“God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.” Ephesians 2:10 (NCV)

There are three things you can do with your life: You can waste it, you can spend it, or you can invest it. The best use of your life is to invest your life in something that will outlast it.

The worst thing you can do is to live simply for today and to live for yourself. God did not put you on earth to live for yourself. He created you to be like Christ.

We know that Christ came to earth to do two things according to Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

As we seek to grow and become more like Christ, we need to learn how to live a life of service. This will help us create a lasting spiritual legacy.

Today I want you to take time to meditate on the following verses about God’s call to service in our lives. Pray over them and ask God to reveal new ways you can give yourself in service to those around you.

“Give yourselves completely to God – every part of you … you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes.” (Romans 6:13b, LB)

“My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the good news about God’s wonderful kindness and love.” (Acts 20:24, NLT)

“Only those who give away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the good news will ever know what it means to really live.” (Mark 8:35, LB)

You will never enjoy life fully – the way God intended for you to live it – until you learn it’s not about you. So go, and live a life of service.

Questions: How have you already been living a “life of service”? How would your life look different if you began to increasingly live out this life of service?

About the Author: Rick Warren

 “Think about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin!” Hebrews 12:3-4

When you feel like giving up and you start to feel sorry for yourself, and you get discouraged and have a pity party, stop and think about what Jesus endured for you.

Think about the attacks and the criticism he went through. Think about the abuse and cruelty he experienced not for his benefit, but for yours.

You may be facing some very real, discouraging challenges in your life. But what you are really going through is a test of your faith.

It’s easy to trust God when everything is going your way. It’s tough to trust him when you’ve been out of work for a year or longer. It’s tough to trust him when you don’t know where you will get the money to make ends meet. It’s tough to trust God when somebody you depended on has walked out of your life. But these are tests.

Will you endure? Will you persist? Will you make it to the end? Will you be disciplined? Will you finish well?

What are you being tested in right now? Are you going to give up, or are you going to persevere? What have you started that you need to finish?

A year before Paul wrote the letter to the Corinthians, the church there had made a commitment to give an offering to help the Jerusalem church. It was tough times for churches in those days, but they had pledged an offering that they hadn’t given yet. Paul wrote and reminded them, “[F]inish what you started a year ago … carry this project through to completion just as enthusiastically as you began it. Give whatever you can according to what you have” (2 Corinthians 8:10-11 NLT).

What commitments have you made that you need to complete? Whatever it is, you need to finish. Trust God to help you through so you can pass the test.

Question: What commitments have you made that you need to complete?

“Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now.” Proverbs 3:28 (TEV)

Real servants pay attention to needs. Servants are always on the lookout for ways to help others. When they see a need, they seize the moment to meet it, just as the Bible commands us: “Whenever we have the opportunity, we have to do what is good for everyone, especially for the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10, GWT).

When God puts someone in need right in front of you, he is giving you the opportunity to grow in servanthood. Notice that God says the needs of your church family are to be given preference, not put at the bottom of your “things to do” list.

We miss many occasions for serving because we lack sensitivity and spontaneity. Great opportunities to serve never last long. They pass quickly, sometimes never to return again. You may only get one chance to serve that person, so take advantage of the moment.

“Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now” (Proverbs 3:28 TEV).

John Wesley was an incredible servant of God. His motto was: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”

That is greatness. You can begin by looking for small tasks that no one else wants to do. Do these little things as if they were great things, because God is watching.

Question: What opportunities has God put into your life to serve your fellow brothers and sisters?

“If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing even to give up their lives to follow me.” Matthew 16:24 (NCV)

Paul’s moment of surrender occurred on the Damascus road after he was knocked down by blinding light. For others, less drastic methods are needed to get our attention. Regardless, surrendering is never just a one-time event. Paul said, “I die daily.” (1 Corinthians 15:31 NASB)

There is a moment of surrender and there is the practice of surrender.

The practice of surrender requires perseverance. It is moment-by-moment and lifelong. You may have to re-surrender your life fifty times a day: “If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing even to give up their lives [daily] to follow me.” (Matthew 16:24 NCV)

Let me warn you: When you decide to live a totally surrendered life, that decision will be tested. Sometimes it will mean doing inconvenient, unpopular, costly, or seemingly impossible tasks. It will often mean doing the opposite of what you feel like doing.

“Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on the things human nature desires; those who live in the Spirit have their minds on spiritual things.” (Romans 8:5 NJB)

We are, by nature, self-centered. When hurt by someone, your natural inclination is to hurt back. It is natural to hoard money instead of generously sharing it, to defend yourself when criticized, to hide your mistakes instead of confessing them, and to try to impress others. You can usually figure out what will please God by doing the opposite of your natural inclination.

Bill Bright founded Campus Crusade for Christ. Through the worldwide Crusade staff, his tract The Four Spiritual Laws, and the JESUS film (seen by over one billion people), it’s estimated that over 150 million people have come to Christ and will spend eternity in heaven.

I once asked Bill, “Why did God use and bless your life so much?” He said, “When I was a young man I made a contract with God. I literally wrote it out and signed my name at the bottom. It said ‘From this day forward, I am a slave of Jesus Christ.’”

Have you signed a contract like that with God? Or, are you still arguing and struggling with God over his right to do with your life as he pleases?

It is time to surrender – to God’s grace, love, and wisdom.

Question: Have you accepted a life of surrender to God’s perfect will for your life?

About the Author:  Rick Warren

“We make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” 2 Corinthians 5:9

Not every goal is a good goal or the kind of goal that God gets behind and helps you accomplish. So what kind of goals does God bless? The Bible says, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) That means if you are going to set some goals, they need to be goals that bring glory to God.

Now, it says whatever you eat – honestly, if I sit down at a restaurant I don’t naturally think which food will bring the most glory to God. I’m not thinking that one at all. Would I probably be healthier if I did? Of course.

But there is a bigger point and that is that everything can be done for the glory of God – eat, drink or anything that you do.

Does that mean I can close a sale for the glory of God? Yes. Does that mean I can sweep the house for the glory of God? Yes. Does that mean I can program computers for the glory of God? Yes! You can do anything to the glory of God. I can macramé to the glory of God.

You say, ‘Well, how do I do that? It requires the right attitude and the right motivation. The right attitude is ‘I do it out of gratitude.’ The right motivation is ‘I do it to honor God.’

How do you know if it’s going to bring glory to God? Any goal that causes you to love God more brings glory to God.  Any goal you set that causes you to trust God more, brings glory to God.  Any goal you set that causes to you obey God, to love God, to serve God, any goal that causes you to want to brag on God and tell unbelievers, ‘Look what he did for me’ — that’s the goal that brings glory to God.

Question: How do you know if what you’re planning is going to bring glory to God?

About the Author:  Rick Warren

Question 1: Why is there evil in the world?

If God exists, why is there evil in the world? You know, this is a difficult stumbling block and question for many people. The simplest way to look at this question is to examine God’s nature and his desire for mankind. Look at the logic. God loves us and wants us to love him back. And how could we love him back unless we have the freedom to not love?

God could have made us like robots who do nothing more than say, “I love you. I love you. I love you.” But we’d be forced to do that and that wouldn’t be real love. Love is a choice. And if you have a choice you have to be able to choose not to love and that in itself is the nature of evil. Evil is choosing not to love. So when God gave us the freedom to choose, he gave us not only our greatest blessing, but he also gave us our greatest curse because we can choose to do right or choose to do wrong.

The reason there’s evil in the world is not because of God, but because God gave us the freedom to choose. Now the potential for love outweighs the existence of evil, because you see, evil is only going to exist for a short time, but love is going to go on forever. And all of the suffering and all of the death that we see in the world today are the result because man has chosen to make wrong choices.

God could have taken our freedom, but He didn’t. I hope you’ll use your freedom to choose God.

Question 2: Is Jesus really God?

Well when you think about it you only have three options as to who Jesus Christ was. You see, Jesus claimed to be God. He said things like, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” He claimed to be God many, many times. Now, that means either:

1. He is who he says He was
2. He was the biggest liar in history or
3. He was crazy, He was a lunatic on the order of the man who calls himself a fried egg.

You see, you can’t just say Jesus was a good man. I’ve had many friends who said, “Oh, I believe Jesus was a good man.” Well He couldn’t have been a good man and said those things He said. For instance, if I said to you, “I’m Rick Warren and I’m a good teacher and a good husband.” You might say, “Okay, I buy that.” But if I said to you, “I’m Rick Warren and I’m God and I’m the only way to heaven.” Well, you would have to make a decision. You couldn’t say I was a good person because a good person wouldn’t say that. You’d either say, “He is who he says he was, or he’s a liar or he’s crazy.”

