“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 NLT).
The Bible tells us to “pray all the time” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 The Message). How is it possible to do this? One way is to use “breath prayers” throughout the day, as many Christians have done for centuries. You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath: “You are with me.” “I receive your grace.” “I’m depending on you.” “I want to know you.” “I belong to you.” “Help me trust you.” You can also use a short phrase of Scripture: “For me, to live is Christ.” “You will never leave me.” “You are my God.” Pray it as often as possible so it is rooted deep in your heart. Just be sure that you’re motivated to honor God, not trying to manipulate him into doing your own bidding. Practicing the presence of God is a skill, a habit you can develop. Just as musicians practice scales every day in order to play beautiful music with ease, you can learn how to think about God at different times in your day. You can train your mind to remember God. At first you will need to create reminders to regularly bring your thoughts back to the awareness that God is with you in that moment. Begin by placing visual reminders around you. You might post little notes that say, “God is with me and for me right now!” If you are seeking an experience of his presence through all of this, you’ve missed the point. We don’t praise God to feel good but to do good. Your goal is not a feeling but a continual awareness that God is always present. That is the lifestyle of worship.
0 Comments
“The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24 NIV).
God never asks you to do something without providing what you need to do it. Anointing is a sign of God’s equipping you to fulfill an assignment he’s given you. When he gives you an assignment, a plan, or a strategy, he is going to empower you. Just as a lamp won’t shine unless it’s plugged in, your light won’t shine unless you’re plugged into your power source. You cannot fulfill the purpose you were created for apart from the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NIV). If you want God’s power to work through your life, you need to understand what it means to have his anointing and keep a few things in mind. 1. When God says to do it, you can count on his anointing. Jesus’ last assignment to his disciples was impossible. There was no way they could possibly take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It could only happen through his power. God will often give you an assignment that looks physically impossible, but he will make it possible. “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24 NIV). 2. God’s anointing makes difficult tasks easier. Your resources are limited. Your energy is limited. Your knowledge is limited. Your wisdom is limited. Your talent is limited. God’s is not. With God’s anointing, you can handle things better, last longer, and go farther.“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources [God] will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit” (Ephesians 3:16 NLT). 3. God’s anointing makes the impossible possible. In your business, marriage, health, and relationships, you’re going to come up against insurmountable problems. God is a competent Father. He can handle any problem you give him. Nothing is beyond his ability or his resources.“What is impossible for people is possible with God” (Luke 18:27 NIV). 4. God anoints your life to bless others. Jesus came to comfort the afflicted, the broken-hearted, those who are enslaved to habits, those who don’t know how to get out of debt, and those who are blind. And he anoints you to comfort others as well.“Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him” (Acts 10:38 The Message). 5. For every new challenge, you need fresh power from God. Anointing by the Holy Spirit cannot be stored up. You cannot handle today’s problems with yesterday’s anointing. You certainly can’t handle the problems you’re going to have tomorrow, next week, and next year with yesterday’s anointing. Stay in touch with God so that he can constantly fill you with his grace, love, and power. Ask for God’s anointing again. James 4:2 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (NIV). “My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:10-11 TLB).
