Rick Warren - When You Need A Fresh Start

Hi, everybody.

Before we look at God's word today, I'd like to

speak to all of our Southern California saddle back campuses

about the COVID nineteen pandemic going on here. As you

all know, we'd hoped that in this new year it

would be over. Well it's not over. Instead, the fection

rate in America is the worst it's ever been, and

California is leading the list of having the most infections,

and our five Southern California counties are leading California with

the worst rates of infection. Now, of course, the big

question on everybody's mind is when are we going to

get to be able to have worship services in person again?

And the answer still is as soon as it is safe.

I really miss you, guys, and it is so frustrating

to me as I'm sure it is to you. But

let's just look at the facts, not how we feel,

but the facts. Although some people still deny that this

pandemic is serious, they need to talk to the families

of the three hundred and ninety three thousand Americans who've

died so far. That's almost four hundred thousand deaths. And

although we have the good news of vaccine arriving, tens

of thousands more will die before everybody can be vaccinated.

So let me put this in perspective. In all of

World War Two, four hundred and five thousand Americans died.

That's all in World War Two. That means we're only

twelve thousand deaths away from having more Americans die from

COVID nineteen than died in all of World War Two.

And we will pass that sad marker sometime this next week. Now,

this pandemic may not make you sick, but it's killing millions.

Do you remember when we first passed the rate of

one thousand deaths a day to COVID? I reminded you

that three thousand people died on nine to eleven crime

and that this past year we were having a nine

to eleven.

Every three days.

But then the rate jumped two thousand deaths to day,

and then to three thousand deaths to day in November

and now in January, COVID has been killing Americans at

a faster rate than any other time in twenty twenty.

In fact, deaths are two hundred and seventeen percent higher

than they were in the fall. Now I haven't seen

today's report, but a couple of days ago. Four thousand,

three hundred and twenty seven Americans died of COVID on

a single day four thousand, three hundred.

And twenty nine.

Now I've said this before, but I think it's worth repeating.

I'm not willing to gamble your health and the health

of our members simply because I'm frustrated and impatient. I

love you, and I love all of our members, and

I'm called by God to protect you and to protect

them as a good shepherd. I'm just not willing to

be responsible for the death of a single one of

our members. I'd rather resign than be responsible for the

death of a saddle back member. So if anybody is

upset or angry with me about my caution, I just

have a simple question for them. Are you willing to

be responsible before God for the death of any brothers

and sisters in our church family? Are you willing to

be responsible for it? I'm sure you're not. Now I'm

going to write you more about this next week, but

let's just pray that we all just keep loving and

keep being patient. Because God is in control. God's not

worried about his church. You don't need to worry about

it either now. I'd also like to thank all of

you for your wonderful letters and notes of support and encouragement, because.

They mean the world to me.

This past year was incredibly difficult, and you really are

an amazing group of people. I can't tell you enough

how much I love you, how much I pray for you,

and how much I thank God for you every day.

And of the thousands of you.

New Saddleback people who have joined us this past year,

you know, our Attendant's actually doubled in worship online those

thousands of you who've joined us while we've been gathering online.

We welcome you, and we thank God for you, and

we promised to love you in our family. We're not

a perfect church, but I will tell you this, I

seriously doubt that you'll ever find a more loving church,

a more flexible church, a church more willing to tackle

big problems in faith, or a more compassionate church. Thousands

of you are serving the community during COVID nineteen. Now,

one of the emails that passed on me last week,

I had a line in it at the end that

really caught my attention, and it's what I want to

talk about today. It ended by saying Pastor Rick, I

don't know how I would have made it through the

chaos this last year without our weekend services online. They

have been a lifesaver in this storm and anchor of hope.

So thanks to all of our leaders and elders for

protecting us and thinking of us first with all the

craziness out there. I'm grateful for solid Bible teaching that

calms my anxious heart. And then she said this, I'm

glad we made it through twenty twenty together, but I'm

hoping to get a fresh start this new year. You know,

I've thought about that last phrase over and over in

my mind this week. I think it speaks for many

of us. I'm hoping to get a fresh start in

this new year. So today, as I share part two

of the series The Awesome Power of Vision, I want

us to look at what God tells us to do

whenever we need a fresh start. Now, both the Old

Testaments in the New Testament in the Bible are filled

with examples of God giving people fresh start. Because God

is the God of second chances, He's the God of

new beginnings, He's the God of starting over, He's the

God of beginning again.

