“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge, nor wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 9:10

The greatest purpose for living is to serve God. He has work for us to do.

“We are God’s workmanship (masterpiece) created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared (chosen) for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Be faithful in small things.

“No work is small when done with great love,” said Mother Teresa

Brother Lawrence, a monk who lived in France during the seventeenth century, saw His work for God as serving in the kitchen. He would stop his work and praise God for the privilege of knowing Him and serving Him this way. His book ‘The Practice of the Presence of God‘ is still being read today.

Nick Vujicic, born without arms and legs, was determined to find the purpose for his life. Against tremendous challenges, he’s become an international motivational speaker, founded his own company, and speaks about his “ridiculously good life” in his book Life Without Limits.

He writes,

“recognizing your purpose means everything. I assure you that you too have something to contribute. You may not see it now, but you would not be on this planet if that were not true. I know for certain that God does not make mistakes, but he does make miracles. I am one. You are too.’ (Life Without Limits page 31)

Father, we thank you that every life has a purpose. I want to live my life for your glory.

By Helen Lescheid
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

God’s Purpose

Your Eternal Purpose

Purposeful Living – Lessons From the Fig Tree

The post My Life Has Purpose appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“Even though you planned evil against me, God planned good to come out of it. This was to keep many people alive, as he is doing now.” Genesis 50:20(GW)

Joseph was a dreamer. In his dreams he saw himself in a position of authority. Pay attention to the route the Lord allowed Joseph to travel to get to his place of purpose; the pit, the prison, and then the palace. The Lord used the challenges Joseph faced to mold him for greatness. Joseph had to humble himself and wait on God’s timing. He also had to forgive his brothers as we saw in Genesis 50:20. He discovered what they did was only a part of the Lord’s greater plan.

This should encourage us today. No matter what we may have encountered along our journey, it helps to know that the Lord has purpose in our pain. He desires that we learn to forgive and release those that hurt us. We must learn to trust that the Lord will not allow any of our experiences to be wasted. He will take the broken pieces and create a glorious masterpiece if we allow Him to heal our hearts.

Many of us are still bound because we have not fully forgiven others or ourselves. It is time to move forward. Make a decision today that you will no longer walk in bitterness, anger, or defeat. Make a choice now to forgive. Forgiveness frees you. It does not give the offender permission to hurt you again. It brings you to a place of freedom within. The choice is yours.

Father, grant us the grace to move forward just as Joseph did. We recognize how much pain and turmoil our decision to hold on to the past has caused us. We are aware of the joy it has stolen from us daily. We recognize that holding on to unforgiveness will only hinder us from seeing Your best plan for our lives. We want to be free Lord. Teach us to rest in Your peace as we allow You to heal our hearts. In Jesus’ name Amen.

Is there anyone that you are still holding unforgiveness towards? Then pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to forgive. Read: The Power of Forgiveness 

By Mary Pinckney
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

The Power of Forgiveness

In the Face of Evil

7 Good Things to Know about Hard Times

The post He Has the Master Plan appeared first on Thoughts About God.

Listen to God’s Word in Ephesians 2:10.

“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus...”

Accept and receive this truth deeply in your being. Your Father had His eye on you long before you loved Him. He intended you and wanted you. He planned you; you were not an accident. You are a product of His love. You were not mass produced. We live in a disposable age, but you are not throw-away. You are one of His best ideas, the result of His fine craftsmanship. His wisdom creatively designed you for Himself. You are “a keeper,” a treasure, valuable and valued. You are carrying a huge reservoir of treasure of generational blessings, because He is generous. He is a just and extravagant God. He celebrates everything that He planned and deposited in the gold mine that is you, everything that He intended for you and pledged to you, and He cannot lie. In Him you know who you are and what you are living for. Be blessed to live in the freedom of maximum fulfillment as you accept and approve and receive your design, how God made you to be.

