Trusting God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotions (7 page)

• Don’t get defensive. Remember, God is your defense; He is your vindicator.
  
• Don’t get angry or upset. Keep your peace, because peace brings power.
  
• Don’t retaliate with criticism toward your critic.
  
• Don’t assume your critic is wrong without being willing to examine yourself.
  
• Don’t assume your critic is right and start feeling guilty without consulting God.
  
• Thank your critics, because they help you see things others wouldn’t.
  

The Bible says only a fool hates correction (see Prov. 12:1), and although I believe that is true, I must say that in my life I have only known one person who I can honestly say appreciated it—and it wasn’t me, although I wish I could say it was. Probably like most of you, I am somewhere between hating correction and loving it, but I am striving to have a positive attitude toward correction as well as everything else in life.

T
here’s more to life than meets the eye—especially the natural eye. Things are not always what they appear to be, so we must learn to be discerning. Simply defined, discernment is spiritual understanding, and developing it takes practice. As we grow in our understanding of God’s Word and in our relationships with Him, we also grow in our ability to discern.

To live by discernment, we have to pay attention to our hearts. We have to know when we do not feel right about something. For example, let’s say a businessman has been looking for a certain kind of business deal for quite some time and an opportunity for such a deal finally presents itself. As he reviews the paperwork, the deal appears to be sound. But when he begins to pray about entering into the deal, he senses he should not do it. Even though everything appears to be in order, he just does not have peace about the deal. The more he prays, the more he feels he should not do business with the people involved in the deal. This man is looking beyond the natural elements of the deal and using his discernment.

The best way for me to help you learn to live by discernment is to offer this simple advice: if you don’t feel right about something in your heart, do not do it. You may discover later why you didn’t feel good about it, but you may not. Either way, you can be at peace knowing you used your discernment instead of making decisions based on your mind, your emotions, or natural circumstances. Discernment is a precious gift from God that will help you avoid a lot of trouble in life if you pay attention to it.

M
ost of the time, God does not speak to us in an audible voice. We hear Him in our hearts. Sometimes He speaks by reminding us of a truth or principle from His Word; sometimes He gives us thoughts or ideas we could not have had on our own; sometimes we simply have a strong sense of knowing what to do. We need to quiet all the noise in our lives and become sensitive to God’s still, small voice. We need to choose to listen to God because He will speak to us.

God does not only speak in the urgent or important matters of life. He also guides us in the most seemingly insignificant situations. I was on my way home one day and intended to stop and get a cup of coffee, when I had a strong impression that I should call my secretary and see if she wanted a cup, too. When I called, she said,
“I was just standing here thinking, I would love a good cup of coffee right now.”
You see, God wanted to give her the desire of her heart, and He wanted to work through me. I did not hear a loud voice or see an angel, nor did I have a vision; I simply had an inner sensing that I should offer her a cup of coffee. As a result, we both experienced great joy in knowing God cares about the smallest details of our lives.

Quite often we ignore little things like this. The more we do, the harder it is to develop sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. If someone is on your heart, I encourage you to pray for that person or call him or her and say,
“I was just thinking of you.”
You never know how a seemingly small thing like a phone call can alter a person’s day or maybe even change someone’s life. Let me encourage you today to keep your heart sensitive to God’s voice. He will speak to your heart and lead you in the way you should go.

I
n these verses, God makes plain His desire to lead and guide us, but He also tells us not to be stubborn. We need to follow Him willingly and joyfully.

I worked at a church in St. Louis for five years. I really liked my job there, but the time came when God wanted me to move on to something new. He said to me,
“Now I want you to take this ministry and go north, south, east, and west. I don’t need you here anymore. I want you to leave this place
.”

That place was where my ministry started. I had a fulfilling job, a regular paycheck, and my name on my office door. But God said,
“I’m finished with you here.”

“How can that be?”
I wondered.
“After all, I’m a pillar of this church. How can the place run without me?”

I continued to work at the church for a full year after God told me to leave, and that year was absolutely miserable. I did not understand why I was so unhappy, why there seemed to be no grace to do what I had great grace to do in previous years.

