Stay Connected to Your Commander

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” EPHESIANS 6:18

 

PONDER THIS

I was in Colorado where I have a friend who helps lead America in the Strategic Space Command. They keep the satellites high above the Earth in synchronous orbit: spy satellites, military satellites, and the space command. I went into a very small room there for a briefing. They asked, “What part of the world do you want to see?” I asked to see Libya. On a big screen, Libya comes up, and we can see the streets and the houses in Libya. You could see the lights that were twinkling at that very moment in all of Libya. They said, “If a missile is fired from here, we’ll know it the minute it’s fired.” Sitting in Colorado, they’re watching Libya. It’s an amazing thing.

In the same way, we have a Commander who lives above us. And He knows what is going on; He knows what the enemy is doing. Therefore, we must stay in contact with our Space Command, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”

How does prayer keep us connected with God who is aware of and in control of everything?

What practices can you put in place to stay in touch with “space command”?

PRACTICE THIS

Write a list of ways you can stay connected with God in prayer each day and week. Put some of these practices into place this week.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Death Trap Called Covetousness

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. (1 Timothy 6:9)

Covetousness can destroy the soul in hell forever.

The reason I am sure that this destruction is not some temporary financial fiasco, but final destruction in hell, is what Paul says three verses later in 1 Timothy 6:12. He says that covetousness is to be resisted with the fight of faith. Then he adds, “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession.” What’s at stake in fleeing covetousness and fighting for contentment by faith in future grace is eternal life.

So, when Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:9 that the desire to be rich plunges people into ruin, he isn’t saying that greed can mess up your marriage or your business (which it certainly can!). He is saying that covetousness can mess up your eternity. Or, as 1 Timothy 6:10 says at the end, “It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (literally: “impaled themselves on many pains”).

God has gone the extra mile in the Bible to warn us mercifully that the idolatry of covetousness is a no-win situation. It’s a dead-end street in the worst sense of the word. It’s a trick and a deadly trap.

So, my word to you is the word of 1 Timothy 6:11: “Flee these things.” When you see it coming (in a television ad or a Christmas catalog or an Internet pop-up or a neighbor’s purchase), run from it the way you would run from a roaring, starving lion escaped from the zoo. “Take hold of the eternal life.”

John Piper 

Serve God with Your Thirst

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

What if you discovered (like the Pharisees did) that you had devoted your whole life to trying to please God, but all the while had been doing things that in God’s sight were abominations (Luke 16:14–15)?

Someone may question this and say, “I don’t think that’s possible; God wouldn’t reject a person who has been trying to please him.” But do you see what this questioner has done? He has based his conviction about what would please God on his idea of what God is like. That is precisely why we must begin with the character of God revealed in Scripture.

God is a mountain spring, not a watering trough. A mountain spring is self-replenishing. It constantly overflows and supplies others. But a watering trough needs to be filled with a pump or bucket. So, the great question is: How do you serve a spring? And: How do you serve a watering trough? How do you glorify God the way he really is?

If you want to glorify the worth of a watering trough, you work hard to keep it full and useful. But if you want to glorify the worth of a spring, you do it by getting down on your hands and knees and drinking to your heart’s satisfaction, until you have the refreshment and strength to go back down in the valley and tell the people what you’ve found.

My hope as a desperate sinner hangs on this biblical truth: that God is the kind of God who will be pleased with the one thing I have to offer: my thirst. That’s why the sovereign freedom and self-sufficiency of God are so precious to me: they are the foundation of my hope that God is delighted not by the resourcefulness of bucket brigades, but by the bending down of broken sinners to drink at the fountain of grace.

By all means we should seek to please God, now and forever. But woe to us if our whole life proves to be based on a false view of what pleases God. The Lord is pleased not by those who treat him as a needy watering trough, but as an inexhaustible, all-satisfying spring. As Psalm 147:11 says, “The Lord takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.”

John Piper 

Dependable in the Mundane

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

One of the most powerful testimonies to the all-sufficiency of God’s future grace is the “faith principle” that has governed the lives of so many missionaries, notably those of Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF).

Without condemning those who follow a different pattern, it has been the practice of those who follow in the steps of Hudson Taylor and George Mueller to move the hearts of supporters to give by directing their requests to God and not to people.

James H. Taylor, the great-grandson of the founder of OMF, explains how this faith in future grace, rooted in demonstrations of bygone grace, honors God.

