God’s will

by

Greeting Card Mentality

Who doesn’t like to receive a well chosen greeting card to help you celebrate a wonderful occasion, like a birthday or anniversary, or one that helps you get through an especially rough time in your life?

Greeting cards are meaningful among Christians when they contain a verse of Scripture that expresses hope and encouragement. We can all agree that these cards are sweet and kind expressions, and we appreciate every kind thought. 

However, could it be that we are sometimes guilty of living a “greeting card” mentality while neglecting the most important aspect of the verses we use in our greeting cards?

For example, we often use a familiar verse in Romans 8:28 as a challenge that we can do anything with Christ’s help. But we ignore the over all context of the passage that admonishes us to pray without ceasing, and to pray being led by the Holy Spirit. It’s not about us achieving a personal goal with God’s help, but about developing an attitude of prayer and following God’s will. 

I recently read a “Our Daily Bread” devotional that told the story of a man’s wife who had bought a birthday card for a friend. The card had a scripture from Deuteronomy 28:63 that read, ”The lord has found great pleasure in causing you to prosper and multiply”.  She was so fascinated with the beauty of that statement that she wanted to look up the scripture and read the rest of the passage.  When she read the whole verse it painted a different picture when read in its context. The whole verse read, “Just as the lord has found great pleasure in causing you to prosper and multiply, the lord will find pleasure in destroying you. You will be torn from the land you are about to enter and occupy.”

The proper context of the whole passage is not about God’s favor and blessing, but about His judgement because Israel had turned their back on Him.  Yes, God takes pleasure in blessing His people, but He also warns us that we are destined for greatness and blessing only when we are serving Him with all of our heart.

Bottom Line

To walk with the Lord means we are intentional and radical about our faith.  Being intentional is to have forethought. For me, that means I must have a time each day that I focus on my need for His daily guidance. I acknowledge that “Apart from Christ I can do nothing.”  Some would call this daily devotions, I prefer to call it my God focus time. This helps me recognize and acknowledge a daily need for Him.

Being radical is simply being fully surrendered and abandoned to the will of God.  It’s a reminder  that there is nothing more important than being right with God and walking in daily fellowship with Him.

How would you characterize your walk with God, “Greeting Card mentality” or “Intentional and Radical?” 

“As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.” (Galatians  6:14 NLT)

by

Things Jesus did not say

Over the last few decades there have been a lot of catchy phrases and religious sounding quotes and sayings that have become popular among the Christian community.  Sayings like “your happiness is the most important thing”.

These quotes and sayings have been so popular among the Christian community that a number of books have been written to expose the error of equating these sayings to Biblical truth.  Listed below is an excerpt from some of the books addressing the things “Jesus didn’t say”:

“Listen to your heart”

“believe in yourself”

“trust your gut”

“feel good about who you are”

“your happiness is what matters”

“just be a good person”

These phrases have become so popular among the Christian community many think they are direct quotes from Jesus.  We may be surprised how many regular church goers think these quotes are from the Bible. 

To some these appear to be merely positive affirmations to help a person develop a healthy outlook. However, when a person adopts these phrases for their world view, they are really giving way to a humanistic belief system.

Why is it important to address this issue?

  1. These sayings are not from scripture.  It’s like the old competitive sports phrase,  “it’s close but no cigar”.  Close is not always the most accurate decision you can make.  For example, “Listen to your heart” could be the biggest error you could make.  Since we are a product of our environment, our worldview and even our political affiliation, “listening to your heart” could take you in the opposite direction we should go.  The scriptures say that the “heart is deceitful and desperately wicked,” (Jeremiah 17:9 We are born with a sin nature our natural instinct is to sin.  Unless we are grounded in the Word and led by the Holy Spirit our natural instinct is to sin and to fulfill our selfish desires.
  1. These sayings are not representative of the Christian life.  As a matter of fact, these saying are more closely related to humanism than to Christianity.  As a committed follower of Jesus our life’s goal is “not I but Christ”.  It is “my life is hidden with Christ, I am no longer my own” ( I have been crucified  with Christ and it’s longer I who lives but  Christ who lives in me -Galatians 2:20).The Christian life is about surrender and abandonment.  It’s about the surrender of all our goals, dreams and plans to God, so He can guide, shape and mold us into the servant he wants us to be. 

