Having trouble viewing this email? View the online
version<http://rdstrongmail1.com/track?type=click&mailingid=171400&messageid=43900&databaseid=65501&serial=1222908274&[email protected]&userid=82907&extra=keycode=&promokey=EPD00561&execution_nbr=19&&&2000&&&http://www.purposedriven.com/article.do?method=articlePage&contentId=201551>
.
[image: Purpose Driven Community - Daily Devotional] July 13, 2009
How God Builds Your Faith:
Dream<http://www.purposedriven.com/article.do?method=articlePage&contentId=201551>
by Rick Warren
"Now glory be to God, who by His mighty power at work within us is able to
do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely
beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes" (Ephesians 3:20
LB).
Faith is like a muscle: it can be strengthened. It can be weak or it can
be strong, depending on how much you use it.
How does God build your faith? He uses a very predictable pattern that we
will look at this week, and, if you understand it, you can cooperate with
Him in developing greater faith. It's like when the father, seeking help
from Jesus for his son, said, "Have pity on us and help us, if you possibly
can!" (Mark 9:22 TEV)
Jesus replied, "What do you mean, 'If I can?' . . . Anything is possible if
a person believes" (Mark 9:23 NLT).
The first thing God does to build your faith is give you a dream. When God
wants to work in your life, He'll always gives you a dream—about yourself,
about what He wants you to do, about how He's going to use your life to
impact the world.
There are many examples in the Bible of this.
• God gave Noah the dream of building an ark.
• God gave Abraham the dream of being the father of a great nation.
• God gave Joseph the dream of being a leader that would save his people.
• God gave Nehemiah the dream of building the wall around Jerusalem.
How do you know when a dream is from God or when it's just something you've
thought up yourself? The Bible tells us that God, "by His mighty power at
work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even
dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes"
(Ephesians 3:20 LB).
In other words, if a dream comes from God, it will be so big in your life
that you can't do it on your own. If you could do it on your own, you
wouldn't need faith. And if you don't have faith you're not pleasing God,
because the Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin (Roman 14:23).
God starts to build your faith by giving you a dream. He may be speaking to
you now, but you just don't recognize it for what it is. That dream you
have—the idea, the concept, that thing you've been thinking about doing that
would be of real benefit to other people—where do you think that idea came
from?
God will never tell you to do something that contradicts His truth. In other
words, He won't give you a dream of leaving your family and kids and moving
to Hollywood to be a movie star. If you've got that dream, then you can know
it is not from God.
God starts with a dream as He works within your life to build faith.
*Today on PurposeDriven.com:*
Blogger Paul Asay reminds us that even though Christians are statistically
no better than anyone else, we're meant to try. Click here to read "And
They'll Know We Are Christians by . . .
What?"<http://blog.purposedriven.com/bodyparts/?p=460> Missed
out on one of the Daily Devotionals? View the online
archives<http://rdstrongmail1.com/track?type=click&mailingid=171400&messageid=43900&databaseid=65501&serial=1222908274&[email protected]&userid=82907&extra=keycode=&promokey=EPD00561&execution_nbr=19&&&2001&&&http://www.purposedriven.com/article.do?method=articlePage&contentId=119877>
.
Did someone forward this Daily Devotional to you? Get your own free
subscription<http://rdstrongmail1.com/track?type=click&mailingid=171400&messageid=43900&databaseid=65501&serial=1222908274&[email protected]&userid=82907&extra=keycode=&promokey=EPD00561&execution_nbr=19&&&2002&&&http://www.purposedriven.com/profilecenter/openPreferencePage.do>to
*The Purpose Driven Connection* Daily Devotional, your daily inspiration via
email. You are subscribed as . You can unsubscribe at any time by changing
your e-mail
preferences<http://rdstrongmail1.com/track?type=click&mailingid=171400&messageid=43900&databaseid=65501&serial=1222908274&[email protected]&userid=82907&extra=keycode=&promokey=EPD00561&execution_nbr=19&&&2003&&&http://www.purposedriven.com/profilecenter/openPreferencePage.do?epid=E0984A82-CC1F-4445-B213-1B7B8D82CB03&trkid=ddnews>
. Please do not reply to this email. If you have technical problems, email
us<http://rdstrongmail1.com/track?type=click&mailingid=171400&messageid=43900&databaseid=65501&serial=1222908274&[email protected]&userid=82907&extra=keycode=&promokey=EPD00561&execution_nbr=19&&&2004&&&mailto:[email protected]>
. *The Purpose Driven Connection* Daily Devotional newsletter is produced by
PurposeDriven.com<http://rdstrongmail1.com/track?type=click&mailingid=171400&messageid=43900&databaseid=65501&serial=1222908274&[email protected]&userid=82907&extra=keycode=&promokey=EPD00561&execution_nbr=19&&&2005&&&http://www.purposedriven.com>.
You can reach us by mail at *Purpose Driven Connection*, PO Box 8108, Red
Oak, IA 51591-1108. © 2009. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. Read
our Privacy
Policy<http://rdstrongmail1.com/track?type=click&mailingid=171400&messageid=43900&databaseid=65501&serial=1222908274&[email protected]&userid=82907&extra=keycode=&promokey=EPD00561&execution_nbr=19&&&2006&&&http://www.purposedriven.com/jsp/privacy-policy.jsp>
.
--
'Unless you change what you do, you will always have what you've got.'
- Jim Rohn
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"tribewithavibe" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/tribewithavibe?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
