Gods Purpose for Me is Right Under My Nose

I get hyped up (often it seems) to seek out God's purpose for me. I think of grandiose things like serving in the Sudan or working with Samaritan's Purse Disaster Relief full-time. I've considered ministry and have longed to leadership in whatever church I'm attending.

I can't tell you if it is wisdom that comes with age(ing) or if God is finally just able to connect with e through my thick skull after all these years, but I'm starting to understand my purpose better.

It doesn't come with some great plan of things to come but instead comes in the everyday. God wants to use me right here, right now. It may be only speaking to one person today and portraying the love of Christ but it is today.

I'm a planner in general so this is hard for me. Yet I hear God telling me not to forget His purpose for me today while I'm busily planning out tomorrow.

Pray for God to use you TODAY and be open to His leading. If tomorrow comes... repeat!

Matthew 6:34 tells us "Don't worry about tomorrow...". I'm going to set that in my heart today.

Retooling my DevotionalTime

How many of you have those times when you just can't seem to get out of first gear with your daily devotions. I've been that way lately and some mornings I can't even get out of Park!

For the last year-and-a-half I've been using a really cool Bible reading plan (http://eword.gospelcom.net/year/31/cjan01.htm). It is a chronological reading of the Bible. What is so cool about it is that there are so many portions of the Bible that deal with the same time period and same events yet they are books apart in the Bible. This reading plan pulls them together.

That being said, it is time for something different. I don't want to do the 'ol read a short passage and then read a 'relevant' story of today either though. That to me isn't studying the Bible. It is equivalent to listening to a sermon where the pastor reads a short passage then takes off on a story for the rest of the sermon. In these situations, the Bible is only being used as a springboard instead of a textbook on life.

No, I need to come up with something different. What is coming to mind right off and is using my study notes from the weekly message from my church as a focus area. I usually have no less than 20 Bible references and passages included in my notes. Journaling on that may be an interesting option. What do you think?

One other practice that I will continue though is reading a chapter of Psalms and Proverbs each day. This allows me to read Psalms close to 5 times per year and Proverbs 12 times per year.

What kind of plan do you have? If you don't have one, consider the one above. Remember, if you don't aim for a goal, you'll likely miss the mark!

Blessings as we all learn together from the Textbook on Life... God's Word... The Bible.