Richard Ellis Talks

God never said we had to go bowling/skiing/on vacation/insert-your-choice-of-activity-here with people we don't like. But He did command us to love each other, and to do our part to live in peace with one another! It's impossible for us to do that without letting Him first live and work in our own lives. The sooner we let go of the idea that "it's all about me", the sooner we allow God to love other people through us.

When you think of God, you probably don't think of Him getting "in the ring" with His people! But Jacob's story in Scripture shows us that sometimes, we need to wrestle with the Lord about certain things -- and hold on for the count until He gives us His blessing to move forward.

If our 24-hour day is a pie, and each activity we spend time on is a slice, then why does God often seem to get one of the smallest pieces? We're easily tempted to spend too much time working to indulge a lifestyle that we never really needed in the first place. Money in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but if we chase it rather than investing in our relationships with God and other people, then we're wasting the life God gave us.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "can't see the forest for the trees"? Another way of putting it could be, "Can't see the flowers for the weeds"! All too often, we let our everyday worries and stress (the "weeds") distract us from the abundant life God desires for us (the "flowers"). But when we put our attention back on Him and His love for us, He holds us in His perfect peace, and we can live with the assurance that He will meet our every need.

Of all the places in the world, there's no better place to be than exactly where God has called us to go. When Jesus said to go and make disciples of all nations, it was a command, not a suggestion. Our entire purpose for being is to follow Him and to bring glory to His name.

We can have the clearest picture of what God intends for us to do -- the what, when, why, where, and how -- but at the end of the day, sometimes, we still just wind up getting stuck. There will always be obstacles that threaten to hold us back from accomplishing God's will. When we find ourselves spinning our wheels, we can waste time and effort trying to figure out a solution by ourselves, or we can ask God to make a way and to help us move forward.

We all start out in the "shallow end" of spiritual maturity when we first accept Christ as the Lord of our lives. But eventually we have to swim out into the deeper waters of discipleship as we read His Word, seek His will, apply His truth, and grow deeper in our relationship with Him.

When we first make the decision to follow Jesus, God puts His Spirit in us to help guide us in living passionately for Him. But if we ignore the Holy Spirit, we become desensitized to His leading over time, and eventually we find ourselves in the mess of our own sin. The good news is this: God can always reignite a fire within us -- we only have to ask Him.

Jesus tells us that in order to follow Him, we have to deny ourselves. But more often, we wind up denying God and choosing our own will over His. Unless we submit to His leading in our lives, He can never fully live in us and through us. We have to let go of our selfish ways, die to our desires, and take on His life instead of our own.

We only have a short amount of time on this ball called Earth -- and we need to make the most of it. The question we each should ask ourselves is, "Am I living my life with God-honoring purpose, or am I wasting my time with sin?" When we strive to do the former by seeking God through Scripture and through prayer, He's gracious to give us His wisdom in response.