Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. —Proverbs 16:18
Self-confidence is at the foundation of many sins people commit. But pride goes before a fall. We say, “I can handle this. This isn’t even a problem. I’ll know when to stop.” But it doesn’t work out that way.
That was the problem with the Israelites at Ai (see Joshua 7). They had self-confidence. They said, in effect, “We can handle Ai. It isn’t a problem.”
This is often what will lead to a fall. You think it isn’t going to happen to you. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.”
If you know someone who has fallen into sin, don’t be arrogant, because you could have done the same thing. In fact, the Bible tells us, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself” (Galatians 6:1).
Imagine being out with a friend who suddenly tripped, fell, and was injured. Would you kick him while he was down? “Idiot! Why didn’t you look?” Or, would you jerk him to his feet and throw him up against a wall? I hope not. No, you would reach down and gently get him back up on his feet again, dusting him off. “Are you okay? Hang on to my shoulder. I’ll help you walk. Do you need to see a doctor? Are you going to be all right?”
You show a little compassion, knowing it could have happened to you. We need to remember that as we’re reaching out to others.
The first thing that led to the Israelites’ defeat at Ai was self-confidence. And the first thing that usually leads to our spiritual defeat is self-confidence.
Category Archives: Greg Laurie
Greg Laurie – After the Victory
Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the town of Ai, east of Bethel, near Beth-aven. When they returned, they told Joshua, “There’s no need for all of us to go up there; it won’t take more than two or three thousand men to attack Ai. Since there are so few of them, don’t make all our people struggle to go up there.”—Joshua 7:2–3
The story of the Israelites’ victory over Jericho is of the greatest stories ever told. But after Jericho came Ai. It was a small city compared to Jericho, which was lying in smoldering ruins. The Israelites apparently thought they could have essentially done this one in their sleep. They didn’t even need the whole Israeli army, they reasoned—just a few thousand. This argument was based on the supposition that Israel had captured Jericho.
But if anything is clear from the story of Jericho’s fall, Israel had very little to do with its defeat. God did it. As the Israelites were willing to humble themselves and do it God’s way, He brought them a great victory. Yet when it came to Ai, they were acting as though they could knock down another city without any effort or apparent dependence on God.
It was God’s plan for the Israelites to go from victory to victory, overtaking their enemies in Canaan. But they had to do God’s will in God’s way. Instead, they faced a crushing defeat at Ai, which was much smaller than Jericho.
Sometimes we are more vulnerable after a time of victory in our lives. We are more vulnerable after God has blessed us. So don’t be surprised the next time you leave church and get attacked spiritually. Don’t be surprised when the Lord has done a great work in your life and then there is a spiritual attack.
After Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form a dove. And then He went immediately into the wilderness, where He was tested by the Devil. After the dove came the Devil.
As the Scottish preacher Andrew Bonar once said, “Let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle.”
Share this today:
Sometimes we are more vulnerable after a time of victory in our lives. We are more vulnerable after God has blessed us. So don’t be surprised the next time you leave church and get attacked spiritually.
Greg Laurie – What’s Your Jericho?
“You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days.” . . . But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner.”—Joshua 6:3, 15
When God commanded the Israelites to march around the city of Jericho, they did it. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Jericho were probably laughing. What a bunch of fools! Look at these guys! Maybe they were throwing things at the Israelites or dumping garbage on them. Who knows? But every day, they would march around the city.
Why did God let them do that? I think one reason is that He was giving the inhabitants of Jericho an opportunity to repent. These people were wicked. They were into every kind of idolatry, perversion, and sin. God had patiently endured the evil of the Canaanites from the time of Abraham to Moses, a period of 400 years. They had plenty of opportunities to repent before Jericho fell. The Canaanites knew the Israelites were coming. Their reputation preceded them.
Another reason I think God told the Israelites to march around the city was so they would see what a formidable obstacle it was and that they couldn’t handle it on their own.
As believers, we have our Jerichos in life, so to speak, problems that loom large and things that we can’t handle on our own. And sometimes the Lord will have us march around them so we will see that we cannot rely on ourselves.
