Listening To The Father’s Heart

 

"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you". Matthew 6:28-33

Son, I marvel at the unbelief that many of my sons and daughters exhibit. They worry and fret over the smallest of matters. Can they not see how much order there is in the universe? Can they not see how the animal kingdom balances out life? Can they not see how the seas remain in their boundaries? Can they not understand how precisely I positioned the sun from the earth? Sometimes my creation cries out through storms and natural disasters, but even this is a part of the natural order of things that you cannot fully understand at this time. Worry is a fruit of unbelief. It says you don’t believe I am there. It says you must depend on yourself. Release all your cares to me. Rest in the knowledge that I am a Father who cares and will respond to your needs.

FAITH IS SPELLED R.I.S.K

 

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus.  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" (Matt 14:29-30). Jesus told Peter to get out of the boat. There is always a risk when we attempt something never done before. Naysayers seem to come out of the woodwork. Why? Because it’s not their vision, it’s yours. Sometimes we fail the first time out. It’s a fact that most entrepreneurs fail before they are really successful. "Success," said Winston Churchill, "is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Everybody fails. It’s part of the process that leads us to maturity and success. Most successful entrepreneurs don’t think of their failures as defeats. They think of them as lessons. If you hope to succeed, learn everything you can from your failures. In The Three Success Secrets of Shamgar, Orlando Magic executive Pat Williams observed, "Our experiences may not all be triumphs and successes, but so what? Failure is usually a far better teacher than success—if we are willing to learn the lessons. As Houston Astros pitcher Larry Dierker observed, ‘Experience is the best teacher, but a hard grader. She gives the test first, the lesson later.’"[1] God never gets mired in our past failures. He is constantly viewing our lives with future success in mind. "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland" (Isa. 43:19). Someone once said, "When your memories are bigger than your dreams, you’re headed for the grave." God wants to give us new dreams that are bigger than anything that has ever happened to us in the past. Don’t let past failures keep you from future successes. [1] Pat Williams and Jay Strack, The Three Success Secrets of Shamgar (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc., 2004), p. 103.