The Power of Prayer!

The Power of Prayer!

Today, as a part of my IMPACT Project work, I was taking around banners and promotional materials to stores and businesses that are observing The National Day of Prayer (NDP) which falls on the first Thursday of May every year. Wayfield Foods and other companies in Atlanta take the NDP as an opportunity to encourage their associates and customer to acknowledge God through prayer. I am a witness that prayer makes a difference in your life and draws us closer to God. I was pastor of a church here in Atlanta for 25 years and have been a Christian all my life it seems but I must admit it wasn't until I was diagnosed with Cancer in 2009 that I realized where my prayer life and relationship with God was and was not! It wasn't where it needed to be. I imagine I'm not alone.

Sometimes we think we are relying on God and are trusting in the Lord Jesus, when we are really trusting in ourselves. As probably the most frugal person known to man and a tenacious saver, before cancer, there were not too many issues that could arise that I could not simply "cut a check" to resolve. But there is no amount of money that can heal you when you have an incurable disease. Some of us trust in our relationships with people. But I have found that people will let you down even if they have good intentions. Many times when trouble comes, people are nowhere to be found.

Recently in 2013, I had a season of severe pain to which it seemed like there would be no end. During those months, I found out that only a relationship with Christ and prayer can be relied upon! I hurt so badly for so long that year.  I prayed like I never prayed before day after day and yes, Jesus delivered me from the pain. But more importantly, what remained once the pain was gone was an attitude of gratitude that moved me from prayer of supplication ( Oh Lord supply my need) to prayer of thanksgiving (Oh Lord, I thank you that you that there is nothing too hard for you)!

I want to encourage you today to pray throughout the day and every day! Pray until it turns into praise! Our God is faithful and He is able to deliver you out of every horrible pit. I still have the underlying problem that caused the pain in 2013 and I still have the Cancer that caused the problem. But what's greater is I still have the power of prayer! My God is able to heal and deliver me from all of the above! What a privilege it is to carry (as the old Christian hymn says) everything to God in prayer!  On the first Thursday of May, I will join others around the country praying for our Nation. But let us determine to make every day a National Day of Prayer!

Victorious Every Day! Do You Remember Your First Pet?

It's amazing how our childhood pets stay with us for a lifetime. Before "my dog" Smokey (our beautiful German shepherd who made the move with our family from Ohio to Philly in 1983) there was Brownie.

My Dad got us "boys" Brownie before I was even born in 1968 in Atlanta. He was part of our family in Ohio where I grew up until just before I turned 12 in 1981.

When he died my parents were out of town and I'll never forget my older brother Mike (MJ) trying to explain to me that "Brownie is gone". That was one of the saddest days of my and all of our young lives in Ohio. Early the next year, the day after the Cincinnati Bengals lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl (As many of my friends and family know, I connect life’s memories around major sporting events) we got Smokey as a puppy. Smokey was mainly my responsibility (which got me ready for Cierra and Chucky many, many, years later). I had to clean up after him as well as walk, feed and otherwise care for him until I had to leave him and my parents in Philly to attend Morehouse College in 1987 (he died my Sophomore year). I still miss Brownie and Smokey ...I see them often in my dreams.

BELOW: From right to left in our family room in Columbus, Ohio in the early/mid 70s- Stephen, me looking at David, Michael and David. Between me and Dave is our beloved first dog Brownie.

My book, You are Victorious! Winning in the "Sport" called Life is now available on kindle/Amazon books and will be published by IMPACT Books in July! For more information visit DrJVictorious.com.

Victorious Every Day! Back to the "Future" is next year!

I was at the corporate office of one of my clients recently and we were all debating what year it was when Michael J. Fox traveled to the future. Of course being an avid time travel movie lover,I was correct in telling everyone that it was the year 2015 that Fox's character "Marty" traveled to from 1985. In the first film he travels back to 1955 but in the sequel he had to travel into the future to catch Biff in 2015! I remember when I watched that movie in 1985 as a 16-year-old sophomore at Overbrook High School in Philly, that I thought that 2015 would certainly have the flying cars that the movie promised us all! It seemed that 2015 was an unreachable date, 30 years ago but now it is just one year away! I realize now why if its a time travel movie, you can count on me being there. First of all, I love the concept of being able to see the past or to go into the future. We all love the paradox of time travel stories which of course also makes it impossible. For example when Christopher Reeves character went back in time in the movie Somewhere in Time, he took a watch and gave it to Jane Seymour's character, who had actually given it to him in the future. The question always is raised "Where did the watch come from?" If he left it in the past and she gave it to him in the future, whose watch was it? Similarly, in the movie The Butterfly Effect,another great time travel story, the smallest detail altered in the past drastically changes the future and so those who travel inevitably end up regretting their trip in time. No matter how many times they try to get it right, being human, something in the future always goes wrong! The so called 'butterfly effect' is a reference to the theory that the flutter of a butterfly's wings 2000 miles away, can affect weather patterns on the other side of the country ( how somebody would prove that is another question). Nevertheless, we all know from the evidence of our life, that small details of our life drama have caused great changes in our present and thus our future. That is the second and secret reason that I love time travel stories. They give me a moment to escape reality and fantasize that I could go back and change some of the many mistakes of my life. Like I imagine it is for all of us, there are some years that I would like to get a do-over in life! Wouldn't you? I'd go back to 1996 but then so many wonderful blessings (at least two I know by name) might nit have cone to pass! In 2009 when I was diagnosed with Stage Four cancer, for awhile I did not think I had a future anymore. I was trapped for a long time in negative thinking always looking back in time regretting and wishing some of the choices that I made would have been different. But when I learned through Christ how to think victorious thoughts, I stopped living in the past and started looking again to the future. I want to encourage you today that we all do time travel. Every day you wake up is a new day and the decisions you make this morning will change your afternoon! You and I are time traveling right now...its called living! We are all here for a purpose and what I learned and detail in my book entitled, You are Victorious!Winning in the " Sport " called Life (shameless plug), it is a waste to look backwards, when you know that God has so much in store for you in the future! The best is coming must be your faith! I believe that now and hope you do too. Don't waste a minute of a Day in doubt, regret or fear! The very fact that next year is the year that Michael J. Fox ( Marty McFly) should be showing up in his Delorean is proof that time travel happens every day! You are living in the future of yesterday in the present and today is tomorrow's past! (Hope I didn't lose you there! LOL)...The exciting thing is that you and I in Christ can make our present and future awesome! What is it that you desire to have 30 days, 30 weeks, 30 months or even 30 years from now? The decisions and actions you choose right now will determine it! I encourage you again , don't go back, go forward... your future is waiting! No Delorean required! Dr. Charles H. Jackson