God has prepared a place for you, here and in the hereafter.

Do you realize that?

Do you grasp it?

It is an opportunity. Part of your mission.

Yet too often we let it slip through our fingers, blind our eyes to it.

How do we do that? By being discouraged. By looking down all the time. By seeing the negative. By discouraging ourselves.

Do you lift yourself up or drag yourself down? Do you keep company with those who encourage or discourage, who see the light before the dark or the opposite?

Sometimes when you are in a dark place, it's not that you have been buried but rather planted.

Drowning? Need a lifeguard? Yours walks on water. You have everything you need to succeed when you pray and have faith. You are wired for it.

Your true mission must always involve God. If God is in your plans, you're headed in the right direction -- toward your true self and true destiny. This alone will boost your spirits.

As one preacher puts it, "Too often all we see in ourselves is what we're doing wrong, all the times we blew it. We need to start seeing and applauding the good things in ourselves. When we applaud ourselves, we're not being boastful, egotistical and prideful. We're building confidence and faith in ourselves. We recognize that we are made in the image of Almighty God. He made you, He formed you, He fashioned you just the way you should be. Rather than being critical of yourself and what you think are lacks, start celebrating yourself and all your good qualities. Recognize that you are in the process of becoming the person God wants you to be." That is, celebrate to a point -- remembering always selflessness and humility.

How can you get to the special place the Lord has planned for you if you refuse to head there?

We are what we think we are and we head for whatever we see as coming -- to wherever we see ourselves going. We miss opportunities when we are looking down at the ground and don't see the opportunities. We see what can go wrong. We tell ourselves we can't do something -- or that we're not worth Christ's attention. We orphan ourselves. We see what is below us -- not what is above.

Reach high, not low. When negative thoughts about yourself arrive, cancel them. Erase them with the Name of Christ. "Jesus, Jesus," each time.

Remember that discouragement often comes from forces of darkness but recall also how the Good Book tells us that when we resist the enemy -- resist and persist -- those forces flee.

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