Archives For god

Your Motivation for Living for God

Before I had a family, I had a different car—a black Firebird with T-tops.

Sitting behind those eight cylinders, I could go from zero to too-fast in about five seconds (but, of course, I never did).

Your Motivation for Living for God Your Motivation for Living for God

(Photo by Photodune)

After Cathy and I had our first daughter, I decided I needed a family vehicle. Car seats don’t fit in Firebirds.

So I sold the car.

A few months later, I found a spare set of keys to the Firebird, and I thought: I need to get these to the new owner. Even though I could have kept the keys (as insignificant as it seemed), they really weren’t mine to keep. I had sold them, in a sense, when I sold the car.

Living for God is like finding a spare set of keys to a car you no longer own.

In fact, you have a whole lot of keys that aren’t yours.

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When God Asks Impossible Things of You

We tend to expect God to act in ways we can understand.

We work, and so God provides money. We pray, and so God answers prayer. We do this, and so God does that.

In other words, we see God as the effect and ourselves as the cause.

When God Asks of You Impossible Things When God Asks Impossible Things of You

(Photo by Photodune)

Life is all about God responding, it seems, and if we do nothing, neither will God.

This isn’t true, obviously. But it’s how we feel.

So what if we’re in a situation where we can do nothing? What happens when we can no longer be the cause?

When God asks impossible things of you?

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Trying to Understand God’s Plan for You

Tough circumstances of life always change our minds about God.

They either tempt us to doubt what He’s promised, or they draw us closer to Him in faith. But we never stay the same.

Trying to Understand Gods Plan for You Trying to Understand Gods Plan for You

(Photo by Photodune)

God’s plan for your life is revealed and tested in times of struggle.

If you’re struggling today, don’t miss the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of God’s plan for you.

Joseph shows you how.

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Why God Will Lead You Unwanted Places

God will lead you places you would never choose. Unwanted places.

Because the Lord is much greater than you and I can imagine, it makes sense that He wants for us more than we ever dreamed.

Why God Will Lead You Unwanted Places Why God Will Lead You Unwanted Places

(Photo by Photodune)

God wants you to trust Him, and you’d like to do so. He wants you to glorify Him, to know Him, and so do you. But really, you often want to trust God only when you understand Him.

Too often, that desire to know the Lord slices His list of attributes in half.

When you and I settle for anything less than all of God, we also settle for less than all we can become.

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Never Settle for Second Best with God

Their request seemed like commonsense. But it wasn’t.

“Let this land be given to your servants as a possession,” the people of Reuben and Gad said to Moses, “do not take us across the Jordan” (Numbers 32:5).

Never Settle for Second Best with God Never Settle for Second Best with God

(Photo: Land of Gilead, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

The tribes of Reuben and Gad had huge herds, and the land of Gilead and Jazer had lush pastures.

So they settled east of the Jordan River instead of crossing over into what God had promised.

Bad idea.

Their choice shows us why we should never settle for second best with God.

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Why You Should Avoid the Path Of Least Resistance

Taking the path of least resistance is a fact of nature.

Rivers always flow around a mountain because it’s easier than going through it. Electricity will always move through a circuit along the “easiest” route. A car is designed aerodynamically for the least resistance to wind.

Human nature is no different. Unfortunately.

Why You Should Avoid the Path Of Least Resistance Why You Should Avoid the Path Of Least Resistance

(Photo by Perry from Ottawa, Canada. Fading. CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

We tend to do that which is easiest, often to the neglect of that which is best.

  • It’s easier to read a magazine than to read your Bible.
  • It’s easier to sit in front of the TV than to spend time with your kids.
  • It’s easier to lose your temper with your spouse than to control it.

Following the path of least resistance can become a habit that guides our lives. We make choices based on what is easiest, most pleasant, or least painful.

But God has a better plan for you.

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Listening to Well-Timed Words of Warning

Dark shadows had fallen over Jerusalem.

A lone figure knelt, weeping, agonizing in prayer, as eleven men slumbered nearby. While Jerusalem slept, the Lord Jesus endured anguish in the darkness of Gethsemane.

But He did not suffer alone that night.

Citadel of David minaret with full moon tb091103007 Listening to Well Timed Words of Warning

(Photo: The Citadel served as the residence of Pilate and his wife. Courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)

On the other side of Jerusalem in the luxuriant palace of the governor—perhaps even during the hours of Jesus’s agony in the garden—another figure writhed in agony.

The content of her nightmare was about Jesus. It caused her to arrive at a firm conclusion.

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When God Takes Something Away from You

It’s always great when God replaces something painful with something wonderful.

Or when He provides for a need in a context of desperation.

But what about when God takes away something we enjoy—or even something we need? Or when He allows something bad to invade something good?

When God Takes Something Away from You When God Takes Something Away from You

(Photo: by Hariadhi. Own work, GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Can we then say what Job said?

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised. —Job 1:21

During the times when God takes something away from you, it’s easy to feel duped, as if God was some kind of pusher, giving free samples and then removing them after the cravings have their hooks in your heart.

The Lord’s generosity can be misunderstood as cruelty.

Rather than praise God for the time we enjoyed His blessings—we tend to resent His sovereign prerogative to confiscate them.

Here’s some perspective that can help when God takes something away from you that was a blessing.

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Your Fear is a Spiritual Struggle

We fear what we think may happen in the world we see.

But the world we don’t see is the source of our real fears. Our spiritual lives hold the solution to it.

Sunrise at Deadmans Hill geograph.org .uk 349897 Your Fear is a Spiritual Struggle

(Photo by Chris Wild. CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

That’s what happened with Jacob.

Returning to the land of Canaan forced Jacob to face a problem he had run from 20 years earlier—his deception of his brother Esau. As he approached the border of Canaan, angels of God came to meet him.

The presence of the angels gives us a critical reminder during our times of fear.

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How to Take Your Accountability to God Seriously

We don’t like accountability.

Oh, we like the idea of accountability. For governing officials. For pastors and priests. For bankers and doctors.

But personally? Uh, no thanks. We prefer anonymity.

How to Take Your Accountability to God Seriously How to Take Your Accountability to God Seriously

From the pages of Scripture, an unlikely prophet named Amos helps us learn why our refusal to accept personal accountability is more than simply wrong or foolhardy.

Without accountability to God, we will never become all we want to be.

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