3. What would Jesus say regarding these sayings

Instead of “listening to your heart” (which is your mind, will and motions)  Jesus would say listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and let Him guide you.  “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

Instead of “Believe in yourself” – Rest in the living Christ within, and draw on His strength. By resting in Him you will become the person He created you to be.

Instead of “Trust your gut” – “Lean not on your own understanding but  in all ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” ( Proverb 3:5)

Instead of “feel good about who you are” – Feel good about being in Christ and having all you need in Him.  Jesus makes us complete. The scriptures teach that Jesus is our identity, our worth, our acceptance, our joy, our inner peace and our rest. We can feel good about ourselves not because of our accomplishments but because of who we are in Christ. 

Instead of “your happiness is what matters” – Accept a higher place by seeking and drawing on His inner peace.  He gives us an inner peace that passes all understanding. “ Fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness” (Gal 5;22)

Instead of “just be a good person” – Allow the person of Christ to rule and reign in your heart and the goodness will emanate from every cell of your body.

Bottom Line

Instead of living by humanistic creeds that sound good, go to the source of love, joy, happiness and let Jesus live His life in and through you. You will discover that Jesus is truly all you need. 

by

God’s Purpose In Struggle

After his resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples several times. One of the encounters occurred on a beach after they had been fishing all night. The disciples were close to shore and they noticed Jesus on the beach cooking breakfast for them.

After they had finished eating Jesus asked Peter three times, ”Do you love me?” Peter responded all three times that he truly loved Jesus. Then Jesus told Peter to do three things:  (1) tend my lambs; (2) take care of my sheep; and (3) feed my sheep. (John 21)

There is plenty to learn from the three questions Jesus asked and the three things he told Peter to do. But I think the deeper and more profound words of Jesus is what he said to Peter next.

“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go. Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God.” (John 21:18-19 NLT)

Jesus’ point to Peter is that his life from this point forward was going to be difficult. Jesus is telling Peter that there will come a time that he will be taken where he doesn’t want to go, and he will be treated like he doesn’t want to be treated, and then he will die.

This is not about “when you get old you will have to be led around and then you will die”. There is a deeper message behind this foretelling of Peter’s future.  The deeper message is Jesus telling Peter how he is going to live. 

In a way, Jesus was telling him that life is not all about Peter. His life is about a bigger story. His life is now about his mission of bringing the gospel to the nations. With that task comes a life of “being led about where you don’t want to go”.

Life is not about being the main player, but it’s about your role of being a part of the big picture. In other words, life is not about creating a plan and knowing what is going to happen every season of your life. Life is about conflict, difficult days, disappointment and failure. But God has a purpose in all of that. He wants to lead us to the point of  if you want to keep your life you must be willing to lose it.  It’s about abandonment.

God wants us to get to the point of surrendering every aspect and every season of our life to Him, so we can give our life away. That’s where radical Christianity comes in – when we let go of our life, we will find it.

That’s how a highly trained physician can leave a financially lucrative career and become a missionary doctor in the bush of a third world country. It’s how a professional school teacher can quit her secure job with a good salary and benefits and go teach at risk, inner city children in the ghetto of a major city.

The issue is not are you willing to be a missionary. The issue is are you willing to lay down your life, your dreams and your plans at Jesus’ feet and give him a blank pad, and have him write your story as he sees fit?

The Bottom Line
All good stories and movies have an unpredictable and unseen surprise ending. It’s that conflict and tension that etches the story in your mind. Our life is one big story being written by God. That means we are going to be led into situations that are uncomfortable, unpredictable, and like Peter, we may be led to places that we don’t want to go.

As a committed follower of Christ we must remember that life is about faith and trust. It’s trusting God in every situation, and even sometimes, being led down a path where we don’t want to go. 