He's the God.

Who specializes in giving people fresh starts. Now, when we

look at this theme in scripture, the theme of fresh starts,

I particularly like to use the Message translation of the

Bible because when other translations use the phrase made new,

the message always translate that as fresh start. It's the

same thing. So let me just show you a few examples.

Here's the first one, Zachariah ten six, from the Message.

God says, I'll save the people of Joseph. I know

their pain, and I'll make them as good as new.

They'll get a fresh start as if nothing ever happened.

Why Because I am their God and I'll do what

needs to.

Be done for them.

What an incredible promise. Aren't you glad that God knows

and cares about all the pain you go through? He

felt everything you went through this past year. And aren't

you glad that no matter what happens in your life,

he can make everything as good as new. And aren't

you glad that God says I'll do what needs to

be done to give you a fresh start. You almost

can't count the number of times on the Bible that

God gave his people Israel a fresh start after they

messed up. Let me show you another example Hoseiah fourteen

to five in the message, where God says I will

make a fresh start with Israel. They will burst into

bloom like a crocus in the spring after a season

of cold and darkness. He says, they're going to blossom

with new beauty, like spring flour. That's what I'm praying

for our church as we end in COVID nineteen. Now

you may be thinking, well, that's great for Israel, but

what about me? Well Saw one forty five fourteen says this.

In the message, it says God gives a hand to

those who are down on their luck, and he gives

a fresh start to those who are ready to quit.

Have you felt like giving up? Have you felt like quitting?

You felt like throwing in the towel? Then you picked

a good day to worship with saddleback, because that's what

we're going to talk about today.

It is always too soon to quit.

You know this, Coming Monday, we're gonna observe Martin Luther

King Day and doctor King is best remembered for his

famous I have a dream speech. But what made King

so great was that he couraged, courageously went after that dream.

You didn't just dream it, he started going after it.

What dream is God given you? When are you going

to get started on it? He said, Well one of

these days, one of these days is none of these days.

God's word gives us the simple steps for getting started

on a fresh start. So, just for fun, you know

what I did. I put these steps in a simple

cross stick S T A R T. You go, oh,

come on, Rick, Yeah, I did. I put him in

acrostic start. So let's get started on your fresh start.

Now here's the first step in a new year and

a fresh start. The first step is always this s.

Stop making excuses for not starting. Stop making excuses for

not starting. Have you ever been around somebody who makes

excuses for everything? You've probably noticed that people who are

good at making excuses are rarely good at anything else.

The biggest barrier to my success and your success are

my own excuses, your own excuses.

Write that down.

The biggest barriers to my success are my own excuses.

Now let me show you what God says about four

common excuses. You've heard these, you've probably given all four

of them. Excuse number one for not starting. I don't

have what it takes. I don't have what it takes

to go after the dream. You know, in the Bible,

Moses and Jeremiah and a lot of other people tried

to use this excuse.

On God when he had an assignment for them.

But my favorite example of it of I don't have

what it takes is Gideon. God told a young man

named Gideon, Gideon, I want to use you to liberate

my people from the enemy that's oppressing them. And Judges

chapter six, verse fifteen and sixteen tells us how Gideon responded.

It says this, Then Gideon started making excuses. God says,

I'm going to use you. He said, MOI not me, Lord,

he said. Gideon started to make excuses. He said, but Lord,

how can I save the nation of Israel. I belong

to v Nasa, the smallest tribe, and my family is

the weakest and poorest family.

In that tribe.

And I'm the youngest and least important person in my family. Okay, God,

you got the wrong guy. But the Lord replied, I

will be with you.

Now.

Here's the answer to your insecurity. When you say I

don't have what it takes, You're not gonna do this

by yourself. God says, I'm going to be with you.

And if I'm with you, that means you can rely

on my power. You can rely on my presence, you

can rely on my promises, you can rely on my protection.

There's nothing to worry about. One plus, God is a majority.

Let me give you a second common excuse that a

lot of people use for not taking a fresh start,

and it's this, I have failed in the p Yeah, well,

welcome to the human race.

Everybody's failed. You are product. Listen to me.

You are a product of your past, but you're not

a prisoner of your past. Your product your shape by

your past, but you're not a prisoner of your past.

