God Awareness and Gratitude

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.       Proverbs 3:5-6  ESV

   What does it mean to acknowledge God?  It means to recognize His presence.  It’s easy for us to go through the large part of our days and weeks and not recognize that God is present everywhere we are.  This proverb teaches us that if we acknowledge God, He will direct us on straight paths.

   Thanksgiving week is a great week to begin the regular practice of acknowledging God in all your ways. We can combine recognition of His presence with gratitude for His gifts at various times throughout the day.  This week, try this experiment to help you recognize God’s presence.  It will only take a few moments each time.

1.  As soon as you get up (and can think straight), say “God is here.”  Say it loud enough so you can hear it.  Say it slowly so that it sinks in.  Say it again throughout the day as often as it comes to your mind.

2.  Each time you acknowledge God's presence, thank Him for something.  Keep it simple.  Say, "Lord, thank You for..."

After this brief acknowledgement of God, go back to doing what you were doing.  You will likely be surprised at how acknowledging God changes your perspective.  For some extra learning, make note of how many times you do this each day and see if you begin to develop a habit of acknowledging God in your daily life.

Becoming Aware of God's Presence in His Created World and His Written Word

1The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.           Psalm 19:1,7  NIV

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:

        “Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes – the rest sit round it and pick blackberries.”

Our world is full of the evidence of God’s presence, but somehow we miss it and go through life getting lost on the trivial stuff that only seems to be important.  What can we do to be more aware of God’s presence?  

Psalm 19 gives us some help.  The created world of God and the written Word of God have been given to us to keep us attuned to our loving Creator.  Try this simple experiment to help you live with a greater awareness of God this week.

   

1. Sometime during the course of each day, let something created  draw your attention to God.  It won’t be difficult. It might be the sunrise or some brilliant gold autumn leaves.  It might be the look on your dog’s face or frost on the window of your car.  It probably already happens a couple times each day, but you are used to rushing right by it. This week, slow down for a few moments and enjoy the gift you’ve been given.

   

2.  As you read a small portion of Scripture each day, ask God to refresh your soul with it.  Ask God to give you something fresh from His Word that will help you be more aware of His presence throughout the day .

Each time you are aware of God, invite Him to fill more and more of your life with His goodness and trust that He will do it. 

Trusting God's Loving Leadership

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. Psalm 32:8-9  NIV

   The old hymn, “Come Thou Fount”, contains the words, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”  We have a tendency to wander away from the Lord.  The Scripture above says that when we do this we are being like a horse or a mule.  What does it mean by that?

   The bit in a horse’s mouth keeps the horse from straying to the left or right.  The bit sits in the space between the horse’s incisors and molars which is a sensitive spot with many nerve endings.  When the riders pulls on the rein, the bit places pressure on this sensitive area.  The horse naturally wants to reduce the discomfort, so it returns to the direction that the rider wishes.   Ideally, the horse would not need a bit.  A well trained horse regularly responds to the movement of the legs and seat of the rider.

   This Scripture is imploring us to avoid the pressure of straying from God’s loving leadership.  We can learn to freely respond to God’s direction in our lives because we know he is always working for our best.  The best way to do this is by daily surrendering to God’s leadership.  It’s even good to refresh our surrender to God several times throughout the day.

   This week, begin each day with a simple prayer like this.

      “Father, I surrender to your loving leadership of my life.  Thank you for always working for my good.  I give you every part of me, all of my body, mind and soul.  Please fill me with your goodness and direct me on your paths of wisdom.

    You will find this prayer even more valuable if you write this prayer down on an index card or piece of paper and pray it several times throughout the day.  As you pray it, believe that God will do his part and fill you with His goodness.

The Language of Worship and Trust

 I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever.            Psalm 145:1-2  NIV

   Sometimes the simple help we need to make progress in our walk with God comes from understanding the words God uses to teach us.  There are two words in the verses above that are relatively uncommon in our everyday language, but which offer very practical help to living life with God.

   To “exalt” means to “lift up”.  We tend to let God slip below other people and things in our thinking.  Though it is impossible in reality, we tend to demote God to less than King in our thinking.  To exalt God is to promote him to the very top position of my life.  It is choosing to honor Him as King and to surrender myself to His leadership.

   To “extol” means to “praise” or “boast”.  If I don’t intentionally remind myself of God’s greatness, love, wisdom and power, He will become smaller in my mind and heart.  When He becomes smaller in my mind and heart, the challenges of life become will become bigger and command my attention.   When this happens, I will trust Him less and live with less awareness of His constant presence and care.  The result of this will be having less of God's life in my life.  That's not what I want.  I want more of God's life in my life and if you are reading this, I know that is what you want, too.