Now Jesus didn’t just expect us to believe Him and take Him at His word. He said, “I’m going to prove the claim that I am God.” He said, “I’m going to let people kill me on a cross, then let them bury me. I’ll be dead for three days and then I’ll come back to life.” And, of course, that was the event that changed history. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every person since then refers to Jesus Christ, whether they believe in Him or not, every time you right a date, A.D. or B.C., what’s the reference point? Jesus Christ. Because it was the event that split history when Jesus proved that He was who He said He was, He is God.

Question 3: Do all religions lead to God?

Well now think about the logic of this. Can I go into a phone booth and dial any phone number and get home? No, there’s only one number that’ll get me home. I could be sincere, but I could be sincerely wrong. The truth is, all roads don’t lead to Rome and all roads and all religions don’t lead to God.

You see, it all depends on which direction you take. Jesus said this, “I am the way and the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I’m betting my life on the fact that He was right because I figured Jesus knows more about it than I did.

The Bible tells us that on the road to heaven, there are only two directions, toward Christ or away from Him. You can accept it or you can reject it, that’s your choice. You can make Jesus the Lord of your life, that means the manager, the ceo, the person in charge of your life, or you can call Him a liar, but that’s what the Bible declares.

You know a lot of people sincerely believe that even though they’ve broken God’s rules that they can earn God’s forgiveness by doing good works, by observing the Five Pillars of Islam or the Buddhist Eightfold Path or the Hindu Doctrine of Karma, for example. But I don’t get it. How will doing some good works that we should have done all our lives, make up for all the countless times we failed? You see, heaven is a perfect place and that means only perfect people get to go there. If not-perfect people were allowed in, it wouldn’t be perfect anymore. Well I don’t know about you, but I stopped being perfect a long time ago. So God came up with plan b. He came to earth in human form, Jesus Christ, and He lived a perfect life and now He offers to let us go to heaven on His ticket. And I pray that you will trust Jesus Christ and stop trying to bat a thousand because you ended up not doing that a long time ago and accept God’s free ticket through Jesus Christ.

Question 4: What’s going to happen to those people in the world who’ve never heard about Jesus Christ?

You may have heard this question put this way: “What about the person living in the jungle somewhere who’s never heard the good news about Jesus Christ? Are you christians saying that a person won’t go to heaven based solely on where he lives?” No, we’re not saying that. The Bible tells us that God doesn’t work that way. We understand that God is perfect in His love and perfect in His holiness and He’s perfectly just and fair. Therefore, it’s against God’s nature to be unfair. It’s against God’s nature to hide the ball on salvation or to condemn somebody who’s ignorant of his truth. In fact the scripture, the bible declares that God is loving and patient and not willing that anybody should perish. But He wants everybody to come to repentance, to come to know Him.

So if God is a perfectly loving and righteous God, then He will figure out ways to help people understand Him. He somehow reveals the simple truth of the gospel to people throughout the world. You know, I’ve talked to people who were missionaries in Africa who’ve told me that Jesus has revealed Himself through nature. When you look at nature you learn that God is organized, that God is creative, that God likes variety. But it’s when we look at Jesus Christ we realize that God is loving.

And as Christians we are called to tell the good news to other people. It’s God’s decision to decide what happens to people who haven’t heard about Him. But it is our decision to take that news to as many people as possible. And the bible says we will be held more responsible because we have heard and we have known that God is love, that God wants a relationship to us and that God will forgive us if we give our lives to Jesus Christ.

So, what do we do about those who haven’t heard? We tell them. First we accept God’s good news and then we tell them and we leave the result in the hands of a fair, loving and just God.

Question 5: What about all the wars that are caused in the name of Christianity?

Well first, let me say that a lot of things have been done in the name of Christianity that Jesus Christ would totally disavow. And just because someone claims to be a Christian doesn’t necessarily make him a follower of Christ, nor does it make him a representative of Jesus. It’s very, very important to distinguish between the bible kind of Christianity and the actions that have been taken throughout history by people who claim to be Christians but really didn’t know.

You see there’s a difference between religion and a relationship with God. Jesus is not interested in the religion of Christianity. He’s interested in you having a relationship to Him. Jesus never said, “I’ve come that you might have religion.” He said, “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Now a lot of people have claimed to be followers of Christ but they’ve lived their lives contrary to His teaching. And we shouldn’t label that group Christian. But let me say this, have you ever seen a counterfeit dollar? Well, maybe you haven’t, but maybe you’ve heard of them. Why are there counterfeit dollars in the world? Well, I’ll tell you why. Because there are real dollars in the world. If there were no real dollars, there would be no counterfeits. And if you find counterfeit Christianity in the world, it must mean that somewhere there must be the real thing. The point is we don’t identify Jesus by claiming that all the things that were done in His name were done by Him. In fact, Jesus proffended His own disciples from defending themselves against the enemies when He said on a personal basis, He said, “I want you to turn the other cheek.”

