“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) You may be facing a dead end right now—financially, emotionally, or relationally. But if you trust God and keep on moving forward in faith, even when you don’t see a way, he will make a way. God’s plan will become more understandable as you head down the path he sets before you, but understanding is not a requirement for you to start down the path. Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day” (NIV). One day you will stand in the full light of eternity and view the big picture. You’ll see God’s purpose behind the path he specifically chose for you. In the meantime, do what Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (NIV). Be patient. God knows what he’s doing. He knows what is best for you. And you can trust him because he’s good. You may not be able to see the end result, but God can. All those problems, heartaches, difficulties, and delays—all the things that make you ask “why”—will one day be clear in the light of God’s love. But for now, you’re learning to trust God. So go ahead and keep heading down that path he’s laid out for you.
0 Comments
“God does speak—sometimes one way and sometimes another—even though people may not understand it."
Job 33:14 (NCV) God designed you to hear his voice. In a sense, there is a “receiver” in you that allows you to get guidance from God. What channels does God use? The primary way that God speaks is through the Bible. This is why it’s important to read the Bible every day. God’s will is found in his Word. That’s how you know if an impression you get is a message from God. God also speaks through godly teachers. Have you ever been in church or at a Bible study and felt like the teacher was speaking directly to you? In that moment, God was speaking directly to you. God also speaks through other Christians. He even speaks through you. When you stay tuned in to him and learn his Word, sometimes God will use you to say things to people that he wants them to hear. It’s not something reserved only for pastors; God speaks through every believer at different times. God also speaks through your circumstances and your pain. Job 33:14 says, “God does speak—sometimes one way and sometimes another—even though people may not understand it” (NCV). God is speaking all the time. But you have to listen. Tune in to God, and he will lead you on the right path. “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way."
Psalm 25:9 (NIV) The Bible says you need to do several things to receive guidance from God, but the very first thing is this: You need to admit you need a guide! If you’re like most people, you don’t want to follow God or anybody else. You want to go your own way. Sometimes you even “play God” and make your own choices. Instead of doing what God wants you to do, you take matters into your own hands. And you struggle to admit that you need direction or that you need a guide. Sheep, by nature, tend to wander off the path. The prophet Isaiah says, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own” (Isaiah 53:6 NLT). Another thing about sheep is that they have poor vision. They can’t see very far ahead. That’s why they need a shepherd. God made you so that you would not be able to see into the future, no matter how much you try. Why did God do this? He did it so you would depend on him. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death” (NIV). We’ve all made decisions that at the time seemed right but later turned out to be wrong. Some paths lead to dead ends and you end up off track. That’s why you need to admit, “God, I need help.” God wants to lead you on the right path, and that’s exactly what he’ll do when you surrender to him and let him to your guide. “In all things God works for the good of those who love him."
Romans 8:28 (NIV) Everything God does is for your good and because he loves you. The Bible says, “All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful” (Psalm 25:10 NIV), and “In all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28 NIV). This is something you have to remind yourself of again and again, because any time God says “no” to your prayers, Satan will shoot darts of doubt at you. He’s going to whisper lies to you: “God doesn’t love you. He doesn’t care about you; otherwise, he’d give you everything you want!” But Satan is a liar. You don’t have to understand God’s answer to your prayer to know it’s motivated by love. God loves you too much to give you everything you ask for. So, when God says “no,” you’ve got three options: You can resist it, resent it, or relax in it. You can resist God. You can fight him, get mad at him, turn your back on him, and say, “Okay, God, if you don’t play the game my way, I’m going to take matters into my own hands.” I’ve met a lot of people who walked away from God because God said “no” to their prayer. They didn’t trust that he had a bigger perspective, a better plan, and a greater purpose. Those people walked away from God in resentment and rebellion. That’s the second thing you can do—you can resent it. When you doubt God’s love like that, it makes you bitter and miserable. So many people have lived their entire lives in misery because they’ve never accepted the fact that God only does what’s good in their lives. There is a third way to respond to God’s goodness: You can relax in it. When you believe that God always has your best interest at heart, you can look with new eyes at the things he does that don’t make sense. You may not understand it. It may even be painful. But God is still good. He is loving, and he will never stop loving you. You can say, “Even in this, God’s love still remains.” That’s the only kind of response that will bring you peace! Don’t resist or resent God’s work in your life. You can relax in the truth that it is always for your good. “The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God."
