
1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
...as long as it is called "today,"...listen to his voice. -- Hebrews 3:13-14 (NLT)
1 John 3:1 - How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
"I have an important business meeting in the morning. Would you please set the alarm for 5:30 a.m.?" I said to my wife.
"Oh, that won't be necessary. Just tell the Lord what time you want to wake up. He does it for me all the time," my wife said.
I rolled my eyes in disbelief. "Well, I'd feel more comfortable if we set the alarm."
"Okay, ye of little faith. But just to prove my point I am going to ask the Lord to wake us up just before 5:30."
The next morning I awoke before the alarm went off. I looked at the clock. It read 5:15. I looked at my wife, who had just awakened at the same time with an I-told-you-so smile.
Sometimes we wrongfully view God as someone we go to for only the "big things." The idea of "bothering God" for such a trivial matter seems foolish and presumptuous. However, when you were a child and had to get up in the morning for school, didn't your mom or dad come wake you up? They were your parents, and you could come to them with the most trivial concerns or requests. Why would our heavenly Father be any less approachable? Perhaps our problem is that we simply have not developed a level of intimacy with God so that we feel the freedom to approach Him at these daily, routine levels. We often operate with an unwritten code that says our needs must have a certain degree of importance or crisis before we come to God with them. This is not God's character towards us.
Does the Lord desire this level of intimacy with you and me? The apostle Paul exhorted us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17 KJV). There is never a caution to pray only about matters of greater importance.
Today, go to God with matters that you might view as trivial and would normally avoid bringing to God. Ask God to increase your level of intimacy with Him. You may even be able to get rid of your alarm clock.
14 Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam;
so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.
"The beginning of strife is as when water first trickles [from a crack in a dam]; therefore stop contention before it becomes worse and quarreling breaks out." (Proverbs 17:14)Throughout the Scriptures, God warns us about the danger of strife. Yet, it's still one of the most common problems among believers. We let it get into our homes, our work places, our churches...everywhere!