Sheep are essentially defenseless animals, so a shepherd uses a few tools to care for and protect his sheep. He uses a rod for guarding and protecting and a staff with a little crook in it to rescue the sheep. We are like lost sheep, so Jesus came to Earth to be our Good Shepherd. Just as a shepherd uses the physical tools of the rod and the staff for direction and protection, God wants to protect you and direct you. Here are five ways he does that: 1. If you bring your hurts to him, Jesus is compassionate. Jesus has compassion on us, because he knows that we are helpless without him (Matthew 9:36). He doesn’t put you down; he lifts you up. He doesn’t hassle you; he heals you. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28 ESV). 2. If you follow him, Jesus leads you in the right direction. The Shepherd goes before. He leads from the front and calls you forward. Jesus is not going to push you through life. He’s going to say, “Watch how I do it. Look where I go.” “When he has led out all of his sheep, he walks in front of them, and they follow, because they know his voice” (John 10:4 CEV). 3. If you get confused or wander away, Jesus will find you and bring you back. When God brings you back from wandering away from him, he will not punish you, but he may discipline you. If a shepherd has a sheep that is prone to wander, he will often wrap that sheep’s leg so it can’t move. In the same way, sometimes God gives us a limp to keep us from wandering. “If a man has a hundred sheep but one of the sheep gets lost, he will leave the other ninety-nine on the hill and go to look for the lost sheep” (Matthew 18:12 NCV). 4. If you fail or fall, Jesus rescues you and sets you on the road to recovery. Like all sheep, we not only wander, but we also stumble. When we trust that God is going to restore us and rescue us when we fail, we’ll faithfully run to him every time we mess up. “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not rescue it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!” (Matthew 12:11-12 NIV). 5. If you trust him to save you, Jesus will keep his promise to do just that. It’s not your job to save yourself. Your job is simply to put your hand in God’s and say, “God, I’m all yours—the good, the bad, the ugly.” God loves you too much to ever let you go. “My Father gave my sheep to me. He is greater than all, and no person can steal my sheep out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:29 NCV). The goodness of God means he’s going to guide you, guard you, protect you, direct you, and save you. No one else can offer you those five benefits. They only come from Jesus, our Good Shepherd “Wise friends make you wise, but you hurt yourself by going around with fools” (Proverbs 13:20 CEV).
One of the things that causes people to miss God’s plan is peer pressure. Most of us know what that was like as a kid or teenager, but that pressure actually continues into adulthood. There’s plenty of bad advice floating around out there, and too often we feel pressured to follow it. Proverbs 13:20 says, “Wise friends make you wise, but you hurt yourself by going around with fools” (CEV). You can’t soar with the eagles if you’re running with the turkeys, so choose your friends wisely. If you keep company with wise friends, you’re going to become wise. We all worry about air pollution and water pollution. Have you ever worried about mind pollution? If you want to follow God’s direction, make sure your advice is from the right source. The Bible says in 1 John 3:7, “Do not let anyone lead you the wrong way! Christ is righteous. So to be like Christ a person must do what is right” (NCV). The difference in a thermometer and a thermostat is that a thermometer reflects the temperature of the environment and a thermostat sets the temperature of the environment. Every day, you’re faced with a decision: Are you going to be a thermostat or a thermometer? “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD” (Psalm 27:13-14 NASB).
God has only good plans for your life. He does not have bad plans for you—he never has and he never will. Yet a lot of people miss God’s plan for their lives because they don’t trust God. Instead, they decide to follow their own plan, and in the end, that leads to hopelessness and pessimism. The more you understand God’s goodness, the more hopeful you’re going to be because hope is anticipating God’s goodness. The only reason you have hope is because God is good. If God is not a good God, there is no rational reason for hope. “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I’d see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:13-14 NASB). Everything God does for you, through you, to you, and in you, he does because he is a good God. God’s goodness in your life isn’t based on how good you are. It’s based on God’s character, not yours. Everybody needs God’s goodness. Everybody wants God’s goodness. But we have to understand and believe it to experience it. In his goodness, he blesses us with sustenance and balance, resilience and guidance, confidence and assurance, influence and abundance, benevolence and inheritance. He makes it all available to his children because of his grace and his good character. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 NIV).