Be encouraged because God passionately loves you and he always has a purpose for everything he allows in your life.  As your story is being written,  your struggle is part of the big picture.

by

Spiritual Awakening

A “Spiritual Awakening”  is a term used to describe a movement that causes the local church to regain its zeal for the Lord. It results in a repentance from sin, a renewed love for God, a love for those who do not know God and, an intense desire for personal holiness.

It’s an awakening that changes the believer from someone who is a passive believer to a radical follower of Jesus. When the church is revived with a renewed love for God, then our country and our society will be changed.

If you are a passionate follower of Jesus you will agree that America is at a critical crossroads.  Never in my lifetime has the old saying “As the church goes, so goes the country”,  been so true as it is today.  We are in desperate need of a spiritual awakening.  The church has lost its way. We have lost our desire for personal holiness, our love for our fellow man and our passion to reach our nation and the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The book of Romans tells us what happens when a society refuses to acknowledge and follow God.

Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! “ (Romans 1 NLT)

Bottom Line

What is the remedy to all of the chaos and unrest we see in our world?  Repentance!   Revival and awakening begins with us. When we are willing to fall to our knees, cry out to God, confess our coldness toward Him, and give Him first place in our life, then He will hear us and heal our spiritual sickness and heal our land.

The culture must no longer be our moral compass, Our moral compass has to be rooted in the truth of God’s Word.  Our day to day guidance must be led by the Holy Spirit of God. The Scripture teaches us , “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will direct you path. (Proverbs 3:6 KJV)

What is you spiritual temperature? Can the world tell that there is something different about you?  Do they since the love of Jesus in you?  Would you describe yourself as a “Passionate Follower of Jesus”?

by

God’s Economy of Things

I am not one to throw around theological jargon, but there is one phrase that I think is important for us to learn. The phrase is “ God’s economy of things”. The general meaning of the phrase has to do with how God works in our lives. Just as each society and culture has its own “economy” that drives its business model, God has an “economy” that drives how he deals and relates to his children.

For example, the Scripture teaches and implies that this world is not our home. (1 Peter 2:11) Therefore, in “God’s economy of things” our way of relating to our problems is “other-worldly”. That means we deal with every challenge, every failure, every out-of-control situation, and every opportunity in light of God’s economy of things.

As committed followers of Christ we now live with an awareness that God is, to some degree or another, involved with everything that happens in our life. No, He is not behind our sinfulness, even though He is there to forgive and restore us when we fail, but He is in the middle of every event. Because the Spirit of the living Christ indwells us, wherever we are, Jesus is also. He is fully aware of our plight including our anxiousness and fear.

In God’s economy of things there is often a perspective that is opposite to the world’s thinking. We could even call it paradoxical. For instance, the phrase in 2 Corinthians 12, “when I am weak I am strong” is opposite to the average human mindset. In our culture the one who is weak is portrayed as a loser. To survive and win in this world you don’t display or admit your weakness. You have to be strong, and overcome your weaknesses in order to succeed in life.

But we know that in God’s economy, weakness is a spiritual virtue. We understand that in the context of weakness we let go of our own life and Christ becomes our strength. It’s no longer “God and me make a majority”, but it’s “Christ in me is my strength”. I like the rendering of this verse in the Message when Paul is speaking of his thorn in the flesh:

“At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size – abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” (2 Corinthians 12, Message)

The above passage is our “other-worldly” perspective on our trouble. Because in God’s economy of things His intention for us is to allow the cares of this life to bring us to weakness. It is in our weakness that we will surrender control of our life and circumstances to Him. And in doing so, we can “cast all our anxiety on Him.” (I Peter 5:7)

Bottom Line

If you are a serious and committed follower of Christ, then seeing your life in light of God’s economy of things will allow you to live fully out of your new identity in Christ.

Just before Jesus went to the cross he prayed for us. He asked the Father to make us one with Him and one with the Father. (John 17:20-21) God desires that we live in our rightful position of oneness with Him. We can only do that if we are willing to change our thinking from a cultural perspective to a Christ-centered perspective that is driven by “God’s economy of things.”