The greatest difficulty for many is to get to the place where they are willing to admit that the whole thing is simply too big for them, where they are willing to say, “I can’t do this on my own.”
Do you have a Jericho right now? Maybe it’s an incurable illness. Maybe it’s an unsolvable problem. Maybe it’s a hopeless marriage. Maybe it’s a prodigal child. As you think about it, you don’t know how you will resolve this conflict. That, in effect, is your Jericho.
Greg Laurie – Depending on Him
“I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images”—Isaiah 42:8
Have you ever noticed that Jesus never really healed people in exactly the same way? Sometimes He would touch a person, and sometimes a person would touch Him. At other times He would speak the word, and they would be healed.
It seems as though God goes out of His way to accomplish His purposes through unusual and varied means. We find a great example of this in the story of Naaman. As the leader of the armies of Assyria, he was famous, powerful, influential, and admired by many. But he had leprosy. There was an Israelite maid working in his house who had been captured as a slave, and she suggested that he go to Israel. There was a prophet there named Elisha who could pray for him, and he would be healed.
So Naaman went to the king of Assyria and told him what his maid had said. Then the king sent a message to Israel’s king, saying, “Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:6).
Naaman and his entourage arrived in town and stopped in front of Elijah’s house, expecting a hero’s welcome. But Elisha didn’t even give Naaman the time of day. He just sent his servant, Gehazi, to the door with a message for him: Go dunk yourself in the Jordan River seven times, and you will be healed.
There was a reason God wanted Naaman to do it this way. To go into the water, Naaman would have to take off his armor and royal clothing and reveal what he really was.
God likes to vary His methods so we will be dependent on Him—and so that He will get the glory.
Greg Laurie – Every Spiritual Blessing
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. —Ephesians 1:3
As a believer, you have everything you need to live the Christian life. It isn’t about whether you feel that way; it’s about the reality of what the Bible says. God has given you what you need.
It’s like going to your bank thinking that you have $5 in your account, only to find out that you have $5 million. Where did it come from? Someone deposited it into your account for you. And that is just what God has done for you in your spiritual life.
Many Christians are living like spiritual paupers, making it from moment to moment. Meanwhile, God has put all that we need into our spiritual bank account. We just need to start utilizing it. As Ephesians 1:3 tells us, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.”
The blessings are there. You can live a blessed life—not a carefree life, a problem-free life, or even an easy life. But you can live a blessed life. Blessings don’t mean that everything will go perfectly in our lives. But it’s a matter of knowing that God goes with us through life, no matter what.
In Numbers 6, God commanded the priests to pronounce a blessing on the people: “May the LORD bless you and protect you. May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you. May the LORD show you his favor and give you his peace” (verses 24–26).
The Lord bless you . . . protect you . . . smile on you and be gracious to you . . . show you His favor and give you His peace. You can have that. The choice is yours.
Greg Laurie – You Have His Attention
“The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”—Numbers 6:26
Have you ever been talking with someone who wasn’t paying attention? Or to put it another way, have you ever been talking with someone who was texting? You’re saying, “And so I said this—are you listening to me?”
“Yes.”
“What did I just say?”
“Uh, I’m not sure.”
Sometimes we wonder if it’s the same way with God. We wonder whether we have His attention and if He is aware of what is happening to us when things aren’t going that well.
Maybe Joseph felt that way at times. After all, he was only human. He had done all of the right things. He had resisted the advances of Potiphar’s wife. But what happened? He was falsely accused of rape and thrown into a stinking Egyptian prison. How easily Joseph could have thought, This is just great. You serve the Lord, you do what God wants, and this is where it gets you. If I would have given in to Mrs. Potiphar, I wouldn’t be here right now. I would be living in the lap of luxury. But here I am, suffering!
The Bible doesn’t tell us that Joseph thought that, but I wonder if he did. Yet even while Joseph was in prison, God was still blessing him and preparing him for some awesome things. Joseph’s best days were to come. God was preparing him to be someone who could handle those lessons. In the same way, everything we go through in life is preparation for something else.
When Numbers 6:26 says, “The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,” that phrase “lift up His countenance” means “to lift up His face.” Another way to translate it is “to look, to see, to know, to be interested, and to have one’s full attention.”