We’re all broken people. We’re all imperfect. Sometimes we hurt each other intentionally or unintentionally. Life isn’t fair. Innocent people suffer. Everyone has experienced unfair or prejudicial treatment in some way. How do you respond to it? If you start dwelling on it and stewing, spewing, and worrying, your soul takes a hit. Grudges over what others have done to you will hurt your soul, impairing your thoughts, emotions, and decisions. Resentment, bitterness, retaliation, and revenge will damage you. The Bible actually says that God’s going to even the score. Judgment is coming one day. People who were mistreated, misjudged, or treated unfairly will receive justice. But it is not your job to avenge yourself: “Never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God, for he has said that he will repay those who deserve it” (Romans 12:19 TLB). Unaddressed grudges blind you to how much good God has done in your life. You become blind to the truth. You become blind to the needs of people around you. Your soul will not be restored until you let it go. That’s what Jesus wants to help you do. God wants to restore your soul, taking the bitter things in your life and turning them into better things. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (NIV). Of course, we know that not everything that happens to you is good. But can God take the bad things people do to you and use them for good? Yes. Can God take your sins and mistakes and bring good out of them? Yes. Can God take your own weaknesses and your damaged will and work good even then? Yes. Anybody can bring good out of good, but God specializes in bringing good out of bad. God turns your hurts into holiness. He turns your wounds into wisdom. He uses offenses to remove your pretenses. When you believe that God can bring good things out of very bad things, he will begin to rebuild your soul—your broken thoughts, your broken emotions, and your broken will. “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23 NIV).
Psalm 23 explains the ways God wants to show his goodness in your life. All of these benefits are available to you not because you’re good, but because God is good. When you truly understand God’s goodness as revealed in Psalm 23, it will strengthen your faith. You will be able to say:
When Jesus came to Earth and died for our sins on the cross, he opened the door for us to receive all the benefits of God’s goodness. That’s why we call it Good Friday. It was good for you and me! Good Friday certainly wasn’t good for Jesus. It was painful. It was torture. He willingly said, “No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will” (John 10:18 GNT). Sending the Messiah to die for you is the ultimate expression of God’s goodness. Jesus said, “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep” (John 10:10-11 NLT). Everybody needs what God has to offer. But are you looking for it in all the wrong places? Many people expect those 10 needs to be met by their careers, bank accounts, friendships, romantic relationships, children, or family. God is saying to you, “No, I’m it. I’m the source of all goodness in your life.” The biggest cause of stress in your life is the lack of focusing on God’s goodness. When you choose to trust in God’s goodness, you’ll be able to face your struggles with hope and renewed faith “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7 NIV).
When we’re full of fear and anxiety, we don’t get close to others. We back off from the people around us. We’re afraid of being rejected, manipulated, vulnerable, hurt, or used. All of these fears cause us to disconnect in life. This fear is as old as humanity. When Adam and Eve sinned, and God came looking for them, Adam said, “I was afraid and I hid.” People have been doing that since. We’re afraid, so we hide. We hide our true selves. We don’t let people know what we’re really like. We don’t let them see inside of us. Why? Because if we let people know what we’re like and they don’t like it, we’re up a creek without a paddle. Tough luck. Why am I afraid to tell you who I am? Because if I tell you who I am but you don’t like me, then I have to deal with rejection and disappointment. So we wear masks and we pretend. Fear does three terrible things to relationships. Our fears make us defensive. We’re afraid to reveal ourselves, so we defend ourselves. When people point out our weaknesses, we retaliate and shift into defense mode. Our fears keep us distant. We don’t let people get close to us. We want to withdraw, pull back. We want to hide our emotions. We don’t want to be open and honest. We become defensive and distant. Our fears make us demanding. Whenever we’re insecure, and the more insecure we are, the more we try to control. So we try to have the last word in a relationship. We try to dominate, control. It’s always a symptom of fear and insecurity. Where can you get the confidence and courage of taking the first step in connecting with someone, to go into a deeper intimacy? You get it from God’s Spirit in your life. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For the Holy Spirit, God’s gift, does not want you to be afraid of people but to be wise and strong [in other words, courageous], and to love them and enjoy being with them” (TLB). How do you know when you’re filled with God’s Spirit? You’re more courageous in your relationships. You love people. You enjoy being with them. You’re not afraid of them because God’s Spirit is in your life. The Bible says that “God is love” and “Love casts out all fear.” The more of God you have in your life, the less fear you’re going to have in your life. So the starting point in connecting with anybody is to pause, pray, and say, “God, give me the courage to take the first step.” You can do that now with a person you want to connect with. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
All
Archives
July 2024
|