Get God's Opinion! (2)

'Don't let anyone look down on you because...' 1 Timothy 4:12 NIV

Try as you may, you will never fulfil a dream that is not your own.

Stop and think about your personal history.

How have your plans, goals and desires been influenced by others?  

Is it possible your dreams are the result of who your parents think you are?  

Who others think you are?  

Who you wish you were?  

Or are they the result of who you really are and what God meant you to be? 

You will live the life for which God created you, only after you figure this out.

When a dream is right for you and you are right for a dream, the two cannot be separated from each other. 

TS Eliot said, 'Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure it is what you want.'  

Paul told Timothy, 'Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young.' Evidently certain people in the early church thought Timothy was too young and inexperienced to be in leadership. But Paul thought differently; and so did God. 

Cecil G. Osborne writes, 'The young child has no clear picture of himself. He sees himself only in the mirror of his parents' evaluation of himself...A child who's told repeatedly that he is a bad boy, or is lazy, or no good, or stupid, or shy, or clumsy will tend to act out this picture which the parent or some other authority figure has given him.'

Let God, and God alone, tell you who you are and what you should do. 

Get His opinion, for in the end it's the only one that counts!

Soul Food: Num 8-10, Matt 10:32-42, Ps 107:10-16, Pr 3:19-20

Written by Bob & Debby Gass
Thursday, 30 January 2014

APPS available here

Get God's Opinion! (1)

'...The Lord does not look at the things man looks at...'
1 Samuel 16:7 NIV

David's father didn't think he was qualified to be Israel's next king. So when Samuel came looking for a successor to King Saul, he presented his oldest son Eliab, who was a general in the army. Samuel was impressed. '...Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed stands here..."

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart"' (1 Samuel 16:6-7 NIV).

When it comes to your life's calling, only one opinion counts:

God's!

In order to fulfil his destiny, David had to overcome his family's opinion of him.

John Maxwell writes, 'Any time you see people pursuing a midlife career change, you can be almost certain that they have been living someone else's dream and lost their way.' 

Nobel Prize winner for literature Joseph Brodsky observed, 'One's task consists first of all in mastering a life that is one's own, not imposed or prescribed from without, no matter how noble its appearance may be. For each of us is issued but one life, and we know full well how it all ends. It would be regrettable to squander this one chance on someone else's appearance, someone else's experience.'

It's not too late to become what God wants you to be, and do what He wants you to do. 

If you've been living somebody else's dream, ask God for a dream of your own and He will give it to you.

Soul Food: Num 7, Matt 10:21-31, Ps 107:1-9, Pr 3:13-18

Written by Bob & Debby Gass
Wednesday, 29 January 2014

APPS available here