We . . . begin from a position of faith. We believe God does exist. We have become convinced of this in a variety of ways, but all of us have experienced the grace of God in bringing us to know Himself through Jesus Christ and through rebirth by His Spirit. We believe we have good grounds for believing in Him through the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: we believe that someone who said He would die and rise again, and did it, is credible in every other way. Therefore we are prepared to trust Him, not only for the eternal salvation of our souls, but also for the practical provision of our daily bread and financial support.

OMF publishes testimonies of God’s amazing faithfulness to demonstrate the glory of his all-supplying future grace. “We want to demonstrate that God can be trusted to do all that He says He will do, by sharing how He has provided for such mundane needs as plane tickets, meals, medical expenses, and the regular support of a whole group of Christian people for well over a hundred years.”

What OMF is devoted to is glorifying the dependability of God — in their message and in their method. Hudson Taylor put it this way: “There is a living God. He has spoken in the Bible. He means what He says and will do all that He has promised.”

Lives of faith are the great mirror of the dependability of God.

John Piper 

The Danger of Delay

“Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”

ISAIAH 55:6

 

PONDER THIS

Somebody told a parable of the devil and his demons in the caverns of darkness, as they were planning how to damn the world. One of the demons who was very clever said, “Let’s just tell the people there’s no God. Then they won’t prepare to meet God.” And the devil said, “No, that won’t work. Only fools don’t believe in God. That’ll only damn a few.” Someone else said, “I have an idea. Let’s tell them the Bible is not the Word of God.” The devil said, “Well, some will believe that. But the Bible has such self-authenticity about it, and the fulfilled prophecy reveals the truth of the Bible. It will be hard to get men not to believe the Bible’s the Word of God. That’ll only get a few. Isn’t there a better plan?” Another said, “Let’s deny the deity of Christ. Let’s fill the pulpits with liberal preachers who pretend to preach the Bible, but never preach the blood atonement, the Virgin Birth, and the full deity of Christ.” The devil said, “That’s a good plan, and I’ll see to it that I have some preachers like that. But I need something more.” Finally, a demon stood who was known for his wicked wisdom and malevolence. All the halls of Hell grew quiet to listen to what he had to say. He said, “Here’s my plan. We will admit there’s a God. We will admit that the Bible is the Word of God. And we will tell people that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And, furthermore, we’ll tell them they need to be saved. But not today.” And a cheer went up in the halls of Hell. And Satan said, “With that tool, I will be able to damn the souls of millions.”

Regarding spiritual things, what are you tempted to believe you can put off until tomorrow?

In what way is God giving you a sense of urgency today?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider the things of the faith you may be putting off. Respond to God without delay.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

 

The Light Beyond the Light

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:1–2)

Jesus Christ is refreshing. So, seek the things that are above. Don’t replace Christ this summer with trifles. Flight from Christ into Christless leisure makes the soul parched.

At first it may feel like freedom and fun to skimp on prayer and neglect the word. But then we pay: shallowness, powerlessness, vulnerability to sin, preoccupation with trifles, superficial relationships, and a frightening loss of interest in worship and the things of the Spirit.

Don’t let the coming of summer make your soul shrivel. God made summer as a foretaste of heaven, not a substitute.

If the mailman brings you a love letter from your fiancé, don’t fall in love with the mailman. Don’t fall in love with the video preview and find yourself unable to love the coming reality.

Jesus Christ is the refreshing center of summer. He is preeminent in all things (Colossians 1:18), including vacations and picnics and softball and long walks and cookouts. He invites us this summer, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Do we want it? That is the question. Christ gives himself to us in proportion to how much we want his refreshment. “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Peter’s word to us about this is, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19–20). Repentance is not just turning away from sin, but also turning toward the Lord with hearts open and expectant and submissive.

What sort of summer mindset is this? It is the mindset of Colossians 3:1–2, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

It is God’s earth! It is a video preview to the reality of what the eternal summer will be like when “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23).

The summer sun is a mere pointer to the sun that will be: the glory of God. Summer is for seeing and showing that. Do you want to have eyes to see? Lord, let us see the light beyond the light.

