“Open my eyes, so that I may see the wonderful truths in your law."
Psalm 119:18 (GNT) The Bible is filled with countless examples of people getting God’s vision, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Miriam, Esther, Daniel, Jonah, Ruth, Micah, and Mary. Seeing God’s vision for your life is a wonderful thing! God often uses a mental picture to clarify the next step he wants you to take. This doesn't need to be explained to those who are visual thinkers. Maybe that’s you. When you read a story in the Bible, you can see it in 3D and vivid color. When you read a book, you can picture the story in your mind. But for the rest of us, it’s a little harder. Many of us are not visual thinkers. We tend to think in words, not pictures. So how do you get God’s vision if you’re not a visual thinker? First, ask God a specific question. In your quiet time, after you’ve read the Bible and prayed, just be quiet and wait before God. You could ask, “God, is there anything you want to say to me?” And then you wait. Then ask, “God, is there anything I need to know that I’m not thinking about?” And then you wait. James 1:5 says, “If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won’t correct you for asking” (CEV). God wants you to ask him for advice, and he wants you to be specific. He’s waiting for you to ask! Second, read God’s Word to discover what God wants to say to you. Psalm 119:18 is a great verse to memorize: “Open my eyes, so that I may see the wonderful truths in your law” (GNT). It’s also a perfect verse to pray as you open God’s Word. Every answer to every problem you have is in that book. But you’ve got to read it, study it, memorize it, and meditate on it as you seek God’s vision—for your life or even just for today.
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“You will search again for the LORD your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him."
Deuteronomy 4:29 (NLT) You’re not going to hear God unless you really, really want to. God doesn’t tell his dream for your life if you want to debate it. God doesn’t tell his vision for your life if you want to discuss it. God doesn’t tell you what he put you on Earth to do just so you can say, “Let me think about it.” No! It’s got to be a necessity. You have to say, “I’ve got to know why I’m here. I’ve got to know what you want me to do with my life. I’ve got to hear your voice. I’ve got to have your vision.” King David wrote in the book of Psalms, “My God, I want to do what you want” (Psalm 40:8 NCV) and “What I want most of all and at all times is to honor your laws” (Psalm 119:20 CEV). David was passionate in his declaration that what he wanted most of all was to honor God. Being obedient and following God were not options for him. They were the only thing David wanted to do. He used phrases for seeking God like, “I long for it,” “I crave it,” “I hunger for it,” and “I’m like a deer panting for water.” When you get that desperate, you’re going to hear from God. A lot of people talk to God but never hear from God. For them, prayer is a monologue. But you can’t have a relationship through a monologue. What if I had married my wife and talked to her, but she never talked to me? That’s not a relationship. You’ve got to have a conversation. Just as important as talking to God in prayer is listening to God and letting him talk to you. How does that happen? First, you’ve got to want it more than anything else. Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “You will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him” (NLT). It’s guaranteed! “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."
Luke 21:33 (NIV) Sometimes it’s hard to recognize God’s voice. When an idea comes into your mind, you wonder if it’s an instruction from God, a deception from Satan, or just something you want to do. But it’s important to know how to discern God’s voice, because it can have eternal consequences. A lot of evil gets blamed on God when people say, “God told me to do it!” The Bible says in 1 John 4:1, “Don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is” (TLB). God will never contradict his Word. So you can ask yourself: “Does that idea in my mind right now agree with the Bible?” God doesn’t say one thing and then change his mind and say something else. If he said it, it’s true—and it will always be true. God is consistent. He isn’t moody. He doesn’t change his mind. He will never tell you to violate a principle that he’s already given in his Word, the Bible. So, when you’re wondering whether you’re hearing God’s voice, the first question you need to ask is, “Does this thought line up with what God has already said?” If what you’re thinking contradicts something that God has already said in the Bible, then you know it’s wrong. Jesus said in Luke 21:33, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (NIV). God’s Word is eternal, because truth never changes. If something was true 5,000 years ago, it was true 1,000 years ago, it is true today, and it will be true 5,000 years from today. People might say, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” No! God said it, and that settles it—whether you believe it or not! God won’t contradict himself. So, when you’re trying to recognize his voice, the best starting place is to ask yourself, “Is this idea in harmony with the Word of God?” “The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it. But they don’t have deep roots, and they believe only for a little while. As soon as life gets hard, they give up."
