God Rewards Obedience

God Rewards Obedience TODAY’S SCRIPTURE “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession...” (Exodus 19:5, NIV) TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria Sometimes God asks us to do things that don’t make sense. It doesn’t seem logical. It doesn’t fit into our budget. It doesn’t line up with our schedule. “God, You want me to go back to college? I’m 40 years old.” “God, You want me to give them a gift? I was saving those funds for my own dreams.” Or, “God, You want me to leave this secure position that I’ve had for years and start my own business?” Too often we overanalyze it. We debate it. Look at it only in the natural. We end up making excuses, talking ourselves out of it, “That couldn’t be God.” But if you’re going to reach your highest potential, you have to have bold obedience. That means you obey even when you don’t understand it. You just do it even when it doesn’t make sense. That’s what faith is all about. If you can understand everything, you have the time, the money, it’s all lined up, then that doesn’t really take any faith. God will ask you to do things that seem far out, unusual, not practical. With every act of obedience, there is a blessing attached to it. When you do what you know God wants you to do, a blessing will follow. God rewards obedience! A PRAYER FOR TODAY Father, today I choose to obey You. I let go of trying to reason it all out in my mind and choose to trust You. Thank You for Your faithfulness and for rewarding my obedience in Jesus’ name. Amen.

PS...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO_5AbT-Zg0

Get a Good Grip on God’s Word

BY RICK WARREN — JUNE 9, 2014

“Hold firmly to the Word of Life.” (Philippians 2:16a NLT)

God has promised many wonderful benefits in your life if you will meditate on the Word of God and then do it.

Surprisingly, if you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate on the Word of God. Worry is when you take a negative thought and you think on it over and over and over. When you take a passage of Scripture and you think on it over and over and over, that’s called meditation.

There are six ways you can get a grasp on God’s Word.

• You can hear it,
• You can read it,
• You can study it,
• You can memorize it,
• You can meditate on it, and
• You can apply it.

But if all you do is hear the Word of God when you go to church, you have no grip on the Word of God, and it can be pulled out of your mind very easily.

The Bible says in Philippians 2:16, “Hold firmly to the Word of Life” (NLT). You don’t have a good grip on the Bible unless you’re doing all six habits: hearing it, reading it, studying it, memorizing it, meditating on it, and applying it.

Psalm 119:16 says, “Your laws make me happy. I never forget your word” (GW). Do you want to be happy? God’s principles will make you happy, and you remember those principles by memorizing them, meditating on them, and then applying them.

Psalm 119:35 says, “Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found” (NLT). Usually we’re looking for happiness in all the wrong places. God says happiness is found in the path of his commands.

Talk It Over

• What distractions keep you from being able to meditate on God’s Word?

• Who in your life can help you as you memorize Scripture? How can you help each other in this discipline?

• What does it say about God when we can find happiness by obeying his rules and commands?