starting a mentoring program for female inmates At Grace Cathedral International.

PROLOGUE

My first book, Sermonettes For A Sunday Morning, was written during my illness in 2017.

"I was not able to stand and preach from the pulpit, and I wrote a sermonette for the Sunday morning bulletin each week. Some of the Sermonettes were a series that covered several Sundays.

GOD has blessed me to use those weekly Sermonettes for my first book".

My book ended up at a female prison, and several inmates would read and discuss the book. Those inmates contacted me to let me know how the book inspired them.

It was then I realized one of the purposes of my book. It was an entry for me to win souls in a place where people had lost hope and self-worth and sought a way to change their future.

I went into my files and discovered over ninety sermons I wrote thirty years ago. Those sermons inspired writing Sermonettes for A Sunday Morning Book 2.

A CLOSER ENCOUNTER WITH GOD

When I desire a closer encounter with GOD, I have learned that behind the choices I’ve made, eventually, I can see the purpose of GOD. I don’t always see or understand it at first. GOD’s purposes are played out in the smallest detail. The closer I get to a relationship with GOD, I find that it involves suffering, servanthood, and sacrifice. My ambitions change from greatness for myself to for the LORD’s glory.

I often recall seeing GOD’s hand at work in other complex or confusing situations. I immediately begin to thank GOD for being in control.

My prayer shifts to: LORD, help me not to be judgmental of others but show love, compassion, and forgiveness. May my words and actions bring hope to those who hurt me. LORD, help me to mean it from my heart.

LORD, I thank you for the wisdom to make the right decisions in my life’s problems. LORD, give me the patience to wait until I know YOUR answer, and I thank YOU for YOUR leadership.

Teach me, LORD, how to relate and show YOUR love and wisdom to those I have a controversy with. Please help me to be an example of who YOU are.

LORD, YOU already know the sins I so often harbor in my heart, and I confess them to YOU now.

As YOU forgive me, please help me to forgive anyone who has sinned against me.

In YOU, oh LORD, I put my trust. Help me see YOU at work, especially in times of disappointment, failure, and frustration. HEAVENLY FATHER, despite all my distractions, deep down, I have a hunger and thirst for YOU that won’t go away. Please make me more sensitive to YOUR presence throughout the day.

I am reminded of three experiences in Abraham’s life that became turning points in his faith journey.

1. His willingness to obey GOD, leave home, and go to a land that he knew not.

2. His willingness to believe that GOD can do the impossible, he fathered a child in his old age.

3. His willingness to give up the most precious thing in his life, sacrifice his son. Is there anything I love more than I love GOD?

LORD, I bring you the challenges and anxieties in my life for which there seem to be no answers. YOU told us to trust YOU in all circumstances.

Please help me to rest in YOU. Teach me, oh LORD, the discipline of patience, for to wait is often more challenging than to work. (Peter Marshall)

LORD, help me to be more patient with others as well as with myself.

LORD, I pray as Pastor that I may stay true to YOUR word. Strengthen my faith, dear LORD, and increase my trust. May I do as David and praise YOU with all my heart, in good times and when I am being surrounded by hard times.

Help me, oh LORD, to see myself as YOU see me. Please show me where I have yielded to the world’s ways and forgive me. May I keep my eyes on YOU and follow YOU.

LORD, help me to use GODly wisdom, love, and humility always and with all people in whatever authority YOU have given me, in my home, the church, work, or government.

Oh LORD, I pray, draw me closer in my encounters with YOU. Amen.

A GOOD FRIEND IS HARD TO FIND

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud. Ralph Waldo Emerson

No one wants to live in isolation.

We all need another human to talk to sometimes.

A good friend is a blessing, one in whom you can confide, and whose strength can build you up in times of weakness.

The Bible tells us, A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24 KJV

Expressions of confidence and affection can’t be one-sided. They must be mutual.

True friendship is not always going to be flatteries and agreeing with everything you say or do. Sometimes a friend has to tell us that we are wrong and warn us that we are going in the wrong direction. A good friend will risk our anger when they disagree with us. We may disagree with them at the time, but when they have helped us avoid some pitfalls, we are grateful.

A good friend is not selfish or jealous.