Psalm 14:2 (NIV) Millions of Christians spend all their time seeking what God has to give them and no time seeking God himself. When you’re praying for healing and restoration, it’s okay to want a miracle. But, ultimately, it should be God himself you seek—not a miracle, a sign, prosperity, or a thousand other gifts of God. Your prayer should be: “God, I want you. I want to know you.” When you seek God, you get everything else. God gives many promises in the Bible about those who seek him: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face . . . then I will hear from heaven” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV). “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me” (Proverbs 8:17 NIV). “Anyone who comes to him must believe he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV). “If from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul . . . For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you” (Deuteronomy 4:29-31 NIV). Seek God, not just his blessing. That means that, whether or not you get the answer you want, you’ll find joy in knowing God better. Whether or not you get what you think is best for you, you’ll be satisfied with what God thinks is best for you. When you’re going through a divorce or a miscarriage or a layoff, seek God—even more than your deliverance from your pain. This is not a casual pastime. Don’t seek God in your spare moments, after you’re done with work or as you’re scrolling social media. Make getting to know God better the primary focus of your life. “The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God” (Psalm 14:2 NIV). It’s rare to find someone who’s earnest about seeking God. Most of us want just enough of God to bless us, but not to change us. You don’t become an Olympic athlete in your spare time. In the same way, you don’t become a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ by giving him your leftovers. Give him your first and best, and he will keep every promise. “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way."
Psalm 25:9 (NIV) Humility is not thinking less of yourself. You can be confident and humble at the same time! Humility is thinking of yourself less. When you stay focused on God and helping other people, you naturally think about yourself less. That’s not an easy way to live. Why would anybody choose to think of others more than they think of themselves? Because God makes many promises in the Bible for Christians who will humble themselves. Humility is a big deal to God. Here are four things God will do in your life when you work on being humble. If you’re humble, God will guide you. If you don’t know which way to turn—whether to get in or get out, hold on or let go—then get humble. When you humble yourself, God will make your next step clear. You’ll make fewer mistakes in life! “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way” (Psalm 25:9 NIV). If you’re humble, God will bless you. These promises are all through Scripture, like Isaiah 66:2: “I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts” (NLT). God doesn’t bless egotistic or prideful people or those who secretly think they’re better than everybody else. He blesses the humble. If you’re humble, God will give you the power to change. The power to change is called grace. Maybe there are things in your life you’d like to change. Perhaps you’ve tried to change, but you can’t or you won’t. You need grace! How do you get God’s grace and the power to change? “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6 NLT). Every time you’re prideful, you’re on the opposite side of God—and you don’t want to be there. The humbler you are, the more grace God gives you. If you’re humble, God will reduce your stress. If you’re prideful, your stress is going to go up. Instead, listen to Jesus: “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29 NLT). When you’re tapped out and feel like you have nothing left to give, surrender to Jesus. Spend time in the Bible, learning how to choose gentleness and humility by his example. Pray, and ask him for the grace to change. Then you’ll find the rest your soul has been craving. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
James 1:17 (NIV) Experts say that the attitude you have for the day is set in the first eight minutes of your day. Do you want to grumble, gripe, and grunt your way through the day, or do you want to be grateful? The Bible says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17 NIV). Gratitude gets you to focus on your loving Father who meets all your needs. Don’t start your day with confession or requests. Start with gratitude. Think about God and his goodness. Tell him he’s a good Father, thanking him for being caring, close, and consistent. List the ways he’s been good to you. Tell him what you’re thankful for: running water, bed and a blanket, a warm house when it’s cold and a cold house when it’s hot outside. You don’t have to worry about the right thing to say. Just say what you feel and what’s on your mind. One of the ways you can start your day with thankfulness is to make a playlist of songs. Choose songs of gratitude that remind you of who God is and what he has done for you. Turn it on as soon as you open your eyes so that your first thoughts are grateful. Worship is the best way to wake up! You can also make a list of the things you’re thankful for and keep it near your bed or wherever you have a quiet time. A gratitude list can help keep you focused on God’s goodness, and then you can pour out your heart to him in thanks. When you wake every morning, make sure the first thing you’re doing is thanking God for his consistent love and recalling all the ways that he’s good to you. Get up with gratitude. It will change everything about your day! “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."