You have a choice. You're not a victim unless you

choose to be.

Now.

I know without a doubt that in your past other

people have hurt you, and other people have harmed you.

Maybe even other people have scarred you. But nobody can

ruin your life except you. Your past is past. It's over,

it's water under the bridge. It doesn't have to control

you anymore. And by the way, did you know that

God is far more interested in your future than your past.

In Isaiah forty three, eighteen and nineteen t ev version

says this, the Lord says this, Do not cling to

the events of the past, and he says, do not

dwell on what happened long ago. He says, Watch for

the new thing I'm gonna do. It's happening already, just

look and you can see it starting now. He say, well, okay,

but what about all my failures in my past? Well,

God just says, just admit your mistakes, confess your sins,

move on. Proverbs twenty eight thirteen says this, a man

who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful.

But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance.

That's fresh start.

Now here's the third common excuse for not starting right

now on your dream. There are things I can't control. Well, duh,

of course, there are things you can't control. In fact,

most of the things in life are beyond your control.

You can't control the weather, you can't control the economy,

you can't control other people, you can't control how long

this pandemic will last, and a million other factors. And

what's worse, And I really hate to tell you this,

but you'll never be able to control them. You have

to live your life for God and do whatever he's

called you. To do in the middle of uncontrollable circumstances

and problems.

So what do you do? What do you do?

You control the controllables and trust God for the rest.

Control the controllables and trust God for the rest. I've

told you that before. So what can you control? You

can control your attitudes, you can control your reactions. You

can control how much you choose to trust God. That's

your choice. These are things that are your choice.

You know.

Over the past year, I've talked to a lot of

people who've put everything on hold in their life during

the pandemic. They act like they're in limbo, so they

do nothing. They're just waiting, and they're the ones getting

the most frustrated. Yes, of course, we can't do everything

we'd like to do right now, but that doesn't mean

we can't do something. It doesn't mean we just coast

passively and waste these days during the pandemic. You know,

while our church has been unable to meet for worship,

we've actually been more active and more effective and more

successful in our other four purposes of our church. Our

church has five purposes. If worship is curtailed right now,

we can do the other four and we have been.

We're not just sitting around. For instance, in just one

of our purposes ministry and feeding people. Over thirteen thousand

of you have been volunteering, feeding over a half a

million people. And yes, we couldn't have, for instance, sixty

thousand people at our normal Christmas services. So you know

what we did and said, we didn't do nothing. Instead,

we turned over one thousand volunteers into staffers of our

Light of the World through Christmas Drive Through, and we

impacted double the number of people. Over one hundred and

thirty thousand people came to Christmas at Saddleback this year

in a pandemic. Limitations are just opportunities for creativity.

You know what happened. It ended up being the twenty twenty.

Was our church's greatest year for starting small groups, for

launching ministries in the community, for reaching more non believers

than we've ever reached before last year, and for developing disciples.

Why because the church is far more than just a

worship service. It's family, and it goes all day, every

day of the week, and even our worship service attendants

doubled online. Proverbs twenty four, verse ten says this, don't

give up and act helpless in times of trouble. Don't

give up and act helpless in times. You need to

write that one down on the cart and put it

on your refrigerator. Now, during these times, have you stopped trying?

Have you stopped trying? You know, during trying times, you

got to keep trying. Yes, there's a lot of trouble

in the world right now, but you're not helpless.

You know what I've noticed.

I've noticed that the people during the pandemic who are

complaining the most of the ones not serving others. They're

just complaining because they're once aren't being met. Here's a

fourth common excuse for not starting now, not doing something now,

even though you can't do everything. I don't know what

the future holds. Well, of course you don't. Again, you're right,

but you're never gonna know what the future holds. An

Ecclesiastes eleven to four says this do living translation, if

you wait for perfect conditions, you'll never get anything done.

So the first thing you do, if you want a

fresh start in a new year, you stop making excuses

for not starting now. The next word is t take

stock of what I have. Take stock of what I have.

That's the second step.

In being.

Moving ahead and getting a fresh start take stock. And

what I mean is you list and you evaluate what

you've got to work with, do a personal inventory. So

how do I do that? Well, let me give you

three questions. Okay, you might write these down. Three questions

to ask yourself in making a fresh start this year

and taking stock by doing a personal inventory. Okay, here's

the three questions. Write these down. Number one, what are

my assets? What are my assets?