We have His full attention.
Greg Laurie – Justice, Mercy, and Grace
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.—Ephesians 2:8–9
Don’t ever pray, “God, give me justice.” You don’t want God to give you what you deserve, which is judgment. Rather, a better thing to pray would be, “God, be merciful to me. God, extend your grace to me.” When God extends mercy, He doesn’t give you what you deserve. And when God extends grace, He gives you His unmerited favor and blessing.
The Bible tells us that it is “by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
We find a classic example of grace in the story of the prodigal son. The son had sinned. He dragged the family name through the mud. If the father had dealt with his prodigal son justly, he would have allowed the boy to be stoned. That would have been justice.
If the father would have dealt with the son in mercy, he would have let him come on as a hired hand as the boy had requested.
But the father dealt with him in grace when he provided his son with luxurious attire and placed a signet ring on his finger. That was grace, not justice, and it was even more than mercy. It was grace extended.
It was God’s grace that sustained the apostle Paul in his days of difficulty with his thorn in the flesh. Paul had some kind of physical infirmity. It may have been a disability or an injury resulting from one of his stonings or shipwrecks. Whatever it was, he asked God three times to take it away. But God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Grace is getting what we don’t deserve.
Greg Laurie – Jesus, the Friend of Sinners
“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are My followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven.”—Matthew 5:11–12
How was Jesus known when He walked this earth?
He was known as “the friend of sinners.” We might think that sounds like a compliment now, but it wasn’t meant as a compliment then.
Some members of the Jewish leadership establishment were appalled that Jesus would hang out with sinners.
No, He never compromised—this was our holy God in the flesh. But He loved these outcasts, this off-scouring of society, and they knew that He loved them. They were drawn by that love just like moths are drawn to a Coleman lantern in the middle of the wilderness.
We need to love people in the same way. Since we’re going to be persecuted, let’s be persecuted for the right reasons. Not for being self-righteous but for being righteous.
Greg Laurie – A Smile from God
May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. —Numbers 6:25
In the song, “Positively Fourth Street,” Bob Dylan sings, “I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes. You’d know what a drag it is to see you.”
We may think that God feels that way about us sometimes: “Oh, what a drag. Greg is here. Hi, Greg.” But that is not how God feels about us. He smiles.
Think about when someone you really love shows up. Your face lights up, doesn’t it? That is how God is with us.
In contrast, have you ever noticed how idols are always frowning? I have visited museums where I have seen various idols, and they always look like they are mad about something. They are never smiling.
But that is not God. He looks at us and smiles. He loves to bless us. And here is something else we may not know: He sings over us. Zephaniah 3:17 says, “For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” I love that.
Recently I was pushing my granddaughter on the swing, and as I pushed her I was singing to her. I took the Chris Tomlin song, “Sing, Sing, Sing” but instead sang, “Swing, swing, swing.” Since then, whenever I ask her if she wants to go swing, she’ll start singing, “Swing, swing, swing.” She knows what that song is associated with. I sing over my granddaughter. I sing her Christian songs. I sing her biblical lyrics. I want them to be ingrained in her little mind so she remembers them.
God sings over you. He delights to be in your presence. And I hope you delight to be in His.
Greg Laurie – With Us in the Storm
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” —John 16:33
When the Bible says that God will keep us, it doesn’t mean that He will always keep us from trouble. But it does mean that He will keep us while we’re in the midst of trouble.
When the Israelites saw the Egyptian army closing in on them at the Red Sea, God had allowed them to get into that situation. Why? It was so they would pray and see His glory on display. And then, when He answered them by opening up the Red Sea so they could walk through on dry ground, they saw that God walked with them through their difficulties.
God could have kept Daniel from the lion’s den. Instead, God kept Daniel in the lion’s den. God could have kept Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace. Instead, God walked with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Jesus could have kept the disciples from all the storms on the Sea of Galilee. Instead, He was with them as they went through the storms.
Maybe you are in trouble right now. Maybe you are frightened and unsure about your future. You don’t know what is going to happen next. Know that you’re not alone. God is with you in the midst of your troubles.
