The End of the Season

James 4:6 shares a familiar passage from Proverbs 3 – “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 

Do you feel that God is teaching you a lesson every time you open your mouth? I have had that feeling often this past week.

As you know, we have just completed a banner year for the TeenPact State Classes with record registrations in both the Four Day and One Day Classes – Election years continue to be favorable for TeenPact. Monday at Midnight we closed registration for National Convention 2017 with 715 student registrations. It is wonderful to see God moving in such incredible ways. Also, if you attended the Virginia I, Texas II, Hawaii, Kentucky, or Florida III classes you may have heard me share from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, including chapter 2 which speaks so eloquently of the humility of Jesus Christ. I passionately believe those words and look to Christ as my example of THE servant leader. Yet, I look at the numbers and become full of pride as I think about what I did to get to those numbers!

That is the lesson that God has been teaching me this past week – how prideful I am and how He opposes that pride in me.  Closing out the 2017 State Class Season and preparing for National Convention have reminded me of old and new situations that quickly and painfully show me my weaknesses, my faults, my sins. And I am so grateful for those painful reminders because they drive me to my knees, they cause me to seek forgiveness, and they require me to take my eyes off myself and focus them on Jesus in humbleness and gratefulness. Then the words of the second half of the verse become critically important – He gives me grace when I need it most!

No matter our position within TeenPact, our station in life, or how long we have been following Jesus Christ, we should be open to His teaching, His direction, and His correction in our lives. As we are open to Him, we will grow in godliness and will glorify God!  To the praise of His glorious name!

I am excited to see so many of you at Lee University in little over a week! Are you ready to seek God?

Blessings,

Peter Martin, President

P.S. Please take a moment on Sunday to recognize your moms on Mother’s Day and to thank God for their influence in your lives.