2020-05-04
Psalm 16:7 NKJV
When you’re faced with a problem that overwhelms you, break it down into smaller, more manageable parts so you can focus on each of them more effectively. Don’t try to juggle the whole thing in your head; put it down in writing so you can get a clearer picture. One of those small parts may be the key that opens the door. And if you still can’t find a solution, take it to God in prayer. The psalmist said, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me” (Psalm 138:8 NKJV). If something is of concern to you, it’s of concern to the God who loves you. Pray: “Lord, I’m giving this problem to you and I’m going to sleep.” When you do that, you can awaken in the morning with an amazingly simple solution to the overwhelming problem you had the night before. The psalmist said, “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons.” God knows what you don’t know, and prayer gives you access to His knowledge. Five loaves and two fish in a boy’s hands won’t feed five thousand people. But when he put it into Christ’s hands, it multiplied and they had twelve basketsful left over. Strategic thinking works best when God is the foundation of your strategy, when you stand on His Word and claim His promise: “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV). God will do it through you, as long as you remember you can’t do it without Him.
Soul food: Num 7; Mark 6:14-29; Ps 37:8-15; Prov 11:3
2020-05-03
Proverbs 13:16 NKJV
By taking the time to acquire knowledge, you’ll be ready for the opportunities life brings. If you are not prepared, they’ll pass you by and go to others. God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Observe: (1) Strategic thinking prepares you for the future. None of us know what tomorrow will bring. “Don’t brag about your plans for tomorrow – wait and see what happens” (Proverbs 27:1 TLB). The only thing that’s worse than the uncertainty of tomorrow is having no plan and strategy for your life. (2) Strategic thinking reduces the margin of error. Any time you shoot from the hip, you increase your margin of error. It’s like a golfer stepping up to a ball and hitting it before lining up the shot. Misaligning a shot by a few degrees can send your ball a hundred yards off target. Strategic thinking lines up your actions with your objectives, just as lining up a shot in golf helps you to put the ball closer to the pin. The better you are aligned with your target, the better the odds that you will be going in the right direction. (3) Strategic thinking gives you influence with others. One executive quipped, “Our company has a short-range plan and a long-range plan. Our short-range plan is to stay afloat long enough to make it to our long-range plan.” That’s hardly a strategy, yet it’s the position some of us find ourselves in. The person with the plan is the one with the power. Whatever activity you’re involved in, strategic thinking is essential to success. Talk to God about it.
Soul food: Matt 5:9; Rom 12:17-21; Jam 3:17-18; Prov 16:7
2020-05-02
Ephesians 5:15-16 NLT
Strategic thinking helps you to plan, to become more efficient, to maximize your strengths, and to find the most direct path toward achieving your God-given assignment in life. The benefits of strategic thinking are numerous. Here are a few of them: (1) Strategic thinking simplifies the difficult. It takes complex issues and long-term objectives that can be very difficult to address, and breaks them down into manageable sizes. Anything becomes simpler when you have a plan! The Bible says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5 NIV). (2) Strategic thinking helps you to ask the right questions. Take a look at the following questions developed by Bobb Biehl, author of Masterplanning. “Direction: What should we do next? Why? Organization: Who is responsible for what? Who is responsible for whom? Do we have the right people in the right places? Cash: What is our projected income, expense, net? Can we afford it? How can we afford it? Tracking: Are we on target? Overall evaluation: Are we achieving the quality we expect and demand of ourselves? Refinement: How can we be more effective and more efficient?” These may not be the only questions you need to ask in order to begin formulating a strategic plan, but they are a good first step. Until you take the first step, you’ll remain stuck. Until you get over your need to do it perfectly, you won’t do it at all. You ask, “When should I start?” Today!
Soul food: Num 4:34-6:27; Mark 6:1-13; Ps 37:1-7; Prov 11:1-2
2020-05-01
John 20:24 NKJV
The Bible says: “Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails…and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, ‘Peace to you!’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!'” (vv. 24-28 NKJV). Note the words “Thomas, called the Twin.” Do you know who the other twin is? You! Whoever you are, reading this page today, you are Thomas’s twin. Think about it: How often have you doubted God’s love, His goodness, His grace, His faithfulness, and His promises? So what’s the solution? An up-close-and-personal encounter with Jesus like Thomas had. It happens when you read His Word and a verse leaps off the page, causing you to exclaim, “My Lord and my God!” It happens in conversation with a friend when he or she shares such wisdom and insight that you find yourself saying, “My Lord and my God!” It happens when you pray like the psalmist: “Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey your word. Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions” (Psalm 119:17-18 NLT).
Soul food: Num 3:1-4:33; Mark 5:31-43; Ps 2; Prov 10:30-32
2020-04-30
Job 2:10 NKJV
If you could ask God one question and be guaranteed an answer, what would you ask? When pollster George Barna asked this question in a national survey, the primary response was: “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?” The short answer is: Christ’s first coming was to save us from the penalty of our sin; His second coming is to save us from the presence of sin and restore paradise lost. But at some point in your life you will face pain and suffering. Job was a good and godly man, yet all ten of his children died tragically in a single day. “Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!’ But he said to her…’Shall we indeed accept good from God, and…not…adversity?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (vv. 9-10 NKJV). Observe two things about adversity. First, the opposite of integrity [wholeness] is fragmentation; we either fall apart or draw closer to God. Second, what we say is crucial: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” Yes, he grieved deeply. And he had lots of questions for God, including unanswered ones. Yet when he spoke, here’s what he said: “He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:10-12 NKJV).
Soul food: Num 1-2; Mark 5:21-30; Ps 35; Prov 10:28-29
2020-04-29
John 17:4 NIV
Over half of those who enter the ministry quit within ten years because of stress and discouragement. How can you avoid that? By following Christ’s example. How did Jesus do it? He tells us: “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does…By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (John 5:19-20, 30 NIV). That sounds simple, right? Simple – but not easy. People will try to talk you into doing good things that are not necessarily God’s highest priority for you. You can spend your life doing the “good” and never get around to doing the “best.” Jesus said, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” If God doesn’t give it to you, don’t take it on. And if He does, don’t try it without His help. Grandfather clocks come with two simple instructions: First, don’t let it run down. Second, don’t wind it too tight. Why did Jesus rise before dawn to pray and sometimes pray all night? To avoid getting run-down, or wound up too tight! The Bible says, “Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall” (Psalm 55:22 NLT). But He can only carry them when you give them to Him.
Soul food: Jam 3-5; Mark 5:11-20; Ps 94:12-23; Prov 10:27