Sometimes I think we believe that we have the right to live easy, tranquil lives, and then one day we will die in our sleep. Everything will be nice, cozy, and comfortable. But the Bible doesn’t promise that. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). But He also said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Sometimes God will keep us from a problem. And sometimes He will let us go through the problem and will be with us in the midst of it.
Greg Laurie – Kept by His Power
I will lift up my eyes to the hills–from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. —Psalm 121:1–2
God wants us to be constantly reassured that He will keep us. We need this reassurance in such an evil and uncertain world because we worry about safety and security for ourselves and our families. And sometimes believers even wonder about their personal salvation. Even mature believers may have times of doubt when they wonder whether they are saved.
We need to remember that even great men of God had moments of doubt. Elijah had his moments of doubt. Even John the Baptist had moments of doubt. According to Jesus, John was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. Yet after Jesus started His public ministry, John sent a message to Him asking, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Luke 7:19). But Jesus didn’t rebuke John; He reassured him.
In times of doubt, here is what you need to know: God is going to keep you. Psalm 121 says, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber” (verses 2–3).
The Hebrew word used in Psalm 121 for keep means to be watched, to be guarded, to have a hedge around you. It is having a wall around you that is impenetrable. God will keep us, and the Devil cannot scale or penetrate that wall.
We are reminded in 2 Thessalonians 3:3, “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.” And 1 Peter 1:5 tells us that we “are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Were it not for this protection of God, none of us would make it. But we are kept by His power.
Greg Laurie – An Independent Happiness
“So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.”
—Luke 12:32
The word blessed comes from the Greek word makarios, which refers to the kind of happiness that is self-contained. When we see the word blessed used in the New Testament, that is the happiness it’s referring to.
Yet sometimes in our lives, our happiness is not self-contained. Rather, it is contingent on good things happening. We think that if we could just get that raise at work, we would be happy. When something fun or exciting is happening, then we’re happy. But when we don’t get that raise at work or when we get some bad news, we are not happy. In those circumstances, our happiness depends on good things happening.
But blessed is a different kind of word. Regardless of what is taking place circumstantially, you are blessed. That’s the idea of makarios.
God wants to bless you. Jesus said, “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
When I was raising my two sons, especially my first son, Christopher, I kind of spoiled them. I agree with Dr. James Dobson’s statement that parents owe their first child an apology. I would just randomly buy toys for them. I would say, “Let’s go to the toy store.” It wasn’t a birthday or Christmas. We would look around, and then we would end up buying a big toy. That is how I spoiled my children, and I suppose that is the privilege of a parent. (I’m not advocating it, but I am saying that I did this.)
If you are a child of God, then know this: God loves to bless His children. And here is something else to remember: God wants to bless you even more than you want to be blessed. Isn’t that great to know?
Greg Laurie –The LORD Bless You”
“The LORD bless you and keep you.” —Numbers 6:24
We use the word bless a lot. It’s an apropos response to someone who is sneezing, or we might use it to end a conversation: “Well, it’s really good to see you! God bless!” And sometimes we may hear someone who has no interest in Jesus Christ say this or that is a blessing. But they don’t even know what the word really means.
Bless is a spiritual word. Jesus both started and concluded His ministry by blessing people. When children came to Him, He took them into His arms and blessed them. After His resurrection, He lifted up His hands and blessed the disciples. Jesus loved to bless people.
Then we have the Beatitudes, which are the first verses of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:3–4). Again and again in these opening verses of Matthew 5, Jesus used the word blessed.
In the book of Numbers, God commanded the priests to pronounce a blessing on His people, a people wandering in the wilderness. He wanted this blessing pronounced on the people again and again: “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24–26).
Essentially God was saying, “I want this ingrained in their brains. I want it etched into their hearts. I want them to know this blessing from memory and be able to recite it at a moment’s notice.” Why? Because this blessing would show them what God is like. It shows His nature and attitude toward them and, in effect, toward us.
Greg Laurie – What Happens to Believers When They Die?
“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” —2 Corinthians 5:8
Death is no respecter of persons.
