take time to prayū

Make Time To Be Quiet
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Psalm 37:7 NIV

God isn’t going to speak to you if there’s a bunch of noise going on in your life. You’ve got to get alone, and you’ve got to get quiet. We call this a quiet time.

Jesus says it like this in Matthew 6:6: “Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace” (MSG).

The key to hearing God speak and getting his vision for your life is this: God wants to meet with you.

You need to realize you’re not waiting on God; he’s waiting on you. God made you to have a relationship with him. He wants you to spend time with him on a daily basis. He wants you to schedule a date with him every day. God is waiting.

Getting alone in a quiet place is pretty difficult today. I don’t know if you realize how much noise there is in your life. You’ve always got the radio on in the car or you’ve got earbuds in or Bluetooth turned on. Every waiting room, grocery store, and elevator has music. There’s very little time in your life that’s absolutely quiet.

If you’ve got kids at home, it’s even more difficult! But let me give you some hope. Susanna Wesley, one of the great women of history, had 18 children. One of her sons, John, founded the Methodist church and spread Christianity across the western part of America with Methodist revival preachers, and another, Charles, wrote more than 6,000 hymns.

How do you find time alone when you have 18 children? In her biography, it says that Susanna Wesley would go and sit in her favorite rocker every afternoon, and she would throw her apron over her head for an hour. Her kids knew that Mom with apron over her head means, “No child bothers Mom or you die!”

Wesley said it was the prayers of his mom that shaped his life. You can find time alone if you are that desperate. Make time to be quiet and meet with the Lord.

Who Do You Choose: Jesus or Late Night TV?

The reason why most people never hear God speak to them is that they never slow down enough to let God talk to them. Hurry is the death of prayer! You’ve got to slow down. You’ve got to be quiet. And, you’ve got to wait expectantly.

Psalm 37:7 says, “Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act” (NLT).

The only way you’re going to be able to do this is if you get up earlier, which means you’re going to have to go to bed 30 minutes earlier. So the decision comes down to this: Who do you want to spend time with, Jesus — or Jimmy, Conan, or the other Jimmy? That’s your choice! Because you’re going to have to get up earlier so you’re not rushed and able to spend some time and start your day with God.

There is nothing on nighttime TV that will change your life. Nothing! Spending those 30 minutes in the morning with God, however, will change your life.

If I told you that tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. the queen of England, the president of the U.S., and the pope all wanted to meet with you privately, you probably wouldn’t even go to bed tonight. You’d take a bath — you’d probably take two baths! You’d go find an all-night barber or beauty salon, get a new suit, and get spiffed up. You’d be at the meeting 30 minutes early.

The Creator of the universe wants to meet with you tomorrow morning! You don’t even have to get dressed. You can be in your PJs. You don’t even have to leave your home. But you do have to plan an appointment. That means you have to stop doing something so you can start doing what God wants. If you’re burning the candle at both ends, you’re not as bright as you think you are. You’ve got to decide what’s more important to you: another 30 minutes of late night TV or time with God every morning.

One day God’s going to ask you, “Which one did you choose?”


This devotional © 2014 by Rick Warren.

let peace be our guidance

Obedience Leads to Peace
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6‭-‬7 NIV

If you feel overwhelmed or confused about a decision that you’re trying to make, you’re probably caught up in yourself and not God’s voice. The Bible says, “God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33a NIV). He is not the author of confusion. So if you’re feeling confused, guess what? It’s not God’s voice speaking in your life.

If you’re a parent, do you want your kids to feel pressure or confused when you ask them to do something? No. You want them to understand what to do and then respond in obedience. God the Father wants the same thing for and from us.

The only time pressure could be legitimate is if God’s told you to do something, and you keep saying “no.” Then the pressure does build. But there’s always peace when you say “yes” to what God’s asking you to do.

Satan wants to drive us compulsively, but God wants to draw us compassionately. Satan wants to take advantage of our compulsions and use them to drive our lives. But God is our Good Shepherd. He wants to draw us in toward himself and peace.

Peter Lord used to say, “Ninety percent of what God wants to say to you is encouragement.” If all you ever hear from God is negative messages, something’s wrong. The wires have been crossed.

If you feel like God’s told you to do something but you have increasing anxiety because of it, then the wires are crossed. Something’s not right.

The Bible us, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT).

You Have To Want To Hear from God

But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 4:29 NIV

You’re not going to hear God unless you really, really want it. I’m not saying it’s an option. I’m not saying it would be nice. It is a necessity!

God won’t tell you about his dream for your life if he knows you’ll want to debate it. God doesn’t tell you what he put you on Earth to do just so you can say, “Let me think about it.”

No! It’s got to be a necessity. You have to say, “I’ve got to know why I’m here. I’ve got to know what you want me to do with my life. I’ve got to hear your voice. I’ve got to have your vision.”

King David wrote in the book of Psalms, “My God, I want to do what you want” and “What I want most of all and at all times is to honor your laws” (Psalm 40:8 NCV).

David was passionate in his declaration that what he wanted most of all was to honor God. Being obedient and following God were not options for him. It was the only thing David wanted to do. He used words for seeking God like, “I long for it,” “I crave it,” “I hunger for it,” and “I’m like a dear panting for water.”

When you get that desperate, you’re going to hear from God.

A lot of people talk to God, but they never hear from God. For them, prayer is a monologue. But you can’t have a relationship when it is wrapped up in a monologue from you. What if a talk to my wife, but she never talks to me? That’s not a relationship. You’ve got to have a conversation. Just as important as talking to God in prayer is listening to God and letting him talk to you. How does that happen? First, you’ve got to want it more than anything else.

Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “You will search again for the LORD your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him” (NLT). Guaranteed!

test every message / sermons

A Biblically Supported Idea

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Luke 21:33 NIV


Many times we wonder if an idea that came to us is instruction from God, a deception from Satan, or just something we want to do. It is extremely important to know the difference and how to discern God’s voice, because it can have eternal consequences.

A lot of evil gets blamed on God when people say, “God told me to do it!” The Bible says in 1 John 4:1, “Don’t believe every message you hear just because someone says it’s a message from God. Test it first to see if it really is” (LB).

Does the idea you’ve got in your mind right now agree with the Bible? Because God’s will never contradicts God’s Word. God doesn’t say one thing and then change his mind and say another thing. If he said it, it’s true, and it will always be true.

God is consistent. He isn’t moody. He doesn’t change his mind. He will never tell you to violate a principle that he’s already given in his Word, the Bible.

So the first question you need to ask is, “Does this thought line up with what God has already said?” If what you have in your mind contradicts something that God has already said in the Bible, then you know it’s wrong.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1 NIV

Jesus said in Luke 21:33, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (NIV). God’s Word is eternal, because truth never changes. If something was true 5,000 years ago, it was true 1,000 years ago, it is true today, and it will be true 5,000 years from today.

People might say, “God said it; I believe it; that settles it.” No! God said it, and that settles it — whether you believe it or not!

If God tells you to do something, then he’s never going to contradict it. The first question you must answer is, “Is this idea in harmony with the Word of God?”