Every year we pray into the next year seeking God for guidance and direction in preparation for what is to come. Last year the Holy Spirit began prompting our leadership team at Destiny about what that focus was to be in 2017. As I’ve watched the year unfold with such bitter division on so many fronts I’ve realized just how important our 2017 word really is, “LOVE IS OUR SOURCE.”

Love is the source that defines our lives. We must refuse to be defined by the attitudes and behaviors of hateful and unloving people. Love is a force! Love is the source that defines us! LOVE IS OUR SOURCE!

It’s easy to be kind when others are giving you kindness. When they’re unkind that’s when you must give them what God has given you instead. We can love our enemies even if that love doesn’t reside in us. It may have to reside in God and come to us and then through us.

If you’ve ever been hated for any reason then you know how easy it is to respond by hating back. If you hate because you’ve been hated then you’ve contributed to greater hate in the world by giving hateful people the power to define you.

Water can’t sink the boat unless it gets in the boat. Negative situations cannot bring you down unless they get inside you. GUARD YOUR HEART!!!

We must respond to God rather than react to man. One of Dr. King’s many powerful statements was, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Hateful anger will only multiply hateful anger. Posting views that foster division online is an invitation for the enemy of our souls to stir greater division in our land and in our hearts.

Rom 16:17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. NKJV

Prov 29:22 Angry people stir up a lot of discord… NIV

Don’t just tell us what you’re against. Show us what you’re about. Help us reimagine a better story. Create. Compel. Inspire. Invite.

There is a very fitting Chinese Proverb that says, “Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”