Believers and nonbelievers both die. Believers as well as nonbelievers get cancer, have auto accidents, have heart attacks. But, as believers, we have the promise that we will go straight into the presence of God at death. Paul writes, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
In Luke 16:22, we are told that when the believer Lazarus died, he was “carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.”
My son Christopher left this world some years ago. It comforts me to think he was carried by angels into God’s presence. If only we could have the veil peeled back and see this glorious world we will go to.
When young Stephen was being martyred, he was given a glimpse of glory. “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily upward into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand” (Acts 7:55–56).
Stephen told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!” At this point Stephen’s face “became as bright as an angel’s” (Acts 6:15). Stephen was given a “glimpse of glory,” which awaits all Christians on the other side.
When the great evangelist D. L. Moody was on his deathbed, he said, “Is this dying? Why, this is bliss. There is no valley. I have been within the gates. Earth is receding; heaven is opening; God is calling; I must go.”
Greg Laurie – A Portrait of God
“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.” —Luke 15:20
I heard about a little girl who brought out a piece of paper and some crayons and was getting ready to draw something.
Her mom said, “Honey, what are you going to draw?”
“I am going to draw a picture of God.”
“Sweetheart, no one knows what God looks like.”
The little girl replied, “They will when I’m done.”
The only place we can get a proper portrait of God is in the pages of Scripture. Jesus effectively gave us a snapshot of God, telling us what God is like in the story of the prodigal son. In this story, God is like a father who loves his children. When we are sinning against Him or running from Him, He misses us and longs for our return. It is clearly a picture of a loving father.
But sometimes we may think of God in the same way we think of our earthly fathers. That can be problematic, because if you have a father who is aloof and distant, or worse, harsh and even abusive, you might apply that to God. Then again, if you have a father who is kind, approachable, and fun loving, you might transfer that to God also.
Here is the problem. God isn’t like your earthly father. God is God. He stands apart from everyone else. Regardless of how good or poor of a job your father on Earth may have done, you need to know that your heavenly Father is different.
He is a God of love. He is a God of mercy. He is a God of grace. But He is also a God of justice. He is a God of holiness. He is a God of righteousness. And the God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament.
Greg Laurie –God’s Friends
“I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.” —John 15:15
We may look at the life of Moses in the Scriptures and say, “I wish I could have been Moses. I wish I could have a friendship with God like he had.”
But the friendship that a Christian can have with God is actually closer than the friendship Moses had with God.
Although Moses was God’s friend and was greatly used by Him in so many ways, Moses lived under the Old Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, God would manifest His presence in the tabernacle (and later in the temple), and the high priest would represent the people.
God was distant, even to those who were His friends, like Abraham and Moses. God revealed certain aspects of Himself to them, but He didn’t live inside of them.
The new covenant is different, however. Jesus died on the cross for us because Jesus is our Mediator between the Father and us. We don’t have to go through a high priest or any other person. We go directly to the Father through Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 10:19–20 puts it this way: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.”
Jesus said, “I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me” (John 15:15). You are a friend of God.
We don’t always understand Him, but He tells us to follow Him and obey Him because He loves every one of us. This God showed His love in a tangible way by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.
Greg Laurie –The Ultimate Objective of Prayer
And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” —Exodus 33:18
When I was a new Christian, I always prayed for things for myself. Lord, bless me. Give this to me. Provide this for me.
But as A. B. Simpson wrote, “Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord; once it was the feeling, now it is His Word; once His gifts I wanted, now the Giver own; once I sought for healing, now himself alone.”
As we start growing spiritually, we will start saying more often, “Lord, I just want You. I want more of You. I want to know You better. No matter where I go, everything is good as long as You go with me, and I go with You.” That is a mark of spiritual maturity.
Jacob, after years of conniving and scheming, met his match when the Lord Himself showed up and they had a wrestling match (which of course Jacob lost). It started out with Jacob trying to overpower what may have been an angel or perhaps the Lord Himself. In the end, Jacob was hanging on to Him. It started off with cunning, and it ended up with clinging. It began with resisting, and it turned into resting.
Wrestling with God in prayer doesn’t mean getting God to do what we want Him to do. It means that we are going to completely surrender to what He wants to do. That is the ultimate goal.
When Moses said to the Lord, “Please, show me Your glory,” he was saying, “God, I want to see You now. I want You to actually show Your face to me.”
That really is what prayer is all about. It is not about getting stuff from God. Prayer, when it reaches its ultimate objective, is getting God. It is God that you want—it’s closeness with Him.
Greg Laurie –A Part of Everything
At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.—John 6:66
When Jesus laid out for His disciples what it really meant to follow Him, many of His so-called disciples left. Then Jesus turned to Peter and the others and said, “Are you also going to leave?” (John 6:67).
Peter said, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life” (verse 68). I love that. Peter was saying, “Lord, we don’t know everything about You. We don’t get You at times. But this much we know: We are sticking with You. We have made a commitment to You, and we want to be close to You.
Are you willing to say that to Jesus? Are you ready to say, “Lord, I want You to go with me wherever I go”? Sure, we will say it to Him when we get on a plane. Lord, bless the pilots. Help the plane operate properly. Lord, get me to my destination safely. There is nothing wrong with praying a prayer like that. Nor is there anything wrong with praying as you are going into the operating room, Lord, be with me now. Guide the hands of the surgeons. Let the operation be successful.
We are enthusiastic about praying when we are headed into an uncertain situation or into rough waters. But are we also ready to say, “Lord, go with us on our vacation,” “Lord, go with us as we go out tonight,” “Lord, go with us as we go to that party,” or “Lord, be with us as we go to this movie”?
Remember, Jesus has His eyes on you. He is looking at you. And we should be able to invite Jesus everywhere—into rough waters and times of crisis as well as into leisure time. We should invite Jesus to be a part of everything we do.
Greg Laurie –Ask for Directions
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. —James 1:5
Have you ever had an electronic gadget that you couldn’t figure out how to turn on or off? You dug out the manual, read through it, and found the little illustration. It is so obvious now that you know. But you didn’t know until you read the manual.
James reminds us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). When we consult God’s Word, the user’s manual of life, He will guide us.
The psalmist said, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). As we read God’s Word, we will know His way. We find out things in His Word that we would not know otherwise.
When Moses asked God for divine direction, God told him, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). Or literally, “My face will go with you.” God was telling Moses, “You have my full attention, and I will be watching your every move.”
Have you ever been talking to someone who wasn’t looking at you? You are telling him something, and he is looking past you or looking around or checking his watch.
God was saying to Moses, “I’m going to go with you. And not only am I going to go with you, but I am going to be looking at you. I will keep My eye on you. I am going to be really dialed into everything you are experiencing.”
So often we try to do in our own strength what God promises to do for us. And worrying is completely useless. Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.
Greg Laurie – The Adventures of Fuzzie the Rabbit
“Hold me up, and I shall be safe, and I shall observe Your statutes continually.” —Psalm 119:117
My youngest granddaughter, Allie (short for Alexandra), has a little rabbit that her older sister, Rylie, named Fuzzie.
Fuzzie spends most of his time in a cage, though it is a large one. Seems like a cruel thing to do to a rabbit, but it comes down to how you look at things.
When we get Fuzzie out for Allie she will squeal with absolute delight. And in her excitement she sometimes does not hold Fuzzie the rabbit in exactly the right way. She once picked him up by the head! But he is a resilient little guy and was just fine.
After one of these recent outings, I was returning Fuzzie and about three feet away he leapt out of my arms for the open door of his cage!
I think Fuzzie likes to be there.
For us, this seems like a confining place to put a rabbit. But judging by his actions, Fuzzie, an actual rabbit who lives in a cage, does not see it that way.
He does not see the cage as a place that keeps him imprisoned from the outside world but a place that keeps him safe . . . from Allie!
In the same way, we look at Gods’ Word, which contains absolutes. He gives us things we are to do and things we are not to do.
Some people don’t like those absolutes and commandments. They see them as a cage, keeping them from what they think they really want.
But when we come to realize that God’s rules and laws are not designed to “ruin our fun,” but to provide a place of safety and security, we find that instead of being confining and restricting, His commandments are actually very liberating.
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