“Alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic! Alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic!”

We sounded the words to the rhythmic clapping of our hands. Faster, faster, faster. Alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic! This morning drill formed part of our early morning leaders meeting at Winners Camp, a residential camp for teenagers on the beautiful island of Oahu, Hawaii.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” .

As we went off to our daily tasks of shaping the lives and hearts of a troupe of teenagers’ some more privileged than others it wasn’t difficult to be enthusiastic about the day. I remember those seven days with such fondness. And I still remember many of the faces.

I learned a few years ago that the word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek word “entheos”ένθεος which means the God within.

When we can be enthusiastic about something, perhaps it is also an indicator that we are doing what we were meant to; that we are about the things that were set out for us on this earth to do. I find God in the places where I am most enthusiastic.

As another day dawns, am I alert, awake and enthusiastic about the possibilities that lie ahead? And if not, why not?

Dear God, today I invite you into every activity I put my hand and heart to. Thank you for filling me with enthusiasm as I go about the work you set out for me to do. Amen.

By Idelette McVicker
used by permission

FURTHER READING

• The Secret to a Joyful Life
• Living a Joyful Life
• Inspired by Joy

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“Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.” Habakkuk 2:1-3 (NKJ)

Is your life on the right track? From time to time, it’s good to take stock of where you are and how that compares with where you want to be.

Writing down the ideal picture of what you hope your life to be, helps you to be intentional as you live your daily life. Life often happens at such a rapid pace that it’s incredibly clarifying to decide where you would like to go even before you get to the crossroads.

Because I have known where I’ve wanted to go, I have been able to confidently turn down jobs and pursue others. I have been able to seize opportunities when they came my way or create other opportunities that fit the vision.

Writing down the vision of what I wanted for my life has been one of the most powerful exercises I have incorporated into my life. What does your picture of success look like? Why not take some time to write it down today? Then hold it before God in prayer.

Dear God, thank You for showing us this principle of writing down the vision. May we always run towards the purposes You have for our lives. Amen.

By Idelette McVicker
used by permission

FURTHER READING

Spiritual Cataracts by Marilyn Ehle

I See You – A Devotional by Julie Lairsey

The God Who Feeds My Soul – by Max Lucado

The post Write the Vision appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“God is working in you to help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him.” Philippians 2:13 (NCV)

What God said about Jeremiah, he said about you:

“Before I made you in your mother’ womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work” Jeremiah 1:5 (NCV).

Set apart for a special work.

God shaped you according to yours. How else can you explain yourself? Your ability to diagnose an engine problem by the noise it makes, to bake a cake without a recipe. You knew the Civil War better than your American history teacher. You know the name of every child in the orphanage. How do you explain such quirks of skill?

God. He knew young Israel would need a code, so he gave Moses a love for the law. He knew the doctrine of grace would need a fiery advocate, so he set Paul ablaze. And in your case, he knew what your generation would need and gave it. He designed you. And his design defines your destiny. Remember Peter’s admonition

“If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies”  1 Peter 4:11.

I encountered walking proof of this truth on a trip to Central America. Dave, a fellow American, was celebrating his sixty-first birthday with friends at the language school where my daughter was studying Spanish. My question “What brings you here?” opened a biographical floodgate. “Drugs, sex, divorce, jail”  Dave’s first four decades read like a gangster’s diary. But then God called him. Just as God called Moses, Paul, and millions, God called Dave.

His explanation went something like this.

‘‘I’ve always been able to fix things. All my life when stuff broke, people called me. A friend told me about poor children in Central America, so I came up with an idea. I find homes with no fathers and no plumbing. I install sinks and toilets and love kids. That’s what I do. That’s what I was made to do.“

Sounds like Dave has found the cure for the common life. He’s living in his sweet spot. What about you? What have you always done well? And what have you always loved to do?

That last question trips up a lot of well-meaning folks. God wouldn’t let me do what I like to do, would he? According to Paul, he would.

“God is working in you to help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him” Philippians 2:13 (NCV).

Your Designer couples the ‘want to‘ with the ‘be able to‘.  Desire shares the driver’s seat with ability.

“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart”  Psalm 37:4 (NIV).

Your Father is too gracious to assign you to a life of misery. As Thomas Aquinas wrote,

“Human life would seem to consist in that in which each man most delights, that for which he especially strives, and that which he particularly wishes to share with his friends.”

So go ahead; reflect on your life.

What have you always done well and loved to do?

Some find such a question too simple. Don’t we need to measure something? Aptitude or temperament? We consult teachers and tea leaves, read manuals and horoscopes. We inventory spiritual gifts and ancestors. While some of these strategies might aid us, a simpler answer lies before us. Or, better stated, lies within us.

