January 6, 2013 … Gettng Ahead of God’s Will

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 6

Passage of the Day: John 3: 27 [NLT] … 27 John [the Baptist] replied, “God in heaven appoints each person’s work….”
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Contextual Reference Passage: … To study today’s highlight passage in context, go to John 3: 22-36 by using this link … 
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Reference Passage: 1st Chronicles 29: 13-14 : [NLT] … Using this link to study this passage ...  {King David prayed to God, dedicating the materials God had given His children to build the Temple, … the Temple which David was anointed to plan and Solomon to build; and David recognized the truth that in this live we can only build what God gives us to build under His will.}

My Journal for Today: Have you ever watched some project or plan which you put together “go up in smoke” as all your work fell apart all around you? And maybe your remembrance is saying, “Yep; … been there and I have the memory T-shirt to prove it!” … Well, perhaps that project or those plans didn’t pan out because you jumped into the project under YOUR WILL and YOUR PLANNING and God couldn’t bless the project with His providence because it wasn’t HIS WILL and HIS PLANS for your life.

That’s the principle Oz Hillman, my devotional editor, has laid out in a couple of passages from God’s word for today. The first one is a passage describing John the Baptist. laying out the reality of Jesus as THE MESSIAH to those who had been disciples of John. He explained to them that Jesus was THE ONE; and in today’s highlight passage from John 3, he was pointing out that it is God, in the Person of Jesus, who must be the One Who lays out the plans for our lives. And this principle was also recognized by King David when he dedicated the plans for God’s Temple in 1st Chronicles 29, by praising God for the providence THE LORD HAD PROVIDED to build the Temple that HE, THE LORD, would lead them to build for God’s glory.

And if you’re reading along with me today, I’ll bet you know that it’s a human default, especially for us men, to want to “do it FOR God” … rather than to “do it WITH God.” I’ve always been one who had a tendency to run out ahead and do it MY WAY rather than patiently waiting for God to show me how to carry out HIS plans and do life HIS way. Am I sensing someone out there saying … “Ugh … me too?”

Well, let’s take some absolutely true and very pertinent advice from King David and John the Baptist, and wait on God’s plans to show us His way and then patiently wait on God’s providence to give us what HE DESIRES and what HE HAS PLANNED for us to complete HIS WORK. And when we do it HIS WAY, it will be for HIS GLORY.

My Prayer for Today Lord, thanks for the reminder to move out with YOUR plans in YOUR timing … and to do life …YOUR way. … Amen