John Piper 

You Won’t Find Fish in a Tree

“So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” ACTS 17:27-28

 

PONDER THIS

One distinguishing feature between Man and animals is Man has a concern for his destiny. Man is the only creature who knows he's going to die. No elephant knows he's going to die. Salmon may swim upstream, spawn, and then die, but they never think about death. They never say, “I’d better prepare for eternity.” But the Bible says God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

You're the distinct creation of Almighty God. God made a fish to swim in the sea. God made a bird to fly in the sky. What did God make you to do? God created you to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. If you don't know God and you don't serve God, you have missed the purpose for which you were created. You will be like a fish in a tree or a bird underwater. If you don't know God, you have missed it all. And how can you know God? By receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord! God loves you so much. Jesus Christ died for you in agony and blood. You are no accident, and you are no animal. You are made in the image of God. You are made for His glory and for His purpose.

What are some ways you have looked for purpose in the past? What happened? What has changed since you began following Jesus?

What does it look like to live with the purpose of loving and serving God? How is that different from how you live right now?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk to a mentor in the faith and ask how he or she seeks purpose in God.

LWF Adrian Rogers 

First Place

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” MATTHEW 6:33

 

PONDER THIS

There’s one place God will not work and that is second place. The Bible says in all things He must have preeminence. God does not want a place in your life; God doesn’t want prominence in your life: God demands preeminence. Seek what? First! Seek the kingdom of God first.

When you come to God in prayer, ask, “Dear God, is the burning, consuming desire of my heart that Your name would be glorified? Is the burning, consuming desire of my heart that Your Kingdom will come? Is the burning, consuming desire of my heart that Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven?” We often bring other requests to Him before we have even checked the state of our hearts to see where we are in line with Him or off base and consumed by our own selfish agendas.

You can’t say something won’t work if you’ve not tried it. Don’t tell me that Matthew 6:33 is but a vain promise if you’ve not put it into practice.

What place does God have in your life? What areas need to be shaped by Him?

How can you seek to live out the instruction of Matthew 6:33 daily?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider any areas of life you still have not surrendered to God. Tell a friend and ask him or her to support you with accountability and prayer.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Heartache and Hunger

“As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ Then the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do?’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’” ACTS 9:3-6

 

PONDER THIS

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had a perfect environment in which to live and be with God and yet they still fell. The truth is, the more we have, the more we tend to forget God.

The problem is not external; it is one of the heart. Man doesn’t need a boost from beneath; he needs a birth from above. He needs a new heart. All people have the same heartaches. Not only do all people have the same heartaches, but all people have the same hungers as well. Paul was an example of this.

Paul, also known as Saul, was a man who seemed so confident. Outwardly he was confident, but inwardly he had a hunger to know God. Religion and philosophy had not satisfied him. Only Jesus could do that.

Who do you know that has a hunger for God? How can you pray for them?

What are some ways we try to ignore our hunger for God? What happens when we do?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for someone who is not a Christian and look for an opportunity to share the Gospel with that person.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

What is this World Coming To?

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” ROMANS 11:36

 

PONDER THIS

When we read that all creation was made for God in Romans 11:36, the word “for” is the Greek preposition and it has the idea of progress or motion toward an object. The Universe came from Him; the Universe is sustained by Him; and everything comes back to Him. People ask this question; “What’s the world coming to?” It’s coming to Jesus: “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things.” It’s true in the material universe.

This is also true in the spiritual universe. Think about the things we have in the spiritual universe. How did you get saved? Your salvation began in the heart and mind of God. Christ died before the foundation of the world in the heart and mind of God, and God knew you before you were born. Your salvation did not originate with you; it originated with God. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). It is of Him, and then it is through Him. Jesus came to Earth, suffered, bled, and died for us on the cross, and with His royal blood, He paid the price of our salvation. And then it is to Him. Why did He do all of that? So that we could know Him, love Him, worship Him, and honor Him.

What are some of the hard things in our world that make it seem like it is moving toward disaster? How does this verse give perspective on God’s redemptive plan?

Are you moving toward Christ and knowing Him more? How so? What are some of areas where you need to move further toward Christ?

PRACTICE THIS

Confess to God the areas in which you have been struggling to recognize His control over the world. Consider what areas of your life need to move toward Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Eleventh-Hour Breakthroughs

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42)

One of the greatest hope-killers is that you have tried for so long to change, and have not succeeded.

You look back and think: What’s the use? Even if I could experience a breakthrough, there would be so little time left to live in my new way that it wouldn’t make much difference compared to so many years of failure.

