For example, let’s say you have this totally annoying boss.  Should you interpret that as God wanting you to quit that job, or is God simply growing your patience?

What if you get into a fight with your girlfriend?  Is that God showing you you aren’t compatible or is it just because girls don’t understand that a salad does not constitute a meal?

Wisdom will have to come into play.

With that wisdom you’ll have to look at the situation from a higher vantage point.  You’ll have to see it in context.  You’ll have to see how it fits into the larger whole.

Now there are times where it will be black and white.  Let’s say that instead of your boss or girlfriend, it’s your wife that’s really mean, annoying and listens to the insufferable James Taylor.  Some people will interpret that as God telling them to move on – but obviously that’s against Scripture and therefore not God’s will.

But what if it’s not totally black and white and you’re talking about a job that’s not quite working out, or a boy/girlfriend, or your church, or ministry or band?

You have to ask yourself, certain things.

What has God called me to do?  He’s given you a bunch of different callings to juggle at the same time.

Let’s say you have these callings – Parent, spouse, Sunday School teacher, and your job.

Does one calling start to interfere with the other callings?  If you totally know that you’re supposed to be a Sunday School teacher, but your job requires you to be gone for three months straight – then there is a great chance that the time has run its course for one of those callings.

That’s what I mean by looking at the larger picture.

This assumes that you know what your callings are.

Does being with your current boy/girlfriend help or hurt your other callings?  Does your current position at the church hurt or help your other callings?  Does being at your current job help or hurt your other callings?

You might need a job to support your family but is that particular job destroying your relationship with them?

That is also what I mean when I say that it takes wisdom.

So what do we do?

You not only have to figure out what your callings are but how they interact with each other – and on top of that if the problems you’re facing with one of those callings are things you’re supposed to overcome or things that are pointing out that that calling is coming to an end.

Wisdom starts with submission to God.  Submission to God requires prayer and a devotion to His Word.  It also seeks out Godly counsel.

So when you find yourself at a crossroads – seek wisdom.  See where God has you and where He’s taking you.  Only then can you follow Him through the crossroad.

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James 1[5] If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

PR 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,

but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

PR 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

PR 3:6 in all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make your paths straight.

Take Time To Pray: Ask God for wisdom to understand your callings and how they interact with each other.

Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness.

There’s this one thing that I think we’ve all thought of at one point.  I want to follow God, but hopefully He doesn’t call me to be a missionary in Africa, New Guinea or New Jersey.

Because for most of us that sounds like it would suck.

We hear from all over that we need to chase our dreams.  And dreams are really our fantasy of what will make us truly happy.

When we fear that God will ask us to do something that we don’t want, like minister to the homeless, to the sick, or especially to children – we find out the core of the problem.

We also find the core of the problem when we catch ourselves thinking that winning the lottery will solve our problems and make us happy.

And that problem is…

What God wants is different than what makes us happy.

Now before you call me a heretic, you have to realize that there is one element that causes this to happen.

Our sin.

With sin, our happiness is no longer in line with what God wants.  Sin tells us that happiness is having tons of money, being famous, having a record deal, having a ton of girlfriends, mocking old people, punching people in the face, and having healthy, manageable hair.

However, we should love God so much that what makes Him happy is what makes us happy.

That is why the Bible says…

PS 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

If your will is God’s will then He will bring is to pass.

God is a God of love, who loves us so much that He wants us to be happy as well.

The problem is, in our infinite wisdom, we think we know what will make us happy.

But God is the only one who truly understands our soul.  He created it.  He is the one that understands what will truly bring true happiness.

He created our soul to find happiness in fellowship with Him.

Sure, winning the lottery might bring ‘happiness’ for a season, but it doesn’t bring true happiness to your soul.  Sure, being famous is great, but it doesn’t bring lasting happiness to your soul.

If you don’t believe me, just look at celebrities.  These people have it all, money, fame, power – yet they still go through the same fundamental lack of happiness we all go through.  They just have better hair.