So a lot of wars have been done in the name of Christianity that Jesus probably would have disavowed. The real issue is do you know Jesus Christ? You see, it doesn’t matter so much what has been done by hypocrites or phonies or false followers of Christ. What matters is do you know the real, true, genuine item? Have you ever turned your life over to Jesus Christ? If you haven’t, I would encourage you to investigate Him today.

Question 6: Is there any real right or wrong?

You know, you might have heard somebody say, “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as right or wrong.” Or maybe you’ve heard a professor say, “There are no absolutes.” Whenever I hear that I want to say, “Are you absolutely sure?” You have to ask yourself, “Is this statement even logical? Is there any right or wrong?” Because when people say, “There is no right or wrong, or it’s wrong for you to impose your morals on me,” think about it, by them telling you that, they are imposing their morals on you.

The fact is we all inheritantly know right from wrong and we just have this weird tendency to disregard it. To disregard morality when it conflicts with our desires for pleasure or personal gain. Now, sure, you might justify having an affair, but certainly you wouldn’t condone your spouse having one. Or you might justify taking something without permission, but if you were the one being robbed you wouldn’t think it was okay. You see the fact is, there isn’t a person alive today who’d come home from work and discover that their entire house had been robbed and say, “Oh, how wonderful that this burglar is able to enjoy all my things without my permission. And who am I to impose my view of right or wrong on this poor burglar?” You see how ridiculous that is? Of course.

Even those who claim there is no right or wrong have their own moral conscious, they’ve just set their own standards. Here’s a good way to determine right from wrong. Turn the situation around on yourself. Jesus said it best. He said, “Treat people the same way you want people to treat you.” You see we all know that murder and rape and lying and stealing and torture and injustice are absolutely wrong. Why? Because we wouldn’t want any of these things to happen to us. The person who would say, “there is no right or wrong,” would not agree that it was okay for them to be raped. No, when you turn it on yourself, you realize that even inside ourselves God has placed a moral conscious and that conscious tells us when we do right and when we do wrong. And when we violate our conscious, we need forgiveness. That’s why the bible said, “God sent Jesus to earth so that we might be forgiven of all of our wrong.”

Question 7: Why do I exist?

That’s the most fundamental question of life. What on earth am I here for?

Well, you need to understand God to answer that question. You see, the bible says, “God is love.” It doesn’t say He has love, it says He is love. It’s part of His nature, His character, it is the essence of His being. God is love. Now, love isn’t very valuable unless you bestow it on something and the bible says, “God made you to love you.” You were created as an object of God’s love. If you want to know why you’re taking breath right now, why your heart is beating, it’s because God made you to love you. It’s the sole reason. You were made to be loved by God and to bring Him pleasure.

Now God wants you to learn to love Him back and that’s the first purpose of your life, to get to know and love Him back. One day Jesus was walking down the street and a man came up and said, “What’s the most important command in the bible?” And Jesus said, “I’m going to summarize the entire bible in one sentence. Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.” That’s called the great commandment. And God wants you to get to know and love Him back. So that means when you get up in the morning, you should sit on the side of your bed and say, “God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know you a little bit better and I want to love you a little bit more.” Because if at the end of the day you know God more and you love Him more, you have just fulfilled one of the purposes of your life.

If, on the other hand, you’ve accomplished all kinds of things and achieved many, many successes in life, but at the end of the day you don’t know God better or love Him more, you have missed the primary purpose of your life. Because God didn’t put you on this earth just to mark things off your to-do list. He put you here to know Him and love Him. That’s why you exist.

Question 8: What is my purpose in life?

Well the truth is, God created you for five purposes. You see, you were made by God and you were made for God. And until you understand that, life isn’t going to make sense. When you come to this question, what is my purpose, you only have three alternatives.