The former robber (the thief on the cross next to Jesus) lived for another hour or so after his conversion. Then he died. He was changed. He lived on the cross as a new man with new attitudes and actions (no more reviling). But 99.99% of his life was wasted. Did the last couple hours of newness matter?

They mattered infinitely. This former robber, like all of us, will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of his life. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10). How will his life testify in that day to his new birth and his union with Christ? How will his life confirm his newness in Christ?

The last hours will tell the story. This man was new. His faith was real. He is truly united to Christ. Christ’s righteousness is his. His sins are forgiven.

That’s what the final hours will proclaim at the last judgment. He is changed! And his change mattered. It was, and it will be, a beautiful testimony to the power of God’s grace and the reality of his faith and his union with Christ.

Now back to our struggle with change. I am not saying that struggling believers are unsaved like the robber was. I am simply saying that the last years and the last hours of life matter.

If in the last 1% of our lives, we can get a victory over some long-standing sinful habit or hurtful defect in our personality, it will be a beautiful testimony now to the power of grace; and it will be an added witness (not the only one) at the last judgment to our faith in Christ and our union with him.

Take heart, struggler. Keep asking, seeking, knocking. Keep looking to Christ. If God gets glory by saving robbers in the eleventh hour, he surely has his purposes why he has waited till now to give you the breakthrough you have sought for years.

John Piper 

Drop the Anvils

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” MATTHEW 6:25-27

 

PONDER THIS

Many of us believe living the Christian life means doing the best we can with God’s help. The problem is, that isn’t the Christian life. Our Lord does not want a place in your life. He doesn’t want prominence in your life. He demands and deserves preeminence. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Before you tell me it won’t work, I’m going to ask, have you tried it? Don’t tell me it won’t work if you are not a person who has obeyed the Lord. Your Father in Heaven knows what you need. Our Lord is saying, “Seek me, and I’ll take care of all of these things that are bothering you.” God is more than able to take care of the things in your life.

I heard one story about a man who fell through his boat into the muddy river, so he cried “Help!” He went under a second time, came up and yelled, “Help!” He went under the third time and came up and said, “If somebody doesn’t come help me, I’m going to have to drop one of these anvils I’m holding!” I think some of us are like that. We’ve got a load of care under one arm, and a load of care under the other arm, and we’re wondering, “Why am I sinking?” He is ready to take care of every need and worry when you come to Him.

What are some worries you are carrying? How has worry affected you?

What would it look like to seek God in all things, including the things you worry about?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk to a Christian you look up to, asking how he or she has grown in trust in God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Seeking Truth Feeds Your Spirit

“Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.” PROVERBS 23:23

 

PONDER THIS

Truth is to your spirit what food is to your body. Truth is to your spirit what light is to your eyes. Truth is to your spirit what melody is to your ears. When you read, don’t read merely to get facts; read to get truth. You’ve only got one life. Do you want to live and die without learning the truth? To know truth is to know God. All truth is God’s truth. The devil doesn’t have any truth; he is the source of deception.

You say, “Then, Pastor, I’m just going to read the Bible and nothing else.” No, that’d be a mistake. You need to read widely. The Apostle Paul did. He was a literate man. He quoted the Greek poets and philosophers. He was familiar with all that went on because Paul knew that all truth intersects.

When you learn, when you read, you don’t read just to be a gatherer of facts. You learn to be a channel of truth. If you read and you grow in knowledge, but you don’t grow in grace, you’re going to make yourself obnoxious. You just become one of those people who parades his or her knowledge. Don’t read so you can split a theological hair into nine different sections but read so that you can be a whole person. Read for enlightenment because to know truth is to know God.

How have you been growing and learning in truth?

In what areas of your life do you need to grow in truth?

PRACTICE THIS

Read a book on a different subject than you are used to. As you read, seek, and discern the truth through prayer.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How Can We Seek God?

“But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand. Do not be furious, O LORD, nor remember iniquity forever; indeed, please look—we all are Your people!”

ISAIAH 64:8-9

 

PONDER THIS

How do we seek God’s face? There is the prayer that recognizes God’s sovereignty. We have to believe God is God. Verse 8 means, “Lord, You’re King; You’re sovereign. I’m like clay; You’re like a potter. Mold me and make me after Your will. You are King!” God doesn’t want a place in your life. God doesn’t want prominence in your life. He demands and deserves pre-eminence. Are you willing to say, “God, mold me and make me after Your will”? What if God told you to sell your house and give it to missions? What if God said to you, “I want you to do this thing or that thing?” Are you willing? Have you recognized the sovereignty of God?

