Rick Warren's Blog, page 600

You Learn Your Purpose Through Relationships

We only learn who we are in relationship. We only learn our true identity in community.

You���ll never learn who you really are by yourself. You only learn it in relationships. That means you must connect with others for fellowship.

Worship Renews Your Strength

To strengthen your faith, you must unite with others in worship. Worship is for God, but it also has benefits for you. Here are two of the biggest benefits of corporate worship: It renews your faith, and it restores your joy.

Move Forward in Faith, Not By Feelings

You need to plant by faith, not by your feelings.

Do you think that every day a farmer wakes up excited to go to work on his farm? No. It���s hard work! But if a farmer only worked his crops when he felt like it, not much would get done. He may not want to get up early. He may not want to go harvest and plant and weed. But he does it anyway.

Plant Your Seeds Wisely

Everything starts as a seed. That���s the first law of the harvest.

Every achievement started as a dream seed. America started as an idea seed of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Saddleback Church started as a seed. Your life started as a seed ��� when your father���s seed was connected with your mother���s egg, your life began. Literally everything that���s living on planet Earth came from a seed.

Three Spiritual Lessons to Keep You in the Race

Did you know that you���re in a race?

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 9:24-26, ���In a race everyone runs, but only one person gets first prize. So run your race to win. To win the contest you must deny yourselves many things that would keep you from doing your best. An athlete goes to all this trouble just to win a blue ribbon or a silver cup, but we do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I fight to win��� (TLB).

Sow Godliness In the Next Generations

A few years ago PBS did a series of family histories of famous Americans. They wanted to include a pastor, so they asked me if I would participate. They took a swab of DNA from my mouth, and they used it to trace my family tree back a thousand years. They didn���t discover that I���m the descendent of kings, but they found all kinds of interesting things and compiled it for a TV special.

What Does God Promises When You Give?

To reap a great harvest, you must plant generously in faith.

My wife Kay and I have done this hundreds and hundreds of times. We give away 91 percent of our income and live on 9 percent. We���ve raised that from giving 10 percent 40 years ago. I���m an example of the fact that you cannot out-give God. I���ve tried for 40 years and lost every year.

Why Not Your Best?

Admiral Hyman Rickover was the father of America���s nuclear Navy. He once interviewed a Naval Academy graduate for a job on a nuclear submarine and let the young man talk for two hours about anything he wanted to, and the cadet really tried to show off his intelligence and ability.

Is It Your Dream or God���s Dream?

How do you know if you are living for your dream or God���s dream?

You may think you were created to get up, go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to bed, to make a little money, retire, and die. Really? You think that���s all God put you here for?

Doubt Is the Enemy of Imagination

Doubt is the enemy of imagination.

When you were a kid, you had a great imagination. But the older you get, the more your imagination grows rusty. You stop imagining what things could be, and you just start living the way they are. You get stuck in the status quo, which is Latin for ���the mess we���re in.���