The test of real friendship is that it is unselfish, free from rivalry. We can rejoice at the prosperity of others even if we feel we are not progressing in our personal life.

In choosing friends, we should select those whose conversation and religious character will draw us into a deeper relationship with GOD.

Sadly there is some today who have never had a good friend. They have acquaintances. Acquaintances get together at functions. Their conversations are superficial; they are useful, most not always personally valuable. We are familiar with their names, families, and some facts about their history, but we don’t share our hearts, and they don’t show us theirs.

In the scriptures, we the story of Jonathan, Saul’s (the king)son, and David, a shepherd boy who found real friendship.

And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his soul. And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more home to his father’s house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his soul. 1 Samuel 18:1-3 KJV

Jonathan was a mighty warrior. He had been heroic on occasions: Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed twenty Philistines by themselves.

Jonathan had seen the giant Goliath for forty days defy the army of Israel and had not attempted to do battle with him. Jonathan watched David as he killed the giant. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him, but there was no sword in the hand of David. 1 Samuel 17:50 KJV

What Jonathan desired to be, he saw in David. Many friendships begin because we admire qualities in another individual that we want to have in ourselves.

Jonathan did not express an envious or jealous emotion; on the contrary, he rejoiced in David’s victory.

A person who wants congratulations but never congratulates is not a friend. One who expects sympathy but is slow to return compassion is not a good friend. A good friend will be there in good times and, especially those bad times in our life.

GOD saw the evil coming in David’s life and gave him the support of a good friend in Jonathan. GOD will send a friend in our lives at the right time to help us go through a trial, but we have to know GOD sent that friend.

Don’t mistake a busy body or gossiper who just wants to get into our business as a friend. We have to seek GOD for a good friend.

A good friend gives us positive encouragement, not malicious gossip.

People may say, "I don’t need a friend. If you don’t have friends, you have nobody to borrow money from you.

You have no one to interrupt you while reading a good book or watching a great tv show."

That is the view of a selfish individual. They have never known the joy of caring deeply for another person and having those emotions returned. It becomes challenging for that individual to appreciate the depths of love the Savior has for them.

After the defeat of Goliath, Jonathan, the young prince, instead of seeing David as a rival, put his robe and armor upon David.

And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and his girdle. 1 Samuel 18:4 KJV

It was little that David could return to Jonathan. David was a shepherd, and Jonathan a prince. A good friendship doesn’t mean we have to have equal status with each other.

Our LORD JESUS CHRIST stripped HIMSELF to cover us with HIS blood. HE humbled HIMSELF to give us eternal life. JESUS did more for us than Jonathan did for David. Jonathan did not put on David’s old clothes, but JESUS clothed himself in our rags of sin.

If GOD is left out of the conversation, then that friendship is not perfect. We leave GOD out when we make decisions or advise without consulting HIM.

Too much flattery can be a poison to a friendship. We often flatter people to make an impression. One of the tests of a good friend is that they can tell each other their faults.

A good friend is not always going to tell you what you want to hear.

Some people today are only acquainted with JESUS. They haven’t learned and received HiM as a real and trusting friend. Sometimes JESUS has to bring us to tears to make us better spiritually, help us grow, and move forward productively. HE has to get us into some rough situations to Keep us from destroying ourselves. HE is such a good friend that HE is willing to take our anger, our defiance and keep on being our friend despite how ugly we behave at times.

Jonathan and David’s social differences were great, but there was a similarity in their disposition and bravery. Their spirits united.

When we develop a friendship with JESUS, our spirit unites. We have become more and more like HIM. In a close friendship with JESUS, our personalities reflect HIS. We have something in common with HIM.

GOD is love, peace, joy, stability, and unity.

We can’t testify to a friendship with JESUS when our attitudes and personalities are so bad that no one wants to work with us, and we are a constant source of confusion.

Jonathan and David’s friendship endured severe trials and they triumphed over them.

When we have friendship with GOD like Jonathan and David, it is easy to worship, adore, magnify, and praise GOD. It’s easier to forgive and forget what others do to us.

Jonathan esteemed his friendship with David more significant than the crown of a potential king.

