4 Steps You Can Take to Hear from God

Here are 4 steps you can take to make sure you hear from God.

1. Find a quiet place.  Your place does not need to be silent.  A babbling brook or trees filled with singing birds make a fine backdrop as you listen for God’s voice.  Songs of praise and worship can also be helpful.  Simply find a place where you can be alone with the Holy Spirit.
2. Write down your thoughts.  Take along paper and pen to record your impressions.  Keep a small notebook and pencil in your pocket all the time.  You never know when you might hear from God.

What’s your motivation for following Jesus?

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Do you follow Jesus to avoid hell?  Or do you follow him to gain heaven?  You’d be amazed at the difference your motivation can make in you daily life.

Check out this post from Micheal Hyatt’s blog by Mary Demuth: Living for the Future

4 Everyday Drills to Improve Your Integrity

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The apostle Paul gives at least 4 Everyday Drills to Improve Your Integrity in 1 Timothy 4:12-16.

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.  Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.  Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.  Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.  Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Drill #1: I will spend significant time each day studying and applying the Bible.

How to Marry Even If You’ve Been Divorced

Can we get married even though we’ve been divorced?

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A dear sister wrote me the following note last week. I’ve edited it some to hide personal details.  You too can ask questions by leaving them here.

“I’ve been divorced a long time.  I am dating a godly Christian man.  Unfortunately, he was  married and divorced twice before he became a Christian.  His third marriage ended after he started to follow Christ, because his wife divorced him.  We have been dating a while and want to be married.  Yet, we both want to please God in this relationship, and don’t want another mistake.  Are there any special things we should do or look for in our new relationship?  What would God say about the sin of divorce before he was a Christian?  Help!”

First, I want to deal with the easiest question you asked.

7 Great Ways to Refresh Your Spirit Today

1. Slow down and smell the roses.  Or if the roses are still hibernating, enjoy the brisk beauty of frost, ice and snow.
2. Pray the Lord’s Prayer several times.  Don’t simply recite it, pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray.  Pray for your loved ones, for your enemies and for yourself.

A Quick Guide to Seeking God during Lent

I want to be closer to God by the end of Lent.  I’ve read in the Bible about seeking God’s face.  How can I “seek God’s face” in prayer?

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 Psalm 27:8    My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”  Your face, LORD, I will seek.

Psalm 46:10  “Be still, and know that I am God….”

Four Results of Seeking God’s Face

• As you express your desire to be closer to God, he will give you a renewed sense of his love for you.

How to End Your Prayer Problems

Just in time for Lent: Here are a few suggestions on how to end your prayer problems

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Prayer problems fall into two major categories:

(1) things that are wrong in your attitudes or actions; or
(2) things that can interfere with your concentration and hinder the effectiveness of your time alone with God.

Attitudes and Actions Which Hinder Prayer

• Wanting your own will and not God’s will. (1 John 5:14).
• Selfishness and wrong motives (James 4:2-3).
  

Pilgrimage of Lent

Pilgrimage of Lent.  Great thoughts from my friend, Pastor Marcel Lamb.

The Shocking Truth about Lent

The truth about Lent is not a secret.

You know it.  Your friends know it.  But I’m going to say the shocking truth about Lent out loud.

Giving up something for Lent that you look forward to starting up again on Easter Sunday afternoon will never change you.  When you give up coffee or chocolate for Lent, you start counting down to Easter when you will wash down that 2 pound chocolate bunny with a half-gallon of Starbucks coffee.  After you wake up from that sugar and caffeine buzz, you go right back to being and acting like you did before Lent began.

Four Things God Wants You to Experience

There are at least four things God wants you to experience this week.  Are you ready for them?

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Are you ready to know God?
To know him in the reading of his Word?
To know him in the peace of his presence?
To know him in the privacy of prayer?
To know him in the splendor of the stars?
To know him in the molecules of life?
To know him in the knolls and vales of life?
Are you ready?