God wants to extend mercy. God would much rather forgive sin than punish sin. Do you believe that? God doesn’t hold a grudge. God wants to forgive sin. But God cannot put away our sin by forgiving it unless we put it away by forsaking it. The problem with so many of our prayers is we’re not willing to repent. We want God’s mercy, but we seek no repentance. We want the blessings of being with Him while staying far from Him.

What are some things you selfishly don’t want God to ask you to do?

Have you ever asked God to mold your heart? What was that like?

PRACTICE THIS

Surrender to God the things you selfishly don’t want to do.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Root of Ingratitude

Although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

When gratitude springs up in the human heart toward God, he is magnified as the wealthy source of our blessing. He is acknowledged as giver and benefactor and therefore as glorious.

But when gratitude does not spring up in our hearts at God’s great goodness to us, it probably means that we don’t want to pay him a compliment; we don’t want to magnify him as our benefactor.

And there is a very good reason that human beings by nature do not want to magnify God with thanksgiving or glorify him as their benefactor. The reason is that it detracts from our own glory, and all people by nature love their own glory more than the glory of God.

At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one’s own greatness. For genuine gratitude admits that we are beneficiaries of an unearned bequest. We are cripples leaning on the cross-shaped crutch of Jesus Christ. We are paralytics living minute by minute in the iron lung of God’s mercy. We are children asleep in heaven’s stroller.

The natural person, apart from saving grace, hates to think of himself in these images: unworthy beneficiary, cripple, paralytic, child. They rob him of his glory by giving it all to God.

Therefore, while a man loves his own glory, and prizes his self-sufficiency, and hates to think of himself as sin-sick and helpless, he will never feel genuine gratitude to the true God and so will never magnify God as he ought, but only himself.

Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

Jesus did not come to minister to those who insist they are well. He demands something great: that we admit we are not great. This is bad news to the arrogant, but words of honey to those who have given up their charade of self-sufficiency and are seeking God.

John Piper 

Seeking God in Your Problems

 

“And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.” 2 CHRONICLES 20:3-4

 

PONDER THIS

What would happen in America if people just got together to seek the Lord? When we seek the Lord, He shows up. In the Book of Matthew, Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (18:20). And when we come together to seek the Lord—not to try to solve poverty, not to entertain ourselves, and not to get America delivered from her enemies—we will be in one accord. When we’re united, we will be far more capable of addressing these other problems and serious needs. But we cannot bypass the one thing that we must do: come together to seek the Lord.

When you have a problem, it is important that you focus your eyes on God. You need to glance at your problems and gaze at your God. It is time to come to God, confess that we don’t know what to do, and fix our eyes on God. We need to look to Him as the God who can deliver us—the sovereign God, the steadfast God, the sympathetic God. We need to come to God and pray out of faith in who He is rather than fear the problem.

When have you been overwhelmed with a problem? Did you give it to God?

How can you remind yourself of who your God is when you’re facing a problem?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray and give God your problems and praise Him for who He is, even when you are facing difficult situations and feel overwhelmed.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are You Seeking the Will of God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.’” Acts 5:29-32

 

PONDER THIS

Our obedience must be intentional. You must intend to obey and seek the will of God. You must want to know His will. There should be a time every day where you stop and ask, “Lord, what would you have me to do?” Not, “Lord, what do you want others to do?” And not, “Lord, what do others want me to do?” But “Lord, what would you have me to do? Inhabit my humanity. Think through my mind. Smile through my countenance. Work through my hands. Love through my heart. Speak through my lips. Here, Lord, I submit to you.”

When I was a boy, and my dad got that, “there’s work to be done around this house” look in his eye, my brother and I made ourselves scarce. If Dad said, “Do this and do that,” but we didn’t do it, we’d be disciplined. But we figured out if he couldn’t tell us, then we weren’t disobedient because we weren’t there to be told. Some of us are the same way with God. We think, “Well, it’s not our fault; we don’t know His will.” You are trying to make yourself scarce when God wants to speak to you. You have not sought Him. You’ve not said, “Lord, what would you have me to do?” Ignorance of God’s will is no excuse. God will hold you accountable for what you hear, and God will hold you accountable for what you would have heard if you had listened.

What does your time with God look like? Do you take time to listen to Him?