Luke 8:13 (CEV) During the springtime, all the grass in Southern California turns green, the wildflowers and poppies bloom, and it’s beautiful. But the moment the rains stop, the hills turn brown again. Why? Because the grass has shallow roots. The roots can’t go down deep enough to get water from the springs that are deep beneath the ground. When a plant has shallow roots, it may initially sprout and look good, but it withers quickly and doesn’t last. It’s the same for your spiritual life. To grow through any season, you need deep roots. Luke 8:13 says, “The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it. But they don’t have deep roots, and they believe only for a little while. As soon as life gets hard, they give up” (CEV). Sometimes you may hear God’s Word and get excited about it without allowing it to change you. You act superficially. You react emotionally. You’re moved impulsively. But you don’t take the time to let it sink in. Do you really want to be that way? No! You want to be a deep person, not a shallow person. You want to be a person with deep spiritual roots so that when recession comes and lasts several years, you’re able to keep bearing fruit. When the rough winds come and somebody in your family gets sick or a close friend dies, the trial doesn’t blow you away, because you’ve got roots. How do you develop spiritual roots? You do it by having a daily time with God and a weekly small group time with other believers. You’ve got to spend time alone with God, and you’ve got to spend time with other believers. If you’re not spending time with God daily, you’re going to dry up and blow away when the pressure is on. You won’t be able to handle it. You need to make time to listen during a daily time with God. Sit and be quiet. Read the Bible and talk to God. Play some music. If you like to journal, do that. Do whatever it takes for you to keep your focus on God. You also need a weekly small group. No one has a complete perspective on life. Everyone wears blinders. The people in your small group can see things in your life you can’t see. That’s why we need each other! You learn from the people in your small group as you encourage each other and your roots go deeper. Sooner or later, life will throw hard things your way. The question is whether you’ll have the deep roots you need to survive and even thrive through those times. “Get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls."
James 1:21 (NLT) What do God’s voice and cell phones have in common? For both, you have to be positioned correctly to hear them clearly! Reception quality with your cell phone varies widely. In a big, sturdy building, your coverage may be spotty. In a wilderness area, you’ll likely have no cell service at all. You have to be in the right position to have a clear, reliable signal. The same is true with your relationship with God. If you want to hear God’s voice clearly and consistently, you must be positioned correctly. What does it look like to be in the wrong position to hear God? When you’re in the wrong position, your mind is closed—you want to do what you want, not what God wants. In the wrong position, your heart is hardened—you’re unwilling to listen. What keeps your heart hard and mind closed to God? Here are three barriers that keep you closed to God’s message: 1. Pride. If you think you don’t need God in your life and you want to handle things yourself, you’re probably not listening for God to speak. Pride keeps you from being open to the possibility that God might want to say something to you. 2. Fear. Many people can’t hear God because they’re afraid to hear God speak. You might think that hearing God’s voice or sensing his leading makes you some kind of religious fanatic. Or maybe you’re afraid of the changes you’d need to make in your life if you listened to God’s leading. 3. Bitterness. When you hold on to hurt, resentment, or a grudge, you’re not able to hear God—because your heart is hardened. A hard heart grows cold and makes you defensive, even to God’s love. James 1:21 says, “Get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls” (NLT). It’s time to get rid of the bitterness, fear, and pride that keep you from hearing God’s voice and living out his purpose for your life. Then you’ll be able to hear God with and open heart and mind and “humbly accept” what he’s saying to you. “I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them."
Zechariah 13:9 (NLT) Some prayers are answered immediately, but others take weeks, months, or even years. You probably know this all too well! But there’s good news: While you’re praying for God’s answer, you’re going to learn some things that you can’t learn any other way. In the waiting, there is blessing. One of the blessings is that you learn more about yourself when you don’t instantly get everything you want. When you’re going through fire, do you ever wonder why you have to go through it? It’s for testing and purification. As you pray about something over and over again, you face tests that reveal more about you. God says in Zechariah 13:9, “I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold” (NLT). You test gold by putting it in a big vat and heating it until it gets so hot that all the impurities are burned off. How do metalsmiths know when gold and silver are pure? When they can see their reflection in them. God can see his reflection in you when all the impurities have burned out of your life—after you’ve been through the fire. He says that, after he’s done the testing and purification, “They will call on my name, and I will answer them” (Zechariah 13:9 NLT). Answered prayer comes after the test. Before every blessing, there is a testing. God tests you with stress before he trusts you with success. These are the principles of persistent prayer. God is going to test you before he blesses you. And in that test, you’re going to learn a lot about yourself. If you give up praying, you’re never going to learn the lessons that help you become more like Jesus. Keep praying with persistence each day. And remember that after the testing, the blessing will come. “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers . . . Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request."
1 Chronicles 4:9-10 (NIV) Every human is designed for excellence. You may feel ordinary, but God made you to live a life of significance. The Bible is filled with ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives because they believed God would work in and through them. They believed God made them for a purpose and intended for them to successfully fulfill their mission. One example is a man named Jabez. God gave him an honorable mention in 1 Chronicles—a Bible book that includes nine chapters of genealogies. Right in the middle of that long list of names, God singles out Jabez—an ordinary guy—in two verses. The Bible says, “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers . . . Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request” (1 Chronicles 4:9-10 NIV). Those two verses give all the information we have about Jabez—but they reveal that he lived a life that was anything but average. Jabez stands out because of three secrets to his success. We’ll look at the first two today. He had great ambition. While many people are content with being average, Jabez wanted God to do something significant through him. He didn’t want to live half-heartedly; he wanted a full and meaningful life. Jabez was ambitious, but, just as importantly, he was motivated by the right things. How do we know Jabez’s motives were genuine and not selfish? Because we read, “And God granted his request.” God will never honor an unworthy request. Many people just drift through life. They have no goals, no master plan, and no overall purpose. As a result, they never go anywhere. If you want to live above average, dream big! You’re not meant to go through life wondering, “What am I doing? Where am I going?” God wants you to have a great ambition—fueled by the desire to serve him. He had a growing faith. Jabez had a deep trust and belief in God. There’s no mention of him having any special ability or talent. The Bible doesn’t say he was wealthy or educated. He was just a common man with an uncommon faith. There is something in life that is more important than ability and talent. It’s faith. There's a lot of super talented people who are sitting on the sidelines while people who have faith are making the touchdowns. Faith is believing God will work through you. How do you break out of mediocrity? Like Jabez, you get a great ambition and a growing faith—and depend on God to do the impossible. Missionary William Carey once said, “Attempt great things for God and then expect great things from God.” “The battle is not yours, but God's."
