Want to Hear God: Get Still and Listen!

Pause a moment, Job, and listen; consider the wonderful things God does. - Job 37:14 GNT

You have to be quiet in order to hear God speak. If you want to hear God’s vision, then you’re going to have to turn off the television. You can’t listen to God and the TV at the same time!

The reason why God may never speak to you could be because you’re never quiet. Something is always going on in your mind, so while God is trying to get through to you on the telephone of life, he’s getting a busy signal. You’ve got to reserve time alone with God.

The Bible says in Job 37:14, “Pause a moment, Job, and listen; consider the wonderful things God does” (GNT).

God wants to spend time with you. He says, “Pause, be quiet, get alone, and learn solitude so I can talk with you.”

Sometimes as adults we get spiritual wiggles. We cannot get still and be quiet.

Is getting God’s dream for your life worth a day of your life? Have you ever taken an entire day and done nothing but be alone with God? Talk to God in prayer. Let God talk to you through the Bible. Relax. Think. Write down the thoughts he puts in your mind. Set some goals. Look through your schedule. Set your priorities. Spend the day saying, “God, where do you want me to go? What direction do you want my feet headed?”

God speaks to people who take the time to listen — not just for a day, but also on a regular basis. This is called a quiet time.

You think you don’t have time for this? We’re talking about figuring out why you’re here on Earth, so you’ve got to make the time.

© Rick Warren

Be a Friend

So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. - Colossians 1:28

Somewhere along the line, we have separated evangelism from discipleship. We preach the gospel, but we don’t disciple. We don’t get people on their feet spiritually. But the two go together.

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus, one of the most notorious nonbelievers ever, was so unexpected that a lot of people didn’t think it was true. So God spoke to a Christian named Ananias and told him to visit Saul. After some initial resistance, Ananias obeyed and found Saul (who later changed his name to Paul), prayed for him, and took the time to encourage him. Then God brought another man into Paul’s life, and his name was Barnabas. He introduced Paul to the apostles and vouched for his conversion.

A lot of people want to be an apostle Paul, but would someone please be an Ananias or a Barnabas—a person who works behind the scenes? You may not be the next Billy Graham, but you may the best person who helps to nurture the next Billy Graham.

You can show that person what a Christian family, a Christian man, or a Christian woman looks like. You can befriend that individual who has no friends and bring him or her into your group. You don’t know what God can do in the life of that person.

Discipling someone is not just talking to that person about Jesus; it is also being a friend. And that is what a lot of people need: a friend. That is what I needed as a brand-new believer. Thankfully, someone named Mark saw that I came to Christ and very persistently said, “You’re going to church with me.” I was resistant at first. But he won me over and ended up helping me get grounded in the faith. That is what discipling is.

© Greg Laurie

Forgiveness: The Crisis and the Process

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. - Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV

True forgiveness is a miracle, but there are no enduring relationships without it. Choosing to put others’ sins behind us is hard. How much easier to fixate on and replay that offense in our minds—but how toxic to our souls. While forgiveness brings healing and begins the process of forgetting, unforgiveness binds the offense to our hearts and ensures we will never forget.

Even when we know we should forgive, our efforts at forgiveness are often clumsy at best, sharp-edged and vengeful at worst. Though we have ample opportunities in life to be forgiven and to practice forgiving, most of us are amateurs in the art of forgiveness. We know we should forgive, but how do we actually go about it? And once we think we’ve done it, how do we know if we really have?

Forgiveness comes in two parts: a crisis and a process. It begins with a decision, an act of the will. When you choose to release a person from the obligation resulting when he or she injured you, this is the crisis of forgiveness. It’s a decision: I choose to forgive. I’m not trying to get even or looking for vengeance. I don’t wish for bad things to happen to that person, and I’m not focused on the offense. I’ve released him.

After the crisis comes the process, which is where deep healing takes place. In the crisis of forgiveness you say, “I choose to forgive,” but in the process you say, “I will treat you as though it never happened.” In the process, you must hold yourself to these guidelines:

1. I won’t bring up the offense to the person, except for his or her benefit.

2. I won’t bring up the offense to others.

3. I won’t bring up the offense to myself (which is hardest of all). I will not replay it or dwell on it.

The process of forgiveness is not quick or clean, and when you falter in the process, you must return to the crisis. Perhaps you chose to forgive, only to retract that gift of grace and to begin again to nurse the injury. Maybe you committed to forgive but fell back into your old patterns of resentment when you crossed paths with the person again. When you realize the unforgiveness is creeping back, you must revisit the crisis and choose again to forgive. If you do this faithfully, you will be free.