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.“ (1 Peter 2:9 NAS)

by

Bringing Good From Bad

(Read Genesis 37-42)

When Joseph was relating his dream to his brothers little did he know that his life was about to take a dramatic turn. His brothers were burning with jealousy and anger and were plotting a way to destroy him.

Soon after Joseph’s brothers put him in the bottom of a dry well, intending on leaving him there until he died. This was just the beginning of Joseph’s difficulties. In the years that followed Joseph’s troubles continued. He was betrayed by his brothers, sold as a slave, falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and wrongly put in jail. To top it all off, while in prison, he correctly interpreted a dream for the baker, but the baker initially forgot about Joseph when his job was restored with the king.

Joseph couldn’t get a break. He went from receiving a prophetic dream from God to becoming a prisoner in a foreign country. Yet in the midst of all this trouble, Joseph remained faithful. He learned that God could bring good out of all his trials. Through years of rejection and betrayal God brought good out of all the disappointments that Joseph faced.

When Joseph was at his lowest, God began to fulfill his vision for Joseph. Like many other situations throughout Scripture, Joseph experienced the death of a vision. That seems to be the pattern through out Scripture. Before a vision is fulfilled, there must be the death of a vision. Through all his trouble Joseph remained faithful. He knew God would somehow fulfill his dream.

After Joseph was elevated to Governor over all of Egypt he continued to trust God’s faithfulness. When he revealed himself to his brothers Joseph’s love for God was shown by his treatment of his brothers. Instead of anger and bitterness, he displayed forgiveness, love and mercy.

Bottom Line
How could Joseph show such love and mercy to those who wanted to kill him? It’s because Joseph learned four important lessons.

1. In the beginning of his journey he made the decision to trust God rather than dwell on the past. The lesson for us is leave your hurt at Jesus feet and look for God to show you what’s next.

2. He had learned that in all his circumstances, God was in control, regardless of what happened to him. He had a deep hope that was rooted in his assurance that God loved him and knew what was best. The lesson for us is to trust God in the midst of our problem rather than worry.

3. He learned that forgiveness is a greater tool than revenge. He could have used his power to severely punish his brothers, but instead he chose to use his power to forgive and serve them. The lesson for us is to have a greater desire to love and serve than to get even and make them pay.

4. Joseph learned that during the death of a vision God is at work preparing us for the fulfillment of the vision. The lesson for us is if God has given you a dream or vision, savor the moments while you are waiting, because this is time when God is doing his greatest work in building your character.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. “ (Romans 8:28 NLT)

by

Learning to Trust God

It was a glorious day when I made a decision to trust Jesus as my Savior. After the decision I had a deep settled peace. I knew that my eternal destiny was settled and that I was truly a child of God.

However, I soon realized the decision to follow Christ was creating a whole new paradigm for living. Before, my life was all about me, my needs and what I wanted. Now I was being called to let go of my life and trust God with all of my dreams, plans and goals.

Letting go of a self-centered life is not an easy thing. To be completely honest, I still struggle with giving God complete control. There is something about the flesh that wants to control and be in charge.

It’s an issue of trust. I think most believers struggle with this. We may give verbal agreement that we trust God, but when it comes down to crunch time, we had rather worry or take matters into our own hands than give God control.

Why do I choose at times not to trust God? He has never failed me nor allowed anything to come in my life that was eventually for my benefit. As I have pondered this question, I discovered a recurring pattern that keeps me from relinquishing control and fully trusting Him. It is called spiritual indifference.

Spiritual Indifference
Spiritual indifference is a gradual thing that happens, but left unattended it quickly becomes drifting. We wake up one day and realize that we have drifted away from God. One of the problems with spiritual drifting is you never drift upward, always downward. Spiritual indifference creates a downward spiral that sends you away from intimacy with the Father.
Spiritual indifference is a result of several factors, but I think its root cause can be traced to neglecting personal fellowship and worship.

