Links that make me think: Part 8

(Click through to the link for the entire article from which a quote is taken.)

Thinking on Today's Manna (Wendy Alsup)

On any given bad day, God did something good somewhere. Probably, He did something good directly in your life. But like the children of Israel, we see the wilderness and our longing for the promised land, and we miss the manna He provides day by day. We focus on our longing for home, but we miss that our God just PARTED THE RED SEA. We don't want to wander in the desert, so we take for granted the FIRE BURNING IN THE SKY to direct us. Most of all, we miss in our modern lives the hundreds of ways hour by hour, day by day, our Father gives us manna, our daily bread, to sustain us.

No, You're Not Falling Behind In Life (Ann Swindell)

Ultimately, we are not “behind” in life if we are where Jesus has called us to be. Next to Jesus—with Him—is the exact place we are supposed to be. If His pace with us is slower than it is with our friends, it is not our responsibility to try to catch up to them. Our responsibility is to stay next to Christ. When we compare ourselves to others, it’s easy to worry that we are missing out on the life that we see them living. The apostle Peter seemed to be headed down this path. At the end of the book of John, Peter asks Jesus about what was going to happen in John’s life. Jesus’ response? “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (John 21:22).

What Do You Want to Accomplish? (Mike Burns)  

Don’t let the hours slip away without you giving your best shot at accomplishing your goals. Use your answers to these questions as a lens through which you make your decisions about how you structure your days:

• What is life all about?
• What is the most important thing you could do in your everyday life?
• What activities bring you the most joy or happiness?
• What makes you feel fulfilled?
• What is wrong with the world?
• What needs to happen so it can be fixed?
• If you could change one thing about how the world works, what would it be?
• If you had plenty of money, how would you spend your days?
• What is your dream job?
• If you could design the ideal life for yourself, what would it look like?
• Is your career something that’s important to you, personally?
• What is more important to you than your career?

And finally, a quote from Richard Sibbes that encouraged me recently: 

"It is the nature of faith to work when it sees nothing, and oftentimes best of all then, because God shows Himself more clearly in His power, wisdom, and goodness at such times; and so His glory shines most, and faith has nothing else to look upon then, whereupon it gathers all the forces of the soul together to fasten upon God."