Monthly Archives: September 2015

Posted on

Obstacles To God’s Will

and free downloadable resource list about those obstacles

by

Obstacles to God’s Will

Do you want God’s will for your life? Do you seek to fulfill God’s purpose? Do you find it hard? When we study Scripture and see what God asks us to do to fulfill His purpose, eventually we find there are obstacles to God’s will. In my two previous blogs, we takes about finding God’s purpose in our lives. (You may want to go back and review with these two blogs here and here.
 Obstacles to doing God's will

Scripture actually addresses many obstacles. I have come up with nine obstacles from Scripture and I know you can probably find more. When you think of more, you can add them at the comments section at the end of the online blog, here.

What Gets in My Way of Doing God’s Will?

  • I don’t think I have the ability.

2 Corinthians 1:21

  • I don’t want to do it because it is too hard.

Philippians 4:13

  •       I don’t know how to do it?

James 1:5

  •       I am lazy.

Proverbs 15:19

Proverbs 18:9

  •      Others will make fun of me if I do it.

Matthew 4:10

  •       I am afraid to do it.

Jeremiah 17:8

  •       I’d rather serve myself.

Luke 8:14

  •       There are other things more important to me than serving God.

Psalm 19:8-10

Psalm 119:10

  •       I try do do His will in my own strength instead of His strength and I fail.

Philippians 4:13

John 14:26

It is not too early to begin to teach this to kids, very simply. You might spend a week on each obstacle talking about what this might look like in their lives and then read and talk about the Scripture that goes with it. Talk to them about how God can help in each of the situations.

A Downloadable List of Scriptures

Click here for a downloadable resource list of Scriptures you can use to teach about these obstacles. These are taken from the Mr. Blue Worksheets which accompany the Mr. Blue- a Job for You picture book

Knowing God’s Will for Me

Some of you might be thinking, but I really want to know God’s will for me on the grand scale of things. I want to know whether I should make a certain investment or which ministry I should take on. He doesn’t tell us those in Scripture. But He does tell us plenty of things that he does want us to do. We need to start with those. If we are trusting Him, and following Him in the small things, then the grand picture will be obvious. And if it isn’t, then we can make any number of correct choices as long as we are following those things He does tell us to do.

If we look at the list above, we might find that most of the obstacles are self-induced. Identifying the reason/excuse for our not doing what is right is a great start. Then we can pray for God’s help and find others to hold us accountable. Doing God’s will is not always easy, but it will become easier as we practice, and overcoming obstacle to doing God’s will be easier when we face them.

 

Posted on

Teaching Kids Purpose- Not Self Esteem

the comparison trap!

by

Do You Compare Yourself to Others?

Last week’s blog was about comparing ourselves to others.  Have you been crushed when you don’t meet others, or your own expectations? Are you surprised that the biblical answer is not about feeling better about yourself and your attempts to succeed? No, that is the world’s answer. If you didn’t read the full blog, you can go back and read it here.

Teaching Kids purposeFor years in teaching kids purpose, parents have been taught that the most important thing we could give our kids was self esteem.  This teaching has led parents to find what their kids were good at, and watch them succeed and praise them profusely. Although, in the proper context we need to praise our kids, this extreme can cause disastrous results.

  • Kids that perform well because they are primarily looking for success or praise will be left empty when someday it doesn’t come.
  • And they also are not learning the right reasons they should do good things.

Teaching Kids Purpose- The Biblical Answer

The biblical answer to this is found in Ephesians 2:8-10. I love these verses because here is found God’s answer to teaching kids purpose for their lives. So many search high and low to find their life purpose. We give giftedness tests, we ask life counselors, we read the recent magazines, we read books, yet here is the real answer in Scripture! Kids are not too young to begin to understand this. In fact, this is the best time to begin to teaching kids purpose, that of the importance of living out God’s purpose.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says that our relationship with God is a gift from Him. It is nothing we have done, nor can we earn it, or be proud. It is purely a gift. Then verse 10 says we are his workmanship! We are a special creation crafted by the Master Craftsman. He says that we were created for good works, and here is the clincher- He prepared them for us “beforehand.” He had his plan for us from before the foundation of the world! (Eph. 1:4)

God Has Planned Good Things for Us to Do

We don’t define our purpose- God does! That is a simple but great lesson. I find it very encouraging that I don’t have to strive to figure out what I am to do. I just follow Him. I do His will (not always very well, I might add) and He leads and directs. How we discern His will is another blog in itself. This takes the pressure off of needing to do something that I am the best at. No, like Moses, what I do isn’t defined by what I do well. Rather, I do what God want me to do, what He has already planned for me to do. It doesn’t matter how I will perform, if I am doing what God wants me to do. If I do my best, that is what matters.

