“Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty."
Proverbs 21:5 (NLT) If you want God to use you in great ways, you need focus. The more focused you are, the more effective you’ll be—and the more God will use you. There’s awesome power in focus. Diffused light doesn’t have much of an effect on what it touches. But when you focus light—like the sun’s light through a magnifying glass—you can light a piece of paper or grass on fire. If you can focus it even more, it becomes a laser. A laser can cut through steel and destroy cancer. The same is true with your life. If the course of your life lacks direction, you’ll just drift through without making an impact. But if you focus your time on a few key goals, then you can make a powerful impact on the world for God. The Bible says, “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5 NLT). One of the great examples of focus in the Bible is the story in Genesis 24. Abraham was getting old, and his son still hadn’t married. God had promised Abraham that he would create a great nation through Abraham’s own family, which God did. But Abraham’s son, Isaac, still didn’t have any children. He wasn’t even married yet. So Abraham gave his chief servant a goal of finding a wife for his son. Abraham told his servant, “Don’t get a wife from the Canaanite girls who live around here. Go back to my country, to the land of my relatives, and find a wife for my son Isaac.” Like all good goals, the servant’s was clear. He knew he needed to find Isaac a wife, and he knew exactly what kind of wife to look for. He needed to find a wife from Abraham’s homeland. You’ll never reach a vague goal because you’ll never know if you’ve completed it. Abraham’s servant didn’t have that problem. For example, if your goal is to be a better parent, that’s vague. Even if you make the goal to spend more time with your children this year, you’ll never really know if you’ve completed the goal because it isn’t specific. But if you commit to spending an hour every Tuesday evening with your children, that’s a specific goal. You’ll know whether or not you’ve completed it. Those kinds of goals will give you the focus to change your life. What specific goal will you set for yourself this week?
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“God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others. What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work of sharing his message about peace. We were sent to speak for Christ, and God is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ and sincerely ask you to make peace with God."
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (CEV) In 1956, five American missionaries headed to the rainforest of the eastern Amazon in Ecuador to make a second visit to the isolated Huaorani tribe. The people had a culture of killing, and anthropological studies suggest as much as 54 percent of the tribe died by homicide. Soon after the missionaries got out of the plane, they were speared to death by members of the tribe. The brutal murders made news around the world and were on the covers of Life magazine, Time, and Newsweek. Many newspapers reported the deaths of these men, who included Nate Saint and Jim Elliot. A couple years later, Elisabeth and Valerie Elliot (wife and daughter of Jim) and Rachel Saint (sister of Nate) moved into the Huaorani village to show love and forgiveness and minister to the people who had killed their family. Eventually, Mincaye, the leader of the tribe, and the five men who participated in the missionary murders all became Christians. The kind of forgiveness that Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint modeled doesn’t make sense until you have been forgiven by God. Once you’ve experienced God’s forgiveness, how do you forgive? You do the four things that these women did. Relinquish your right to get even. Romans 12:19 says, “Don’t try to get even. Let God take revenge” (CEV). Leave it up to God. He’ll take care of it, and he’ll do a much better job than you ever could. Respond to evil with good. How can you tell when you’ve completely forgiven someone? You can actually pray for God to bless the person who hurt you. The Bible says, “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28 NIV). Repeat these steps as long as necessary. The book of Matthew records a conversation about forgiveness between Jesus and Peter: “Peter came up to the Lord and asked, ‘How many times should I forgive someone who does something wrong to me? Is seven times enough?’ Jesus answered: ‘Not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!’” (CEV). Sometimes forgiveness is continual. Rescue others with the Good News of God’s forgiveness. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, “God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others. What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work of sharing his message about peace. We were sent to speak for Christ, and God is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ and sincerely ask you to make peace with God.” Forgiveness is difficult. But it becomes easier when you stop trying to forgive on your own and, instead, forgive others because God has already forgiven you. “So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God."