Now?

You look at your own God given shape. We talked

that in class three oh one, your spiritual gifts, your heart,

your abilities, your personality, your experiences. You look at your

physical assets, your educational assets, your financial assets, and of

course remember your spiritual assets. As a child of God.

Colossians two ten says this in the Living Bible. You

have everything when you have Christ.

That's a lot of assets.

You have everything when you have Christ and you're filled

with God through your union with Christ. He's the highest

ruler with authority over every other power.

Now that's an asset.

It means you don't have to know the key men

if you know the man who holds the keys, okay,

because he has authority over everything else. Say ask what

are my assets? Number two ask what have I learned?

Go back over? What have you learned from this last year?

Sit down and write down some lessons that you extracted

about life, about yourself, about family, about God, whatever about

your career. What write down the lessons that you extracted.

That's a thing to get you in the fresh start.

Galatians three four says this, you have experienced many things.

Were those all or were all those experiences wasted? I

hope not. Don't waste your experiences now. You want to

especially pay attention to your painful experiences, because God never

wants you to waste to hurt. It's gonna don't waste

the pain. Don't waste the hurt. Quit having a pity party.

Poor me.

Life is unfair. Things aren't going the way I want

them to go. And instead, learn from your pain. Write

down the lessons. Also, learn from your mistakes. Stop rehearsing them,

stop regretting them, start learning from them. Why Because innovation

is always built on failure. It's how we learn, It's

how we learn what doesn't work. So whenever you have

a mistake or you have a failure, don't call it

a failure, call it an education. Some of us are

highly educated. Now you also can review what you learn

through Bible teaching, like what I'm doing right now. Two

Timothy three fourteen says this, You should continue following the

teachings you learned. You know they're true because you trust

those who taught you. So what are my assets? What

have I learned? Here's a third question, asking in taking stock?

Who could help me? Who else could help me in

my fresh start? Proverbs fifteen twenty two. Get all the

advice you can, and you'll succeed. Without it, you're going

to fail. One of the most common reasons people fail

to reach their dream is ego, arrogance, hubris. They're too

proud to ask for advice. I think I can figure

this out by myself. I got a dream, I'll figure

it out myself. The Bible says pride leads to destruction.

It also says that God gives grace to the humble.

Why because the humble are teachable. You're never gonna get anywhere.

You're never gonna have a fresh start if you act

like you've already arrived. So I want to encourage you. You

might just near recruit a personal brain trust of advisers

to help you with your dream. Okay, stop making excuses,

take stock of your life. Number three, the a in

start is act in faith. I've told you before that

God has not moved by our complaints, but he is

moved by our faith. And in Matthew nine twenty nine

it says, according to your faith, it will be done

to you. So you say, Okay, Rick, how do I

know if I'm acting in faith? You know you're acting

in faith when you attempt to do something that you

know you couldn't do in your own power. You know

you're acting in faith when you're attempting to do something

that scares you. It will scare you, it will force

you to rely on God. Now, maybe you've never realized

that goal setting is actually an act of faith. When

you set a goal, it's saying, God, with your help,

I'm expecting to accomplish this specific task by this specific date.

And that kind of goal is a statement of faith,

and God honors faith. Most people never set goals for

their life. Less than one percent of people set goals

for their life. Why because of the fear of failure

and a lack of faith. That's the reason most people

never set any goals for their life. Now you may ask, Okay,

how can I set goals when I don't know how

long this pandemic is going to last. It's a legitimate question.

How can I set goals for this new year when

I don't know how long the pandemic's going to last. Well,

you can do two things. First, you can do what's

called scenario goal setting. Scenario goal setting and scenario planning

means that you set up multiple goals and plans depending

on what scenario happens. And it's like, Okay, I will

do this, and I will by this date if this happens.

But on the other hand, I will do that by

that date if that happens. That's called scenario planning. You

can do that. You can have different scenarios. If this happens,

I'll do this, and if that happens, I'll do that.

That scenario goal setting. Proverbs sixteen nine says this, we

should make our plans counting on God to direct us

in the living Bible. So that's one of the ways

you can do it not knowing when the pandemic is

going to end. Second, you can focus listen on character

goals rather than activity goals.

Yeah, you can.

