Nothing Wasted

Nothing Wasted TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. Psalm 103:4, NIV. TODAY'S WORD: I know people who feel like they’ve wasted years of their lives because of poor choices. They spent years in a relationship that was toxic, years with an addiction, years at a job where they weren’t fulfilled. But you have to realize, nothing you have been through is ever wasted. Your past experiences, good and bad, have deposited something on the inside of you. Those challenges have sharpened you to help make you who you are today. When the enemy brings hardship into your life, God has a way of taking that experience and turning it around for your advantage. You may think you’ve hit a dead end, but if you’ll stay in faith, you will see God begin to open up a new route. He’ll put the right people in your path, the right opportunities, the right circumstances to move you forward toward the blessing God has in store for you! Today, don’t focus on what’s happened in your past, focus on what God will do in your future. He wants to restore your soul and revive your dreams. Keep believing, keep expecting, keep hoping because God has a new route for your future! PRAYER FOR TODAY: Father, I come humbly before You today. I give You my past, present and future, knowing that You will redeem my life. I release those who have hurt me. I choose forgiveness so I can be free to move forward in the path You have for me in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Write It Down

by Rick Warren

“The LORD gave me this answer: ‘Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance.’” (Habakkuk 2:2 TEV)

If you want to hear God speak, you need to withdraw to a quiet place, wait patiently and expectantly, ask God to give you a picture of what he wants to say to you, and then write down God’s responses to your questions.

In the book of Habakkuk, the Lord commands the author to “write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance.” Habakkuk 2:2 (TEV).

That’s how we got the book of Habakkuk. In chapter one, Habakkuk wrote down what he said to God. And in chapter two, he wrote down what God said back to him.

That’s also how we got the book of Psalms; it is David’s quiet time. David meditated on the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, and then he wrote down his thoughts, and they’re called psalms. In many of the psalms, he starts out with what he’s feeling and then ends up with what God says.

If your prayer life is stuck in a rut, and you tend to pray the same things over and over —“God, be with this person” or “Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies” — then here’s what you need to do: Start writing out your prayers.

“What? You mean I don’t have to say them?” That’s right! Writing them down is a prayer. God can hear it in your thoughts. Just write it down.

Is it OK to write out a prayer and then read it? Of course it is. When you’re writing it, you’re praying. When you’re reading it, you’re praying.

This is called the spiritual habit of journaling, and it’s one that all Christians should understand and practice.

A journal is not a diary. A diary is about the things you did. A journal is about the lessons you learned — the mistakes you made and how you learned from those things.

Talk It Over

• What are different ways of writing things down besides paper and pen that you’re more comfortable with?
   
• What has God been teaching you that you can journal about today?
   
• Start a prayer by writing down your answers to these questions: What attributes of God do you love? Who in your life needs God’s intervention? How do you need God to provide for you? What can you thank God for today?