When You Listen to God

I am definitely NOT the Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane! But His words struck me hard yesterday morning as I face continuing procrastination masquerading as confusion: “’Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.’” (Luke 22:46b)

Resisting temptation isn’t just deciding not to rob a bank or gamble the deed to your home in Vegas. It’s also the entrepreneur’s daily temptation to feel and pressure of DOING everything: yourself, family, house, church, friends, community member, oh, and your business–and sometimes, last, your alone time with God.

Yet the KEY to resisting our everyday temptations of choosing the good (or the not-so-good) over God’s best is focused, intentional, daily prayer that you stay on track, that the Lord keep you in His will, that He empower you to carry out your work and stewardship. And along with prayer, read the Word. This take more than a quick dash to a devotional with a single-sentence Bible verse.

When you turn to Him every day, God WILL give you the strength and clarity you need to do what He has given you to do–including recognizing those things He has NOT given you to do!

Open yourself up to Him and His Word, and you will experience His great promise: “‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’” (Jer. 33:3)