Setting Sail for a New Year

Setting Sail for a New Year
Pastor Adrian Rogers

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." Proverbs 29:18

Helen Keller was born blind, but she had vision. A reporter asked Miss Keller, "Is there anything worse than being born blind?"

"Yes," she said, "It is to have sight and no vision."

Do you have a vision for your life at the threshold of a new year? On New Year's Day, I review the goals for my life. These are spiritual, relational, intellectual, physical, and financial goals. I pray over these and ask for God's will to be done in each one. I hold them in an open hand and ask that God would give me wisdom as to the direction He wants for my life. I don't want to be a man without vision. I don't you to be one, either.

Begin to think about some goals you would like for your life. Pray and seek the Lord's face as you ponder the future.

For more from Love Worth Finding and Pastor Adrian Rogers, please visit www.lwf.org.

Seeing The Big Picture
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1, by Os Hillman
01-02-2011

..."Everything is against me!" - Genesis 42:36

Eventually, Benjamin along with Jacob's other sons learned that their brother Joseph was second in command in Egypt. Joseph revealed his identity, and Jacob was reunited with his son whom he had not seen for more than 13 years. He had thought Joseph to be dead.

So often we believe our dreams are dead. There seems to be nothing left in our world to live for. Everything appears to be against us. During these times, God is doing His deepest behind-the-scenes work. During these times, God is performing a deeper work in each of us -- a work that cannot be seen.

When clients began leaving my ad agency and it dried up for no apparent reason, it appeared "everything was against me." I could not see that God was orchestrating a whole new calling on my life. At the moment, it seemed like the worst thing in the world. It seemed that I had been a failure. But God said, "No." All the years before had been preparation for what God's ultimate calling would be. One of God's methods for directing His children's steps is through drying up resources: a job loss, a career change, or a disaster. In these times we are willing to listen more intently, and to seek God in ways we would not normally do. C.S. Lewis once wrote, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." [C.S.Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1962), 93.]


Today's Prayer
Dear God, Are there any areas in my life that have not come under the lordship of Christ? Is there any lack of obedience that will prevent me from being used fully by you? God, please search me, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me. Please lead me in the way everlasting (based on Psalm 139:23-34). I praise you and lift you up, for you are God Almighty. In Jesus' name I thank You. Amen.

Today God Is First (TGIF) devotional message, Copyright by Os Hillman, Marketplace



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