The resurrection of Jesus Christ teaches us that God always finishes what He starts. No matter how long it seems like it's taking, no matter how dark it looks, God will always take us from Friday to Sunday. The Fridays in life are when it's our darkest hour, when it seems like the end. But just like Christ was resurrected from the grave on Sunday, God desires to resurrect our lives. God can breathe new life into our marriages, finances, health, family and dreams. When it looks like the end; it's not. Make the declaration of faith like Jesus, "It is finished." What you're really saying is "God, I know you are going to turn this situation around." On the Fridays of your life when things aren't going your way, keep reminding yourself that Sunday is coming. God's resurrection power is on its way. He can turn any situation. He raised Christ from the grave! We have to know beyond a shadow of a doubt, no matter what it looks like, no matter how many odds are against us, God is going to finish what He started in our lives. We're not only going to see our dreams and promises come to pass, but it's going to be better than we expected. God will bring you to a flourishing finish.

God has a plan for us to succeed even when we're treated unfairly. Our human nature wants to fix things on our own; getting even with someone, repaying evil for evil, but that's not God's plan. Scripture says, "Never avenge yourself but leave the way open for God." You can either avenge yourself or let God be your avenger, but you cannot have it both ways. God wants to be your avenger and make your wrongs right. And God doesn't just stop at avenging. He goes on and blesses you in front of your enemies. Psalm 23:5 says, "God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies." Part of His vindication is promoting you so the opposition can see it. Whenever we face unfair situations, instead of being discouraged, we should have the attitude "They may be laughing now. It may not be fair. But I'm not the least bit worried. I know their injustice is preparing the way for God to promote me." If we can learn to stay on the high road no matter how great the opportunity to make somebody look bad or how much we want to pay them back, and learn to rule over our emotions and trust God to be our avenger, He will bring justice in our lives that will not only make us better off, but better off than we could ever have been on our own.

God has predestined us to live a life of victory. But when things happen that don't make sense and they're hard to understand, it's easy to get stuck trying to make sense of everything. But God has another piece to the puzzle of your life coming your way. Life is not always fair, but God is fair. He promises in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for our good. The key is the word "together." In other words, we can't isolate one part of our life and say, "Well, this isn't good." It might be true, but it's just one part of our life and one piece of our puzzle. God sees the bigger picture and disappointment is not the end. Our life doesn't end because of one setback. The Scripture says that all our days have been written in God's book. He's already recorded every part of our lives from the beginning to the end. He knows every disappointment, loss and challenge. The good news is our story ends in victory. Our final chapter concludes with fulfilling our God-given destiny. Sometimes it's easy to become focused on what didn't work out as we've reread that chapter of our life 450 times! But when this happens, it's time to move forward into the new chapter God has in store. God has some ingredients for your life coming your way that will turn the sour into sweet and the mourning into dancing. He even has ingredients that will lift you out of mediocrity and into a life of abundance because our God is the God who works all things together for our good!

Time is one of the most valuable commodities that we have. The Apostle Paul said we should run with purpose in every step. Each day we have the same amount of time to use. If we use our emotional energy for the wrong purposes, focused on the negative, dwelling on who hurt us, we're not going to have the energy we need for the right purposes. We're not going to make the best decisions. We're not going to be as creative with our gifts, and our talents won't come out to the full. Part of living purposeful is to keep offenses, bitterness and grudges from robbing our energy. Like the sun shines brightly each day, that is how we ought to be; we shouldn't let anything block our light. With this gift of life comes a responsibility to develop our talents, to pursue our God-given goals, to become everything that He has created us to be. On a regular basis, reevaluate what you're doing and how you're spending your time. Refocus your life. Let go of any distractions. Shake off any self-pity, any discouragement, any disappointments and run your race with purpose. If you'll run with purpose in every step, accepting and appreciating the gift today, then you are redeeming your time, and when you come to the end of your days, you'll be able to say, "I have no regrets. I have spent my life well."

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