Are you in a season of life where nothing is working? You thought God put you in a place to thrive and grow, but everything keeps coming up empty? Don’t quit! Pastor Jentezen Franklin helps you discover how you can gain the most out of where you are. Even in the midst of trials, you can celebrate opportunities for growth and success in your family, job, ministry, and community.
Chosen Books
Day 1
Scriptures: Psalms 1:1-3, Psalms 119:17-18, Luke 15:17-24
Don’t Quit Too Soon
It takes three things to make a diamond: time, pressure, and heat. Diamonds are made purely of carbon and formed about a hundred miles beneath the earth’s surface. High temperatures and extreme pressure cause carbon atoms to bond to each other. Over time, this structure locks into place and eventually grows large enough to produce a diamond.
Pressure, heat, and time.
What does this mean to you today? Your trials serve a purpose, so don’t run from them. Stay where you are. When you stay in your trial, you will learn more. You will grow more. You will do more. God is turning up the pressure and the heat so He can bring forth a diamond in you.
This reminds me of the story of the Prodigal Son. I do not know what this young man was thinking when he asked for his inheritance and left his father’s house. I’m sure that he had some friends who were saying, “Man, out there in the real world everyone is having fun—parties like you’ve never experienced. Come on!”
He bought into the lie that the grass was greener on the other side. But after leaving home, he lost everything. He ended up broke, eating slop with the swine in a pigpen. He finally woke up to the realization that everything he had ever wanted was already in his father’s house. This young man had lived on acres of diamonds, and he never should have left.
I have watched young people leave home because they think they can find more fun elsewhere. I have watched people leave their marriages because they think they can find someone better. I have watched people leave their churches because someone offended them. These people go off searching—trying this and that—because the enemy has convinced them that what they are looking for is out there somewhere. But it’s not!
This is why the psalmist asked God to open his eyes. Wonderful things might be all around you, but if your eyes are closed, you cannot see them. God did not leave you without potential. He did not leave you without opportunity. Open your eyes to the good things.
If you know Jesus, you have a Savior who has promised to never leave you or forsake you. You are living right now in acres of diamonds.
Day 2
Scriptures: Psalms 118:24, John 2:7-11, Hebrews 11:1
The Power of Now
When we focus too much on what has happened or the fear of what might or might not happen, we miss the power of now.
Jesus knew this. At the beginning of His earthly ministry, Jesus, His mother, and His disciples have all been invited to a wedding. Suddenly, the wine runs out. When Jesus’ mother hears about this social taboo, she asks Him for help.
“What have I to do with this?” Jesus responds. “It’s not my time yet.”
But Mary is a discerning woman. She knows she has to push her son out into the ministry. Without a word in reply to Jesus, Mary turns to the servants, points to Jesus, and says, “Do whatever He tells you.”
You know the rest of the story—Jesus instructs the servants to fill six huge jugs with water. At the sight of its creator, the water blushes and becomes wine. When the master of the feast tastes it, he praises the bridegroom for keeping the good wine “until now”—when the guests have had a lot to drink and most hosts would serve the inferior wine.
I want you to pay close attention to that statement: You have kept the good wine until now.
You know the saying “Save the best for last.” If we are not careful, we can live our entire lives that way—thinking that the blessing, the miracle, the answer to prayer is out there, coming one day. Some day. Way out there.
But God does not just save the best for last. Sure, He can do that if He wants to; He’s God. He can do anything. But He also saves the best for now. We need to be careful that we are not living ten years out there, in the “one day” and “someday.” We can have victory now. We can have revival now. Marriages can be restored, families can be reunited, addictions can be broken, and breakthroughs can all happen now.
The enemy wants to distract us from the power of believing that right now is where the victory begins. The great days are not behind the Church—the great days are not behind you. God is not the God of the past. He is not sitting around, waiting to show His power and greatness.
You have kept the good wine until now. God’s best is not in the past, and it’s not in the future. It’s now.
Day 3
Scriptures: Deuteronomy 33:25, Romans 8:28, Philippians 1:12
Walking Through the Fire
Years ago, I preached a sermon from the book of Daniel about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I called it “Three Plus Fire Equals Four.” Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, threw these three Hebrew men into a fiery furnace because they refused to bow down to his image. But the men were not burned alive. When King Nebuchadnezzar peeked into the flame-filled room, he was shocked to find a fourth man—who looked like the Son of God—walking around with them.
My point? Sometimes the only way to get to Jesus—that fourth man—is to go through the fire.