When was a time you didn’t want to hear what God had to say?

PRACTICE THIS

Submit to God in prayer, asking Him to guide you today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Created a Thirst in You

PRAY OVER THIS

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10

 

PONDER THIS

If there’d been some other way for you to be saved apart from the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, do you think God would have taken it? Be reasonable. Are you going to tell me that God allowed His precious Son to die the most humiliating, agonizing death a man has ever known, when there was some other way for us to be saved?

The beautiful thing about the Gospel is that God thought it and Jesus bought it. God planned it out; it didn’t originate with Man. And Jesus bought it with His own precious blood. The only reason you seek the Lord is because He first sought you. Don’t get the idea that you thought it up by yourself.

Romans 3:11 says, “There is none who seeks after God.” You may ask, “But why then do I have this hunger? Why do I have this thirst for God?” Because He gave it to you. Let’s think about a natural thirst. We all get thirsty for liquid. Why do we get thirsty? Because God created us where we would have a thirst. Had God not created us with thirst, we would never get thirsty. The thirst for God in you is a gift of God. It pleased God to do this. So, the grace that saved you is from the God who loves you and is seeking for you.

Why is it important for us to remember that salvation is God’s idea?

When was a time you were thirsty for God?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray and ask God to grow your thirst for Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Serve God with Your Thirst

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

What if you discovered (like the Pharisees did) that you had devoted your whole life to trying to please God, but all the while had been doing things that in God’s sight were abominations (Luke 16:14–15)?

Someone may question this and say, “I don’t think that’s possible; God wouldn’t reject a person who has been trying to please him.” But do you see what this questioner has done? He has based his conviction about what would please God on his idea of what God is like. That is precisely why we must begin with the character of God revealed in Scripture.

God is a mountain spring, not a watering trough. A mountain spring is self-replenishing. It constantly overflows and supplies others. But a watering trough needs to be filled with a pump or bucket. So, the great question is: How do you serve a spring? And: How do you serve a watering trough? How do you glorify God the way he really is?

If you want to glorify the worth of a watering trough, you work hard to keep it full and useful. But if you want to glorify the worth of a spring, you do it by getting down on your hands and knees and drinking to your heart’s satisfaction, until you have the refreshment and strength to go back down in the valley and tell the people what you’ve found.

My hope as a desperate sinner hangs on this biblical truth: that God is the kind of God who will be pleased with the one thing I have to offer: my thirst. That’s why the sovereign freedom and self-sufficiency of God are so precious to me: they are the foundation of my hope that God is delighted not by the resourcefulness of bucket brigades, but by the bending down of broken sinners to drink at the fountain of grace.

By all means we should seek to please God, now and forever. But woe to us if our whole life proves to be based on a false view of what pleases God. The Lord is pleased not by those who treat him as a needy watering trough, but as an inexhaustible, all-satisfying spring. As Psalm 147:11 says, “The Lord takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.”

John Piper 

God Celebrates When We Return to Him

PRAY OVER THIS

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’” Luke 15:17-21

 

PONDER THIS

An old preacher was riding on a train. He looked across the aisle and there was a young boy the preacher could see was in trouble. He went over and sat by him and said, “I don’t want to pry, but do you have a problem? Perhaps I can help you.” The boy said, “Yes, sir, I do have a problem. Many years ago, I had a fight with my parents. I was wicked and ungrateful, and I left home. I have received word recently that my daddy is sick. And I thought how hurtful, hateful, and sinful I’ve been. Would I let my daddy die without my apology to him, without asking his forgiveness?”

The boy continued, “Behind my parents’ house is a large tree. And I told them I would be on this train. And I told them if they would let me come home, to tie a handkerchief on that tree, and we are getting close.” The preacher replied, “Son, you pray, and I’ll look.” The train came around the curve. He said, “Son, lift up your head and look.” The couple had gotten every towel, every bed sheet, every quilt, everything that they could find that was white, and the tree looked like a mountain of snow. They were telling him to come home! And this is the way the Lord welcomes those who come to Him.

When have you been determined to go your own way instead of pursuing life with the Lord? What brought you back to Him?

What makes it difficult for you to forgive and receive those who have done you wrong?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for your enemies and those who have hurt you. Pray for God to work in their hearts and draw them close to Him. Ask Him to do the same to allow you to forgive them and release any bitterness you have toward them.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers