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Today's Scripture: " Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life" (Galatians 6:7-8, NIV). Today's Word: Whether you realize it or not, everything you are experiencing in your life today is a direct result of the seeds you’ve sown in your past. Today, you are planting seeds for the harvest in your future. Just as the farmer expects a crop from the seeds he sows, we can expect a harvest from the seeds we’ve sown, good or bad. That’s why we have to be deliberate about the seeds we are sowing. We have to wake up every day and set our minds on God’s Word and choose to speak His truth over our lives. We have to constantly evaluate our actions to make sure we are depositing good seeds so we can reap a good harvest in the future. Why don’t you take some time right now to ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and mind? See if there are any negative seeds that you’ve sown in the past that need to be uprooted. Be deliberate about planting the Word of God in the soil of your heart. Sow good seeds into your future so you can reap the harvest of blessing God has designed for you! Prayer for Today: Father God, thank You for the system of sowing and reaping. Thank You for giving me good seed to sow! I ask that You search my heart and mind and show me where to sow my seed so I can reap the abundant harvest You have for me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. |
When You Reject Yourself, You’re Rejecting God’s Design
Spiritual gifts,
Heart,
Abilities,
Personality,
Experiences — these are the five things that make you, you. I call them your SHAPE.
Accepting your SHAPE — the unique way that God made you that brings glory to him — means to believe that God knows best. It all comes down to the matter of trust. Do you believe that God made a mistake when he made you? Or do you trust him, knowing that he has a plan for your life? Do you believe it?
When you say, “God, there are things I don’t like about myself. I wish I had different hair or a different color of skin. I wish I were taller, shorter, skinnier. I wish I had more talent. I wish I could do ‘that.’ I wish I looked like him. I wish I had her smarts” and on and on. This kind of thinking is basically telling God, “You blew it! Everybody else is OK. But you goofed up big when you made me.”
When you reject yourself, you are in essence rejecting God, because he’s your Creator. When you don’t accept yourself, it’s rebellion against God. You’re saying, “God, I know better than you. You should have made me different, with a different set of strengths and a different set of weaknesses.”
But God says, “No, I made you exactly to be you because I want you to be you — with your strengths and your weaknesses. Both of them can give me glory — if you’ll just start doing what I made you to do instead of trying to be like everybody else.”
It’s actually quite arrogant to reject yourself. The Bible says in Romans 9:20, “My friend, I ask, ‘Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did?’” (CEV)
Whenever we doubt God’s love and wisdom, we always get into trouble. The root behind all of your problems is that you don’t trust God. You don’t believe God really loves you. You don’t believe that he really has your best interest at heart. You wish he had made you something different. As a result, there’s a spirit of bitterness in you that keeps you frustrated and keeps you from being the person God wants you to be.
Job 10:10 says, “You guided my conception and formed me in the womb” (NLT). God wanted you, and he loves you. Believe it, and then trust it!
Talk It Over
by Rick Warren
“My friend, I ask, ‘Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did?’” (Romans 9:20 CEV)
Heart,
Abilities,
Personality,
Experiences — these are the five things that make you, you. I call them your SHAPE.
Accepting your SHAPE — the unique way that God made you that brings glory to him — means to believe that God knows best. It all comes down to the matter of trust. Do you believe that God made a mistake when he made you? Or do you trust him, knowing that he has a plan for your life? Do you believe it?
When you say, “God, there are things I don’t like about myself. I wish I had different hair or a different color of skin. I wish I were taller, shorter, skinnier. I wish I had more talent. I wish I could do ‘that.’ I wish I looked like him. I wish I had her smarts” and on and on. This kind of thinking is basically telling God, “You blew it! Everybody else is OK. But you goofed up big when you made me.”
When you reject yourself, you are in essence rejecting God, because he’s your Creator. When you don’t accept yourself, it’s rebellion against God. You’re saying, “God, I know better than you. You should have made me different, with a different set of strengths and a different set of weaknesses.”
But God says, “No, I made you exactly to be you because I want you to be you — with your strengths and your weaknesses. Both of them can give me glory — if you’ll just start doing what I made you to do instead of trying to be like everybody else.”
It’s actually quite arrogant to reject yourself. The Bible says in Romans 9:20, “My friend, I ask, ‘Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did?’” (CEV)
Whenever we doubt God’s love and wisdom, we always get into trouble. The root behind all of your problems is that you don’t trust God. You don’t believe God really loves you. You don’t believe that he really has your best interest at heart. You wish he had made you something different. As a result, there’s a spirit of bitterness in you that keeps you frustrated and keeps you from being the person God wants you to be.
Job 10:10 says, “You guided my conception and formed me in the womb” (NLT). God wanted you, and he loves you. Believe it, and then trust it!
Talk It Over
- How would believing that God really loves you change the way you view yourself?
- What is it about yourself that you've always wanted to change? How do you think God may have intended to use that very trait to bring glory to him?
- How has God used your weaknesses to bring glory to God?
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