Rick Warren's Blog, page 673

The Wild Card: Your Choices

"God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him." Romans 8:29 (MSG)

You are wonderfully complex (Psalm 139:14). To fulfill God's purpose for you, you have to look at every dimension of your life and understand five factors that influence your identity. We've talked this week about the ways that our chemistry, our connections, our circumstances, and our consciousness affect the way we are shaped.

If these factors are like the five cards you're dealt in a game of poker, then the fifth factor would be your wild card. Why? Because it's your choices, and it affects all your other cards. You may not be able to control the hand you were dealt, but you can use your wild card to change the way you live your life by the choices you make.

The Bible says we are created in the image of God. No other animal was created in the image of God! Dogs have instinct but don't know the difference between right and wrong. Elephants have no moral compass. But you get to choose to do right or wrong. The freedom to choose is man's greatest blessing and also his greatest curse, because we make stupid choices all the time that harm us and everyone around us.

The wild card can change the suit and number of the other cards you are dealt. You didn't choose your chemistry, but you can choose what you do with your body. You didn't choose your connections, but you can make new relationships and mend or nurture the ones you already have. You can choose how you respond to your circumstances, and you can choose to stop believing the harmful things people say to you.

Your identity is shaped by your choices. What choices will you make today that will positively affect the rest of your life?

Talk It Over

What do you need from God today to help you overcome the difficult circumstances in your life that keep you from making good choices?

Pray, and ask God for the help you need.

Embracing God's Best for Your Body in 2014

"Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him." Romans 12:1 (MSG)

Taking care of your body is a spiritual discipline, like prayer, worship, or Bible study. God wants you to succeed at this in 2014.

The Apostle Paul says, with God helping you, "Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering" Romans 12:1 (MSG).

When you take care of your body, you worship God. And it's never too late to start this important journey in your life.

Before you ever start your journey of getting healthy, you need to realize that it's a step of faith. Like Peter stepping out of the boat, every step you take toward better health increases your trust in God. Every step helps you expect the best from him. The same verse also says, "Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him."

The Bible embraces three incredibly important truths about the journey of getting healthy. Grasping these truths before you begin will change everything about the journey before you.

God made your body. Psalm 139:13 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb" (NIV). Physical health is as much about stewardship as where you give your resources.

Jesus paid for your body. The Bible says, "Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT). On the cross, Jesus paid not just for your soul but also your body. You honor God when you take care of your body.

The Holy Spirit lives in your body. If you're a Christian, the Bible says your body is God's temple and that the Holy Spirit lives in you (1 Corinthians 3:16). Good health is one way you take care of God's temple. You'd never let your church building get into poor shape, and God wants you to think of your body in the same way.

When you fully embrace these truths from God's Word about your body, you're ready for your body's brand new 2014. Knowing the truth about your body makes acting on that truth a step of faith. It means you're no longer getting healthy just to live a few more years, fit into a particular item of clothing in your closet, or look more physically attractive. You're getting healthy as a way to worship God.

That's a terrific and empowering reason to get healthy in 2014.

Talk It Over

Which of the three truths about the body discussed in this devotional do you think would empower you the most in your journey to health? Why?

How is getting healthy a spiritual discipline?

Your Life Is Shaped By Your Thoughts

"Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." Romans 12:2a (NLT)

You cannot become all God created you to be until you understand the five factors that influence your identity. The first two are chemistry (how you are made) and connections (your relationships). You are a product of the way God created you and of the relationships in your life.

Your identity is also influenced by your circumstances and your consciousness.

Circumstances are the things that happen to you and around you - none of which you control. You are a product of the trauma, troubles, suffering, shame, shock, pressures, and pain that have shaped your life. Perhaps even abuse has affected your identity. If you've ever had a series of failures or a catastrophe, it has left an indelible mark on who you are.

Consciousness is how you talk to yourself. You know what? If you talked to your friends the way you talk to yourself, you probably wouldn't be friends anymore, because our thoughts are filled with the lies we've heard from other people that we've let simmer and fester. When we repeat other people's thoughts in our head, they go deeper and deeper in our consciousness, and they begin to shape our identity.

Proverbs 4:23 says, "Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts" (LB). Your thoughts don't have to be true to hurt you; you just have to believe them. If you tell yourself your marriage won't last, then it won't. If you're afraid you can't do something, then you won't. Your thoughts run your life!

