Rick Warren's Blog, page 617

Why Won���t God Tell Me the Next Step?

You already know a lot of things God wants you to do with your life. So why haven���t you done them? God is not obligated to give you step 2 until you���ve already done step 1. Some of you keep saying, ���I want to know God���s will for my career/marriage,��� and God���s says, ���Let���s get to the basics. Are you reading your Bible? Are you in a small group? Are you tithing? Are you talking with me?��� You need to start doing what you already know to be the revealed will of God for your life.

Three Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking God���s Will

You may be at what you think is a dead end in your life. ���We���re never going to get out of debt! I���m never going to have a baby. My dream is never going to come true. How is it ever going to work out?���

How Do You Find Out God���s Will?

God���s not playing games with you. He wants you to understand his will, his purpose, and his plan for your life.

You may say, ���I want God to guide me, but I still get confused. I don���t know what to do.��� Often the problem is we���re looking for the wrong thing. You need to know what you���re looking for before you can find it.

When You���ve Given All the Love You Can Give

Love can be absolutely exhausting. Don���t let anyone fool you. The kind of love that really makes a difference in this world will zap everything out of you.

You Can Become an Expert at Relationships

Love is a skill that can be learned. In other words, it���s something you can get good at, and that means you get better at love by practicing love.

You may think you���re a good lover, but God wants you to become a great lover, a skilled lover, a master lover. Yet most people never learn how to love.

Love Is Something You Do

If you really love someone, then you show it by how you act toward that person.

Love is more than attraction and more than arousal. It���s also more than sentimentality, like so many of today���s songs suggest. By this standard, is love dead when the emotion is gone? No ��� not at all ��� because love is an action and a behavior.

How to Love the Unlovable

If you only love on and off like a light switch, you do not love others like God wants you to love. Jesus said, ���If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?��� (Luke 6:32a NIV)

His point is this: All of us can love those who love us back. Becoming a master lover means you learn to love the unlovable ��� when you love people who don���t love you, when you love people who irritate you, when you love people who stab you in the back or gossip about you.

Why Love Doesn���t Just Happen

Today we���ve bought into this myth that love is uncontrollable, that it���s something that just happens to us. In fact, even the language we use implies the uncontrollability of love. We say, ���I fell in love,��� as if love is some kind of ditch. It���s like I���m walking along one day and ��� bam! ��� I fell in love. I couldn���t help myself.

Why Satan Loves Detached Believers

A church family will help keep you from backsliding.

None of us are immune to temptation. Given the right situation, you and I are capable of any sin. God knows this, so he has assigned us as individuals the responsibility of keeping each other on track.

How to Love the Unlovable

I���ve discovered that if people are not on my heart, they���re on my nerves. If you don���t have your kids in your heart, they get on your nerves. If you don���t have your husband in your heart, he gets on your nerves.