JESUS gave up HIS royalty and died for our sins. The greatest expression of HIS friendship and love is seen at Calvary. Love brought HIM there. It wasn’t the nails, rope, or the Roman soldiers that kept HIM there. It was love.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 KJV

Friendship is a union of souls. Souls can only be united when there is one accord. Friends want to be together.

They want to communicate with one another. Prayer, praise, and worship are how we communicate with GOD.

How can we say JESUS is my good friend when we never go out of our way to meet HIM at a prayer service? How can we say HE is our good friend when we rarely open HIS word to hear what HE is trying to say? How can we say JESUS is our good friend if our prayers are so infrequent that HE only hears our voice when we want something or get in trouble. How can we say JESUS is our good friend when can’t distinguish HIS voice from that of the enemy?

JESUS said in the word of GOD, Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. John 15:14 KJV

We owe so much to GOD and expect so much from HIM.

We want 100% of HIS time, and blessings and some are not willing to give HIM 5% of prayer, worship, and praise.

A natural good friend may be hard to find but GOD is the good friend who will stick by us and love us unconditionally.

A MORNING REFLECTION

This morning, I am in a message mode while praying, looking at nature, and listening to GOD’s voice, not just hearing it. I embrace the scripture, Trust in the LORD with all thine heart and lean not to your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 KJV

I’ve had good and bad days in my health situation, but I won’t complain because GOD has been good to me. I am digesting what HE wants me to learn while in my state, and I rejoice in knowing that HE has chosen me for something unique, and I am in a preparation and learning stage. I thought I had accomplished it all, especially at my age, but GOD says my work is not finished, and I have more to do. So, I am waiting for when GOD says this is it. I’m learning how to be patient and rejoice in my suffering because it is only through suffering that we gain an anointing.

When we learn to trust GOD when everything seems to be going wrong, we know with certainty that we have gained a new milestone in the kingdom of heaven. Many of us have suffered some hurtful things this year, but we are still standing. We will make mistakes in ministry and in our personal lives. Still, we can’t allow pride, vanity, and stubbornness to keep us from the great blessing that is in store for not only ourselves but our families and especially for our ministry. In Genesis. 16:13, Haggi called HIM, the GOD that sees me. Yes, He sees us, and HE knows how much we can bear. It’s a learning process in which I have not entirely arrived, and I am still learning to be content in all situations. That doesn’t mean staying in a negative place and wallowing in misery but learning how to endure until GOD says differently. HE will!

Some of us will need to call someone today and fix some things but let GOD guide us. I’m a witness that if we can take it, we will make it. Share this with someone because there is an individual about to give up, and we can be the source that will keep them holding on. Never doubt the works that you are presently doing for GOD. When HE is pleased with the spiritual level we are currently on; HE will take us higher. We can’t prosper and be in health if our spiritual soul is at a momentary standstill. Thank GOD for one more day that HE has made. Thank HIM for one more chance to make things right. Embrace those who have caused us to hurt and love them. We don’t have to like what they did or said, but we must love them. When we love those who hurt us, it is a significant step in moving forward. When we continue to delight ourselves in the LORD, HE will give us the desire of our hearts. Note desire is not plural because our desire must be to please and worship GOD. When we master this, our shift will come. What is our pride worth in relationship to what we can lose? If it has pleased GOD to allow us this day make the most of it. We don’t know when GOD will say our life in this world is over. We will have to answer to GOD, not just for some things but all things. Sitting here alone reflecting on life, I appreciate all I have experienced, mainly all I have survived. Who am I that GOD has extended HIS merciful kindness to me? Who am I that GOD has not cut me off? Who am I that GOD still sees something in me that can be productive and used to HIS glory? I am so grateful for this opportunity to be able to share. Remember to find someone who has irritated and hurt you the most and express your love. Love Pastor Novella Harris

A TERRIFYING LINE OF THE LORD’S PRAYER

"After this manner, therefore, pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." Matthew 6:9-11, 13 KJV.

WHAT LINE IS LEFT OUT?

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Matthew 6:12 KJV

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Matthew 14-15 KJV.

When we pray the LORD’s Prayer, we must consider this terrifying line.

If we do not forgive of others, we should not expect to receive forgiveness.