Focus on activity goals if you know the future, you don't,

But you can focus on character goals anytime. In other words,

you can set goals on what you want to be,

what you want to be goals instead of what you

want to do goals. You can ask yourself right now,

what kind of person do I want to be by

the end of this year? How do you want to

be different? How do you want to be more like Christ?

What weakness is it that you want to work on

in your life? You've got complete control over that doesn't

matter how long the pandemic lasts. What kind of character

do you want to have? What are your character goals?

And by the way, God is more interested in what

you become than what you do. God is far more

or interested in your character then in your conduct. Why

because you're not taking your career to heaven, but you

are taking your character. Hebrews eleven six says this, without faith,

it is impossible to please God. That's why the third

step and a fresh start is you have to act

in faith. My question to you is this, what faith

goals for this next year? Will you set this next week?

That's your homework. What faith goals will I set for

this next year this next week. Now we go to

the fourth Biblical step to a fresh start. That's the

r in start, and it's this refocus my mind. If

I want a fresh start in life, I have to

do the first three things, and then I have to

refocus my mind. If you want to change your life,

you got to change the way you think first. Changing

your thoughts is the key to a fresh start in

any area, in a hobby, in a career, in a relationship,

in a marriage, in parenting. Changing your thought is the

key to a fresh start in any area.

Let me show you some verses.

Phesians four twenty three in the Amplified says, this, be

constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind.

That's changing your mind. Change the way you think.

Be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, having

a fresh mental attitude and a fresh spiritual attitude. So

what is a renewed mind. A renewed mind means you

have fresh thoughts and you have fresh attitudes. Frankly, some

of your attitudes suck, so do mine. Some of your

thoughts are wrong, so do mine. So how do I

refocus my mind? Well, sorry, but that's an entire seminar

but let me give you a couple tips. Write these down.

Listen more to God's word than the world. That's one

of the ways you renew your mind. Listen more to

God's word than the world. Psalm one one to three

says this happier those who are always meditating on God's word.

They're like trees along the river that do not dry up.

They succeed in everything they do. Would you like that

to be true in your life this next year? Meditate

on God's word every day. Think about God's word. And

then here's a second tip. Think about what I think about?

You say, what do you mean by that? Think about

what I think about I'm saying. When you think about

what you think about, you don't automatically thought. Except every

thought you have you challenge them. When you have a thought,

you challenge it. You think about what you're thinking about

and go, do I want to think about this?

You say?

Do I want this thought? When you have a thought,

you ask yourself first, is this really true? I can't

tell you how much that question will change your life.

When you get a thought, you need to ask yourself,

is this really true?

Well?

I am so this and that? And then you're playing

old tapes. If you'll just ask the question, is this

really true? It'll change your life? Is this helpful? That's

another question to ask, is this helpful? Is it true?

Is it helpful? Do I want this thought? In other words,

how does it make me feel? And do I want

to feel that way? All your feelings are caused by thoughts.

And if you don't like the way you feel, change

the way you think. And if you don't like the

thing you're thinking, will then just replace it with a

different thought. Let me tell you a little secret about

your mind. You don't have to believe every thought you have.

That's a choice, because not every thought you have is true.

Proverbs four twenty three says this, be careful how you think,

because your life is shaped by your thoughts. And finally

we come to the last step the tee in start trust,

write this down. Trust that God knows what he's doing.

That's the fifth step to a fresh start in life

and a fresh start in a new year. Trust that

God knows what he's doing. You don't know what he's doing,

but you can trust that God knows what he's doing.

He's a good God.

You see when God is working in your life and

when he's preparing you for a fresh start, you often

can't see it. Or if you can see it and

you can see what he's doing, you still may not

understand why he's doing it. You can see what he's

doing in your life, but you can't see why he's

doing it. But God's plan and God's intention for your

life are always good. You can trust him. Trust that

God knows what he's doing, even when you don't understand

why things are happening the way they are. I want

to close with the principal and a promise. Here's the

background of the principle. One day God told the prophet

named Jeremiah. You thought Jeremiah was a bullfrog, but actually

he was a prophet. One day God told a prophet

named Jeremiah to go to a potter's house and watch

that potter making clay potts on a pottery table, you know,

one of those turntables. And God says, I want you

to go to this potter's house and watch what's going on,

and I will give you a message there. So Jeremiah

did that, and he goes and finds the potter's house,

and sure enough, the guy's sitting at his potter's wheel

and it's turning, and he's taking a lump of clay

and he's molding it, fixing it.