Matthew 5:23-24 (TNLT) What do you think about when you think of forgiveness? Do you think forgiving also has to mean just going on with the relationship as if nothing ever happened? It doesn’t—and, in fact, it shouldn’t. When someone commits a major offense that leads to a break in relationship, forgiveness doesn’t mean resuming the relationship without any changes. In fact, forgiveness and resuming a relationship are two separate things. Forgiving is what the offended person does. But it’s the offender’s job to do what’s necessary to restore and resume the relationship. Simply saying “I’m sorry” is not enough. The Bible teaches three things the offender should do to begin restoring a relationship that’s been broken: Restoring a relationship requires repentance. In other words, you’re truly saddened about what you did. You don’t just say, “I’m sorry.” You say, “I was wrong. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” You can be sorry that you forgot to run an errand for your spouse or that you accidentally bumped into someone at the grocery store, but bigger offenses require repentance. When you repent, you admit you’re wrong, express true sorrow, and ask for forgiveness. Restoring a relationship requires restitution. Sometimes you have to make some kind of physical restitution. Even when you’re forgiven, it doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for the consequences of your actions. You may still have to pay a debt to society or to an individual for what was damaged or destroyed by your actions. Restoring a relationship requires rebuilding trust. Rebuilding trust may take a long, long time. When you’ve hurt someone, ideally that person will forgive you immediately. But they don’t have to trust you immediately. Forgiveness is built on grace and is unconditional; trust has to be rebuilt over time. Remember, forgiveness and resuming a relationship aren’t the same thing. Let’s say, for example, you learn that a coworker or loved one has repeatedly told lies about you behind your back. When you learn of the offense, it’s time to forgive. But, to resume the relationship, the offender needs to repent, make restitution, and work to rebuild trust. Have you hurt someone? What do you need to do to begin to restore that relationship today? “Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come."
2 Corinthians 5:17 (GNT) Ultimately, your identity is based on your choices. Here are five winning choices you can make that will help determine your destiny. 1. You can choose to get healthier. Instead of bemoaning the fact that you don’t have an Olympic body, find ways to increase your energy, lower your stress, get more sleep, and have more power. Psalm 119:73 says, “Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands” (NIV). Improving the controllable factors in your life helps you reduce the impact of the uncontrollable factors. 2. You can choose to deepen relationships. The fear of rejection prevents connection, and the only way to get rid of fear is to do the thing you fear the most. Learn communication skills, replace bad relationships, and reach out and risk connecting with someone. “Let love be your highest goal!” (1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT). 3. You can choose to trust God, no matter what happens. “I will always thank the Lord; I will never stop praising him” (Psalm 34:1 GNT). Work to get to the point in your life where you can say, “I praise the Lord, no matter what happens.” That is a confidence that you won’t find anywhere in Hollywood, on Capitol Hill, or on Wall Street. That is a confidence built on a relationship with God! 4. You can choose what you think about. Throughout the 20th century, scientists believed the adult brain could not be changed. When the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner proved that you can rewire your brain, science finally caught up to the Bible: “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Romans 12:2 NLT). Your self is created by your memories, and your memories are created by your mental habits. Feed your brain with the truth of God’s Word. 5. You can choose Jesus as your Savior. We're not just talking about Jesus saving you from your sins. We're talking about letting Jesus be your Savior every day. Letting Jesus save you gives you the power to follow through on the choices you make. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come” (GNT). You get to choose how much God blesses your life. It is never too late to change. When you make these five winning choices, God gives you a winning hand. “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it."
Psalm 139:14 (NLT) The Bible says there’s nothing simple about you. You’re complex and multifaceted. You’re not easy to understand or explain. In Psalm 139:14, David says, “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!” (NLT). To make changes in your life and become all that God intends for you to be, you have to look at every dimension of your life, not just one. As Ecclesiastes 7:18 says, “A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it” (The Message). There are five factors that create your identity. You did not choose these factors. God dealt them to you. Have you ever played a game of cards? Usually, you have to play the cards you’re dealt. You don’t get to mix and match them. You don’t get to say, “I want to play someone else’s hand instead.” You can only play the cards you’re given. In many ways this is a metaphor for life. Some things are just part of the hand you’re dealt—like your parents, birthplace, race, and talents. You didn’t choose them—but that’s what you have to play with, like it or not. The Bible says a lot about the factors that you’re given in life that make you you. In fact, the Bible gives four facts that are true about each aspect of your identity. Everything in the world is marred by sin. No part of your life is perfect because nothing in this world is perfect. The weather is broken. The economy is broken. Your body is broken. Your relationships are broken. Nothing about life on Earth is perfect—so nothing in your life will ever be perfect. God sent Jesus as your Savior. Jesus came to save you from your sin and for heaven—but also to save you from yourself. When you accept Jesus as your Savior, he can change those cards you’ve been dealt into a winning hand. You will give an account to God of how you lived your life. God won’t judge you based on someone else’s hand. But he does expect you to play the hand you’re dealt in life to the best of your ability and to make the most of what you’ve got. The Bible tells you how to become all God created you to be. In other words, the Bible gives you what you need to win the game with the hand you’ve been dealt. Here are five things that make you uniquely you—chemistry, connections, circumstances, consciousness, and choices. When you understand your unique, complex identity, then you can begin to make changes to become all God created you to be. “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."