Your circumstances may be out of your control, but God is in control of everything. Your thoughts shape who you are, but you can change the way you think. Your circumstances and consciousness have shaped who you are, but the way you respond to your circumstances and the thoughts you choose to believe will shape the rest of your life.

Talk It Over

What is your natural response to a difficult situation or circumstance? Do you run away or face it? Do you worry or trust God?

How do you need to change the way you think?



Who or what around you influences your thoughts in a negative way?

How Well Do You Love?

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)

Yesterday we talked about the first of five factors that influence your identity. We have all been made wonderfully complex and full of flaws, but until we embrace who we are - including our flaws - we cannot make the changes in our lives that will bring about true transformation.

The second factor that influences your identity is your connections. Your connections give your life purpose, meaning, and identity. If you grew up with dysfunctional relationships, then you question your purpose and struggle with identity.

Jesus said that the most important thing we should do is love God and love other people (Mark 12:30-31). Life is not about your accomplishments or acquisitions, your popularity or prestige. It's about how well you love.

There are three problems that keep us from loving fully as God intended:

We're all imperfect. There are no perfect relationships because there are no perfect people.



Sin disconnects us. Adam and Eve had the first broken relationship and disconnected themselves from God and from each other. We've been excusing ourselves and accusing the people we love ever since.



The more disconnected we are, the more fearful we become. We crave intimacy, but we fear vulnerability. We crave acceptance, but we fear rejection.

You may not have had a say in the hand you were dealt in life. But God sent his son as your Savior to transform your cards into a winning hand. No matter what connections you've made in life, you will be held responsible for what you do with your connections today.

Will you let God affect your connections? Will you trust him for your future in spite of a difficult past? Will you nurture, protect, and build relationships so that God is more fully glorified in your life?

Resolve today to build healthy and not hurtful relationships with God's help.

Talk It Over

In what relationships do you need to invest more time or more of Christ's love?

How are you doing with "loving your neighbor as yourself"? How about with your difficult relatives, co-workers, or in a broken relationship?

Even Your Flaws Can Bring Glory to God

"Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it." Psalm 139:14 (NLT)

When people are hurting, they need simple truth, not simplistic truth. It's not enough to tell someone to pray, read the Bible, or go to church. You have to help them know how to make changes in their lives.

And we can't make changes in our lives until we understand our identity. You cannot become all that God created you to be until you embrace your identity - the unmistakably unique and flawed you that God made for a purpose.

You are wonderfully complex (Psalm 139:14). To fulfill God's purpose for you, you have to look at every dimension of your life and understand five factors that influence your identity. Then, you have to make the most of what you've been given. We may have all been given different parents, pains, problems, and potential, but we will all be held accountable one day for what we did with those factors.

It's like a game of five-card stud: You don't get to mix your cards. You don't get to choose your cards. You have to play the hand you're dealt.

The first factor that makes you who you are is your chemistry. This is your DNA, your genes, your hormones, your chemical makeup. Some of you were born with hypersensitivity; others have an extremely high tolerance for pain. Some of you have a low energy level; others are bouncing off the walls. Some of you have backs that are prone to fail you, weak eyesight, or brittle bones. Some of you have low levels of oxytocin, a hormone that affects how we relate to other people.

No flaw is sinful or shameful - it's the way God wired you! I bought a pair of distressed jeans once that had a tag that read: "These jeans have intentional flaws in order to make them unique." Your "genes" are the same way: They have flaws that make you unique. Those flaws are part of your custom design, and God planned them for his purpose and glory.

You will never be able to make a change in your life or fulfill God's purpose for your life until you understand that you are wonderfully complex and uniquely flawed for God's glory. The question then, is this: What will you do with the hand you're dealt?

Talk It Over

What are the flaws that make you unique?

How can you use those flaws to bring God glory?

The Healing Power of Confession

"Before I confessed my sins, my bones felt limp, and I groaned all day long." Psalm 32:3 (CEV)

It's not just swallowing too much food that'll torpedo your health in 2014. Swallowing your sin can have even more disastrous results.

One of the healthiest choices you can make for 2014 is to receive the forgiveness of God. Many people start the New Year carrying around a stinky garbage sack of sin. Carrying around that sack won't just make you ineffective for serving Jesus; it'll ruin your health, too.

The Bible teaches in Psalm 32:3-5: "Before I confessed my sins, my bones felt limp, and I groaned all day long. Night and day your hand weighed heavily on me,�and my strength was gone as in the summer heat. So I confessed my sins and told them all to you. I said, 'I'll tell the LORD each one of my sins.' Then you forgave me and took away my guilt" (CEV).

