Rick Warren's Blog, page 640

Enjoy Your Life

You may be under a lot of stress right now because of the economy, but God still wants you to enjoy life.

As a Christian, you can enjoy life because your conscience is clear. You can enjoy life because you are secure within God’s love. You can have fun and laugh in church. You can enjoy friends who don’t manipulate you because they are learning to be like Jesus, and that means they are learning to look out for the interests of others.

The Spiritual Act of Journaling

If you want to hear God speak, you need to withdraw to a quiet place, wait patiently and expectantly, ask God to give you a picture of what he wants to say to you, and then write down God’s responses to your questions.

In the book of Habakkuk, the Lord commands the author to “write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance” (Habakkuk 2:2 TEV).

Open Your Eyes to God’s Vision

The Bible is filled with hundreds of examples of people getting God’s vision, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Jonah, and Micah. Seeing God’s vision for your life is not a crazy thing. God often uses a mental picture to clarify the next step he wants you to take.

I don’t have to explain this to many of you because you’re visual thinkers. When you read a story in the Bible, you can see that story in vivid Technicolor. When you read a book, you’re picturing the story in your mind the whole time.

Are You Too Busy to Meet with Jesus?

The reason why most people never hear God speak to them is that they never slow down enough to let God talk to them. Hurry is the death of prayer! You’ve got to slow down. You’ve got to be quiet. And, you’ve got to wait expectantly.

Your Appointment with God

God isn’t going to speak to you if there’s a bunch of noise going on in your life. You’ve got to get alone, and you’ve got to get quiet. We call this a quiet time.

Jesus says it like this in Matthew 6:6: “Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace” (MSG).

You’ll Hear God When You Want To

You’re not going to hear God unless you really, really want it. I’m not saying it’s an option. I’m not saying it would be nice. It is a necessity!

God doesn’t tell his dream for your life if you want to debate it. God doesn’t tell his vision for your life if you want to discuss it. God doesn’t tell you what he put you on Earth to do just so you can say, “Let me think about it.”

Obedience Without Anxiety

If you feel overwhelmed or confused about a decision that you’re trying to make, you’re probably caught up in yourself and not God’s voice. The Bible says, “God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33a NIV). He is not the author of confusion. So if you’re feeling confused, guess what? It’s not God’s voice speaking in your life.

A Biblically Supported Idea

Many times we wonder if an idea that came to us is instruction from God, a deception from Satan, or just something we want to do. It is extremely important to know the difference and how to discern God’s voice, because it can have eternal consequences.

Before God Speaks, Decide To Say “Yes”

God speaks to people who decide they’re going to do what he tells them to do, even before he tells them. It’s saying, “God, if you want me to move, I’ll move. If you want me to get married, I’ll get married. If you want me to leave this job, I’ll leave this job. Before you even tell me, my answer is ‘yes.’ Whatever you want me to do, I will do it.”

Slow Down, Quiet Down & Listen to Jesus

You can’t hear God if your mind is crowded with other thoughts or concerns — particularly worries, plans, and activities. If you’re always listening to the radio or the TV, when God calls you, the circuits are going to be busy. You’ve got to eliminate the distractions.

Jesus says in Luke 8:7, “Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked the plants” (CEV).