1. First is what I call the mystical approach, and that is look within. You find this in a lot of talk shows, a lot of new age books a lot of seminars. They say, “look within to discover your purpose.” The only problem is that doesn’t work. We’ve all looked within and I didn’t like what I saw. It’s quite confusing. In fact, if you could know the purpose of your life by looking within, we’d all know it by now. It doesn’t work.
2. The second way you can try to discover your purpose is called the intellectual or philosophical approach. And that’s where you go to a seminary class or university class and you sit there with a pipe and your latte and your coffee and you ask questions like, “Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I going?” I once read a book by professor John Morehead, the Head of the Department of Philosophy at Northeastern University in Illinois. And he wrote to 250 well-known intellectuals and asked them, “What is the meaning and purpose of life?” These were novelists, scientists, well-known intellectuals, and I read the book, it’s now out of print, it was quite depressing because most of the people said, “I have no idea what the purpose of life is.” Some of them admitted they just made up a purpose. And some of the admitted they guessed. And some of them said, “If you know the purpose, please tell me.”
3. You see, there’s a better answer to speculation and that’s revelation. If I were to hold up an invention that you have never seen before, you wouldn’t know its purpose. The only way you’d know its purpose was either talk to the inventor, the creator who made it or read the owner’s manual. The owner’s manual of life is the bible and your Creator is God. And it is only as you get to know God you will discover his five purposes for your life. I hope you’ll begin that journey today.

Question 9: Does my life really matter?

Well, it’s a good question. You know, today we teach our kids that we’re all just one big cosmic accident. We came from the goo through the zoo to you over billions of years. Well, if that is true, in a nutshell it teaches that your life really doesn’t matter, you’re just the freak accident of random chance, you’re complex slime and you were an accident. And if you get accidentally killed, well, of course, that doesn’t matter. And that creates a lot of our sociological problems and a lot of our self-esteem issues.

But the truth is you are not an accident. You were created by a loving God who loves you and designed you with intricate detail in your life and when you understand that God made you to love you and that God made you to be a part of His family and that God made you to last forever, then you’re never going to have a problem with low self-esteem again.

It was Bertram Russell the atheist who once said, “Unless you assume the existence of God, then the purpose and meaning of life is irrelevant.” The truth is, if there is no God your life doesn’t matter. But because there is a God, God had a specific purpose in mind when He created you and you do matter. You matter because God created you. You matter because he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross. If you want to know how much you matter, think of Jesus Christ with his arms outstretched saying, “I love you this much.”

Now, if you had to chose between a loved one and a material thing, even if that thing was priceless, you’d chose your loved one in a heartbeat. And when you’re on your deathbed, you’re not going to surround yourself with material possessions, you’re not going to say, “Bring me my trophies. Bring me my credentials. Bring me my certificates so I can look one more time at my grade point average.” No, you’re going to surround yourself with loved ones and everybody’s going to be crying because they’re going to miss you. You see, that’s how much you matter.

Personal relationships to God and to other people are the most important thing in life. And God wants you to know Him and He wants you to have a relationship with Him because you’re worth so much in God’s eyes that he sent His Son to die for you. I hope you’ll get to know Him very soon.

Question 10: Is there a real hell and why would a loving God send anyone there?

Well, first I believe in hell because Jesus talked about it. In fact, Jesus talked more about hell then He did heaven. He said it is a real place and it is a place of eternal torment. And I believe Jesus knows more about it than either you or I.

But second, I believe in hell because logic and fairness demand it. Think of all the atrocities and evil that have been done throughout history by evildoers in this world. For God to allow those crimes to go unpunished would mean that God is not worthy of our worship and love.

Now why would a loving God send anyone to hell? Well in a nutshell, God doesn’t. God doesn’t send anybody to hell. We choose to go there when we reject the love of God. If I were to say to my right is a door heading to heaven, and to my left is a door heading to hell, if you walk out the door heading to hell, you don’t have anybody to blame but yourself.

In fact, the bible tells us that God does almost everything – well everything possible to keep us out of hell. He cared so much to keep us out of hell that he sent Jesus Christ to come to earth, to die on the cross, to pay for our sins so that we don’t have to pay for them. He wants to set us free. He wants to give us forgiveness. God made us in his image and He gave us the ultimate power to say yes or no.

Now if we chose to reject God here on earth, then we, at the same time, are choosing to spend eternity separated from Him. You see, there are only two people in the world – two kinds of people. Those who say, “Thy will be done here to God on earth” and those to whom God says, “Your will be done,” when we say, “I want to do it my way.” And if we say, “God I don’t want you in my life while I’m here on earth,” then God says, “I don’t want you in my heaven for eternity.”

You don’t have to go to hell. In fact, Jesus Christ has made it possible for you to go to heaven. Open your heart to Him and say, “Jesus Christ, I need you, I want you, I trust you and I ask you to forgive me.” And He’ll come in and save you.

