The Word For Today

You'll probably travel several different paths on your way to your destiny. When Luciano Pavarotti was a boy, his grandmother often put him on her lap and said, 'You're going to be great - you'll see.' But his grandmother had dreams of him becoming a banker! Instead, he became a schoolteacher. He taught primary school for a while, occasionally singing at special events. His father was the one who challenged him to develop his voice, telling him he was settling far short of his potential.

Finally, at age twenty-two, Pavarotti stopped teaching to sell insurance. He continued to look for something stable on which he could rely financially in case he could not make it in the music world. The insurance business allowed him time to take voice lessons and, as they say, 'The rest is history.' In an interview, the opera star said, 'Studying voice was the turning point of my life.' Then he added, 'It's a mistake to settle for the safe path in life.'

It takes courage to leave a position you consider safe and launch out in a new direction, but without risk you can never realise your potential or know all God created you to be. The greatest risk of all is to take no risk because the person who risks nothing accomplishes nothing, has nothing, feels nothing and, in the end, becomes nothing. God may lead you along several different paths on your way to your destiny, but if you submit to his will and follow his guidance, you will surely succeed.

We are the sum total of everything we have experienced - both good and bad. We can engage in wishful thinking and imagine that our past negative behaviour had never occurred, or we can decide to accept the reality of it. How we choose to respond to the past will determine our destiny. We have all sinned, and we either respond by asking for God's forgiveness and going forwards, or we stay stuck in guilt. Indeed, we may actually develop anxiety about possible consequences. Many people are plagued with jealousy because of their own infidelity or prior indiscretions. They live in fear that one day they will reap what they have sown. Some have even resorted to verbal and physical abuse of their partners in order to ward off what they feel will be inevitable.

When we repent, we must believe God's word: 'Their sins...I will remember no more' (Hebrews 10:17 NIV). God doesn't remember confessed sin, so we need to stop rehearsing it: 'When sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices' (Hebrews 10:18 NLT). Once is enough. There is no need to repent continually. To do so is to offer another 'sacrifice'. Too many people sacrifice the rest of their lives on the altar of remorse over past transgressions.

Make every effort to line up your life with the requirements of God's word. And when you've done that, then stand on this Scripture: 'The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever' (Isaiah 32:17 NIV).

God can be sitting on the sidelines watching you struggle financially or actively involved as your financial partner. It all depends on what kind of steward you are. Your finances are yet another area of life where you can begin to experience an interactive relationship with your heavenly Father.

But if you want God involved in your finances, you need to put your finances to work for God's interests. 'Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well' (Matthew 6:33 NIV). This means you need to give. And you can start with what he's already given you. That might mean a percentage of your next month's salary or a part of your net worth. Wherever the voice of generosity leads you, you need to follow it. Again, this isn't about giving to get. It's about neutralising the fears that have been hindering the spirit of generosity inside you. It's about discovering the thrill of taking part in God's plan and experiencing the security that comes from knowing that your provider is the one who owns all provisions.

When you sow, God shows up in amazing ways. 'God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous' (2 Corinthians 9:10-11 NLT). Once you experience the perfect provision of a loving heavenly Father, your fears will begin to evaporate.

James wrote to the church: 'Suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewellery, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, "You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor" - well, doesn't this discrimination show that your judgements are guided by evil motives? If you favour some people over others, you are committing a sin' (James 2:2-4, 9 NLT).

The early church grew rapidly because prejudice had no place there. Although the Jews and Samaritans despised each other, Jesus made a place for a Jewish leader called Nicodemus and the Gentile woman at the well who'd been married five times. The early church made room for Onesimus, the former slave, at the same table as Philemon, his wealthy former master. The gospel gives everyone, everywhere, a place of dignity at Jesus' table. The sin of discrimination stands on two legs: prejudice and presumption. And they should have no place in your life.

The ancient prophet Habakkuk climbed up in his watchtower in order to 'watch to see what [God] will say to me' (Habakkuk 2:1 NKJV). Too much of our Christian experience is taken up with us saying something to God, and spending too little time listening to what God is saying to us. He definitely has something to say to us about discrimination. So ask him to help you to view people through his loving eyes. You may just see a few people differently than you have in the past.

Paul told the Corinthians, 'Therefore we do not lose heart...For our light affliction...is working for us' (2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NKJV). Jim Stovall proved this to be true. At age seventeen, his doctor told him he was losing his sight, and that nothing could be done to reverse it. Rather than drop out of life, he pursued a college degree and also studied privately with a successful entrepreneur. His goal was to be in business for himself, even if blind, so that he might manage his own career and life. Even though he had prepared himself for blindness, when the day came that he could no longer see, he felt devastated.

In his book, You Don't Have to Be Blind to See, Jim said, 'All I wanted to do was sit in my living room and listen to music.' But then Jim dug deep down in his faith and, as he said, 'God opened my inner eyes to a new idea.' He entered a highly unusual field for a blind person - television! He founded the Narrative Television Network to aid visually impaired people. NTN adds more 'descriptive narration' to soundtracks so that listeners might visualise a programme or film and enjoy it more fully. NTN broadcasts to over twenty million households, and amazingly, some 60 per cent of the audience can see. For his work, Jim received television's highest honour, the Emmy Award, after only one season on the air!

So the word for today is this: God can make your problem 'work for you' and 'turn a curse into a blessing' (Deuteronomy 23:5 NKJV).

In 1928, a happy, ambitious nursing student was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Back then, such a diagnosis often meant a death sentence. Her family sent her to a nursing home for several months, hoping for a cure. She remained in bed for the next twenty-one years! Many people would have given up, but not Isabel Smith.

Isabel neared death on several occasions, but her faith remained strong, and she never ceased to pursue the art of living. She read voraciously, wrote letters, studied geography and taught other patients to read and write. From her bed she studied atomic energy with a fellow patient, a young physicist, and organised a town hall meeting on the topic. While ill, she met a kind, gentle man, also a patient at the nursing home. She dreamed of marrying him and having a little house 'under the mountains'. At her lowest ebb, her dream kept her going. And in 1948, she got married. She then authored a book called Wish I Might, published in 1955. The book was 'about all the good things life has brought me', and it earned her enough royalties to buy her the mountain retreat she dreamed of.

A tragic life? Hardly! Isabel Smith achieved everything she set out to achieve, though the odds against her were overwhelming. Even when flat on her back in bed, she never stopped growing, learning, dreaming and giving. 'Though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day' (2 Corinthians 4:16 NKJV). Victory is an 'inside job'.