Slides of Trip through Latin America.
God said to me to go live out the story of the book I was writing. I only had an Outline. But as we traveled through Mexico, Central America, and South America living out the story, two things happened:
1) God provided for all our needs. Each day we had to trust him to guide us to the next meal and bed, and to guide us to the people we needed to meet for the book.
2) God revealed to me the details of the storyline. How and where things should happen to the characters.
This trip taught me to depend on God for daily needs and to let him show me day-by-day how the story of my own life is to be filled in. Our trip was a living analogy for how we are to live with God and he show us how the outline is to be filled in.
The Outline for All of Us:
Dan 12:9 –Dan 12:13 NIV
He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.
Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
“From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.
Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.
“As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”
We are meant to live in dialogue with God for each moment and each day.
What we do instead is try to understand God’s ways from the Bible then go and live a Christ-like life. There is so much more to a full life in Christ. We are meant to live moment by moment talking to, hearing from, and living out of God’s provision.
How many of us ask God what shall I eat for this next meal? How will you provide it?
Instead we go to Aushan Market once a week and store up many things for the future days, then we eat out of our resources. We never stop to ask is this what you want me to do and is this what you are providing.
We do this in so many areas of our life. In career choices, school choices, healthcare, how we spend free time, and so many more areas we are Christians living independently from our God.
What kind of husband would I be if I lived in a different house from my wife, or if I only spoke to her once a day, or once a week. “Honey, sorry I can’t talk to you until Sunday, the one day I have set aside to talk to you.” Yet that is how we treat God.
Verses about living in dialogue with and dependence on God.
Ps 145:15 –Ps 145:16 NIV
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
Isa 30:21 NIV
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
Jn 10:27 NIV
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
Matt 6:25-34
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
A key in this passage is where it says, O you of little faith. The reason we do not live in dependence for daily needs is because we do not have enough faith that God will provide.
Faith is a muscle that must be exercised. The more we trust God, the stronger our faith will grow. So begin trusting God for one area of your life then once you see him provide, use the increased faith to trust him in yet another area. Keep adding new areas.
Another problem we have that we say because God did not answer before, he will not answer now. But we fail to understand why God did not answer before. The reason God did not answer as we wanted is because we do not understand what is truly Good. We don’t ask for the right things.
Jas 4:2 –Jas 4:3 NIV
You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
When we ask God to take our problems away we are not asking for the best. The best is that we would grow closer to God because of the problem. Greater dependence on him is far more important than removal of the problem.
God is a truly good God and want to give us the best from an eternal perspective. So stop praying, “God remove this problem,” and start praying, “God help me grow from this problem.”
This is what happened to Paul:
2Co 12:7 –2Co 12:9 NIV
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
1Pet 5:6 –1Pet 5:7 NIV
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Jn 14:1 NIV
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
Jn 10:27 NIV
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
Challenge
Whatever your level of dialogue with God has been, my great challenge to you is to pray, “God, I will trust you in new ways, with more areas of my life.”
Then go and start talking with him through every little thing. Wait on him for his answer. Learn to distinguish between true eternal good and temporal good, and expect God to give you the best in each situation.
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