2 Chronicles 20:15 (NLT) Imagine you’re sitting on a plane that’s about to take off. As the plane goes down the runway, you start flapping your arms. As the speed picks up and the nose lifts in the air, you flap your arms faster and faster. Once in the air, the flight attendant approaches you and says, “What are you doing?” And you say, “Oh, I’m helping us get off the ground.” That’s ridiculous, right? But that’s basically what you do when you try to do things only God is equipped to do. Just like you don’t need to hold up a plane, you don’t need to hold up God. Do you want to know why you’re tired all the time? Why you’re frustrated? Why you’re worn out by life? The reason you’re so tired is you’re trying to fight battles that belong to God, and you are not God. “The battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15 NLT). People tend toward independence, and so when you see a problem, you think, “I’ve got to figure this out. It’s up to me!” You assume God’s role, and it wears you out, because you were never meant to carry it in the first place. You’ve been running in circles trying to solve problems in your marriage, your body, the economy, your school, the world. You’re trying to solve them on your own power. You’re trying to fight the battle on your own, and you’re getting tired. When you finally just give up and come back to God and tell him you’ve made a mess of it, you may think you’ve let him down. But you haven’t let God down, because you were never holding him up. You don’t have God in your hands; he’s got you in his hands. If you’ve got God in your hands, it’s not God. It’s an idol. If you’re trusting in something that you think you can control, then that thing is not God. God is not disappointed in you, because he’s not expecting you to do what only he can do. You don’t hold God up. He holds you up. Let go and surrender to God. Because then he says, “Great! Now we can get something done.” “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."
Philippians 4:8 (NLT) It’s increasingly difficult to stay focused on true things. The Bible says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8 NLT). This requires a mental shift. It means you’re going to have to build new, better habits. Your mind is bombarded with lies every single day. Advertisements and social media tell you that if you don’t think, dress, or act a certain way, you don’t matter. When you’re growing up, you’re told that if you’re not good at academics or athletics, you don’t matter. This world is full of lies, and you’ve believed many of them. But they’re just not true. The only way to counter those lies is to fill your mind with the truth. The truth is that you are a child of God. You matter to him. Jesus said that when you know the truth, it will set you free. To be set free means to have a breakthrough. I want you to have a breakthrough. But the only way you can do that is to be in God’s Word, the Bible, every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. If you think you can’t do that, just consider how many hours you’re spending on social media or TV or reading the news. How are you going to have a healthy mind if you’re filling your mind with lies instead of the truth? Not everything you hear is true. Not everything you tell yourself is true. You’ve got to get into the Bible every day, because God will always speak truth. You can trust what he says about you and the promises he’s made for you in his Word because he always keeps his promises. What happens when you keep your mind on the right things? “If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 TLB). Wouldn’t you like to have your heart and your mind at rest? That’s a breakthrough everyone needs: less stress and more rest. Get started on your breakthrough today by getting into God’s Word. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV) No matter what you ask God for, you need to ask with an attitude of gratitude. You can ask God for whatever you need, but do it with a thankful heart for what he’s already done. The Bible says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV). A lot of people want to know what God’s will is for their lives. But God’s not going to show you step two until you do step one. Here’s step one: Be grateful. This is God’s will. First be grateful for what God has already given you—your life, mind, freedom, food. Everything you have is a gift from God! Be grateful for all of it. The Bible says to give thanks in all circumstances. Notice it does not say to give thanks for all circumstances. There is a big difference. There are a lot of things in life you should not be thankful for. You should never be thankful for evil, for example. It says to give thanks in every circumstance, not for, because God can bring good even out of bad things. There is a lot of bad in the world, and these days, you may see more of it than you think you can bear. You shouldn’t be grateful for those things. God is bigger than sin. He can bring promises out of pain, blessings out of suffering. He turns crucifixions into resurrections. God transforms the bad things in your life into good things and uses them for good. You can be grateful in everything for several reasons: God has a plan for your life. He can use everything in your life for good. The pain is not going to last forever. If you know Jesus as Savior, you’re going to heaven. And he’s going to use even the hard things in life to build your character. Do you know what will help you be thankful in all things? When bad things happen, don’t ask, “Why is this happening to me?” Instead, ask, “God, what do you want me to learn from this?” When you learn from God, then you grow more like Christ. Then you’ll be able to better see how he is working in your life and give him thanks in all circumstances. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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