Early in my Christian life I did the daily devotional thing because I was told it was something I ought to do. My goal was to get it done so I could check it off my list.
That was a big mistake. My indifference kept me from getting the spiritual nourishment I needed. I thought the Sunday sermon would be enough to carry me through the week. The only problem with that is I hardly ever remembered what the sermon was about on Monday. I found myself spiritually enemic.

Trust is only developed by spending quality time with someone. If that is true in building human trust, then its reasonable to assume it’s also true with getting to know and trust God.

When your devotional time becomes a priority rather than an obligation, you develop a longing to know God and develop spiritual intimacy. As you expectantly read through the scripture, you get to know the character of God. The more you know and understood His character the more you realize you can trust Him with your life. Surrender becomes a positive word in your life rather than something negative. Surrender no longer means you are going to lose or give up something, but it becomes the door to knowing and trusting God. Your spiritual indifference turns into a new level of trust.

Bottom Line
Spiritual indifference is the doorway to drifting away from God. Left unattended it can lead to indecision, doubt, worry and fear. But it’s an easy fix; it just takes courage and deciding to be intentional about regular fellowship with God. It’s making a decision to pursue God.

Remember, God loves you as His child. He accepts you and He desires to pour His love and His very life into you so that you will manifest the “sweet aroma of Him in every place..” ( 2 Cor. 2:14).

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT)

by

God Is At Work


“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

What a marvelous passage of Scripture. Believers the world over read and quote this verse in every season of life. Knowing and relying on the principle of this verse creates a spiritual sigh of relief. What believer hasn’t quoted or at least thought of this verse in difficult times? The overriding draw of this passage has to do with our confidence that God is at work in our life, all the time.

The text is not teaching that all the suffering, sickness, persecution, sorrow, injustice or any other bad thing in itself is good. On the contrary, these things are evil. Life is full of evil things that happen to good people. But the text teaches that God uses these things to produce His own good. He is able to bring good out of evil.

In the phrase …all things work together, the Greek word used is sunergeo. This is the word from which we get the word synergy. Dr. David Jeremiah in his book “What are you afraid of?” defines synergism “as the working together of various elements to produce an effect greater than, and often completely different from, the sum of each element acting separately”.

Only God is able to take something bad and turn it into something good. What we think to be a disaster or a major setback, God can take and synergize it to create a better and greater outcome. Nothing can defeat God or derail His plans that He has for us.

Bottom Line
The real issue here is one of trust. God has given us a promise that if we will opt to trust Him and love Him, He will take all our situations and turn them into something that allows us to accomplish His will. Nothing can touch us unless it passes through the will of God. Because God has a plan and an eternal purpose for our life, He will not allow anything in our life that He cannot use to accomplish His destiny for us. That’s because the One who controls nature holds us in His hand.

Now the connecting passage…

” For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that we might be the first-born among many brothers; and who He predestined, these He also called, and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God be for us who can be against us? (Romans 8: 29-31)

by

Give Thanks for Every Circumstance

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:17)

The above scripture is one of those passages that we learn early on in our Christian life. Most of us apply the “thankful thing” when we get a little disappointed when our vacation doesn’t work out. We say something like, “well God knows best and all things work together”. I must admit, that’s not a bad thing.

But what about those times when our life falls apart? It might be that we lose our job, or experience a debilitating illness, or even worse, what if we lose a loved one in death? Do we really have a thankful heart in those situations?

This scripture is not suggesting that we jump up and down with thanks because we have a life-changing loss, but the passage is teaching us to apply the supernatural element of giving thanks to our loss. God wants us to see Him in the midst of our circumstances.

There are least four reasons we should give thanks in all our situations.

Giving thanks in all situations is what we do as committed followers of Jesus.
Part of our spiritual DNA is to trust God in all things. Even when we can’t understand or comprehend why this is happening to us, our duty is to give thanks to God because He can see the big picture. Our God is sovereign and in control, and He is up to something when things happen to us that we cannot control. Note the following verse:

“For our light affliction and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen (our current situation), but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”. (2 Corinthians 4:17)

Giving thanks in all situations is an act of faith.
Our faith is measured by our level of trust. It is trust that enacts the supernatural element of God’s grace. He wants us to be so dependent upon Him that whatever happens we immediately run to Him and draw on His grace to help us through the crisis. Jesus wants to be our rest, our peace, and our “present help in the time of trouble”.

