Have you ever asked God for a loud and clear confirmation for your career? Our foreign correspondent Alex shares an amazing story which comes all the way from Europe.
How do you hear from God? For the longest time I was so frustrated because I always heard people around me “getting downloads” while I was apparently deaf.
Everything changed about a year ago. I was really seeking God’s direction and guidance, I was faced with several big decisions, one of which being a big career move – leaving LA and transferring to Europe. This made me uneasy and I was absolutely starving for God’s direction. I went back to what I knew and that was the Truth from the Bible. Jesus says,
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks the door will be opened” (Luke 11:9-10).
All of us struggle with giving in our own way. Some give out of their means, others can’t fathom the idea of gifting. Regardless of your stance on this issue, always remember that God gave us a priceless gift: the life of His only son. We should all embrace that to give in God’s eyes is to shed ourselves of worldly expectations. Hopefully this will be in our hearts as we enter the Christmas season.
With Christmas around the corner, many of us find ourselves making more trips to the mall and perusing more Holiday catalogs in a week than we otherwise would in a year.Although all of this is done with loving intentions and in good spirit, we have to be careful because too much fixation on the gift itself could lead to an expectation for something in return.
God remembers us even when we forget about Him. He is prevalent in our daily activities and will take the appropriate steps to remind us of our greater purpose in life: serving Him, not ourselves. Next time we find ourselves acting outside the norm or taking things to heart, we should think and ask: have we forgotten who we live for?
I’ve been receiving all kinds of messages from different places about God at work. Talking about religion at the workplace can be an odd topic at work due to all the politics involved and although I’m conscious of these things, God has continuously given me the strength to speak out about my faith. He’s truly blessed me at this place and I’m here to do His will.
In the last few days, I forgot about why God put me here and He was quick to remind me.
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Yesterday was just another day at work, but towards the end of the day, my supervisor communicated something that offended me. I had turned one of my projects in and his response was, “This is not your best work. You could’ve spent a little bit more time before sending it to me.” I don’t know why that pierced me, but it did and instead of my taking his comments as constructive criticism, I broke down crying.
I came home, made myself some dinner with a glass of wine and was really thinking about what had happened earlier that day. What was the root of my crying? Why was my work not up to my usual standard? That’s when it hit me. I was doing it for me, not for God. I started laughing when I realized this.
When I walked into work this morning, I was rejuvenated with God at the forefront of my mind and the Holy Spirit quenched me of a thirst I didn’t even know I had. What I can say is this: I am thankful for His grace and for Him choosing me to be an instrument of His grace.
Have you ever felt like God was speaking to you? Our Editor Dan shares a story of how finding the perfect verse at the perfect time increased his intimacy with the Lord.
A few weeks ago God totally bailed me out. The leader of our house church had asked me to prepare a message for a special Good Friday event we were hosting at my house. I was meaning to spend time in prayer and in the Word to find the perfect lesson plan. But as often happens, I got caught up in all the worldly details of our event. I cleaned the house, bought chairs for everyone to sit, coordinated food for the night, emailed people to attend, but by the time 6:30 rolled around, I was panicked. It was only an hour before we were scheduled to start - and I had no message prepared whatsoever. So I went upstairs and started to pray…[click “Read More” below to continue]
What makes a man rich? Our friend John shares a story of how God used a piece of gold to teach him true value.
At the beginning of the new year, the GBS family went up to a campsite located near the Cajon Pass for a weekend retreat. I had no expectations, other than that I would try and be a faithful servant. On the drive up we noticed there were people parked along the frontage road off I-15. When we got off the freeway I spotted a couple of people along the shores of the Mojave River panning for something.
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The next day we went up to the prayer caves dug into the side of the mountain to pray. After a week of heavy rains, a small gorge had been carved out leading to the drainage tunnel under the road. I climbed into the half-filled drainage tunnel and looked around. My eye caught a glimpse of a shiny yellow rock as the sun’s light faded. I picked up the nugget and put it in my pocket, with the plan to look at it later in better light. I joined the others in the caves and prayed as the afternoon faded to dusk.
That night after dinner, I emptied out my pockets in the cabin and realized I had forgotten about the yellow nugget I found earlier. Excited, I went to the bathroom, where the light seemed the brightest, to take a better look at the yellow rock. The more I looked at it under the weak flourescent light, the more it looked like gold. Hastily I showed the golden nugget to anyone who would listen, each time with growing confidence that it might possibly be real gold.
Early Sunday morning before the dawn of sunlight, I went to the prayer caves alone to pray. I was excited with what I had discovered and wanted to pray and give thanks to God. I searched the Bible and found a passage on treasure and read. “Do not save up for yourselves treasures here on earth, where moths and rust destroy and thieves break-in and steal. But save up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:19-20
In the bright light of the morning sun I realized that I had not discovered real gold, but fools gold. I had made a fool of myself for being so sure it was real gold. But the real importance of what I found was in it’s symbolism. The Day is coming soon when the gold we store up in heaven will be tested in the refiner’s fire. We live our lives not for worldly treasures but for the goal of finishing in heaven. The race we run begins when we accept Christ as our savior and the finish line is when we die. ”his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.” 1 Corinthians 3:13
I realized the true gold I had discovered was the fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ, the GBS family I had recently found. It is genuine faith that brings praise, glory and honor to our Lord Jesus. So if we live our lives for Christ, then Christ is within all of us who believe. “These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:7
So regardless of where you are in the race of life, whether it is halfway run or you’re behind everyone. Do not worry and give haste. Although you can’t get the time you’ve wasted and give it back to Christ. We can finish the race strong from this day forward and live our lives for Christ. From when we accept Christ we live the rest of our lives for Him and run the race knowing that we have Christ within us that gives us our strength. ”Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:24
On the final day of the retreat Neil Cole gave a testimony about his father-in-law Ray who passed away with dementia. Ray’s life made me realize that what made him a great man was Christ in him. Although dementia had stripped away the character of the man family and friend’s knew as Ray. What remained in Ray to the end was Christ, who continually manifested Himself in him.
So let us be encouraged by each others faith and live our lives so that when all is stripped away in our lives, that what remains with in us, is Christ. The true gold I had discovered at prayer retreat was the gold that is within my GBS brothers and sisters in Christ. ”Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25
Have you ever prayed the same prayer over and over waiting for an answer? Our friend Caroline shares how she was once lost, searching for purpose, but now has found drive and a calling.