It’s all because God has designed us a certain way.  And that design is to be in fellowship with Him.  When we don’t have that fellowship with Him, we are unhappy.  And you can’t replace that with anything else.

It would be like taking your child and replacing him or her with other kids from down the street.  You could try all the different kids from your neighborhood, but they could never truly take the place of your child.

And that’s how we try to live our lives.  There is only one thing that can truly fill the hole in our soul, that can truly make us happy, but we try to find it in all the wrong places.

And when we hope that God doesn’t ask us to do something that might make us uncomfortable or unhappy – our heart hasn’t quite gotten to the point where it understands what makes us truly happy.

The same thing goes for when we think having winning the lottery will solve our problems and make us happy.

And what makes us truly happy is living out His will for our lives.

That and good hair.

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PS 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Take Time To Pray: Ask God to help you figure out where you are trying to find happiness apart from Him.

Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Love.  A love where His delight (fellowship with Him and His will) is the desire of your heart.

I see a lot of times at churches, they’ll have ‘Sunday School’ and then a ‘Worship Service’, or people referring to the singing portion as ‘Praise and Worship’.  Using the word ‘worship’ in these different ways certainly can get confusing.  Heck, I get confused just telling the difference between the communion tray and the offering tray. And let me tell you, a twenty dollar bill doesn’t taste as bad as you might think.

So for our purposes I’m going to define a couple things so we can practically understand the different parts of worship.

Let’s start at the beginning.

God created us to glorify Him.

EPH 1:11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, [12] in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

Now for our practical purposes today I’ll split up glorifying God into two categories – Worship and Service.

And even further, I’ll split up Worship into two categories as well.  Praise and Thanks.

PS 100: Worship the LORD with gladness… give thanks to him and praise his name.

Praise and thanks are different.

For example, you cannot thank me for being as good looking as I am.  “Conrad, thank you for being the best looking person in the history of mankind.”  That doesn’t make much sense.  I didn’t have anything to do with being the best looking person ever.  That’s just who I am.

“Conrad thank you for being 5 foot 10.”  “Conrad thank you for being Asian.”

None of those make sense.

However you can praise me for those things.  “Conrad, you truly are the best looking person ever.  It’s very cool that you’re Asian.  Can you help me with my math homework?”

That’s praise.

And now thanks…

You can thank me for… what I’ve done.  “Conrad thank you for saving my children from those wolverines.”

So with God, you can Praise Him for who He is and you can Thank Him for what He’s done.

Praise can be as simple as this… just fill in the blank…

God is _______.

God is love.  God is just.  God is holy.  God is merciful.

So when we pray or singing or whatever, we’re pretty much saying stuff like, “God, you are merciful and forgiving.  God you are wonderful.”  That’s praise.

Thanks is stuff like, “God thank you for sending your Son to die for us.  Thank you for my job.  Thank you for these tacos of which we are about to receive.”  That type of thing.

Now when you’re worshipping God, do you need to categorize one thing as praise and not thanks, and another thing as thanks and not praise?  Not really.  You still mean it either way.

Sometimes certain things about God will be a bit of both.

Thinking of praise and thanks is simply a tool to  help us understand what we need to focus on – things we need to grow in.

If we are to grow in our worship of Him, we have to grow in our praise and thanks of Him.

Which means we have to grow in our understanding of who God is AND what He’s done.

In your studies of God, find out about the different attributes of God.  Study them in detail – so that your praise of Him will grow.

Then also study the historical side of what He’s done, not only what He did in the Bible, but what He’s done in your life – so that your thanks in Him will grow.

And put together, your worship of Him will grow.

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(As you read the passage for today, take notice of the melding of Praises and Thanks.)

PS 103:1 Praise the LORD, O my soul;

all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

PS 103:2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits–

PS 103:3 who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases,

PS 103:4 who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you with love and compassion,

PS 103:5 who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

PS 103:6 The LORD works righteousness

and justice for all the oppressed.

PS 103:7 He made known his ways to Moses,

his deeds to the people of Israel:

PS 103:8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in love.