Proverbs 14:30 (NIV) Some people tend to think of their body as completely separate from their spirit. But the truth is, there is a direct connection between your spiritual health and your physical health. In fact, the Bible is full of health advice you’re probably not going to read about in a nutrition book. Here are four things from Scripture you can do to live a healthier life. Trust in God. In life, you’ll either worship or worry. You’ll either pray or panic. The Bible says in Psalms 116:7, “I said to myself, ‘Relax, because the Lord takes care of you’” (NCV). God wants you to trust him and relax. He will take care of you! Confess your sin. One of the healthiest things you can do is to receive God’s forgiveness. Don’t repress or suppress your sin. Instead, express it to God. If you don’t talk to God about your sin, you’ll take it out on your body. This happened to David: “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long . . . My strength evaporated . . . Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt . . . And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone” (Psalm 32:3-5 NLT). Give generously. It’s not a mistake that the words “miser” and “miserable” have the same root. Misers are miserable; they’re always sad. But givers are always glad. Proverbs 11:25 says, “The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed” (NLT). Did you know there are more promises in the Bible about giving and generosity than about any other subject? God is a giving God, and he wants you to learn to be like him. Every time you give, your heart grows bigger—and you break the miserable grip of materialism. Have fun. Life is meant to be enjoyed, not merely endured. In fact, the Bible says that God created everything for your enjoyment. 1 Timothy 6:17 says, “They should place their confidence in God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (GW). You’ll often hear people say, “The family who prays together stays together.” That’s true. But it’s also true to say, “The family who plays together stays together.” You need to enjoy life. You need to have fun. Friends, it’s not just what you eat that matters. It’s what eats you. You can take the best probiotics and eat fresh, healthy, and organic foods. But if you’re resentful against your dad, envious of your friend, or guilty about something you did yesterday, it will rot your bones: “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30 NIV). But when you look to God—with trust, confession, generosity, and fun—he fills you with peace. “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
Romans 12:11-12 (NIV) In order to reach your goals, you have to figure out how to maintain your enthusiasm over the long haul. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” You’ve got to have passion and enthusiasm, or you’re never going to make it to the finish line. How do you do that? How do you stay enthusiastic day after day in spite of delays, difficulties, dead ends, problems, pressures, and criticisms? How do you stay enthusiastic for years on end? Positive thinking is not enough. Pulling yourself up by your psychological bootstraps is not enough. Talking yourself into optimism is not enough. The way you stay enthusiastic for a lifetime is found in the word “enthusiasm,” which comes from the Greek word en theos. En is the Greek word for “in.” Theos is the Greek word for “God.” So en theos means to be “in God.” When you get in God, you will be enthusiastic. It’s the kind of enthusiasm that isn’t affected by the economy or the weather or your circumstances. It’s eternal, because you are tied to the eternal God. You are in Christ. Paul tells you how to be “in God”—enthusiastic—in Romans 12:11-12: “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (NIV). If you want to reach your goals, you need to get God-given enthusiasm by being joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other."