In fact an October 2013 study by scientists at Princeton University and the University of Waterloo scientifically verified what David said centuries earlier: Feelings of being physically "weighed down" by guilt are real.

God has given us a foolproof method for relief from those soul and body-destroying feelings of guilt: repentance. How do you do that?

Make a moral inventory. Psalm 138:23-24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test my thoughts.�Point out anything you find in me that makes you sad, and lead me along the path of everlasting life"�(LB).�In other words, you start by grabbing a pencil and paper and asking God to bring to mind your sin. Take your time. Don't rush it. Be specific.

Accept the blame. The greatest holdup to healing is you. Don't rationalize it. Don't minimize it. You may not own 100 percent of the blame, but accept the 10 percent of the blame that's yours.

Ask for forgiveness. Believe that God will forgive you. Ask him to forgive you based on what he promises in the Bible (1 John 1:9). Don't beg. Don't bargain. Just believe that God is able and willing to forgive you.

Don't put yourself at risk of spiritual heart disease. God wants to use you in 2014. Come clean about your sin. Start over.

Then see what God can do through you in 2014.

Talk It Over

Make a list of sins you've never confessed to God. Accept the blame for your failures, and ask the Lord for forgiveness for each sin on your list.

What keeps you from confessing your sins from God?

Are there some sins you struggle with confessing more than others? Why?

Don't Worry, Get Healthy

"When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you." Isaiah 43:2 (NLT)

You have three basic choices when it comes to the stress in your life: You can worry, you can ignore your stress, or you can relax and trust God.

The Bible says in Psalm 116:7, "I said to myself, 'Relax, because the LORD takes care of you'" (NCV). You can't trust God and worry at the same time.

That's not just good spiritual wisdom from the Lord; it's wisdom for your health as well. The Bible also says in Proverbs 14:30 that a heart at peace is a healthy heart: "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones" (NIV).

It's not just what you eat that destroys your health - it's what eats you! You can have the best health plan around - eat fresh, healthy, organic, and in proper portions - but if you're resentful against someone in your life or worry about tomorrow, your health will suffer.

Worry is like a poison or a fire. It burns you up inside. I'll never forget watching an old episode of "Columbo" when Johnny Cash played the bad guy. When he finally got caught, he said, "I'm so glad I got caught, because the guilt was killing me."�

I can't tell you how many reports I've read of doctors who said that most people could leave the hospital today if they could get rid of their worries, guilt, and resentment.

We deal with all sorts of worries in our lives, but many of them revolve around these five areas. We worry:

We'll be left alone.

We won't know what to do in the future.

We won't have what we need in the future.

We will be hurt by something or someone in the future.

We won't have the strength to survive in the future.

But there's good news: You don't have to worry. Worry is optional misery! You have many things that impact your health that you cannot control. But you can control the amount you worry!

God has more than 7,000 promises in the Bible. Many of those promises center on the areas you worry about the most, like the five mentioned above.

If you have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, you know the One who created your future. His promises about your future give life, not stomach-eating worry.

The Bible says in one of those 7,000 promises: "When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you" Isaiah 43:2 (NLT).

You have no need to worry. The One who holds your future will walk with you through it. That may be just as important as a diet and gym membership in your journey to physical health in 2014.

Talk It Over

How have you seen worries impact your physical health or the physical health of those you care about?

In what area of your life are you struggling to trust God and causing unneeded worry?

What promise from God will you claim in 2014 to help you trust him more and worry less?

To Get Enthusiastic, Get in God

"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." (Romans 12:11-12 NIV)

In order to reach your goals, you have to figure out how to maintain your enthusiasm over the long haul.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm." I believe that with all of my heart. I have found it to be true in my life. You've got to have passion, you've got to have enthusiasm, or you're never going to make it to the finish line.

Most people would consider me an enthusiastic person, and I am. But I haven't been an enthusiastic person for a week or a month. My enthusiasm has not waned over a year or five or 10 years. I have been consistently enthusiastic about the goals that I've set for more than 30 years.

How do you do that? How do you stay enthusiastic day after day in spite of delays and difficulties and dead ends and problems and pressures and criticisms? How do you stay enthusiastic for more than 30 years?

Positive thinking is not enough. Pulling yourself up by your psychological bootstraps is not enough. Talking yourself into optimism is not enough.