PS 103:9 He will not always accuse,

nor will he harbor his anger forever;

PS 103:10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

PS 103:11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his love for those who fear him;

PS 103:12 as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

PS 103:13 As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

PS 103:14 for he knows how we are formed,

he remembers that we are dust.

PS 103:15 As for man, his days are like grass,

he flourishes like a flower of the field;

PS 103:16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,

and its place remembers it no more.

PS 103:17 But from everlasting to everlasting

the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,

and his righteousness with their children’s children–

PS 103:18 with those who keep his covenant

and remember to obey his precepts.

PS 103:19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven,

and his kingdom rules over all.

PS 103:20 Praise the LORD, you his angels,

you mighty ones who do his bidding,

who obey his word.

PS 103:21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,

you his servants who do his will.

PS 103:22 Praise the LORD, all his works

everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the LORD, O my soul.

Take time to pray: Praise God for His wonderful attributes, and thank Him for what He’s done in your life.

Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Love.

We Christians throw the term worship around a whole ton.  The first thing people associate with the term worship is singing in church.  If that’s the case, and let’s be honest here, some of people around us, their singing could hardly be called worship.  Their singing could hardly be called singing.  It either sounds like a monotone remote controlled airplane, or it’s like they sensed danger and are warning everyone by simulating an air raid alarm.

Fortunately for us worship isn’t singing.

Over the next few devotionals, I’ll be digging into worship.

Before we get into worship, we have to understand one major point:

God created us to worship.

PS 100:1-2 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness.

Let’s go back to the origin of the world, the ‘genesis’ of the world if you will.

God created Adam and Eve.  And if He created them to worship, there would be a total of two worshippers.

And what did He tell them to do?

GE 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”

When they had a kid, there would be three worshippers.  Another kid, there would be four worshippers.  Offspring would continue to be born until they would “fill the earth” with worshippers.

But Adam and Eve sinned.

Now let me ask you this.  Do you think their sin would derail God’s plan?  Do you think God’s plans was now ruined and He wouldn’t be able to accomplish what He set out to do?

Of course not.  That’s why Christ was sent.

In fact, what was Christ’s last command before He ascended back into heaven?  And ask yourself, if it sounds similar to God’s first command to Adam and Eve…

Acts 1[8] But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

It basically says “fill the earth” with worshippers of God.

So over the next few days as we get more into worship, we first have to understand that God created us for worship.  And He created the world to be filled with worshippers.

So what do we do?

Answer these questions for yourself…

- Outside of Sundays and singing, how do I worship God in my everyday life?

- What does a worshipper of God look and act like?

- What am I doing to “fill the earth” with worshippers of God?

If God created us to worship Him, let’s start thinking about it and working on it.

We can work on our singing later.

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PS 100:1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

PS 100:2 Worship the LORD with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

PS 100:3 Know that the LORD is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

PS 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

PS 100:5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Take time to pray: Ask God on how you can start living your everyday life as worship – and as one who spreads worship.

Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Love.  The Love of God.­

Again we go deeper into discerning God’s Will.  It’s like going to a buffet with bacon.  You take a few pieces and they keep on bringing more out.  There’s just more and more to appreciate.

To recap, when figuring out God’s Specific Will for you, you need to understand how to figure out your callings.  Then you need to manage your callings.  Now you need to take it one step further…

You need to know where your callings intersect other people’s callings.

Whoa Conrad, what in the world are you talking about now?

I talked about little about this before with the Body of Christ, but now I’ll explain it a little more.

Remember how we need to match up our callings (Gifts + Talents + Resources = Calling) with open doors (in this devo)?…

Let’s say I have the GIFT of music and good looks, and have the TALENT of playing the piano and being good looking, and I have the RESOURCE of having Tuesday nights free because models don’t typically work on Tuesdays…

You have the GIFT of leadership and music, and the TALENT of singing and public speaking and have the RESOURCE of Tuesday nights free.

