Want to be in the center of
God's will? Then turn
to the center of God's word, the verse that is
exactly in the middle of
the Bible, Psalms 118:8 and follow the advise
there: "It is better to trust
in the Lord than to put confidence in man."
(NKJV)
Illustration by Jim L.
Wilson
GOD’S WILL
In his book, Connecting,
Larry Crabb writes, “Desert
experiences, those uncontrollable and
unpredictable seasons in life when
things that used to work just fine no longer
work, are good. In the hands
of a gracious God, their purpose is to change
the questions we ask. Rather
than wondering if we’re adequate to keep things
together and reach our
goals, we begin to hear ourselves ask the
question our heart has been whispering
all along: “I love my Lord. What can I give to
his purposes?”
—Connecting, p. 111
Illustration by Jim L. Wilson
2 Cor. 12:7 NASB “And because
of the surpassing greatness
of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me
from exalting myself, there
was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger
of Satan to buffet me— to
keep me from exalting myself!”
For more information on
Connecting, go to:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0849914132/fm082-20
GOD'S WILL
On May 26, 1844, inventor
Samuel Morse sent the first
telegram from Washington to Baltimore, asking
his partner Alfred Vail,
"WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?" Now the company built
around telegram service
has announced the service has ended after more
than 150 years. Western
Union says the last telegram was delivered on
February 3, 2006.
After Morse's historic
communication, several companies
combined to become Western Union in 1851. The
company built its first transcontinental
telegraph line in 1861. The popularity of
telegrams peaked in the 1920s
and 30s when it was cheaper to send a telegram
than make a long distance
call. Victor Chayet, a spokesman for Western
Union said changing technologies
lead to the decision. A decrease in long
distance rates, the rise Internet,
and text messaging all played a part in
displacing telegrams. Chayet said,
"Recent generations didn't
receive telegrams and didn't
know you could send them." He said the decision
as difficult because of
the company's heritage, but added they will now
focus on money transfers
and financial transactions.
—Associated Press, Western
Union -STOP- Ends Telegram
Service, February 3, 2006. Illustration by Jim
L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.
Let this be a reminder to us
to use every opportunity
we are given. Nothing lasts forever.
James 4:13-15 (PhillipsNT)
"Just a moment, now, you
who say, 'We are going to such-and-such a city
today or tomorrow. We shall
stay there a year doing business and make a
profit!' How do you know what
will happen even tomorrow? What, after all, is
your life? It is like a
puff of smoke visible for a little while and
then dissolving into thin
air. Your remarks should be prefaced with, 'If
it is the Lord's will, we
shall be alive and will do so-and-so.' As it is,
you get a certain pride
in yourself in planning your future with such
confidence. That sort of
pride is all wrong. No doubt you agree with the
above in theory. Well,
remember that if a man knows what is right and
fails to do it, his failure
is a real sin."
GOD’S WILL
In Emotionally Healthy
Spirituality: Unleash A Revolution
In Your Life in Christ, Peter Scazzero writes,
“We're afraid of God's will
being done because we can't control what he will
do, when he will do it,
how he will do it, and what the outcome might
be. God's will requires surrender
and trust, and it's something we're unwilling to
offer.”
--Emotionally Healthy
Spirituality: Unleash A Revolution
In Your Life in Christ (Kindle Locations
448-450). Illustration by Jim
L. Wilson
Romans 12:1-2 (CEV) (1) Dear
friends, God is good.
So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a
living sacrifice, pure and
pleasing. That's the most sensible way to serve
God. (2) Don't be like
the people of this world, but let God change the
way you think. Then you
will know how to do everything that is good and
pleasing to him.
GOD’S WILL
In an
interview with George Plimpton in The Paris
Review, author E. L. Doctorow
was talking about the discipline of writing,
but the point can be made for just
about any discipline. It is important to
realize that we cannot always see the
end from the beginning. We must use discipline
to keep at a task trusting that
there is an end.
When asked
about writing he said, “it’s like
driving a car at night: you never see further
than your headlights, but you can
make the whole trip that way.”
Apply that to
understanding the will of God. On
most occasions, God doesn’t give you the whole
plan, but He does give you
enough of the plan to keep taking the next
step. Our responsibility is to take
the steps we know. Jesus said God supplies His
knowledge to those willing to
trust Him.–Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.
