Month: September 2024

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“After waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.”  Hebrews 6:15 (NIV)

When you’re waiting on God, remember that you’re in good company.

Millions of saints before you have sat in God’s waiting room. You’re not alone! In fact, if you’re in the waiting room right now—maybe you’re waiting on a job, on an answer, or on a result—there are a lot of people around you who are in that same situation.

Hebrews 11:2 says, “People who lived in the past became famous because of faith” (ICB)—and every one of those people had to wait.

Think about Hannah, who had to wait years to have the baby that she was praying God would give her.

Think about Joseph, who had a God-given vision of being a ruler from a very young age but spent 14 years in a prison for a crime he did not commit.

Think of Moses, who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years while he waited for his next assignment and to know his purpose in life.

Think of Abraham, who waited a hundred years before he had Isaac, the child God had promised him years before.

Think about Noah, who waited 120 years before it rained.

Think of David, who was told he would be king but then was sent back to the pasture to shepherd for years before he ever saw the inside of a palace.

God waited thousands of years before sending the Messiah that had been promised. And he spent 400 years in silence before Jesus was born, with no message for the people who were waiting for deliverance.

Your wait may seem too long for you to handle. But there were many faithful people throughout history who waited far longer than you and still trusted in God’s goodness and promises.

We get in a hurry. But God is never in a hurry. Waiting is essential to your faith, so God is going to use all the time it takes to make you into the person he wants you to be.

Hebrews 6:15 says, “After waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised” (NIV).

While you’re waiting, remember those who have waited faithfully before you who saw God answer in ways even bigger than they imagined. Ask him to help you wait faithfully too.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“We are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age.”  Ephesians 6:12 (GNT)

There is an unseen battle going on in a realm that we don’t even understand, a spiritual war in other dimensions between good and evil, between God and Satan, between angels and demons—and you’re caught right in the middle. If you’re a child of God, Satan hates you. And he wants to mess you up.

Ephesians 6:12 says, “We are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age” (GNT).

When you pray, there’s often a battle over how it’s going to be answered. While you’re waiting for God to answer, Satan is throwing darts at you—darts of doubt, discouragement, disappointment, and depression. The Bible says to be aware that he’s going to try to get you down.

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about the spiritual warfare that’s going on behind your prayers. But we do get a glimpse of it in the book of Daniel.

Daniel had a vision of an angel, who said, “Daniel, don’t be afraid. God has heard your prayers ever since the first day you decided to humble yourself in order to gain understanding. I have come in answer to your prayer. The [evil] angel prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief angels, came to help me, because I had been left there alone in Persia” (Daniel 10:12-13 GNT).

Are those the wildest verses you’ve ever seen? It says that Daniel had a prayer that wasn’t answered for a while, and he was starting to get discouraged. The angel showed up and said, “We heard your prayer from day one, but we’ve been in a battle over this, and it was such an intense battle that Michael the archangel had to come down and help me with this battle so I could come and tell you that the answer is on its way.”

The same thing is sometimes happening when you are waiting on your answer from God. You can’t know what kind of intense battle is going on over your prayer, but you can remember this: A delay is not a denial. When an answer to prayer is delayed, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to be answered. It just means God is fighting for you.

Don’t be discouraged. Keep praying!

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”  Matthew 7:7 (NLT)

Do you ever feel like you’re waiting on God? Maybe you can’t relate to the Israelites, who wandered in the desert for 40 years while they were waiting on God to deliver them. But you feel like God has you on hold. He hasn’t given you the answer or the deliverance you wanted or expected.

God still makes us wander in the desert sometimes—but there is always a purpose to the wait.

When God has you in a waiting period, don’t put your life on hold. Instead, imitate the habits that grow strong faith.

The Bible says there are five things you should keep on doing in the waiting period.

1. Keep on praying.

Matthew 7:7 says, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you” (NLT). Keep on praying, and you will get your answer.

2. Keep on serving.

The Bible says in Romans 12:11, “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically” (NLT). Don’t worry about having a significant ministry. Just make your ministry significant.

3. Keep on going to small group.

“Let us not give up the habit of meeting together . . . Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer” (Hebrews 10:25 GNT).

4. Keep on sowing.

Ecclesiastes 11:6 says, “Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow—perhaps it all will” (TLB). You never know what God will do with the seeds you plant while you’re waiting.

5. Keep on believing.

The Bible says, “You must keep on believing the things you have been taught. You know they are true” (2 Timothy 3:14 TLB).

While you wait, stay active. Don’t be passive. God cannot steer a parked car!

Don’t tell God you’re waiting on him. Turn on the ignition, and just start driving. Where? Anywhere! Get involved in a ministry. Get involved in service. Get involved with small group. Do the things you know you could be doing to develop your skills and habits and become more like Jesus.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Honor the Lord by giving him the first part of all your income, and he will fill your barns with wheat and barley and overflow your wine vats with the finest wines.”  Proverbs 3:9 (TLB)

When you become a person of faith, you learn to give according to what God tells you to give. You don’t limit what you give by deciding, “This is what I think I can reasonably give.” That kind of giving doesn’t require any faith.

Instead, ask God, “What do you want to give through me?” There’s a difference between giving by sight and giving by faith.

My wife, Kay, and I have been tested several times in this way on giving. One of the most dramatic examples was when we raised money to build Saddleback Church’s first worship center in 1993. We asked people to make a commitment to give over a three-year period. So Kay and I prayed about what we would give, and we came up with an amount that didn’t seem reasonable, based on our income. From our perspective, it was more than we could afford. But we trusted God for that amount.

A few days later I was reading in 1 Chronicles 29 about how God told King David to announce his gift to build the temple so everybody knew that he was sacrificing as much as everyone else.

I sensed God was telling me to announce our gift so it would be a challenge to others. I was worried people would misunderstand my motive. But I did it anyway, and I asked our church to pray for us.

A month later, we were going into the weekend where we would take up the special offering, and we were still wondering how this would all work out. Then, the Friday before that weekend, I got a call from Zondervan Publishing Company saying they wanted me to write a book and call it The Purpose Driven Church, and they would give me an advance that was more money than Kay and I had committed to giving.

You cannot out-give God!

Telling our church this news was one of the greatest experiences of my life. And I nearly missed it because of my own stubbornness. We would have missed seeing how God is dependable if we hadn’t done what God told us to do. It was a lesson I will never forget.

“Honor the Lord by giving him the first part of all your income, and he will fill your barns with wheat and barley and overflow your wine vats with the finest wines” (Proverbs 3:9 TLB).