Romans 12:4-5 (NLT) If you want lasting change in your life, you must fill your life with love. Love is the only thing that can change the unchangeable. Love heals, uplifts, strengthens, energizes, refreshes, and renews. Love is the most powerful force in the universe because, as 1 John 4:8 says, “God is love” (NIV). As a Christian, where do you find this kind of love? In community with other Christians. God wired the universe in such a way that we need each other. I need you, and you need me. The phrase “one another” is used 58 times in the New Testament. It says things like love one another, care for one another, encourage one another, support one another, pray for one another, greet one another, share with one another. God never meant for you to go through life by yourself. The Bible says in Romans 12:4-5, “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other” (NLT). What does it mean to “belong to each other”? It means you need the people around you, and they need you. You become each other’s spiritual family. You help each other toward your goals and encourage each other as you become more like Christ. The Bible is clear about what love looks like in a spiritual family: “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other” (Romans 12:9-10 NLT). “Take delight in honoring each other”—I love that! You know what that means? It means when people in your community have a win in their health, finances, or any goal they’ve set, you celebrate with them. And when life is difficult, your community of believers is the first to comfort and support you. Here’s the amazing thing: God has wired the universe so that when you help other people, God simultaneously works on your problems. There is healing in giving back. Remember when Job lost everything, including his health, his family, and his wealth? At the end of the story, God gave it all back to Job—because Job prayed, not for himself but for his friends. The Bible says, “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10 NIV). Do you need lasting, positive change as you work toward your goals? Give yourself away in love, and then watch God work in your life. “Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires . . . be made new in the attitude of your minds; and . . . put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV) If you want to have lasting change in your life, you have to start with your body—and your mind is part of your body. So, to change your life, you have to change the way you think. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (NIV). That word “transformed” in the Greek is the word we get “metamorphosis” from. Metamorphosis is what happens when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. When a caterpillar wraps itself in a cocoon, it eventually comes out. But it’s been transformed—not into a better version of a caterpillar, but into a totally different creature. That’s not improvement. That’s radical transformation! And only God can do that. Radical transformation is what God wants for you, too. You can turn over a new leaf on your own, but only God can give you a new life. He does this by renewing your mind. Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires . . . be made new in the attitude of your minds; and . . . put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (NIV). Notice that there’s a putting off and a putting on. The health of your mind really comes down to stopping some stuff you need to stop doing and starting some stuff you need to start doing. Stop putting negative, hurtful things into your mind. Start watching and listening to things that make you more like Christ. In the renewal of your mind, you’ve got to put off before you can put on. Let’s say you go to a store to look for a new coat. You find one to try on. But if you’re wearing a coat already, you have to take off the old one before you put on the new one. That’s also true spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Look at the verses from Ephesians 2 again. The Bible says, “Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.” The “old self” is the impulses and compulsions that pull you the wrong direction. Then you need to “be made new in the attitude of your minds.” Attitudes are kind of like diapers. You’ve got to change them every once in a while, or they start stinking. Only after you’ve put off your old self and old attitudes can you “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Do you need change in your life today? Remember that a changed life begins with a changed mind. “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.”
1 Peter 3:8 (NIV) There are situations every day that no one should ever have to go through alone. Nobody should ever have to wait alone in the hospital while a loved one is in life-or-death surgery. No woman should ever have to wait alone for the lab report on a problem pregnancy. Nobody should ever have to wait alone for news from a battlefield. No one should ever have to stand alone at the edge of an open grave. Nobody should ever have to spend the first night alone when their spouse has just walked out. Life’s tough times and tragedies are inevitable; each of us will face them. But you don’t need to go through them alone. You need God’s safety net to help hold you up through difficult times. What is God’s safety net? It is a group of other believers—a handful of people who are really committed to you. We call this kind of group a community. Here’s God’s plan for community: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26 NIV). Community is God’s answer to despair. Romans 12:15 expresses a similar idea: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (NIV). The first part of that verse is easy to do. When something good happens to someone, it’s often easy to join in on the party. But when someone is having a tough time, it can seem more difficult to get involved. But, really, it’s simple. When you’re going through a crisis, you don’t want advice; you just want somebody to sit with you, hold your hand, put an arm around your shoulder, or cry with you. You want someone simply to be with you. Paul says, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV). But encouraging someone else doesn’t always mean giving a pep talk or offering words of wisdom. Sometimes the best kind of encouragement is just sitting in silence, waiting and weeping with a friend. Do you have a safety net, a group of fellow Christians that you know you can count on in life’s toughest times? If not, go out today and begin building those friendships. The hard times in life are inevitable. Don’t go into them unprepared. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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