And then he noticed something.

And this is in j Wheremiah eighteen, verse four. Jeremiah

eighteen fources this. When the clay pot that the potter

was forming on the wheel didn't turn out the way

he intended, he simply started over, using the same clay

to make a new pot. Jeremiah notices three things. Sometimes

things don't turn out the way you intended. That's true.

Number two. When that happens, the potter just starts all

over again. Number three, But.

He uses the same clay. He doesn't throw it out.

He just takes the same clay that he tried to

make something and didn't work out the way intended. He

takes that same clay and reshapes it. And after Jeremiah

saw this object lesson, God explained it in Jeremiah eighteen,

verse five, seven, six. Then God said to Jeremiah, Jeremiah,

cannot I do the same with you as the potter does,

Just as the potter works the clay in his hand,

so you are in my hand and I am working

on you. That's both the principle and the promise. Now,

I don't know, but this last year or even before that,

you may have really made a mess of your life.

And it may have been marred.

It was marred by the decisions of others and the

actions of others, or it had been marred by your

own decisions and actions. And your pot who you are,

is scarred from poor decisions that you made and things

that were done to you. And as a result, your

life has not intent turned out as you intended.

But you're not the potter. God's the potter. You're the clay.

And just like the potter, God doesn't throw out original

clay that's been misshapen by circumstances, scarred, misshapen, didn't turn

out the way intended. God doesn't waste all of the

pain that you've been through. No, And he doesn't throw

out the unique personality and the essence of you that

he gave you, the clay, the stuff that made you

that he made you with.

No.

Instead, he takes every part of you, all of you

that includes the good and the bad and the ugly,

all that in the clay and everything you've experienced up

in life up to this point.

You know what does.

He puts it in his gentle but strong hands. And

once you're in his hands, God starts over fresh start

on shaping your life. And he begins to work on

you lovingly but firmly, like a potter, and he begins

to reshape you, applying pressure at just the right places

to mold you and remake you into a beautiful, priceless

piece of art. And that brings glory to Him, and

that brings glory to you. That's what happens when we

surrender ourselves completely to God's loving hands, and we trust

that God is the master potter who creates masterpieces. This

is what it means to get a fresh start. Jesus

called it being born again. Two Corinthians five point seventeen

says this, when anyone becomes united to Christ, he becomes

a new person in solfe. That's fresh start. He becomes

a new person inside. He's not the same anymore.

His old life.

The old life is gone and a fresh new life

has begun. I said it at the start, and I'll

say it at the end. God specializes in new beginnings

and fresh starts, and you can have one today if

you begin taking these steps.

Had he get started. Well.

You can start with the prayer that King David prayed Psal.

I'm fifty one, verse ten, and the message says this, God,

make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week

from the chaos in my life. I love that God

make a fresh start in me. Will you pray that today,

shape a Genesis week.

From the chaos in my life?

You know, earlier I said it's always too soon to quit,

but I also want to say it's never too late

to start over. Never too late. If your heart's still pumping,

it's never too late. Start over now. If you would

like that, it would be my privilege to introduce you

to Jesus Christ and lead you in a simple prayer

for salvation and a fresh start. Would you bow your

heads with me right now? Would you just pray with me?

Why don't you just say these words in your heart?

You know you can just say as I say the words.

You can say God me too. Just say something like this,

Dear God, Dear God, I want a fresh start. Dear God,

I need a fresh start, and today I've realized that

only you can make that happen. I want to stop

making excuses. I want to act in faith. So I

ask you, Jesus Christ, to put your spirit inside my

life and fill me with your love.

Just say that to God.

Put your spirit inside my life, Jesus, and fill me

with your love. I ask you to forgive everything I've

ever done, clean the slate with your mercy and grace,

and I ask you to make me a new person,

the person I was always intended to become. God, I

recognize that you're the potter and I'm the clay, and

I'm asking you.

Today to begin.

Reshaping my life. Thank you for loving me. And when

tough times come and I feel under pressure, help me

to trust you, knowing that you're a good and wise God.

And I humbly ask you to accept me into your

family because Jesus died for me.

Thank you, Amen,