WANT
WHAT HE WANTS
BREAD
8 “But if I go to the east, he
is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. 9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. 10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested
me, I will come forth as gold. 11 My feet have closely followed
his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. 12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I
have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. Job 23:8-12 (NIV)
20 Although
the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your
teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether
you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you,
saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:20-21 (NIV)
17 This
is what the LORD says--your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what
is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. 18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your
peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the
sea. Isaiah 48:17-18 (NIV)
16 This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads
and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)
8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way
of Holiness. The unclean will not journey
on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go
about on it. Isaiah 35:8 (NIV)
30 “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the
land: 31 The
prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people
love it this way. But what will you do
in the end?” Jeremiah 5:30-31 (NIV)
6 Seek
the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his
thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and
he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and
my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah
55:6-9 (NIV)
6 Jesus
answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From
now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
John 14:6-7 (NIV)
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts
them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and
beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on
the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine
and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house
on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and
the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great
crash.” Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
23 Then
he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he
must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole
world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will
be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and
of the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth, some who are standing
here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” Luke
9:23-27 (NIV)
BUTTER
“We are generally left with two feelings
when we play the comparison game with others – we either feel worse about
ourselves or pridefully better about ourselves – neither brings out the best
God has desired for the lives of His children.
We are all ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalms 139:14). There are purposes and plans for each of our
lives which are plans to prosper and not harm and give hope (Jeremiah
29:11). We are each loved with an
everlasting love and drawn with cords of loving kindness (Jeremiah 31:3). The man is blessed who makes the Lord his
trust and does not look to the proud (Psalms 40:4). Every child of the King is blessed and
fulfilled when they are standing firm in all the will of God, mature and fully
assured (Colossians 4:12). We are to
live our lives for an audience of One – seeking to please our Master (which
indeed always pleases us as one never outgives God), through His power, for His
glory, for our good. So we make it our
goal to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:9).
The beloved rests secure in Him for He shields him all day long and the
one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders (Deuteronomy 33:12). He is more than sufficient to meet every
inner need and desire of our hearts and to use our lives for His glory, which
btw is what we were all created for.”
BHY
“God is God, and since He is God, He is worthy of my worship
and my service. I will find rest nowhere
else but in His will, and that will is necessarily infinitely, immeasurably,
unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.” Elisabeth
Elliot
“Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt
every situation you believe to be the will of God.” Jim Elliot
“God wants us to trust Him daily with our needs. This trust does not
make us poor planners or careless with our futures, unprepared to face what may
come. Rather, it keeps our relationship with the Lord in its proper perspective
as He reminds us daily of our dependence upon Him. God is aware of what
tomorrow will bring and how we should prepare for it. He knows the problems we
will face, and He has already made provision for us to overcome them. He asks
us to trust in Him daily. Our faith in Him today cannot substitute for our
trust in Him tomorrow. If we will walk with Him closely today, we will be in
the center of His will tomorrow.” Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby
“A yieldedness to the will of God is not demonstrated by some one
particular issue: it is rather a matter
of having taken the will of God as the rule of one’s life. To be in the will of God is simply to be
willing to do His will without reference to any particular thing He may
choose. It is electing His will to be
final, even before we know what He may wish us to do. It is, therefore, not a question of being
willing to do some one thing: it is a
question of being willing to do anything, when, where, and how, it may seem
best in His heart of love. It is taking
the normal and natural position of childlike trust which has already consented
to the wish of the Father even before anything of the outworking of His wish is
revealed. This distinction cannot be
overemphasized…There must be a covenant relationship of trust in which His will
is assented to once for all and without reservation.” Louis
Sperry Chafer
“But
the question to precede all others, which finally determines the course of our
lives is, ‘What do I really want?’ Was it to love what God commands, in the
words of the collect, and to desire what He promises? Did I want what I wanted, or did I want what
He wanted, no matter what it might cost?” Elisabeth Elliot
“Christian, make
your life a clear testimony. Be like the stream in which you can see every
stone at the bottom—not like a muddy creek where you can only see the surface,
but clear and transparent, so that your heart's love for God and man may be
visible to all.” C. H. Spurgeon
revised by Alistair Begg
“We have no
power in an of ourselves to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel. Flesh will not finish well. It is only through His power that we are able
to do this. It is actually an emptying
of self and a filling of the Holy Spirit’s power to take over the whole
life. God is not interested in just part
of us – He desires the whole heart. Our
pleas to Him, as King David’s was for his son Solomon, is for Him to give us
wholehearted devotion and a willing mind to walk in a manner worthy of His
Gospel. Always for our good. Always for His glory. The One who gives the power to accomplish so
great a fete is the One Who is to get the glory.” BHY
“Good works do not make a good man, but a good
man does good works.” Martin Luther
“What is ‘good’?
Just as Pilate asked Jesus ‘What is Truth?’ while all the while looking
straight at Truth Incarnate, we as humans often misconstrue ‘What is good?’ and
end up missing out on God’s best by ‘kicking against the goads’ and not walking
in His ways. We so often buy into what
the world believes as good. Do we
believe it’s all about more – More clothes in the closet? More comforts in the den? More money in the bank? More health in the body? More buildings, marquees, publications or
whatever’s bearing our names? More children in the home? And on and on and on it goes. ‘Good’ is not merely ‘wants.’ ‘Good’ can be as varied as the people who
populate this dusty earth. Simply put,
‘good’ is always God’s best for a life.
The Maker of all humankind has a plan for each life and our best is
always to walk in it – be it ever so hard.
His will is revealed in a myriad of ways from His Word, from the Holy
Spirit’s promptings Who indwells every true believer in Christ, from prayer and
petition with thanksgiving, from fellow sojourners – why God can even use a
donkey or a great big fish! And believe
me, you always want to be in the center of His will as it is good and pleasing
and perfect. Don’t fight against God’s
best because it is hard. Allow Him to
conform you to the image of Christ. We
are the ultimate losers if we don’t. It
is the life of true blessedness.” BHY
“Here lies the tremendous
mystery – that God should be all-powerful, yet refuses to coerce. He summons us to cooperation. We are honored in being given the opportunity
to participate in His good deeds.” Elisabeth Elliot
HEART SAVOR
·
Why do we
call Him “Lord” if we do not do what He says?
·
We are to
put His Word into practice.
·
He will
make His way clear to every heir of mercy.