I did not know it at the time, but a certain man and his wife were sitting in church that morning. Some months before, the man had been in a terrible fire and had suffered third-degree burns over half of his body. Multiple surgeries and skin grafts followed. That particular Sunday, the man looked at his wife and said, “We’ve got to go to church.”
This was a surprise to his wife, since they hadn’t been to church in a long time. She looked at him, dumbfounded, and asked where he wanted to go. And as the Lord would have it, he named the church where I was speaking that morning.
After listening to my message about walking through the fire to get to Jesus, this man rededicated his life to the Lord. His salvation and that of his family came in a strangely wrapped package.
When I talked with this man after church that day, he showed me his arms. The fresh bandages carefully covered severe burns and scars. With tears in his eyes and gratitude in his heart at experiencing God’s amazing grace, he told me he found the gift of Jesus through these strange wrappings and wounds from the fire. Wow!
We may not understand some of the things that happen to us in this life, but God promises that all things work together for good, to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. All things. Nothing has happened to you that God cannot work out if you put it into His hands.
Day 4
Scriptures: Isaiah 43:18-19, Luke 4:14-19, John 1:12-14
Let Down Your Bucket
In 1895, Booker T. Washington delivered a speech in which he told a powerful story of a ship lost at sea for many days. The sailors on board this distressed vessel were without hope, exhausted from hunger, and dehydrated to the point of death. Finally, someone spotted a boat far away. A signal was sent from the lost ship: “Water, water. We die of thirst.”
The other ship signaled back, “Cast your bucket where you are.”
The sailors were confused. Their signal was obviously being misinterpreted. They tried again. “Water, send us water.” The same response was delivered: “Cast your bucket where you are.” The men were beside themselves with frustration. “We’re going to die of thirst because these people don’t understand what we’re trying to say!” Desperate, they signaled again. Same response. Then a fourth and final time. Same response.
Finally, the captain of the lost ship said, “I don’t understand what it means, but we’ll die if we don’t try.” He took a bucket and let it down into the ocean. When he brought it up, the captain couldn’t believe his eyes. The bucket was filled with sparkling, fresh water! What he did not know was that he was very near the mouth of the Amazon River, which deposits fresh water far into the ocean. What these sailors had needed all along was right under them. Their thirst was satisfied.
Are you dry and thirsty? Do you desperately need life? You don’t have to seek comfort or satisfaction in another person. You don’t have to chase after another diamond. You don’t have to try whatever the world says can fix your problem. Right here, where you are, is a well of living water; His name is Jesus Christ. If you will just let down your bucket, you will find acres of diamonds in Him. Everything you need—every provision for your body, soul, and spirit—is in Jesus.
Do you need joy? Do you need hope? Do you need faith, peace, or a future? Let down your bucket.
Undiscovered potential lies right before you. Even in your darkest hour, you can have living water in Jesus Christ. The key to finding this diamond is to be anchored in Him.
Day 5
Scriptures: Jeremiah 1:12, Ephesians 1:2-3, Hebrews 10:23
Speak Out the Promises
Prophecy is a word from God about your future. It’s not about where you are; it’s about where you will be. Where you are may look nothing like acres of diamonds, but you have faith that one day it will. Though God speaks to us any number of ways, the most obvious way is through the Bible. The Word of God is full of promises that we prophesy over our lives.
God told Jeremiah that He watches over His Word to perform it. The most powerful prayer is reminding Him of the promises He made to you in His Word. When God makes a promise, He always keeps it.
This is exactly what Daniel did. We read in the Bible that he waged war in prayer with a prophecy found in the scroll of Jeremiah, which predicted the end of Israel’s seventy-year captivity.
“I’ve been looking at my calendar,” Daniel prayed. “Today is seventy years. What are You going to do about this prophecy that’s been hanging over my head?” God answered by releasing His people from captivity and reestablishing the nation of Israel.
The power of life and death is in the tongue. Speak, because you serve the God of the impossible. Speak, because nothing happens in the spirit world until you open your mouth and say it. Start today and speak life to your dreams, your calling, your family, even your body. Prophesy that the sun is going to shine again and that you will see the goodness of the Lord while you are still alive. It may have been bad, but prophesy that you are coming out of it, that you are about to turn the corner on your miracle. You may have had a setback, you may have messed up, but God is not through with you yet.
Pray today, not for God to give you words of comfort or rest, but to receive fresh words to fight against the enemy. It does not matter how long you’ve been fighting. If the prophecy has not yet come to pass—if you have not yet uncovered acres of diamonds—keep waging the good fight. Stay in the battlefield. God will bring the victory, as He promised.