“Some people come into our lives and quietly go. Others stay awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same.” -Anonymous
Are You and I the type of person that just comes and goes in peoples lives without ever leaving any real lasting impact?
or
Are we the type of person leaves footprints in the lives of the people that the Lord has placed on the same path as us in life?
How are your schoolmates, teammates, family, friends, ….enemies… going to remember you?
Will you just come and go and leave no lasting impact on their lives or will you be the one (and possibly the only one) who when they think back on their coming in contact with you are struck by the overwhelming influence of Christ in your life that overflowed out of you to them?
“Lord, make me a person who intentionally makes lasting impacts in peoples lives for You and Your glory….so that when they think of me…they remember You!
Kept in Christ,
John Baldwin
No one ever becomes wise on accident or by chance. This godly wisdom that we’ve been talking about pursuing as we’ve begun our study in Proverbs is just that….a pursuit!
You can’t say, “Lord make me wise!” While never seeking the wisdom He offers in His Word!
Pursue Him! Seek Him! Keep plugging in! Keep pressing on! There is nothing else that you can desire that can ever compare to the Lord!”
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
and the one who gets understanding,
for the gain from her (wisdom) is better than gain from silver
and her profit better than gold.
She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
(Proverbs 3:13-15 ESV)
“Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he’ll eat forever…..”
“I’m sorry, I’m done giving away fishies…There’ll be no fishing lessons here….I’ve been changed by His grace, I now hand out lakes!”
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make straight your paths.
(Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV)
Almost always God will deliberatly stack the odds against you to remind you that the battle is not yours but His and that all victory is found in Him and no one else. No matter how bleak the circumstances may seem or how much we want to take things into our own hands in a futile attempt to control our destiny, we are called to lean not on our understanding but His!
Remember Gideon…? Surrounded by an enemy approximetly 135,000 strong and himself only having 32,000 men to fight. That’s roughly 4 to 1 odds against Gideon. Yet what was God’s response….?
God said, “To many Gideon.”
Then through a process of elimination God sifted Gideon’s forces down to 300 men!!! That’s 450 to 1 odds against Gideon.
Gideon had no hope but to hope in God!
Common sense and worldly council would surely urge someone in that situation to take the easy way out and surrender to the enemy, accept defeat, reject God’s deliverence……just as our common sense (i.e. own understanding) and worldly council will most surely do the same for us when facing the trying times when we need to trust God.
As God extends His hand and says, “Trust Me! Follow Me!” Are you willing to jump off whatever spiritual cliff thats before you without knowing for sure that there is anything at the bottom to catch you?
Am I trusting Him? Whatever the cost? Whatever the outcome? However high the cliff?
“When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.” -unknown
The higher people’s demands of you, the more unforgiving, unrelenting, and unappreciative they will be when you don’t deliver to their expectations. You are not defined by your failures but by His strength. His power is made perfect in our weakness!
Live to please Christ, not man!