The way you stay enthusiastic for a lifetime is found in the word "enthusiasm." The word "enthusiasm" comes from the Greek word en theos. En is the Greek word for the English word "in." Theos is the Greek word for "God." So en theos means to be "in God."

When you get in God, you will be enthusiastic. It's the kind of enthusiasm that isn't affected by the economy or the weather or your circumstances. It's eternal because you are tied to the eternal God. You are in Christ.

Paul tells us how to do this in Romans 12:11-12. He says, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" (NIV).

If you want to reach your goals this year, you need to get God's power by being joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.

Pray this prayer today: "Dear God, I don't want to go another day without you in my life, controlling every part of my heart. I offer you my body. I dedicate myself to you. In light of all you've done for me, I give myself as a living sacrifice to you as a spiritual act of worship.

I humbly admit that I need help. I want you to help renew my mind. Help me to think the way you want me to think. Please forgive me for my pride. I don't want to think more highly of myself than I should. My faith needs to grow, and I need your help to set goals that can be measured so I can manage them. Forgive me for trying to change on my own.

I want to fill my life with love. I want to fill my life with you. Help me to get group support. Help me to take delight in honoring other people, to focus on giving my life away so that you can take care of my needs. I want to nurture my enthusiasm by being in you. Help me to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. I give myself to you. In your name I pray. Amen."

Fill Your Life with Love

"Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other." Romans 12:9-10 (NLT)

If you want lasting change in your life, you must fill your life with love.

Love is the only thing that can change the unchangeable. Love invigorates. Love revitalizes. Love renews. Love refreshes. Love is the most powerful force in the universe, because God is love. It doesn't say he has love; it says he is love. Love heals what cannot otherwise be healed. Love uplifts. Love strengthens. Love energizes. Love empowers.

"Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other." Romans 12:9-10 (NLT).

"Take delight in honoring each other" - I love that! You know what that means? It means when people in your small group have a win in health, finances, or any goal they've set, you need to celebrate with them. Celebrate their wins. You lost two more pounds? Congratulations! You got a little bit out of debt? Fantastic! You had a breakthrough in your marriage? Terrific! The Bible says to take delight in honoring each other and show genuine affection.

Here's the amazing thing: God has wired the universe so that when you help other people, God takes care of your problems. God is looking down on you not to say, "Are you helping yourself?" but "Are you helping others?" Do you want help with your goals? Start helping other people with their goals. Show love. Give yourself away. There is healing in giving back.

Remember the story of Job where he lost everything? He lost his health, he lost his family, he lost his wealth. He lost it all. At the end of the book, God gave it all back to Job. Why? Because Job prayed for himself? No. It says, "After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before" (NIV).

Why do you need to be in a small group? Not just so other people can help you, but so you can help them. So you can pray for those people, and then God can help you. Give yourself away in love, and then watch God work in your life.

Talk It Over

Think of the ways you show love to others each day. What is the motivation behind your love?

How has loving others blessed your life?

Who are the people in your life who need your love and support or need you to celebrate with them today?

Change Requires Community

"Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other." Romans 12:4-5 (NLT)

You will not make all the changes you need to make, want to make, would love to make, plan to make, or desire to make by yourself. If you could, you would. But you can't, so you won't!

The Bible says in Romans 12:4-5, "Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other" (NLT).

God wired the universe in such a way that we need each other. I need you, and you need me. The phrase "one another" is used 58 times in the New Testament: Love one another, care for one another, encourage one another, support one another, pray for one another, greet one another, share with one another. God never meant for you to go through life as a lone ranger. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto! You're not meant to go through life by yourself. Whether you ever marry or not is irrelevant. You need a spiritual family, and you need to be in a small group.

You need me, and I need you. You need the people around you, and they need you. We belong to each other.

There are a lot of good self-help books that will tell you the right thing to do, but they don't provide the two things the Bible says you must have: God's power and community. That's what you need to really change. Change requires community.

At Saddleback, we've got people from every kind of background. We speak 65 languages at our church and have members from many different religious and ethnic backgrounds and nationalities.

But what we have in common is our love for God. That unites us and allows us to help each other out.

Galatians 3:28 says, "In Christ, there is no difference between Jew and Greek, slave and free person, male and female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus" (NCV).

Talk It Over

What are the changes you want to make in your life this year? What goals have you set?

How will the support of the people closest to you help you accomplish those goals?

What keeps you from accepting or asking for help from other people?