The LORD’s prayer doesn’t tell us to just forgive others depending upon how severely they have affected us. We have to completely forgive others. We don’t want GOD to selectively forgive us for some of our sins.

All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. 1 John 5:17 KJV

When we pray And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:12 KJV) we are asking GOD to deal we us as we deal with others.

This part of the LORD’s prayer is easy to say but difficult to live.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-10 KJV

The conjunction as is the significant word in Matthew 6:12 KJV And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

It is very difficult to forgive the unjust, cruel and hurtful things many of us have suffered from others; but if we want GOD’s complete forgiveness we have no choice.

My prayer has been, LORD help me to forgive and mean it from my heart.

GOD teach us to forgive, that we, too, will be forgiven and be able to include this terrifying line in the LORD’s prayer honestly.

ADAPT

A+D+A+P+T= Attitude + Direction + Availability + Perseverance + Temperance equals reward.

ADAPT, Make (something) suitable for a new use or purpose; modify. Oxford Language Dictionary.

Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11 KJV

A= Attitude, our state of mind, conduct, behavior, how do we act

D= Direction, where we are going, our goal, what is our purpose

A= Availability= Availability, are we accessible, and ready to be used by GOD

P= Perseverance, are we steadfast and persistent in what we want to achieve.

T= Temperance, do we have self-control? Can we remain calm in adversity?

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58 KJV

In 1 Samuel 25th chapter, we read about Abigail. Abigail means cause of joy or father’s joy in Hebrew." Wikipedia

Abigail is described as a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance. She was married to a man named Nabal.

1 Samuel 25:3 KJV

Nabal (literally meaning fool) Wikipedia, was moody, proud, arrogant, and mean; he belonged to a good family.

He was of the house of Caleb, a man who wholly followed the God of Israel. 1 Samuel 25:3 KJV

Nabal inherited none of the better qualities of his ancestors.

He enjoyed immense prosperity; his abundance should have made him thankful to GOD and generous to men, but on Nabal, it had the reverse effect. ‘For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." Proverbs 1:32 KJV

Nabal’s life prospered and was prolonged because, in addition to GOD’s mercy, he was married to an Adapt wife.

Abigail was the exact opposite of Nabal. It has been said that opposite personalities attract each other. Not many would remain in a marriage with a self-indulgent, insensitive, drunkard; but when GOD has chosen us to adapt, we stay where we are until GOD changes it.

Most likely, Nabal and Abigail’s marriage had been arranged by their parents, as most marriages were in that culture.

Abigail’s story is not for women only. It is incredible how so many individuals find themselves married to a mate with an opposite personality, and the only choice they may have at the time is to adapt. It does not mean you remain in a relationship that causes you bodily harm or death.

One day GOD will make a way of escape as HE did for Abigail.

Abagail didn’t allow Nabal to destroy her good nature. John Milton wrote, The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

Abigail was able to tolerate her condition by allowing GOD to control her mind. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 KJV

In the story of David and Nabal, Abagail is rewarded for her tolerance, intellect, quick managerial skills, and patience in waiting for GOD to make a change in her life. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalms 27:13-14 KJV

David fled from King Saul and hid with six hundred of his men in an area near Nabal’s sheep shearers. David could have taken what he wanted from Nabal’s servants; instead, he protected them from robbers and dangerous animals. Desperate and hungry, David requests food for himself and his men from Nabal. Nabal denies the request and insults David. And Nabal answered David’s servants and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be? 1 Samuel 25:10-11 KJV.

David was angry, he had sacrificed for Nabal, and in return, he was being treated with contempt and scorn. One of David’s admiral qualities was his self-control. David was about to commit a crime that would affect him years later because of Nabal.

A servant reports what had transpired to Abagail. Nabal’s servants knew the value of their mistress. They respected and trusted Abigail. Abigail was a woman of intelligence, generous, devout, and possessed good management skills. Her patience had to be significantly tried by Nabal’s temper. Abagail may have saved many disastrous situations with her ability to adapt.

Abagail takes a generous offering of food to David. She was determined to save her family despite the intolerable conditions she was enduring with her husband. Abigail could have let David kill her husband and been free, but that was not the freedom GOD had planned for her. Abagail became a diplomate