   This week, start each day by taking a few minutes to extol and exalt the Lord.

1.  EXTOL:  Start by intentionally reminding yourself of the greatness of God.  In other words, boast about God to yourself.  Praise Him for his love and care for you. Praise Him for his power and wisdom and ability to provide everything you need.  The Psalms offer great reminders of his power, love and care.  Psalm 145 is a great place to start.

2. EXALT:  After you have spent time “boasting” about God, take a few moments to “lift” Him up as King of your life.  Declare that you want to live each moment remembering that He is King and that you want to do His will in your life just as it is done in Heaven.  Offer your body and every part of your life to him to do his will.

You’ll be amazed at how much practical help exalting and extolling will provide.

Building and Sustaining Joy and Hope

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.   John 14:1-3  NIV

   Sometimes the struggles of this world are all too real and the joy of our future home in Heaven does not seem real enough.   Problems in this life can feel big  and insurmountable, while the pleasures of the next life can seem distant and almost nonexistent.   It becomes very easy to complain when this life is not going the way we want it to go. 

   Jesus knows our struggle is real.  That’s why He spoke the words above.  There really will be a day when we will be physically with him.  We will be amazed at his glory and ride high on the eternal bandwagon of his victory.  We will never again feel pain or doubt or confusion.

   One of the best ways to be inspired with the kind of hope that gives us strength to persevere with joy is to fill our heart with the truth of God.  This is what we call meditation.  We actually meditate every day of our lives. Unfortunately, we don't always meditate on helpful ideas.  Sometimes our meditation takes the form of worry because we focus on what could go bad rather than focusing on the good that God wants to produce in us.

 This week, write down the above verses on an index card or some other piece of paper and review them for a few minutes each day.  As you do, ask God to fill you with confident hope in Christ’s return and to help you remember that Jesus is looking forward to taking you to where He is.

Do You Believe Christ's Life Can Flow Through You?

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.   Romans 6:8  NIV

“I am convinced that the majority of Christian people are living on a plane far below what our Master planned for them.”   -  Jonathan Goforth, 1859-1936, missionary to  China.

  

   Ask yourself:  Do I truly believe that I can experience the life of Christ flowing through me?  As Jonathan Goforth observed  a century ago, the majority of Christian people are not enjoying the fullness of Christ that God has promised  to give them.  God wants to fill us with Christ’s life, but we don’t experience it.  Why?

   

   The first obstacle that keeps us from experiencing Christ's life flowing through us is that we simply don’t believe that his life can flow through us.  We let our knowledge of our weaknesses and our experience of our failures blind us to the potential we have in Christ. 

    How can we overcome this obstacle?  The place to start is to exercise our trust in God to keep his promise to fill us with Christ’s life.  Like a muscle, the more we exercise our trust, the stronger it becomes.  It’s more simple than we might think.  A simple way to exercise your trust is to continually offer a simple prayer to God in which you invite God to fill you with Christ’s life and believe that He WILL answer that prayer.   If you pray this prayer daily, even several times a day, and trust God to keep his promise, you will begin to notice a difference in your experience of Christ.   The prayer below is an example of a prayer you can use to invite God to fill you with Christ’s life through the Holy Spirit.  Write it down and then pray it at the beginning of each day this week.  Even better, carry it with you and pray it several times a day so you aware of God’s work in you.

   “Father, I give every part of myself to you today - my thoughts, my words and my actions.  I want Christ’s life to flow through every part of me in everything I do.  Please fill me with Christ’s life today and every day so that I can do your will on earth just as it is done in Heaven.  Thank you for keeping your promise to do this.”

What If Jesus Didn't Rescue You?

Remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.      James 5:20  NIV

   When we think about the Jesus saving us from our sins, we usually think about the sins from our past.  What about the future?  What path were you on when Jesus saved you?  What would your life be like today if Jesus had not rescued you and changed the direction of your life?  When we think about these questions, we begin to see that part of Jesus’ saving work is to protect us from sins we may have committed if we had not come to know him.

   This week, set aside some time to do two activities with God.

1. Answer the question above:  “What would your life be like today if Jesus had not rescued you and changed the direction of your life?”  As you consider what could have happened, thank God for changing the direction of your life so it didn’t happen.

2. There is likely someone you know that is headed down a path that will be very destructive to them if their direction does not change.  Take some time to pray for them to be rescued by Jesus so that their direction is changed and they begin to travel on the path of God’s life.