Give me 5 minutes a day and I'll give you a happier, more successful life

Many people think of Christianity as a set of rules that ruin their fun. Actually it is just the opposite. The rules are there to protect us from harm.

God is a God of abundance. Jesus said he came so that we can have life and have it more abundantly.* He never runs out of resources. God never stops blessing us. His love and well-being constantly flow down upon us. Romans 5:5 says that God pours out His love on us.

We can’t comprehend how lavish God’s provisions are. There is no danger of Him running out of his blessings. When you sit on the beach and look at the ocean it can help you understand how big God is.

When we spend time in God’s presence we begin to understand His overflowing vastness. When we praise Him we get a taste of the peace and joy that flow to us in his love. When we love him we understand a little bit of His love for us.

*John 10:10

Are you where you want to be in life? Do you have the relationships you want, the job you want, the house you want?

Life is a journey. Sometimes we make mistakes that bring us down the wrong road and we have to turn around and come back. That wastes time. It’s like driving from Dallas to Kansas City. The road takes some turns and sometimes it is easy to miss the marker that shows which highway need to be on. The roads are marked, but it can be easy to miss the mark.

The word “sin” in the Bible actually means to miss the mark. When we sin it is always self destructive, whether we know it or not. Often it hurts other people too.

Oswald Chambers said that all sin springs from the suspicion that God is not a good God. Many believe that God does not want what is best for them, so they go outside his will to try to find something better. Trust me, that doesn’t work.

Adam and Eve suspected that the forbidden tree was good for them. They suspected that God was harsh and unloving, and that he didn’t really want what was best for them. So they made the decision to disobey. That didn’t work out very well. They got kicked out of paradise. That was not what God wanted. He wanted a perfect relationship with them as they lived in paradise.

Does God cause suffering or does he allow it? I have found that most suffering occurs when we don’t follow the path God has planned for us. Moses led the people out of Egypt to the Promised Land, the land of abundance. However, due to their lack of faith, they didn’t go into the land. They were afraid to fight the giants. So they wandered in the desert for 40 years. The trip to the Promised Land should have taken a few weeks. God allowed them to suffer, but that was not his plan for them. His plan was that they quickly enter the land of abundance.

I’ve heard people say “I may not like where I am in life but I’m right where God wants me to be.” I don’t agree. The only way we could be right where God wants us to be is if we made perfect decisions our entire life. None of us does that. Some get a lot closer to that goal than others. The beautiful thing is that God can use us no matter how badly we messed up in the past. In fact, he can use our hurts, hangups and habits to glorify him if we choose to do that.

I’ve heard people say “We can’t all be Billy Grahams.” That is what the world says. Jesus said just the opposite.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12

God has a beautiful plan for your life. You can get back on track for that plan any time.