Rick Warren's Blog, page 638

The Path Back to God

I don’t know where you are today. You may be far away from God. Maybe you haven’t been to church in years or maybe you’ve just been distant for a month or two. Maybe you’ve had one of those weeks where you thought, “I really don’t feel God’s presence in my life.” And yet we all long to be close to God. How do you get back to him?

Goals Help You Do What Matters Most

The Bible tells us that Jesus set goals. In fact he often announced publicly what his next goal was for the next phase of his ministry.

So why should you set goals? We’re going to talk about three reasons today and three more tomorrow.

The Three Things You Need to Reach Your Goals

Proverbs 16:9 says, “We plan the way we want to live, but only GOD makes us able to live it” (MSG).

You get to plan the way you want to live, but only God gives you the power and energy to actually make the transformation. Why? Because God provides the three things you must have to reach your goal and change your life.

What Kind of Goal Does God Bless?

Not every goal that you can set is a good goal and one that God’s going to bless.

So how do you know the kind of goal that God will bless? Ask yourself these questions:

Every Life Matters

All life is sacred. It is the mentality of “some lives matter more than others” that caused the Holocaust. That was the mentality of Hitler: “Some people are more important than others. So we’ll just wipe out the weak, the infirm, the aged, or people we disagree with.” Today we even see it in young couples that are expecting and hear, “We hate to tell you this, but your baby may have a birth defect.” And the couple starts considering abortion.

Accept Yourself — Flaws and All

Spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, experiences — these are the five things that make you, you. I call them your SHAPE.

Accepting your SHAPE — the unique way that God made you that brings glory to him — means to believe that God knows best. It all comes down to the matter of trust. Do you believe that God made a mistake when he made you? Or do you trust him, knowing that he has a plan for your life? Do you believe it?

The Good News of Christmas

Christmas is all about good news. But it’s not the good news of special gifts. It’s not the good news of a big meal. It’s not even the good news of spending time with friends and family.

What It Means to Be Lost

If you don’t understand the purpose of Christmas, you might as well skip the Christmas lights and decorations this year. You might as well forget about buying Christmas presents. You might as well forget Christmas dinner.

If you don’t know why we celebrate Christmas, all the festivities are pointless.

Choose the Better Life

When I was a kid, my mom fed me SpaghettiOs. I thought it was the best food ever! Then I discovered In-N-Out burgers. I then went from the good life to the better life. SpaghettiOs were good, but a juicy In-N-Out burger is much better.

Get to Know Your Creator

This time of year, we all have many important tasks to get done. We’ve got year-end reports to write. We have holiday meals to plan. And, of course, we have gifts to buy.

But you have something much more important to focus on this Christmas: developing a personal and growing relationship with Jesus.