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Surrendering to God is the heart of worship. My natural response to an understanding of what God has done for me should be to surrender my life fully to Him. There are three barriers to trusting God: Fear. Before I can fully surrender myself to God I need to be able to trust Him. Fearfulness can keep me from fully trusting Him and trusting His plans for me. Pride. My human pride can keep me from surrendering to God. The …
Day nine of The Purpose Driven Life begins with the statement, “The smile of God is the goal of your life.” And certainly Rick Warren has been building to this statement. Because pleasing God is the first purpose of my life, it is crucial that I understand how to do that. To illustrate how to please God, Warren uses the example of Noah. Noah was a man who pleased God and in his time was the only righteous man on …
Two completely unrelated events gave me the inspiration for this article. The first was an awards show that I did not watch and the second was a drive home from a rather dull meeting. The American Music Awards were presented this week and for just the third year, one was presented in the category of Favorite Artist in Contemporary Inspirational Music with Steven Curtis Chapman taking home the award. Not being a fan of award shows, I merely read about …
I was planned for God’s pleasure. With this sentence Rick Warren begins day eight of The Purpose Driven Life and his discussion of the first of my five purposes. The first purpose of my life is to bring enjoyment and pleasure to God. As the crowning achievement of His creation, I can bring Him pleasure like nothing else. Bringing pleasure to God is called “worship.” Therefore, anything that I do that brings Him pleasure is an act of worship. The …
It’s all for Him. It’s that simple really. The reason God created everything is to show His glory. This leads to the question of what is God’s glory? Warren answers this by saying, “it is the essence of His nature, the weight of His importance, the radiance of His splendor, the demonstration of His power, and the atmosphere of His presence.” I would suggest you read that again because there is some incredible depth in that sentence. Since the dawn …
In my Home Church (Bible Study / Cell Group) this week we are studying the prophet Daniel. Specifically we will be examining him as a shining example of a man who stood firm in his convictions. When commanded to cease worshipping God, he never considered disobeying God. Instead, he pressed on with his routine of praying three times each day. He knew there would be fearsome consequences, yet trusted that obeying God was preferable to any punishment he could face …
Day six of The Purpose Driven Life finishes Warren’s thoughts about “how I see my life shapes my life.” You will recall he said yesterday that the Bible offers three metaphors for life: life is a test, a trust and a temporary assignment. Today we cover the last of these metaphors. The Bible is filled with teachings on the brevity of life. To make the most of life I need to realize that compared with eternity, life is fleeting. I …
As I have launched into my 40-day study in The Purpose Driven Life I have found that some people are not familiar with who Rick Warren is. I am providing this as a brief introduction to Rick Warren as well as an introduction to why I am investing so much time in studying his book. Rick Warren is founder and pastor of Saddleback Church, one of America’s largest churches. Saddleback, in Lake Forest, California, is associated with the Southern Baptist …
“The way I see my life shapes my life” is how chapter five of The Purpose Driven Life begins. That sounds very “Anthony Robbins to me!” Warren asks the question of if I were to think of my life as a picture, what image would come to mind? I had never stopped to consider what life metaphor I hold to, but at his request I gave it some thought and really did not come up with anything convincing. I have …
Day four of The Purpose Driven Life picks up where day three left off. After ending the previous day with an explanation of how this life is but a dress rehearsal for eternity, Warren keeps his focus on eternity. He says that earth is just “the preschool, the tryout for your life in eternity.” Humans were created to live forever, and regardless of who I am or what I believe, I will live forever. My time on earth is only …