You are reading the Word of God and you hear God’s voice, and the Holy Spirit speaks to you. God has a plan for us. If we live in this plan, we have a life in abundance. But if we are not in God’s plan, we cannot enjoy this life. Outside of God’s plan there is no real life. We want to live in God’s plan, but God must reveal this plan to people through the Word of God and Holy Spirit.
Apart from the voice of our common sense, we often hear the voice of our feelings. Also feelings have a voice. But neither this voice always reflects what God says. Our feelings are changing, quite often they depend on outer factors – our mood, weather, how tired we are, etc. If we listen to our feelings only, our chances to constant success are eliminated.
For instance, you can often feel lonely, weak, unloved, a failure, etc. Nevertheless, such feelings often do not accord with reality. If you are lead by your feelings and take them as truth, you will not be able to enjoy the life in abundance that God has prepared for you. God gives this life only to those who hear His voice and follow Him!
God speaks constantly! The question is whether you hear what He says.
God created everything by His Word, and He holds everything together by the power of His Word.
“And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3).
If we learn to appreciate and cherish everything that God does in our lives, then it will be natural for us to sacrifice or build and altar for God.
Know that when speaking about sacrifice, God will never ever ask you for something that you do not have! His love does not require that, God’s love is not abusive. If you truly love someone, you will never ask from them what they do not have.
Forget about what you do not have, think about what you do have. Be sure that you own a lot!
What is our response like today? How do we express our gratitude to God for the fact that we live, that He protects us, that He has saved us, that we breathe, walk, and we have families and children? What God is doing for us today – does it help us be more open, sacrifice more and become better worshippers?
You cannot say you love and at the same time neglect spending time with the one whom you love. It is simply not possible! Time is our life. By spending time with the one whom you love, you are giving or sharing with them part of your life.
In order to earn money, you need time; in order to spend money, you need time. If you have money but do not have time to spend it, this money will not bring you any blessings. If you lose the money, you can earn it back tomorrow. But if you lose time, you are not getting it back!
I want to tell you that singing to God, praising Him, enjoying His presence is not a difficult task at all, if we will only take a moment to reflect or think of His grace. Even when you are having very hard times in life, you can still find something in your life that you can thank God for. Even when you think everything in your life is falling to pieces and your situation is the worst on earth, nevertheless, continue to believe – you simply have not encountered a situation that is worse than yours. But, when you see such a situation, you will find that you live in paradise.
It is not hard to love God – simply think about Him, think about what He does for you every day, and your natural response will be gratefulness. Worshipping God will become a natural thing for those who think about Him and His works. God loves you very much. But, if you live and at the same time do not think about Him, do not see what He does for you, it is hard for you to sacrifice; particularly – it is hard for you to sacrifice your busy daily schedule, your finances, your time, your comfort, because you do not think about Him.
Love is not feelings, it is self-sacrifice, but self-sacrifice – it is decision.
Of course, there are feelings in love. But, if we love God, our mutual relationships with God do not consist of feelings alone.
The Bible talks about people whom God calls His friends. Why were these people special? All of them proved their love for God with self-sacrifice. They did not afford themselves do many things only because they loved God and longed for friendship with Him.
Where love goes, sacrifice follows. Thus, the depth of my love can be measured by my readiness to sacrifice. Many people say that they love God, but we can’t forget that our love is not measured by our confession alone. Our love is measured by the sacrifices we make!