And we both go to the same church where there’s an open door for a new music worship team that practices on Tuesday nights.

Your calling of being a worship leader and my calling of being a pianist intersect with that open door of the worship team.  You might not even know me. But we both join up and now we have a…

Common Calling

A lot of these common callings people typically consider “ministries”.  Which really is a group of people coming together for a common spiritual goal.

We see common callings all the time.  We just don’t see them that way.

We enter a common calling the day we’re born… our family.  You are born into a group where you have the same spiritual goal – to build up your family to glorify God.

If you do stuff at your church, you are apart of a common calling.  Being involved in some other ministry, being in a band, being on a pirate ship, etc., these are all examples where you are apart of a common calling.

One major common calling is marriage.

When two people who’s callings are so similar and these callings intersect at so many places that it’s obvious that God is pushing them together.  That topic is so huge that I’ll devote a separate devotional for that one (and that’s right here, and more here).

So yes, things get much more in depth because now you’re not just trying to manage your callings correctly – but in some cases, if you are in leadership in one of these common callings (like parents, Pastor, worship leader, managers), you now have to manage other people’s callings as well.  Which means you have to be able to identify other people’s callings in order to manage them.

Managing my callings and other people’s callings?  Man, that’s a whole lot of stuff to do.

So what do we do?

We need wisdom to figure all of this out.  What are your callings, what are everyone one else’s callings?  How to they intersect?  And what am I supposed to do within this common calling?

Yeah, that’s why there’s a book in Scripture (Proverbs) devoted to wisdom.  That’s why we need to pray for wisdom every day.  And that’s why there’s a cable channel devoted to Oprah.

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1CO 12:12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. [13] For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

1CO 12:14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. [15] If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. [16] And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. [17] If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? [18] But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. [19] If they were all one part, where would the body be? [20] As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

1CO 12:21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” [22] On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, [23] and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, [24] while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, [25] so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. [26] If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness, faithfulness to figure out your callings and the callings of people with common callings so you can work more effectively together.

Take time to pray: Pray for wisdom.  The wisdom to be able to identify your callings, the callings of others and the leadership to be able to manage other people’s callings when you are required to.

One of the burning questions everyone faces is, “Who should I date?”  It ranks right up there with other burning questions like, “What is my calling?” and,  ”Who actually listens to the Black Eyed Peas?”

First off, let’s talk about one major thing… just like in the rest of your life, God has a plan for you.

He gave you certain callings in life.  He’s given other people certain callings.

Now do you think God would give you a set of callings, just to pair you up with someone else that would negate all your callings?

Like if God had called you to be a long-term missionary to Africa, would He pair you up with someone He set up to be a long-term missionary to New Jersey?  No.

Why would God work against His own goals?

When you get married, you’re not just joining two lives into one.  You’re also joining two sets of callings into one.

Your God-given callings have to be compatible with the other person’s callings or else you actually hinder their callings – which really is causing them to be disobedient.

If God called you to be fire, He wouldn’t pair you up with ice.  If God made you water, He wouldn’t pair you with oil.  If God made you The Black Eyed Peas, He wouldn’t pair you up with listenable music.

If your potential spouse has a specific calling that is incompatible with yours, how could you allow your feelings for them override their obedience to God?

Yeah, we all would like to think that ‘love conquers all’.  But you don’t just marry because you fall in love with someone.

There’s more to a marriage than love for a human.

Because really, who is your first love?  God should be placed first.

Who do you love more?  God or some dude/girl?  And if you love that person more than God – aren’t you making them out to be an idol?

So what do we do?

So as you’re looking for that perfect person, make sure that what you really are doing is trying to find the person that God has constructed for you – where your callings complement one another rather than compete with one another.

Love God first, so that you can find that one on this earth that you can truly love in a deep, godly, non-Black Eyed Peas listening, life-fulfilling way.

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MT 22:37 Jesus replied: ” `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ [38] This is the first and greatest commandment.

Take time to pray: Ask God that you’ll love Him first so that your relationships will be godly and happy.

Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Love.