Listen to the Word of God for you in Matthew 15:13. Jesus said,

“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.” Be blessed to receive the restoration of God’s original intent for you. Receive the hand of your Father removing everything that He didn’t install in you, everything you got from ungodly generations, in the womb, and since then from unholy sources. Be blessed with seeing the hand of your Father plucking up by the roots what He did not plant in you. Receive God’s restoration of what needs to be restored to its rightful formation and place. He put some special things in you when He created you, and you may have tried to remove them, hide them, or change them. Others may have tried to squelch you or change you all your life. Be released from the soulish plans, prayers, and manipulations of others to make you other than who God intended you
to be.

Hear God’s Word for you in Romans 12:2 NLT.

“Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, and you will know how pleased God is with his will for you and what God wants you to do.” He has designs on you for glorious living in His purposes, to set you in the fullness of Christ in everything in every way. He is actively working out His purposes that are beyond your comprehension. Paul said that no man has heard, seen, or even imagined what wonderful things God has for those who love Him. The power of the Holy Spirit in you is renewing your mind and soul, to give you a new attitude of heart. Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, is helping you to trust God completely and believe that He knows what is best for your life.

Let God confirm to you those facets of yourself that He designed to be revealed.

Jesus lives in you to shine out of you. Be blessed to grow in all the character, skills, potential, and magnificence that is in your true spiritual DNA. Be blessed to be you.

Be blessed in the name of the Spirit of God who made you, the breath of the Almighty who gives you life (Job 33:4).

By Sylvia Gunter
used by permission

FURTHER READING

• The Perfect Anorexic
• The Balanced Life –  by John Grant
• My Beloved Child –  by Sylvia Gunter

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The post You Are God’s Design appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.“ 2 Corinthians 3:5 (NIV)

The only way you will fulfill God’s destiny for you this decade is to rely on God’s strength. And that means you have to confess ‘I can’t’ before you can agree ‘God can.’

Otherwise, we’ll just keep thinking there’s still some ability (competency, sufficiency) in us that will allow us – independent of God – to do the things he expects of us during this Decade of Destiny.

We’ll continue to believe, wrongly, that we can do some things, perhaps all things, apart from God. We’ll keep applying the pretzel logic that we can make decisions disconnected from God that somehow keep us connected to God’s plans for us.

And when we make choices disconnected and independent from God, there is little difference between the way we live our lives and the way non-believers live their lives.

“But people who aren’t Christians can’t understand these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means.” (1 Corinthians 2:14 NLT)

You have the Holy Spirit inside you. You have the ability to understand when God is telling you to take steps toward his goals for your life. Ask him to teach you to hear his still small voice and to help you take the steps he tells you to take. Then, look for the ways he guides you through the decisions and details of your life.

For the next few weeks, keep a list of all the times you sense God giving you direction. This will help you to see that he is at work in your life and that he has a constant interest in the details of your life.

by Jon Walker
Used by Permission

Further Reading

•  I Can’t Stand it Anymore  by Sue Braid

•  Learning to Give Control to God – by Helen Lescheid

•  Salvation Explained

The post God Can Even Though I Can’t appeared first on Thoughts About God.

Do you sometimes get irritated with the detours in your life?

“Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me, but right away I departed to Arabia, and then returned to Damascus.” Galatians 1:17

Recently while on a multi-state trip in my newly acquired vehicle, a notice appeared on the navigation screen advising me of a traffic jam caused by an accident ahead on my route. It asked if I wanted to be re-routed around the accident and I verbally said yes and instantly a new route screened and I was able to avoid the delay and be on my way.

At first I was irritated because the alternate route took me off the interstate highway I was on and took me through rural roads with small towns with lower speed limits, but in the end, I still saved time.

Do you sometimes get irritated with the detours in your life? Do you realize that sometimes God has a purpose?

Look at some prominent detours in the Bible. Detours, when we get off the main road, can be frustrating and time consuming. Yet in the spiritual life, God seems to allow us to be detoured. One of the longest detours of all time happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness. What should have taken them eleven days to enter the Promised Land turned into a forty-year detour in the desert.

That detour was due to their deplorable lack of faith in God’s conquering power. On the other hand, there were those who may have thought they were being detoured by God, but who later found they were on God’s perfect road of blessing all along.

Consider: 1) Moses was detoured into submission. Those forty years in the wilderness tending sheep were not a waste, but actually a training ground for tending Israel later on. The desert experience took all the trust in the arm of flesh out of Moses.