So how do you know if you’ve truly forgiven someone? Ephesians 4:31–32 shows us: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” These verses reveal both the fallout of unforgiveness and the fruit of forgiveness.

When you forgive, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice are decreasing in your life. These emotions are evidence of unforgiveness and lead to self-destruction. Like a tornado across a Kansas wheat field, an unforgiving heart rips a swath of destruction through your life and the lives of those closest to you.

When you truly forgive, damaging emotions are gradually eliminated and replaced with tenderhearted kindness. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Kindness is a fruit of forgiveness, an action that reveals your heart has truly been changed. This isn’t generic kindness aimed at strangers or your favorite people but unreserved kindness toward the very person you had to forgive. When you try to squeeze kindness from an unforgiving heart, it only drips more bitterness. When you can’t freely show kindness to someone, you know unforgiveness is there lurking somewhere in the shadows.

The fruit of your actions tells the condition of your heart.

© James MacDonald

What Will You Be Remembered For?

“’Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.’” - Revelation 14:13

What is heaven like? What will we do when we get there? The Bible has answers to all of that.

1. Heaven is a place of rejoicing. “Blessed are the dead . . .”

As much as we may miss our loved ones who have gone before us to heaven, we need to know that they are in pure bliss. The apostle Paul died and went to heaven and was brought back to life. Paul said he longed to go there—because it is “far better” (Philippians 1:23).

Adrian Rogers, who is now in heaven, once wrote, “Consider the artistry that God has put into Heaven.” In his commentary on Revelation he wrote these words, “The God who sculpted the wings of the butterfly, blended the hues of the rainbow, and painted the meadows with daffodils is the same who made Heaven.”

2. Heaven is a place of rest. “That they may rest from their labors . . .”

We will have a permanent rest from our labors in heaven. The curse will be gone, and we will no longer have to work “by the sweat of our brow” (Genesis 3:19), but we will still be busy for the Lord! Our work is not over when we leave this earth; it continues in heaven and on the new earth.

3. Heaven is a place of reward. “And their works follow them.”

You cannot work your way into heaven, for it is a gift of God to each of us. However, the Bible teaches that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20).

Your “works will follow you.” One day, in your memorial service, no one will care about how successful you were in business or how much money you had. People will talk about your character, your merciful acts, and love for others. Make sure you have some “good works” to follow you to that day.

So let’s press forward—continuing to serve the Lord during our short time here on earth, knowing that eternity will be a time of rejoicing, rest, and reward!

© Greg Laurie

Sometimes God Delays Your Dream by Design

Do you remember how the Lord led you through the wilderness for all those forty years, humbling you and testing you to find out how you would respond, and whether or not you would really obey him? - Deuteronomy 8:2 TLB

Dreams are never fulfilled immediately. There’s always a waiting period. Abraham had the dream of being the father of a great nation, and he waited 90 years before he was even told he was going to have a son. Noah had the dream of building an ark, but it took him 120 years. The Israelites were brought out of Egypt and then wandered around for 40 years before they went into the Promised Land, yet it’s only about a two-week walk between Egypt and Israel.

Just like the Israelites, sometimes we are delayed by design. God uses delays to prepare us. Every dream has difficulties. God uses delays to get us ready for those difficulties. God knew that if the Israelites went to war unprepared, they wouldn’t be able to handle it, so he knew he needed that time to prepare them for what was ahead.

God also uses delays to test us. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 8:2, “Do you remember how the Lord led you through the wilderness for all those forty years, humbling you and testing you to find out how you would respond, and whether or not you would really obey him?” (TLB)

So when your dream is delayed, how should you respond? Don’t fear!

This is the first mistake the Israelites made. Deuteronomy 1:28 says, “Why should we go there? We are afraid. The men we sent tell us that the people there are stronger and taller than we are” (GNT). The Israelites had enough faith to move out of Egypt, but they didn’t have enough faith to move into the Promised Land. They were afraid.

The problem with fear is that it keeps you in the wilderness. It prolongs the delay. Many of your dreams have never been fulfilled, not because of God but because of you, because you wouldn’t step out in faith.

The antidote to fear is to focus on God’s presence. Realize that God is with you. When you’re afraid to go after the dream God has given you, you need to focus on God’s presence. He says, “Fear not, for I am with you” (Isaiah 41:10a TLB). He’s with you now, he always has been, and he always will be.

Some of you are in the delay phase right now. You’ve been praying about something, and it hasn’t happened yet. You may start to think that God has forgotten you.

God has not forgotten you! It is a delay by design. God knows what you’re going through. He wants to build your character, and he wants you to learn to trust in him. You can count on him for his help. Don’t fear.

