Rick Warren's Blog, page 626

Four Decisions That Determine Your Destiny

In Dr. Seuss’ poem, “The Zode in the Road,” a young Zode comes to a fork in the road and spends quite some time trying to decide which place to go to. He thinks about the possibility that one place may be too hot and the other too cool or one too high and the other too low. After scratching his head in indecision, the Zode finally decides to play it safe and “start off for both places at once!”

Six Steps for Biblical Decision-making

God gave Moses the dream of leading the children of Israel out of 400 years of slavery, but Moses had to make the decision to confront Pharaoh. God gave Noah the dream of saving the world from the flood, but Noah had to make the decision to build the ark. God gave Abraham the dream of building a new nation, but Abraham had to make the decision to leave everything he had and go out into the unknown.

Three Benefits of Telling Others About Your Dream

When you get your dream from God, you should make it public and announce it to other people. Just by telling other people, you’re making a statement of faith, and other people will want to come along to be a part of it. You visualize the dream first, and then you verbalize the dream by saying, “This is what I believe God wants to do in my life.”

Don’t Waste Your Shape

If you want to know God’s will for your life, you’ve got to look at what you’re good at. Why would God give you certain gifts, abilities, and talents and not expect you to use them? That would be a waste.

Want to Hear God: Get Still and Listen!

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.

How Do You Get God’s Dream for Your Life?

I’ve come to the conclusion there is no such thing as great people. There are only ordinary people committed to great dreams. When you commit yourself to a great dream, it draws something out of you and helps you become larger than you would become any other way.

From Dream to Deliverance

If you want your faith to grow so you can claim God’s promise in Mark 9:23 — “Everything is possible for the person who has faith” (GNT) — then you must first understand that God takes you through six phases of faith.

God Grows Your Faith in Six Phases

The Bible says in Matthew 9:29, “According to your faith let it be done to you” (NIV). That’s the key to the great adventure of following Jesus Christ. God says, “You get to choose how much I bless your life. You believe, and I’ll do it. You believe, and I’ll bless.”

Faith is like a muscle — it develops. It can be strengthened or it can grow weak, depending on how much you use it. So how does God build your faith? He uses a very predictable process. If you understand it, you can cooperate with it.

Reliable People Get Promoted

The greatest compliment a boss can pay you is, “I’m not worried,” because it says that you are reliable, trustworthy, and steady. They can count on you.

Genesis 39:6 says, “So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing — except what kind of food to eat!” (NLT)

The Secret to Being a Likeable Person

If you want to stand out at work, you need to be likeable. If people don’t like you, they’re not going to trust you, and they certainly won’t promote you.

A lot of people think that likeability is just a matter of personality. You’re either a likable person or you’re not.