The oak indwells the acorn. Read your life backward and check your supplies. Re-relish your moments of success and satisfaction. For in the merger of the two, you find your uniqueness.

by Max Lucado
From Cure for the Common Life
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2006)

To learn more about Max Lucado visit his website at:
https://www.maxlucado.com/info/view/about_max_lucado/

FURTHER READING

• Who Am I? What Am I Here For? 
• We Plan – God Directs
• God’s Plan or My Plan? 

The post Read Your Life Backward appeared first on Thoughts About God.

I am a lot more like the prophet Jonah than I would care to admit, but I’m going to try.

Jonah is often called the reluctant prophet because God called him to preach to the town of Nineveh, and he went the opposite direction. And you know what God did about that; He sent a big fish to redirect him back to Nineveh.

But why? Why didn’t he want to go preach to Nineveh?

Did he have sudden stage fright? Was he afraid they would reject his message and come after him? No; none of the above. Jonah’s message was one of both good and bad news. The bad news was that the city was full of wickedness and that God was getting ready to punish it. The good news was that if they repented and turned from their wickedness, God would be merciful and spare the city.

Jonah liked the bad news. He wanted God to rain down His justice on these wicked people. But Jonah had an inclination. He was afraid that if he preached this message, they would choose the good news. The city would repent and God would be merciful, and for Jonah, that was the worst possible outcome.

We don’t know from the story why Jonah had it in for the city of Nineveh. It could have been his own self-righteousness. It could have been that he had a history with these people. Maybe they had hurt him or members of his family in some way. Whatever it was, he wanted the place destroyed.

So, when he finished preaching to the whole town, he retired to a hillside overlooking the city to wait and hopefully witness God’s destruction. But nothing happened. And the more nothing happened, the more upset he got. So God sent a very hot sun to burn down on Jonah from his vantage point without any protection. And Jonah complained about the sun. So God sent a plant to grow up rapidly and provide some shade for him, and Jonah was thankful. But no sooner did that happen than God withered the plant and left Jonah in the sun. And that made him angry again.

And God had something to say about that:

“You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left-and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:10-11)

Jonah was so caught up in his own self-righteousness that, in the end, all he could care about was himself and a stupid plant. Meanwhile, God was having compassion for a hundred and twenty thousand people who were trapped in their own ignorance, along with many animals, which God cared about, too.

I really get this story, and painfully so. It hurts how much I identify with Jonah – his self-righteousness and his focus on his own needs to the exclusion of those around him. And that silly plant! I get that too, based on the silly things that become so important to me when I am inwardly-focused. And I identify with his desire to see justice meted out on all the bad people in the world. But in the end, I am also relieved to find that God is the way He is. That He is full of mercy and unlike me. Because if God were like me, I wouldn’t have a chance.

God, help me to see people the way you see them, as those who don’t know their right hand from their left (as if I knew any better). May I be quick to show mercy to all, because mercy is what I want for myself. And take my eyes off me and my needs and put them on you, and on others.

You’d think that after three days inside a whale Jonah would have learned more than this. Then again, self-righteousness is a hard thing to shake.

By John Fischer
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

• Stepping Into a Personal Revival
• We Plan – God Directs
• Why I need to Press the ‘Reset Button’ – confessing sin is like a reset button in our relationship with God

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The post Jonah Just Doesn’t Get it appeared first on Thoughts About God.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.  Psalm 32:8-9

Many years ago we built a home out in the country. Finally we had space not only for our growing family, but for the pets they had begged for. First there was a dog, then a cat, and then—in a moment of weakness—we bought a horse. Alamo was big and white and loved to master all adults who climbed on his back, showing his quarter horse speed and independence.

But Alamo was surprisingly gentle around children. One time I looked out the kitchen window and saw that our two-year-old had entered the fenced-in pasture and was calmly sitting on the ground directly under the belly of this huge animal. My heart began to beat, but not wishing to startle either horse or child, I walked out to the pasture and quietly called Rickie’s name. He and Alamo looked up at the same time, the child began to walk toward me and the horse simply went on calmly chewing the fresh spring grass.

This incident was the exception to Alamo’s usual self-centered independence. When being ridden by an adult, the bit and bridle had to be held with firm control or the rider could easily find himself off the saddle and on the ground while horse galloped swiftly to the barn ignoring cries of halt, stop or whoa.

David uses picturesque language to describe what people are like who refuse to be “reined in” by the loving instruction and counsel of God. Our loving Father wants us to be ready to come to Him when He calls. It is when we insist on our own way, in our own time, that we find ourselves going off God’s chosen track. Eugene Peterson paraphrases it so plainly: Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule that needs bit and bridle to stay on track.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughtsaboutgod.com/blog/2012/04/29/me_bridled-christians/

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