Saying No to Myself...What???????

Ed has been preaching the best series on prayer until last Sunday.(LOL) It was about breakthrough prayer and how you have to live in self-denial to have breakthrough. It was funny because he was preaching his heart out and was very anointed but he was getting no response from those of us in the audience. He finally said "I can tell y'all aren't real excited about this." On the inside I was screaming "No kidding, who wants to say NO to themselves, not me! We really don't want to hear this, we want to hear that this Christian life is easy." My thoughts went on like that. In reality though I want to see breakthroughs in my life and the life of my church, my friends and family and those who I meet everyday. So I say YES to saying NO to myself! Last week I was flying on a free pass my wonderful friend Mitzi gave me and I had to tell myself no quite a bit. I really have not been a fan of flying. I am not going to let that stop me though. I was flying on the 2 busiest days of the week so it was inevitable that I would get bumped off the plane. I had decided that if I got delayed there would be a purpose in it. The first day of flying I had only had 3 hours sleep and was leaving for the airport at 5:00 AM when I noticed my Shack book sitting on the nightstand. I felt prompted to take it, there was going to be someone who needed it. I didn't not get to my destination on the first day and had to spend the night in Orlando. I took that book out everywhere I was all day, sitting next to a lot of people and no one ever mentioned it. The next morning I boarded the plane and pulled it out again. This was my last flight before I arrived. The guy next to me began to ask me about the book. Yea!!! He then went to sleep. He woke up as we landed and God told me to give him the book. You would have thought I gave him a million dollars. Success!!! I was on a 24 hour detour for one man. Not what I would have chosen. On the way home I had to fly through turbulence all day. (Hate it) I got to Dallas and they informed me that I would have to fly to Albuquerque and then go to Lubbock. I didn't want to do it but it was my only option.
I was the last one on the plane and had to squeeze between two people who obviously did not want me there. There was an older lady and I tried small talk with her but she snubbed me. The ride was rough. We got close to Alb. and the captain came on to tell us that their were wind gusts up to 65 MPH! So it would be really rough. The lady next to me freaked out, she was so scared. I knew then that I had been sent on this flight to help her through it. I HAD TO FORGET ABOUT MYSELF AND MY FEAR! We had every kind of turbulence, side to side, bump bump and then big drop. Yuck! I had to pat her leg and tell her that I had been in God's hands all day and he had taken good care of me and was going to get us through this. We started coming in for landing and she had a second panic attack about wind shear. As I was trying to calm her I look below out her window and see the remains of a small plane crash. Not good for flying moral! I just started asking her all kinds of personal questions to distract her from that sight! We landed safely and she was so grateful that I had been there for her. 14 hours on planes was not my idea but it was God's and it was good! I am reading a book I would highly recommend "In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day". It will change your thinking!!! I'm starting a new saying...NO TO ME!