Well, it was back to work today after a week of vacation. Returned to find that I was in the top 5% of the office in production last quarter, so I got a $75 gift card. What a way to come back from vacation! Thanks, Jesus!

More from Charles Stanley....

Praying in the name of Jesus signifies agreement with His will. You are asking the Father to grant your need or desire as Jesus would, were He in your position. When you pray with this attitude, God is going to reveal His will because you want nothing less than what He wants. This is the kind of prayer that changes the world.

Keep your focus on the Lord—if you don't, you will react rather than obey. Isaiah 41:10 says not to fear or anxiously look about; otherwise, Satan will exaggerate details to make you believe things are worse than they actually are. But when your eyes are on Jesus, He will absolutely cover everything with His presence—and His perfect love will drive away all fear. (1 John 4:18)

Ephesians 6:10-11 says, "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand . . ." Rather than fighting back the way the world does, stand firm in God's strength. The battle is His to fight, so it's useless to try manipulating circumstances. If you're right where God has called you to stand, you can expect to be victorious, no matter what the outcome is.

None of us wants to believe we are fools in God's eyes. But we are playing a "fool's game" when we ignore what God says and instead live the way we want. Our reliance on intelligence, education, and talents will lead us astray. While useful, they are not substitutes for godly judgment. What does God say will help to make us wise?

Commitment. We must resolve to see all of life from God's perspective, making it our true desire to gain wisdom and obey.

Devotion. View Scripture as a treasure trove of infinite worth. (Proverbs 3:15) Devote time and attention to learning who we are in Christ and what God's plan is for us. Meditate on His Word daily. Realize that no material thing compares in value to spiritual understanding.

Obedience. To live wisely, we must have more than knowledge about the Bible's contents; we need to apply what we learn. Storing up scriptural truths is good but does not make us wise. Wisdom means having God's perspective as well as obedient responses to His commands. (Proverbs 10:8)

Prayer. God provides spiritual insight to those who ask. (James 1:5-6) But that requires us to slow down long enough to make the request and receive His answer. Our willingness to do that is frequently dictated by our sense of neediness. Satan works to keep us feeling self-sufficient so we will not think to pray.

"Wisdom walking" is the only way for us to become the people God has planned for us to be and to accomplish the work He has set before us.

--Charles Stanley

Went to the Ringling Museums and House today--awesome! The art museum had a special display by Duane Hanson, Sculptures from Everyday Life, which was unbelievable.

Saw on the news last night where some local police departments oppose the use of tazer guns by citizens. Now let me get this straight......you can take a class and get a permit to carry a concealed weapon that can kill someone, but the police do not want you to carry a tazer, which only stuns someone. What's wrong with this picture?

2nd day of vacation, pretty boring. Waxed the car this morning, it looks great! Ate breakfast at Denise's Restaurant, then went out to Pirate City where there was supposed to be a Gulf Coast League game, but it didn't look like anything was going on, so I left. Went to Dairy Queen later and got a Key Lime blizzard.....really bad! Don't get the Key Lime blizzard! Big day for Tracy at work--they had a fire drill!

I'm currently reading my 2nd Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons--good book. First one I read was Deception Point, which was also good.

That's it--later......

Tracy went to the doctor today for an update on her asthma. Doctor pleased with her good response to the medication; she is feeling much better and her cough has really eased up. I'm on vacation this week but don't really have anything planned; I may go to the beach for a couple of days and my catch some ballgames. David got a call today from the application he put in at Dollar General and should be starting there soon. That's all for now!

Welcome to Randy's Ramblings, a collection of ramblings from someone who knows nothing about anything. We can also keep you up to date on the happenings in the Hartley household.