Tag: Circumstances

Don’t Plan Without God

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Oswald Chambersby Oswald Chambers

Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. —Psalm 37:5

Don’t plan without God. God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the plans we have made, when we have not taken Him into account. We get ourselves into circumstances that were not chosen by God, and suddenly we realize that we have been making our plans without Him— that we have not even considered Him to be a vital, living factor in the planning of our lives. And yet the only thing that will keep us from even the possibility of worrying is to bring God in as the greatest factor in all of our planning.

In spiritual issues it is customary for us to put God first, but we tend to think that it is inappropriate and unnecessary to put Him first in the practical, everyday issues of our lives. If we have the idea that we have to put on our “spiritual face” before we can come near to God, then we will never come near to Him. We must come as we are.

Don’t plan with a concern for evil in mind. Does God really mean for us to plan without taking the evil around us into account? “Love…thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). Love is not ignorant of the existence of evil, but it does not take it into account as a factor in planning. When we were apart from God, we did take evil into account, doing all of our planning with it in mind, and we tried to reason out all of our work from its standpoint.

Don’t plan with a rainy day in mind. You cannot hoard things for a rainy day if you are truly trusting Christ. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:1). God will not keep your heart from being troubled. It is a command— “Let not….” To do it, continually pick yourself up, even if you fall a hundred and one times a day, until you get into the habit of putting God first and planning with Him in mind.

by Oswald Chambers

Sunlight And The Menorah

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Jonathan Cahnby Jonathan Cahn

In the Temple of Jerusalem was a room called the “Holy Place.” There was only one door and no windows. The Holy Place was lit up by a golden seven branched lamp stand filled with oil and the menorah. It didn’t matter how bright it was outside or if it was morning, noon, or night. The light of the holy place was an inner light. You are the Temple of the living God. The primary light of your life must also come, from within. If you’re seeking your joy from a person or circumstance, then you’re seeking to be filled from the outer light. However all the outer things can never fill up your heart with true light. The more you seek to be filled up by the things which are outside, the more empty your inside will be. If you are God’s child, then you have the honor and privilege of being filled up from the inside out. Stop living from the outside in. Live from the inner lamp of Messiah in your heart. Then it won’t matter rain or shine, morning, noon, or night – your light will shine and your life will be full.

Today’s Mission – Today, seek to live not from the outward light, the brightness of circumstances, but by the inner shining light of God’s joy and presence.

by Jonathan Cahn