When we sit on the sidelines, comparing ourselves to everyone else, we might think we cannot do something as well, so we don’t want to try. Or we only will do things we will receive praise for. This is totally opposite from what God tells us in Ephesians 2:8-10. And this is the message of my book, Mr. Blue- a Job for You.

What’s New?

For teaching kids purpose, I have something new that might be fun for you! If you have read Mr. Blue, you know that Mr. Blue meets many different shapes, each can do something that he can’t do. He is discouraged, that is until the end, when he finds they have come together and formed a puzzle and there is a place for him that God had planned all along. Planned for him, even as he sat along the side of the road discouraged, when everyone passed by and invited him to join them. I have designed an app for Android and iOS that is a puzzle where the Mr. Blue characters can be dragged into place to complete the puzzle. this is designed to go with Mr. Blue- a Job for You. Here is the link for more information about the apps.

 

Posted on

Comparison That Crushes

Moses' Memorable Mistake

by

Who is your “comparison that crushes?”

Do you remember a time in your life (or maybe it’s even right now), that you looked at everyone around you and felt hopeless. Maybe not hopeless in a general sense, but hopeless in your ability to make a meaningful contribution. Jen was a better artist, Mark was a better speaker, Sarah was more congenial and had many friends, Joe was brilliant, Mary was clever, Sally was gorgeous, and even the “unknown soldier” had qualities of bravery that you didn’t have. How discouraging it can be to look around us and compare ourselves, our “insides,” to the “outsides” of the best of the best. Yes, comparison crushes! We know very well our internal thoughts and failures and we compare those to the shiny, polished, practiced and perfected part of others that they allow us to see.

ComparisonI was the youngest of four kids in my family. All of my siblings excelled in the various things they did. One sister was an extremely talented musician, my brother was student body president of our high school, and another sister was the lead in the school musical and socially strong. Then I came along. I felt I couldn’t keep up with any of them, much less all of them. Clearly, my viewpoint of life was not a healthy one, nor a godly one. This was comparison that crushes.

 

Where did Moses go wrong?

The Christian is not exempt from these feelings. In fact, our desire for sanctification may even make us more desire to do things well. That, in itself, is not bad, but when it becomes self-focused and in our own strength, it is not biblical. When God appeared to Moses and asked him to do a task, to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses’ first reaction was to tell God that he was not the best person for the job because he did not speak eloquently. Scripture tells us that this made God angry. Can you imagine that? The great leader, Moses, made God angry because he questioned his ability to do God’s request. He figured there was someone else who could do it better. Well maybe there was, but God was asking him, not someone else! This is the comparison that crushes. When we compare ourselves to others, we crush our responsiveness to God’s leading.

Somewhere along this road of life, God taught me that comparing myself to others was very wrong. He taught me that my eyes should not be on myself nor on the others around me, but that my eyes should be on Him. If I am focused on God and serving Him, and Him alone, I won’t worry if I am doing a good enough job. I will jump to do His will and not question His will. I am still learning the “Moses lesson” of listening to God and responding in full trust of Him.

A modern day parable of Ephesians 2:10.

It is from this place that I wrote “Mr. Blue- a Job For You.” Mr. Blue is a story based on Ephesians 2:10. He is a blue triangle that sits on the side of the road, comparing himself to each of his friend’s colors and shapes as they pass by. Each of them has qualities that he doesn’t have. He feels useless and uninspired. When they invite him to come and help, he declines. But in the end of the story he is surprised to find that God had a special job for him all along, a job that only he could do.

Has there been a time in your life when you found yourself responding more to the world’s expectations than to God’s? How did God change you or are you still waiting for the change? Who or what was your comparison. Please share with us!

Next week I will explore the topic of how to teach kids to seek God’s purpose for them in the second of the Comparison that Crushes series.