Reality #3 God takes the initiative
Philippians 213
"For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
God takes the initiative!
He takes it in Pursuing a love relationship with you, but also, He invites you to be involved with Him in His work. God doesn't consult the servant before He begins His work. In order to be rightly oriented to God and His work, you need a God-centered life. The Bible is about God accomplishing His purposes through us, not our walk with God. It is 100% God focused!
Sin is a shift from God-centeredness to self-centeredness. The essence of salvation is a denial of self. You must return to a God-centered life, when this happens, God can accomplish through us the purposes He had before He created the world.
Here are a few things that God-Centered living looks like:
1. Confidence in God
2. Dependence on God and His ability and provision
3. Life focused on God and His activity
4. Humbleness before God
5. Denying self
6. Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
7. Seeking God's perspective in every circumstance
8. Holy and godly living
These stories show people who were living God-centered lives:
Joseph: Genesis 39
Joshua and Caleb: Numbers 14
King Asa: 2 Chronicles 14
Here are a few things that Self-Centered living looks like:
1. Life focused on self
2. Pride in self and self's accomplishments
3. Self-confidence
4. Depending on self and self's own abilities
5. Affirming self
6. Seeking to be acceptable to the world and its ways
7. Looking at circumstances from a human perspective
8. Selfish and ordinary living
These stories show people who were living self-centered lives:
Adam and Eve: Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-7
Ten Spies: Numbers 13-14
King Asa: 2 Chronicles 16
Self-centeredness is a subtle trap. God-centeredness may make no sense from a human perspective. You can avoid being self-centered at one time and fall right into the trap at another. God-centeredness requires a daily death of self and submission to God!
John 12:24-25
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
To live a God-centered life, you must focus your life on God's purposes, not your own plans! Try to see from God's perspective rather than from your own distorted human perspective. When God starts to do something in the world, He takes the initiative to come and talk to somebody. God has chosen to involve His people in accomplishing His purpose.
God was about to destroy the world and He came to Noah: Genesis 6
God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and He came to Abraham: Genesis 18 & 19
God was about to deliver the Israelites from Midian and He came to Gideon: Judges 6
God was about to reveal the Gospel message to the Gentiles and He came to Saul (Paul) Acts 9
You never find God asking persons to dream up what they want to do for Him!
Why is it that we do not realize that doing things God's way is always best? Do we not truly trust Him?
When you pray to God, do you ask Him to provide you with specific items (job, car, house)? Or do you ask God to show you what He is doing around you, so that you might join with Him?
I am not saying that it is wrong to pray for specific things. However God is always at work around you, how are those specific things going to show you how God is working?
You need to trust God with your basic needs, He loves you and wants to provide for you! But it will be according to His purposes!
Romans 8:28
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
In Christ,
David
"For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
God takes the initiative!
He takes it in Pursuing a love relationship with you, but also, He invites you to be involved with Him in His work. God doesn't consult the servant before He begins His work. In order to be rightly oriented to God and His work, you need a God-centered life. The Bible is about God accomplishing His purposes through us, not our walk with God. It is 100% God focused!
Sin is a shift from God-centeredness to self-centeredness. The essence of salvation is a denial of self. You must return to a God-centered life, when this happens, God can accomplish through us the purposes He had before He created the world.
Here are a few things that God-Centered living looks like:
1. Confidence in God
2. Dependence on God and His ability and provision
3. Life focused on God and His activity
4. Humbleness before God
5. Denying self
6. Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
7. Seeking God's perspective in every circumstance
8. Holy and godly living
These stories show people who were living God-centered lives:
Joseph: Genesis 39
Joshua and Caleb: Numbers 14
King Asa: 2 Chronicles 14
Here are a few things that Self-Centered living looks like:
1. Life focused on self
2. Pride in self and self's accomplishments
3. Self-confidence
4. Depending on self and self's own abilities
5. Affirming self
6. Seeking to be acceptable to the world and its ways
7. Looking at circumstances from a human perspective
8. Selfish and ordinary living
These stories show people who were living self-centered lives:
Adam and Eve: Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-7
Ten Spies: Numbers 13-14
King Asa: 2 Chronicles 16
Self-centeredness is a subtle trap. God-centeredness may make no sense from a human perspective. You can avoid being self-centered at one time and fall right into the trap at another. God-centeredness requires a daily death of self and submission to God!
John 12:24-25
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
To live a God-centered life, you must focus your life on God's purposes, not your own plans! Try to see from God's perspective rather than from your own distorted human perspective. When God starts to do something in the world, He takes the initiative to come and talk to somebody. God has chosen to involve His people in accomplishing His purpose.
God was about to destroy the world and He came to Noah: Genesis 6
God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and He came to Abraham: Genesis 18 & 19
God was about to deliver the Israelites from Midian and He came to Gideon: Judges 6
God was about to reveal the Gospel message to the Gentiles and He came to Saul (Paul) Acts 9
You never find God asking persons to dream up what they want to do for Him!
Why is it that we do not realize that doing things God's way is always best? Do we not truly trust Him?
When you pray to God, do you ask Him to provide you with specific items (job, car, house)? Or do you ask God to show you what He is doing around you, so that you might join with Him?
I am not saying that it is wrong to pray for specific things. However God is always at work around you, how are those specific things going to show you how God is working?
You need to trust God with your basic needs, He loves you and wants to provide for you! But it will be according to His purposes!
Romans 8:28
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
In Christ,
David
posted by Mark 1:17 at 1:33 PM
3 Comments:
Hi David,
Another great post. You are really a gifted researcher and writer. But just one suggestion (one I've thought about making at a few other blogs as well).
Some of your articles are sort of long and they have so many points that I think a lot of valid discussion can get lost in the shuffle. But if you would consider breaking a longer article down into a few shorter ones, there are times I think people would keep up with it better and discuss it more thoroughly. It would also allow you to post more often, and them to check back more often, which I think helps build a relationship in the background of it all.
Just a suggestion. By the way, I check your blog every day.
Thanks again, but I must give all the credit to Christ!
I know that the posts can get long. I have been trying to get them shorter, but I start on something and I get excited and it I find more little things and before you know it, there is a post that could be the length of a book!
I don't have much time to post with all of my commitments, but I will try to make the posts more compact and concise.
Thanks again!
David
I agree w/ loren. You can write 'em long if you want to. Sometimes that's the way the ideas flow. But don't be afraid to slice them up into bite-sized pieces after you're done so readers can actually digest them.
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