Consider: 2) Paul was detoured into learning. “I went into Arabia…then after three years I went up to Jerusalem” (Galatians 1:17,18). Those years were good for Paul, so that he might learn of Christ and be trained for service.

Consider: 3) Philip was detoured from many, to one. He went from winning multitudes, to winning one man, the Ethiopian eunuch; from a great revival to a singular witnessing experience. This story shows the Lord’s estimation of the value of one soul.

Consider: 4) Enoch and Elijah were detoured into heaven (Genesis 5:24, II Kings 2:11).

Is today the day we will experience an unexpected and seeming inconvenient and direction changing experience in our lives? If so, remember that God sometimes gives us detours for us to grow and be strengthened for work in His Kingdom.

by John Grant
Used by Permission
John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney

Further Reading

•   The Package! Dealing with Unexpected Circumstances

•   Life’s Lessons can Come from Unexpected Places…

•  Salvation Explained

Follow Us On:  Facebook  • Twitter  •  Instagram  •  Pinterest

The post The Detours of Life appeared first on Thoughts About God.

Could it be that growing up in my crazy family molded me in a way that would allow God to uniquely use my experiences to help others?

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NASB)

Having grown up in an alcoholic family, I have often looked at “normal” families and thought, “If only I could have been born into that family…,” or “Why me, why did I have to experience the madness of life with a really messed up family?” This pity party only led to sadness. I was good at keeping the doors closed about these private thoughts. Most people did not know about this lingering disappoint; it was like a shadow over my world.

This darkness lingered until it was displaced by anticipation. I finally became convinced that God had a plan and purpose for my life. A statement from the book of Romans was instrumental: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Could it be that growing up in my crazy family molded me in a way that would allow God to uniquely use my experiences to help others? I concluded that the answer was yes. It was like a switch was flipped. Instead of looking back with regret I began to look forward with anticipation. The past did not disappear or become less painful, but it was no longer my focus. I’ve realized it’s hard to walk forward when looking backwards. Each day, I trust that God has a good plan.

God thank You that You are good and wise. I trust that You can cause all things to work together for good, even the things that seem hurtful, sad and disappointing. By faith I look forward to how You will work in my life and through it according to Your good plan in the days ahead. Thank You for Your presence and power each step of the way. Amen.

By Mike Woodard
Used by Permission

Further Reading

•  How to be Saved

•  Struggles, Despair

•  Salvation Explained

Follow Us On:  Facebook  • Twitter  •  Instagram  •  Pinterest

The post The Gift of Anticipation appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

Recently I got a package notice from the post office. Because I was not expecting a package, I thought, “Oh no, it’s probably a package from some company that I will not want, so I will have to go to the trouble of sending it back …”

Later that day a good friend mentioned to me that I should be getting something in the mail from him. Well, my attitude about the package waiting for me at the post office changed immediately because I now knew who had sent it! I was excited to see what it was, so I went expectantly to the post office as soon as I could. I was delighted to get a set of stainless steel pots for backpacking as a thank you from some friends I had recently taken on a backpacking trip! I fired off a thank you note that night.

Later that evening I had a thought … In life there are many unexpected packages. Some I like and others I don’t. I have come to realize that no matter what comes, God is in control.

Even in moments of bewilderment or despair in the past, when I would have loved to have written, “RETURN TO SENDER”, I have survived and even come to a point of anticipating the future because I chose to focus on the Sender, and on the knowledge that God does love me and really does know and care about my life’s circumstances. Sometimes I have doubted but in those moments I always come back to the cross as the ultimate proof of God’s love. Jesus died for me, he proved his love. The words of Romans 8:28 are profound: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”

What are the packages you hold today? Can you trust that God does have a plan? The nation of Israel was dealing with the reality of being in captivity, and in Jeremiah 29:11 God reassures them by saying,

“For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Question: Can you trust Him? What about writing Him a thank you note?

by Mike Woodard
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

• Your Life is the Only Bible Some People Read
• Are You Still a Fighter?

Learn more about knowing Jesus at: https://thoughtsaboutgod.com/four-laws/

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