© Rick Warren

The Answer to Doubt

I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. - John 5:24

One question that I’m often asked is, can Christians lose their salvation? People are afraid of this, and I think it’s for good reason. New believers often experience moments of doubt, and so do Christians who have known the Lord for many years. In fact, the first temptation the serpent presented in the Garden of Eden was to doubt God. He said to Eve, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1). In other words, “Did God really say what you thought He said?”

When you have thoughts like, Maybe I’m not saved; maybe Christ really isn’t living inside of me, you need to stand on the Word of God, not on your emotions, because emotions will fluctuate. When they do, here are some Scriptures passages to remind you of God’s faithfulness:

All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. (1 John 5:10)

For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. (Romans 8:16)

I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. (John 5:24)

I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)

During His temptation the wilderness, Jesus responded to each challenge with the words, “It is written,” and then He quoted the Scriptures. Jesus stood on ground that we, too, can occupy. As we quote the Scriptures, it will bolster our faith. That is why we need to know the Word of God.

© Greg Laurie

The Eyes of God

For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths. - Proverbs 5:21 ESV

That’s right, God sees you. He “ponders all [your] paths”—He doesn’t miss a single detail of your life. He hears your conversations with your spouse. He sees your checkbook. He knows your unspoken fears. Your ways are “before the eyes of the Lord.”

When the Bible speaks of the eyes of God, what does that mean?

1. The eyes of the Lord are inescapable. He sees all. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3).

2. The eyes of the Lord are the standard for what’s right and true. Deuteronomy 6:18 instructs, “And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you.” Throughout the Old Testament, individual kings were under His gaze. The Scriptures declare that some “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 14:3), while others did not.

3. The eyes of the Lord are focused on and attentive to His own. While God sees everything on earth, He has a predisposition to fix His attention on the lives of His children and to extend loving care toward us. “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer” (1 Peter 3:12).

4. The eyes of the Lord are searching for people to bless. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). He’s flat-out looking for people to support. He never tires of picking out His children in the crowd.

5. The eyes of the Lord observe righteousness and award grace. The earth and its inhabitants were corrupt, “but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8, NKJV). What a great challenge; what a great promise. How moving to imagine God saying, “Get more blessing to that child. He loves My Son! Let’s help this daughter. She’s following Me.”

All this begs the question—why is God watching you? And not only is God watching, His eyes are tenderly focused on you. Here’s why: “Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4, ESV). He watches you because He loves you.

Yes, you are precious to God; however, this isn’t a pop-psychology pep talk. Of the roughly seven billion people on this planet, no one person has extra-special, intrinsic value. Being precious to God is better than being intrinsically valuable! If God’s love for you hinged on your intrinsic value, then His love would have to change when you forfeit that value. But God’s love is unchanging—He declares you precious because He chooses to love you. And because your preciousness begins and ends with God, that will never change either.

You don’t have value; you are valued. For “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us” (Ephesians 1:4–5). You didn’t earn or deserve your value, so you can’t lose or forfeit it. God has declared you precious in His sight. Rather than thinking, I have value, believe instead, I am valued. I am precious to God to a degree totally disproportionate to the person I am.

Fix your eyes on that today.

© James MacDonald

When You’re the Most Vulnerable

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. - Proverbs 16:18

Sometimes those who have known the Lord for a while are more vulnerable to falling into sin than those who are brand-new believers. When you’re a brand-new believer, you tend to realize that you are weak and vulnerable. New believers think, I need help. I need prayer. I need to be around other Christians. I need to be in church.

But when you have known the Lord for ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years or longer, you might think, I am so strong now. I would never fall to that. How could anyone fall to a sin like that? But suddenly your unguarded strength becomes a double weakness.

On the night of His betrayal, Jesus told the disciples, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered’ “ (Matthew 26:31).

But Peter protested, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you” (verse 33).

Jesus told him, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me” (verse 34).

But Peter said, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” (verse 35). Peter was essentially saying, “Lord, you’ve got it wrong. You are talking to Peter here. I would never fall.”

The Bible says, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.” Don’t say that you would never fall. And don’t ever say, “I could fall in some areas, but I would never fall in this area.” You could fall in that area too. Any of us could fall into sin at any time. That is why we can never rest on our laurels or think that we are somehow above it all.

© Greg Laurie

Quick to Judge

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ESV

Sometimes we’re quicker to judge than to comfort.

This hit me recently on the streets of Philadelphia, where I live. I walked by a young homeless person begging on the street and immediately thought to myself, “I wonder what they did to get themselves here.”

