Tag: God

God’s Testing Process

original article by Larry Burkett

  “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”
(James 1:2-3)

In His great wisdom, God has ordained that the perfecting of our faith and walk with Him should come by way of testing. God allows problems and circumstances to occur that will break our stubbornness, keep us dependent upon Him, and make us profitable for His service.

So often our first reaction to the pressures that accompany the testing process is to question God or try to escape, but should we?

Of course, there are times in all our lives when we feel defeated and would like to get away from it all. If that happens to 40- to 50-year-olds, we usually blame it on mid-life crisis. In reality, such crises come at every stage of life.

The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said, “Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.”

Until we come to the point of total dependence on God, in good times or bad, we are not really useful in His plan.

God, what is Your plan for me this day? I know You will be with me, no matter what happens.

You were created to communicate with God

GodSpeaks

Philippians 4:6-7 – Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

CREATED TO COMMUNICATE

The Bible teaches that God created us. We aren’t the result of atoms and molecules randomly running into each other. We aren’t arbitrary. We’ve been deliberately designed. There’s forethought, there’s a plan, there’s intelligence, and there’s logic behind what and who we are.

Why is it so important for us to know this? Because where there’s design there’s also direction. Where there’s a purpose there’s also a program. When God created us, He created us with something in mind; to be and to live a certain way. What we are dictates what we should do. Essence drives activity. Construction determines function.

Here’s what we need to note next: God created us to be social beings. We see this illustrated by the fact that the first thing God made after He created the first human was another human! He didn’t leave man alone for very long because man wasn’t designed to exist in complete solitude or total isolation.

All of us were designed to interact, to commune, to communicate. Communication is God’s direction and program for us. It’s what He designed us to do…and we instinctively do it. Just look at the surge we’ve seen in cell phones, text messaging, and websites. What’s the underlying impulse that draws young and old, from Pole to Pole, to these things? It’s our embedded impulse to communicate, to converse, and to connect.

What Impresses You?

“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.”
(Psalm 8:1 NIV)

God is Faithful
Original Article by Chuck Bentley

The thing that impresses you is the clearest indication of the direction you’re taking in life. Jesus was impressed by a widow who gave two coins, because it was all that she had. The widow was impressed with God, which is why she gave everything.

However, Jesus was not impressed with the temporal things of this world, which are destined to be destroyed…if they don’t wear out first. The Bible tells us when the Lord returns, “the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

One day, as Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” Jesus replied, “Do you see all these great buildings?…Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (Mark 13:1-2 NIV). This prophecy was literally fulfilled in A.D. 70, when Roman forces destroyed Jerusalem and its temple, as well.

So, what should impress us as Christians in this life? God deeply desires for us to be impressed with Him, so much so that we trust Him with everything we have. There’s nothing wrong with having wealth or being significant in the world, but we’re not to be impressed with these things, or with anything else that isn’t eternal.