Finally, one morning, I cried out to God,
“God, what is wrong?”

He spoke to my heart,
“Joyce, I told you a year ago to leave and you’re still here.”
That was all He said.

God will not force us to follow Him. He gives us the gift of choice, so we can decide whether or not we will obey His leading. He will speak; He will lead; He will guide; He will make His plans and desires clear.
But He will not force His will on us; we must consciously and deliberately choose to follow Him.

W
e often ask people if they “got” something, particularly when we speak of spiritual matters.
“Did you ‘get’ a breakthrough?”
we want to know, or
“Did you ‘get’ your blessing?”
Is the idea of “getting” from God biblical? The Bible teaches us about
receiving
, not about getting. The difference between getting and receiving is significant. To “get” means “to obtain by struggle and effort.”

When everything in your life requires effort, life becomes frustrating and exhausting—and that’s not the kind of abundant life Jesus came to give us. No, God wants us to live with a holy ease, a grace that keeps us from striving and struggling through life. That doesn’t mean everything will be easy, but it means even difficult things can be done with a sense of God’s presence and help.

“Getting” puts the burden on us to have to figure out things, to manipulate circumstances, and to try to force situations to work out a certain way. Receiving, on the other hand, means we simply take in what is being offered freely. We don’t strive; we simply relax and enjoy what comes to us.

God wants to give us so much more than we can imagine. He is waiting to pour out blessings in our lives, and we need to know how to receive—both from Him and from others. Sometimes God works miraculously to meet our needs, but He frequently works through other people. If we pray for help, then we must let God choose how and through whom He will send it. We should not be embarrassed to be needy, because we are all needy in some way or another. God did not intend for us to be so independent we would never need help.

H
ave you ever been absolutely sure you were right about something? Your mind appeared to have a store of facts and details to prove you were right—but you ended up being wrong. What did you do? Did you admit your error, or did you keep pushing and trying to find a way to defend your position?

In the past, when my husband and I were watching a movie or television show, we often argued over which actors and actresses were portraying the characters. It seemed to me that Dave thought Henry Fonda played half the characters in movies.

“Oh, look,”
he’d say as we watched a movie on television.
“Henry Fonda is in this movie.”

“That’s not Henry Fonda,”
I’d answer back, and we’d start arguing and bickering. Both of us were so intent on being right that we would
insist on staying up much later than we should, just so we could see the credits roll at the end. Then one of us could say,
“I told you so!”

Why do we want so desperately to be right about things? Why is it so difficult to be wrong? Why is it so important for us to “win” in a disagreement?

For years I felt bad about who I was, and in order to feel any confidence at all, I had to be right all the time. So I would argue and go to great extremes to prove I was right. I lived in frustration as I tried to convince everyone that I knew what I was talking about.

It wasn’t until my identity became rooted and grounded in Christ that I began to experience freedom in this area. Now I know my worth and value do not come from appearing right to others. Trusting what Jesus says about me is enough.

F
or a long time I was an expert at trying to convince others that my way was the right way, but as the Holy Spirit has convicted me in this area, I have learned to be quiet when I find myself in the middle of a disagreement.

Both Dave and I have learned to listen to the Holy Spirit in this area. There are times when we just do not agree. My husband is very adaptable and accommodating. But there are certain issues that both of us feel very strongly about, and no one is going to convince either of us that we are wrong, except for God Himself.

Sometimes God convinces Dave, and sometimes He convinces me. If I press the issue trying to convince Dave, the harmony in our relationship is destroyed and strife enters our lives. But if I humble myself under the mighty hand of God and wait on Him, I have learned that He and He alone is able to convince my husband in certain situations.

Now whenever Dave and I are tempted to defend our pride by insisting that we are right, God has enabled us to say,
“I think I am right, but I may be wrong.”
It is absolutely amazing how many arguments we have avoided over the years by using that simple act of humility. I have found that when I obey the Holy Spirit’s prompting, a relationship can become harmonious once again.

Give your need to be right over to God, and watch your relationships improve. You’ll discover that great spiritual power is released in unity and harmony.