You can begin your journey today! Learn more about how you can discover purpose in your life.

If you have a question that wasn’t asked in this list,

** Discuss the Christian walk of faith online in our daily chatroom: http://thelife.com/interactive/chat.html

“O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham.” Genesis 24:12 (NLT)

The fourth step to getting where you want to be in life is simple: ask God to help you.

Step #1 – Determine your present position
Step #2 – Be specific about what you want
Step #3 – Look for God’s promise
Step #4 – Ask God to help you

Once you have found your promise in God’s Word, pray and ask God for success, just as Eliezer did in today’s verse.

Is it really okay to pray for success? Yes! If you aren’t praying for success, what’s the alternative? Are you going to pray for God to make you a failure? Eliezer clearly shows us that it is okay to ask God for success in accomplishing a goal as long as the motive is right.

When your success helps people and honors God, praying for success does not become a selfish act. It is the means to good testimony. In fact, here is what the Bible says, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God and there we will receive mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it” (Hebrews 4:16 NLT).

If you study Genesis 24 further, you’ll find that Eliezer prayed during his entire mission. In verse 12 he prays before he starts. In verse 15 he prays after he arrives in Nahor. And in verse 52 he prays in front of Rebekah’s family.

So my question to you today is this: Are you praying about your goals? Are you praying about your future? Are you praying about your dreams or are you just kind of keeping them to yourself?

Your prayers reveal a couple of things. First, they reveal how serious you are about your goals. If you don’t pray about them, you really don’t care about them that much. If you only pray about them once, they are not a desire, they are just a whim.

The other thing your prayers reveal is how much you are depending on God to reach your goals. If you never pray about your goals, never pray about your job, never pray about your finances, you are not depending on God in any of those areas. The more you depend on God, the more you’ll pray.

So determine your present position, decide what you want, find a promise from God to hold onto, claim it, and then ask God for help.

Question: Are you praying about your goals? (Contact us if you’d like us to pray with you.)

About the Author: Rick Warren

“But if we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other. Then the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from every sin. If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:7–8 (NCV)

In Christian fellowship people should experience authenticity.

Authentic fellowship is not superficial, surface-level chit-chat. It’s genuine, heart-to-heart, sometimes gut-level, sharing.

It happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives. They share their hurts, reveal their feelings, confess their failures, disclose their doubts, admit their fears, acknowledge their weaknesses, and ask for help and prayer.

Authenticity is the exact opposite of what you find in many churches. Instead of an atmosphere of honesty and humility, there is pretending, role-playing, politicking, superficial politeness, and shallow conversation.

People wear masks, keep their guard up, and act as if everything is rosy in their lives. These attitudes are the death of real friendship.

It’s only as we become open about our lives that we experience authentic fellowship. The Bible says, “If we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other. . . . If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves” (1 John 1:7–8 NCV).

The world thinks intimacy occurs in the dark, but God says it happens in the light. We tend to use darkness to hide our hurts, faults, fears, failures, and flaws. But in the light, we bring them all out into the open and admit who we really are.

Of course, being authentic requires both courage and humility. It means facing our fear of exposure, rejection, and being hurt again.

Why would anyone take such a risk?

Because it’s the only way to grow spiritually and be emotionally healthy. The Bible says, “Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed” (James 5:16 MSG).

Questions: Are you presently engaged in forming authentic friendships? Could you start with cultivating an authentic friendship with God?

About the Author:  Rick Warren

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“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19)

The Bible says we should be quick to listen. There are three things that generally hinder our ability to hear what others are saying:

1) Presumption – This is when we think we already know what the other person is going to say; yet, the Bible says, “He who answers before listening – that is his folly and hisshame.” (Proverbs 18:13 NIV)

2) Impatience-This is when you interrupt and jump to conclusions: “There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking.” (Proverbs 29:20 NLT)

3) Pride – This is when we become defensive and unteachable: “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.” (Proverbs 12:15 NIV)

What does this mean?

Let me suggest three HEARING AIDS:
· Listen with your eyes – Research suggests that about 80 percent of communication is non-verbal.Our facial expressions and body language tend to tell the real story.
· Listen with your heart – Be sympathetic.Tune in to the emotions behind the words.
· Make time to listen to the people around you – You show people how much you value them when you take time to listen. Imagine how your home or where you work might be transformed if you make an effort to be “quick to listen.”

Question: Do you sometimes find it difficult to listen? Do others sometimes find it tough to listen to you?

About the Author: Rick Warren