follow the example of a guy by the name of solomon in the old testament. just a simple example that’s good for any of us. you might remember solomon’s dad was named king david. GOD had told king david, you’re going to build a temple. “I'll give you the plans and then your son is going to build the temple.” when it came time to build this temple for GOD, here’s what solomon said, 1 kings 5.5 (ncv), the LORD promised my father david, “I’m going to make your son king after you and he’ll build a temple for worshipping ME.” now i plan to build that temple for worshipping in the LORD my GOD. very simple. i want you to notice two phrases in that verse. first, the LORD promised. that’s where it started. then, solomon said because of that now, i plan.
there it is. that’s the order. pretty simple. GOD promises, i plan. don't get these reversed. i make a plan then i look for some promise that GOD made to fit with my plan. that doesn’t work very well. and don’t leave out the “you planning” part of it. GOD promised and now i’m just going to set back and watch and not have anything to do with it. no, when GOD makes the promises HE’s going to make you a part of the plan. there’s no doubt about that one. GOD promises and now i plan.
where do you find GOD’s plan? where do you find GOD’s promises? the bible, GOD’s book, GOD’s gift to us, contains over 7,000 promises from GOD. so when you feel like, “i don't have hope. i don’t know what to do next,” one of the things to do is begin reading through the bible. i suggest you read psalms, a book like mark in the new testament or philippians – places to start. read through some books like that. you’ll find some promises there that you can plan on. that you can count on.
you begin to read and ask GOD for a promise. romans 15.4 (niv) says this about the bible, for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. two important words i’ve highlighted there, endurance and encouragement. let me just ask you a quick question. which of those two do you like better? i don’t know about you but i like encouragement. endurance? that doesn’t sound like such a hot idea. but it takes both. it takes both encouragement and endurance and GOD’s word gives us the strength for both.
dale carnegie once said “most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” the question is how do you keep on trying? where do you get the encouragement to keep on trying? where do you get the endurance to keep on trying? it’s not easy. so the bible gives us the encouragement, the endurance that we need.
just a thought from the front porch…
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