Romans 1:20 (NIV) The fruitfulness of your prayers doesn’t depend on how much you know about prayer but on how much you know about God. The more you understand God, the more effective your prayers are going to be. More important than learning all about prayer is understanding more about God. It starts with knowing that God is multidimensional. That means that God is in the past, present, and future. He’s on Earth and in the spirit world. Here are a few ways you can see God’s multidimensional character. You see it in God’s creation. The God who created a multidimensional world and universe is a multidimensional Creator. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20 NIV). You can learn a lot about God just by looking at nature. For instance, you know that God likes variety, and he is organized, creative, and powerful. Creation is complex, so you know God has to be even more complex. You see it in Jesus’ incarnation. John 1:14 says, “The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us” (GNT). If God had wanted to communicate to ants, he would’ve become an ant. If he had wanted to communicate to cows, he would’ve become a cow. But God wanted to communicate with and love human beings, so he became one of us. Jesus is bound by neither space nor time, because he is multidimensional: “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come” (Revelation 1:4 NIV). You see it in how the Holy Spirit moves. “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8 NIV). You can’t put the Holy Spirit in a box! You can’t control him. He’s like the wind. You don’t know where it comes from, and you don’t know where it’s going. He moves in dimensions we don’t move in. Don’t let this be the end of your study about God’s multidimensional character. Knowing God is a lifelong pursuit—one that will make your life sweeter and more meaningful each day. “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’"
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT) There probably have been many times that you’ve prayed for something, and God didn’t answer the way you wanted, or you feel like he didn’t answer at all. Does that mean prayer doesn’t work? No—because you’ve seen it work too many times. Does it mean that God isn’t good? No, God is good, whether you’re in pain or not. Does it mean that you should give up on prayer? No! God is not a vending machine, and prayer is not a painkiller. He has not guaranteed us a pain-free life. When you’re in pain and you pray but don’t see the answers, don’t give up. Your job is to keep praying and keep trusting God, because you know that everything he does and allows in your life, he will use for good. God is a good, good Father, even when you’re in pain. If a doctor cuts you open during surgery, that’s going to cause some pain. But if that surgery saves your life, you wouldn’t say the doctor was bad; you’d recognize that the painful work saved your life. When God doesn’t immediately end your pain, he is saying to you in that moment, “This pain may feel like too much. But my grace is sufficient for you.” Most everything we've learned in life is learned through pain. God is more interested in making you a man or woman of character than he is in making you comfortable. If you never had any pain or difficulty in your life, you would never grow to maturity. You don’t know God is all you need until God is all you’ve got. “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT). God wants good for your life, even more than you do. Will you trust him? “The Lord still waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love."
Isaiah 30:18 (TLB) God longs to be close to you. If you’re away from somebody that you love for a long time, you can’t wait to talk to them. If you have not been close to God, he can’t wait for you to talk to him, because he loves you so much. And he’s always available! He’s got a 24/7 drop-in system. He’s never offline. You can talk to him any moment of the day. Did you know that every day you go without prayer and spending time with God and his Word, God is waiting for you? You were made for this. You were made to know God and have a relationship with him. The Lord waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. It’s the whole reason you exist! Some parents know the unique pain of a child that can’t talk for a physical or emotional reason. When you love them but can’t have a conversation with them, that’s a heartache. Others are parents to a child that can talk but won’t. They’ve been shut out of their child’s life. When you long for a phone call that may never come, that’s a heartache too. That’s the way God feels about you when you don’t talk to him. Do you go days or weeks without sharing your heart, what you’re feeling, and what you need—your doubts and fears, your highs and lows? When you go that long without talking to him, God is thinking, “I created you. I love you. I want a relationship with you. Why do you turn away from me?” Don’t miss out talking to the God who created you. You weren’t put on this planet to mark things off your to-do list. You were put on this planet to be loved by God and to learn to love him back. You were chosen to be his child. You were formed for his family. You were created for companionship. God says, “I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me” (Hosea 6:6 TLB). God is waiting for you to talk to him. Don’t make him wait any longer! |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
All
Archives
July 2024
|