Wow. That’s about as far from a gracious response as you can get!

It’s an embarrassing story for me to tell, but I’m willing to confess it because I’m convinced of this: criticism often comes more quickly to us than compassion.

See if any of these examples resonate with you recently:

• We yell at our children for doing the same things we did as kids - “When I was your age, I would have never thought about doing that!”
• We look down on the parents in the restaurant who can’t keep their kids in line - “I can’t believe they’re letting them misbehave like that in public!”
• We think there’s little excuse for being poor and have no sympathy for those who struggle to pay their bills - “Look at all the unwise decisions they make with their money!”
• We scorn those who are not as smart or successful as we are - “They’re so lazy; if they only worked harder they could do something with their life!”

Maybe you didn’t say those exact words, but if you search long enough, you’ll find examples of that self-righteousness functioning in your heart. When we look at ourselves and see strong, wise, capable, mature, and righteous people, we tend to look down on those who have not achieved what we think we have achieved.

So here’s what God, in love, will do: he will put us in situations where our weakness, foolishness, and immaturity are exposed so that we might become more sensitive and patient with others who struggle.

I remember when my father died. I had long prided myself on how well I understood and could communicate the important doctrine of God’s sovereignty. But when my dad passed, God’s plan didn’t make sense. It looked chaotic and completely out of his control. Since then, I’ve grown to be comforting of people in tough situations who can’t make sense of God’s plan for their life.

The Apostle Paul captures this in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (ESV)

So the next time you experience a hard moment, tell yourself this: “these moments are not just for my own growth in grace, but for my calling to be a tool of that same grace in the life of a fellow sufferer.”

By sending difficulty your way, God is softening your heart and sharpening your edges so that you may be ready to make the comfort of the invisible Father visible in the life of the weary pilgrim he has placed in your pathway.

God intends for you to give away the comfort you’ve been given. The grace that has given you hope is meant to spill over into hope for the person next to you. What a plan!

© Paul David Tripp

Memorial Day: Reflections on a Life of Service

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. - Galatians 5:13

This holiday weekend we celebrate something that I think is sometimes hard for many of us to comprehend: the sacrifice of soldiers’ lives for the sake of our freedom. In recent years I’ve heard many conflicted views on this matter. But I think it would be a mistake to see these brave men and women as merely victims. While each fallen soldier has a unique story, each soldier is a hero who willingly laid down his or her life for a greater cause.

I think part of our struggle to understand the fallen soldier comes with our difficulty in accepting sacrifice, especially when a sacrifice seems so final and appears to hold no obvious reward. The idea that anyone could give up everything - for people he doesn’t even know - is hard to process. We spend so much of life trying to gain, to acquire, to win. Our country is home to the American Dream, the land of opportunity. So contemplating the fallen solider can feel uncomfortable, even confusing.

I was pondering this struggle to embrace sacrifice at church. It was the Feast of Corpus Christi and our pastor was reflecting on Christ’s willingness to spill His blood for our sake. Our pastor emphasized that the only appropriate response to a sacrifice of this magnitude would be to offer our lives in return. He put it in terms of worship, saying God first bowed down to us by becoming human, and now it is our turn to bow down to Him.

So often I meditate on Christ’s sacrificial love, but fail to love Him sacrificially in return. I thank Him with my words, but do little to change my life. Yet this is what God desires of us. We call our soldiers “service men / women” yet that term should describe Christians as well. Just as sacrifice is required to secure our freedom as Americans, freedom does not exist independently of sacrifice in the life of the believer. Yes, the gift of faith brings us freedom - freedom from sin, freedom to be who God made us to be and to know God more deeply. But that freedom came with the price of the Cross and our gift of freedom is to be used for service.

It may seem pointless in some ways to acquire freedom only to turn around and serve. But two thoughts come to mind here. One, is that the free person who chooses to serve knows freedom unlike any other. He has no need of taking from others because his sense of worth comes from a higher source. I’ve often heard from those with true servant-hearts that it is only when we give ourselves away that we truly find ourselves. The second is a truth I need to constantly remind myself of when life seems hard or unfair: this life is nothing compared to the next. Anything we “lose” here is never truly lost if our lives belong to Christ.

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Mt 20: 16). A friend and I have a running joke about this scripture verse. We will defer to each other in attempt to win “last place” - to secure our first place prize in heaven, of course. While our motivations here may be a bit off, I’ve come to think it’s not a bad contest. Grow your servant’s heart by striving to take last place at least once this week - even if it’s as simple as being last in line at the grocery store or serving yourself last at the dinner table

© Crosswalk