Aspire to Inspire Moments

By Ray Blackshire

I want to thank my God for His unconditional love for me and all He is to me. I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for being my savior and redeemer and my everything. I want to thank the Holy Spirit through God for the inspiration to write every inspirational message. For without God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, none of this would be possible.

One of the sayings that my late Pastor R. W. Lambert would always say, "Hold on to your faith." And that is so true today because to make it through this life we need our faith in the Lord. It is our faith and belief in the Lord that makes all things possible.

But for anyone who doesn't know Jesus Christ for themselves as their personal savior, please don't wait till it's too late. You don't have to change your life before you come to the Lord. Jesus will accept you as you are right now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9798893451610

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Aspire to Inspire Moments

Ray Blackshire III

ISBN 979-8-89345-160-3 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89345-161-0 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Ray Blackshire III

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 publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Trouble Doesn't Last Always

Directing Our Way

Do You Believe You Can Do Better

Don't Forget to Be Grateful

Don't Look Back

Don't Worry, Be Grateful

Happiness or Joy

Living Your Best Life

Love God, Love Yourself

Refocus Your Priorities

Shine Like a Diamond

Speak Life to Yourself

Where Is Everyone At?

Don't Let Your Past Define You

He Chose You

He Still Loves Me

How to Handle Daily Life

It's Possible with God

Persistent Faith/How Bad Do You Want It

Praying with Complete Faith

Purposely Purposed

Watch the Company You Keep

Broken but Still Useable

Dealing with Adversity

Don't Live with the Burden

Hold On to Your Faith

Must Learn to Forgive

The End of Fear

There's Still Hope

Using Your God-Given Gifts and Talents

Keep Your Head Up My Brother

A God-Fearing Woman Is

Make the Vision Plain

Trust the Process

Change of Identity

Reflection Moment

About the Author

Trouble Doesn't Last Always

Everyone goes through something, and some people have had it rougher than others. Whether it is a financial issue, a health issue, a family issue, a natural disaster, or the loss of a loved one, no one is exempt from having some type of problem. The Bible says, Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble (Job 14:1).

As God's created beings and creatures, we should not fear because the same God that created us loves us, produces, and provides for us. God's faithfulness is demonstrated even through natural causes and effects. Even when we do not do what we should have, the Lord deals with us wonderfully.

We have to understand that we serve a gracious and merciful God. And He does not want us to be afraid. In fact, Joel 2:21 tells us to Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. God wants us to rejoice and be glad during our present sadness and unwanted struggles. Being glad speaks to your inner being, your inner feelings. It speaks of a joyous kind of feeling that even during your bleak situation, you can look at where you are and see something totally different as deliverance has replaced devastation and gloom. Yes, there may be days in which it seems that we have dealt ourselves a bad hand, and the sensible thing to do is give up and start afresh. But the Lord assures us that what is dark and bleak now is about to become the brightest moment in our lives. See, to have a testimony, you have to go through a test.

It is said, I am glad that trouble doesn't always last. So depending on the situation or the incident, one moment of hardship may seem like weeks, months, or even years. But as long as we know that there is no problem too big or too small for our God to handle, we can have a sigh of relief.

We must understand that regardless of what we have been through or going through, we are never totally helpless. If we realize that we have the Lord, we may be down, but we are never through.

Hold on to your faith, and may the Lord bless you and keep you.

Directing Our Way

Have you ever driven somewhere, and because you thought you knew where you were going, you didn't feel the need to use a GPS? And because you were confident in yourself, you were either late or got lost heading to your destination.

Well, going through life without the Lord is like heading somewhere, but you don't know exactly how to get there. In other words, we need direction, direction from the Lord.

In Proverbs 16:9 NIV,

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps." See, we can plan to do things from a daily basis to months from now, but a lot of times those plans didn't go as we planned. But why? Because our plans a lot of times don't line up with the Lord's plans for our lives. Understand that the Lord knows the plans for us and has our best interests at heart.

The best thing that we can do is align our will with the Lord's will, and we will find life will be smoother and opportunities will arise because the Lord has established, caused, created, and provided every step we take.

See, God is our GPS (God's Positioning System). With God guiding and directing us, He also provides and protects us. He's always positioning us to be better and to be effective, not affected. God will