Empty hands let him fill with what he wants
God gave clear answer and felt like would go against God to keep pursuing
Attempting to do things myself in life is stupid! I am incapable of providing for myself and accomplishing anything even close to what He can provide and accomplish for me. And He wants to bless me in these ways. I must surrender. I must seek His guidance in all things. I must work hard to do my best in everything - I must do my part. In all of it, however; I must seek Him and allow Him to accomplish through me what He wants to.
I must not trust in my own capacities, I must trust in God and the talents He has blessed me with. David's defeat of Goliath is a tremendous example of this. David is not the hero here - God is. David was trusting in God to help Him. God had given David physical and mental talents, and David had worked hard to develop them, but at the same time He realized that in developing and implementing those talents, he needed the Lord's help to do so.
I believe a prayer that David may have prayed may very well have been, "Lord God, thank you for the talents you have blessed me with. I am going to work my hardest to get as good as possible at these talents, but I need your help to do so. I cannot be successful at getting good at, or accomplish, anything without Your help and blessing. So please Lord help me as I try to get as good as possible and please help me to do it all as worship to you. Please help me to worship you as I work to develop the talents you have blessed me with, and please help me to worship You as I use them. I cannot do ANY of these things without you."
As Christians, we must rely completely on the Lord. I know that non-Christians do accomplish success in this world by relying on their own abilities alone, but I believe that many times God prevents Christians from accomplishing things in these ways. I believe this is the case because He knows that what is best for us is to learn to rely on Him completely in everything, not just some things. Therefore, while some people who don't know Him may accomplish great things on their own strength, we can thank God that He often does not allow us to happen in the lives of us Christians because He loves us and knows that what is best is for us is for us to rely on Him completely for, and in, all things.
Tuesday, 22 July 2014
Authentic Manhood series notes
33 Men's Bible Study Notes
Tell your kids the following 4 things...
I love you
I will never lie to you
I will stick with you until you are grown
There are boundaries, don't cross them
Important to give kids the above because then you are providing emotional support, truth, security and discipline
I am a man. I am called to take care of myself and my family. I have to stop allowing Brie to take care of me. That is being a lazy little boy.
Is being married to me a blessing? How can I make myself better. I need to identify these things and put them into action.
Men go through seasons of life. We need to plan for those seasons by seeing how others planned for them before us and then following those plans which have been proven to lead to success. When I make a plan I need to do so with the end in mind. I need to seek God for where He would have me go and then make a plan for his to get there. Now He may not always tell me exactly where He would have me go or how He would have me get there, but I must still seek and then trust Him to lead me and accomplish the purposes that He has for me. As long as I am remaining obedient to God and His Word then I am in his will.
Seek out mentors who are in the next stage if life so that I can learn from them.
What we sow in one season we will reap in another season
In order to budget my time appropriately between work, family and God, I must create margins. It is good to work hard, but I must have margins so that I can go between these responsibilities smoothly and with appropriate ease
Seasons of life:
Spring - 18-20 - becoming a man
Summer- 20-30 - growth
Fall - 40-60 - influence
Winter -60 plus - sage/champion/coach
As a man I must always:
Reject passivity
Accept responsibility
Lead courageously
Invest eternally
In order to do these things, as well as to serve God in general, it is not so much about working harder and straining harder to serve God. This is important, however, this all is most effectively done when we are in such great communion with God that we serve and live effectively for Him naturally, out of the strength and ability that comes from being in constant communication with Him. Being in constant communication with Him also seeks to effectively motivate me to joyfully live for and serve Him.
The goal of life should be to try and make God look as great as He is by living for Him and loving Him and in doing so serving others.
Tell your kids the following 4 things...
I love you
I will never lie to you
I will stick with you until you are grown
There are boundaries, don't cross them
Important to give kids the above because then you are providing emotional support, truth, security and discipline
I am a man. I am called to take care of myself and my family. I have to stop allowing Brie to take care of me. That is being a lazy little boy.
Is being married to me a blessing? How can I make myself better. I need to identify these things and put them into action.
Men go through seasons of life. We need to plan for those seasons by seeing how others planned for them before us and then following those plans which have been proven to lead to success. When I make a plan I need to do so with the end in mind. I need to seek God for where He would have me go and then make a plan for his to get there. Now He may not always tell me exactly where He would have me go or how He would have me get there, but I must still seek and then trust Him to lead me and accomplish the purposes that He has for me. As long as I am remaining obedient to God and His Word then I am in his will.
Seek out mentors who are in the next stage if life so that I can learn from them.
What we sow in one season we will reap in another season
In order to budget my time appropriately between work, family and God, I must create margins. It is good to work hard, but I must have margins so that I can go between these responsibilities smoothly and with appropriate ease
Seasons of life:
Spring - 18-20 - becoming a man
Summer- 20-30 - growth
Fall - 40-60 - influence
Winter -60 plus - sage/champion/coach
As a man I must always:
Reject passivity
Accept responsibility
Lead courageously
Invest eternally
In order to do these things, as well as to serve God in general, it is not so much about working harder and straining harder to serve God. This is important, however, this all is most effectively done when we are in such great communion with God that we serve and live effectively for Him naturally, out of the strength and ability that comes from being in constant communication with Him. Being in constant communication with Him also seeks to effectively motivate me to joyfully live for and serve Him.
The goal of life should be to try and make God look as great as He is by living for Him and loving Him and in doing so serving others.
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