Team up with God
By Drenda Keesee
“Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God’” (Luke 18:27).
God is on your side. He wants to team up with you and to help you go to the next level. He isn’t going to ask you to do something that is not ultimately going to bless you. When you team up with God and trust His Word over your excuses and mental boundaries, your life will transform into an amazing display of His goodness.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
People test God and say, “If you take care of this in a week, I’ll do it your way. Otherwise I’m going back to my way.” That does not work. That is not a relationship with God; that’s a contract. If you go into a marriage with that kind of mentality, divorce will always be nipping at your heels. Why? Because nobody is going to do everything exactly the way you would, and neither is God. That doesn’t mean that they have failed you or they don’t love you. Doing it your way already failed. That’s why you needed God in the first place. So it’s pointless for you to try to change and manipulate God’s perfect plan with your imperfect way of thinking.
Choose to be thankful and to work with God despite your excuses, your previous disappointments, or your current situation. When you commit to being thankful, Satan no longer has a carrot to dangle in front of you. You rip away his pleasure of making you discontent with God.
Satan loves to urge you after material status and temporary happiness, and just when you think you grab them, he rips them away so you will blame God and turn from Him and His perfect methods for you. That is why when you decide to team up with God no matter what He does for you in return, you become invincible in hardships. You disarm the greatest weapons Satan has against you: unhappiness and ingratitude with your situation.
When your circumstances look like evidence that God has failed you, do not turn from Him. God waits until the right time to step in so His impact will be extraordinary. God does not come at your preferred time, when it is most convenient for you, but when your faith is tried so you can’t put on a performance. Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Stop saying “But God,” and determine to tackle every day hand-in-hand with Him according to His perfect will for your life. Stop yourself in the act of making cheap excuses. God already told you that you can do it! Focus on what the Word of God points at. That is your evidence. That is your proof. That is enough.
~ Drenda
Listen in Now to Faith Life Church!
Drenda Keesee’s contagious zeal and humorous personal experiences help make her ministry of spiritual, emotional and relational wholeness one that will bless your life and spark a new fire in your spirit.
A wife of over 30 years and a mother of five children, Drenda has ministered at churches, seminars, and conferences, and through the mediums of television and radio, for more than 20 years.
Her books, The New Vintage Family, Better Than You Think, and She Gets It are available wherever books are sold. In these heartfelt books, Drenda shares her personal journey and the life lessons that have brought her to where she is today, as well as practical answers that all people need to live a joyful life.
Drenda and her husband Gary founded Faith Life Now, a ministry designed to spread the message of freedom in the areas of finances, faith, marriage, and family. Tune in for their weekly messages here. Faith Life Now hosts conferences worldwide, and sponsors both Fixing the Money Thing, which Drenda co-hosts with her husband Gary, and Drenda.
Through their own life experiences, the Keesees have found the principles from God’s Word to be powerful and effective. At one point, Drenda was a young, suicidal feminist with no hope of ever being “good enough” for her own standards of perfection. She never wanted the “inconvenience” of a husband or children, and she was on her own path to success. But the stress of trying to achieve perfection and perform for love left her broken and used. She had success, but it was nothing compared to the pain and loneliness it had also brought.
That’s when God got a hold of her heart. It was there—at her lowest point—that she found the One who accepted and loved her, faults and all. Since that transformation, Drenda has had a passion to reach women who find themselves where she once was.
She married Gary after attending college, and there she found herself in a personal boot camp of sorts. She says, “I cried and told God, ‘I can do anything but be a wife and mother.’” She committed to learning how to do it God’s way. Through the many years of raising their children and struggling to make ends meet, Drenda learned from their mistakes. “I didn’t know how to be a wife and mother, but God saved our marriage, taught us how to parent our children for success, showed us how to have financial success, and then irony of all ironies, He called us to ministry.” It’s truly because of these life experiences that Drenda can now share so many insightful principles for people who are now going through the same struggles.
