Wednesday Devo

Read Luke 6:12-19. Jesus didn't go to the finest schools to find his disciples. He didn't use popular opinion to solidify who would be apart of the official 12. He found men he knew he could shape - who were hungry for God and he got alone with his father long enough to hear what the creator had to say.

The methods we use to make decisions are often very worldly. Worldly methods usually look out the outward appearance while God looks at the heart. Worldly methods often speed things up but are deficient in quality. When is the last time we spent all night in prayer or 1/2 a night or even an hour at night when getting ready to make a big decision. 

We can fret and worry and stress for days. What if we just spent a night in prayer? God's methods are always a bit strange but they should be - strange to this world. His methods are from a different world. I Peter 2:11, "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens ands strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, thought they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."

Many times when I work with couples I give them a big picture to help on their relationship. If couples will discover God's vision for the relationship and use his methods - relationships work. Some of God's methods for relationship that seem alien to this world are: bless those who curse you, pray for your enemy, submit to one another, don't complain about anything, consider others better than yourself, when angry first retreat to God and let him absorb your emotion etc.

questions

1) What methods of the worlds have you been choosing over God's? (in conflicts, money, relationships, entertainment, attitude, vocabulary, thought life...)

2) What makes it hard for you to chose God's methods over the worlds? simply trusting? looking silly? knowing God's methods? remembering God's methods?

3) Jesus didn't need the greatest seminary students he just needed some followers who were radically open to God. How open are you to doing whatever God is calling you to do? Where might God be asking you to expand your comfort zone?

prayer

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

(read this prayer of David again super slow - spent several seconds on each word thinking about and applying its meaning. For example - what does the word "the" mean? God is not just any Lord but "the" Lord". What does Lord mean" - what does the word "is" say - God presently "is" our shepherd - not past or future - but present. Finish the prayer looking at each word like this - ask the Holy Spirit to guide you - He will! This is a method of meditating on scripture.