Giving thanks in all things causes us to focus on our blessings rather than our loss.
I think one of the reasons we take loss so hard is that we are so centered on what has been taken away from us, that we miss the joy of our present blessings. Each of us has been blessed in immeasurable ways. By reflecting on God’s goodness we are able to see clearly that we are a recipient of God grace, mercy and blessing. We then move from a sense of loss to a sense of God’s overwhelming love. It’s then that we can cast our burden on Him.

Giving thanks in all things causes us to live with Heaven in mind.
When it comes down to it, this life is preparation for eternity. As a committed follower of Jesus, we are not of this world. Matter of fact, the scripture teaches us that we are strangers and pilgrims in this world. A stranger is not familiar with the territory; he has no desire to get attached to this world. A pilgrim is one who is just passing through to another destination.

I have often heard the phrase, “He is so heavenly minded he is no earthly good”. This is usually a reference to someone who is serious about his walk with God, most of the time it’s not a compliment. I think the opposite is true; when “you are so earthly minded you are no heavenly good”. The more we learn to trust God in all things, the greater the upward pull toward heaven.

Bottom Line
When things are falling apart it is difficult to stay focused and calm. The pain is real, and sometimes the suffering seems unfair. But as committed followers of Christ our response in every situation is to “give thanks in all things”. It’s what we do because we trust God not only for our salvation but we also trust Him for every situation that life throws at us. Rest assured that our trials and disappointments is our cue to give thanks in all things.

“Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace that passes all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. (Philippians 4:6-7)

by

Seeing Things From God’s Point of View

“Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Matthew 16:23)

Jesus had just shared with the Disciples that he was going to be arrested and crucified. Peter immediately rebuked him and said, “This shall never happen to you.” As the above verse indicates, Jesus rebukes Peter and tells him that he is seeing things from a human point of view not from God’s perspective.

Seeing things from God’s point of view is a key component to a successful Christian life. Matter of fact, I think it may be the greatest struggle most believers encounter. If our main purpose for existence is to glorify God, then it stands to reason that one important element of daily living is being able to see life’s circumstances from God’s point of view. In other words, we are to develop a God consciousness.

How do we develop this “God consciousness” toward life? We develop a God consciousness by getting to know God. As you get to know God you begin to know His character. When you know His character you begin to learn His ways, how He thinks and views certain aspects of life.

For example, by learning the many names of God you get a picture of His character and His ability. Here are a few of the names of God found throughout Scripture.

1. Elohim – Indicates His strength, the strongest of strong (Ps 19:1)
2. Jehovah Jireh – The Lord will provide (Gen. 22:13-14)
3. Jehovah Shalom – The Lord of peace (Judges 6:24)
4. Jehovah Rapha – The Lord is my healer (Exodus 15:26)
5. Jehovah Rohi – The Lord is my Shepherd (Psalm 21)

These are just a few of the names of God that indicate His power, strength and superiority. From these few names we can understand that God will provide, take care and watch over us and He is able to overcome any power in the universe.

That’s the reason it’s important to read, study and memorize the Scriptures. For in the Scriptures we get to know the character and ways of God. It helps us recognize when we may see things from a human perspective rather than from God’s perspective.

It is important to be able to relate to our culture. The Scripture tells us that we are to be salt and light in the world. However, our perspective of life and our worldview is to come from God’s Word, not from our culture.

Bottom Line

God gives us two supernatural elements to guide us through life, the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit. The Scripture gives us a Biblical worldview and the Holy Spirit brings illumination and guidance for everyday living. As we look to the Scripture to learn of God’s character, we develop a trust that He will take care of every need and He is watching over us 24/7.

When we depend on the Holy Spirit’s guidance He will help us navigate life’s tough decisions. He is our divine “checker” giving us promptings when something isn’t right. He will always lead us in the right direction, helping us to see every challenge from God’s point of view.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NAS)