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Now the Lord had said to Abram, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land thatI will show you.”

Genesis 12:1

The most dramatic changes in your life will come from God’s initiative, not yours. The people God usedmightily in Scripture were all ordinary people to whom He gave divineassignments that they never could have initiated. The Lord often tookthem by surprise, for they were not seeking significant mandates fromGod. Even so, He saw their hearts, and He knew they were trustworthy.The Lord spoke to Abram when He was beginning to build a nation dedicated to His purposes. 

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And God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but byMy name Lord I was not known to them.”

Exodus 6:2–3

As God has walked with His people through the generations, He has progressively revealedHis nature according to His purposes and the needs of His people.Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Him as God Almighty, because theyneeded His mighty power to protect them from their enemies. Moses andthe Israelites learned that God was Lord, Master over every nation andevery thing. God not only delivered them from the most powerful rulerin the world, but also brought them into the Promised Land. They cameto experience Him as Lord, preeminently powerful over the pagan godsof their day. 

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Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

Your relationship with God ought to bring you more joy, satisfaction, and pleasure than any other relationship, activity, or material possession you have.Scripture exhorts you to delight yourself in the Lord, finding yourgreatest pleasure in God and the things dear to His heart. How can youfind pleasure in what God enjoys? Only as you spend time with Him willyou begin to take delight in the things God loves. As you spendintimate time with God and allow Him to show you your situation fromHis perspective, you will begin to see things as God sees them. As youadjust yourself to God, your heart will begin to desire the samethings God’s heart desires. 

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But know that the Lord has set apart forHimself him who is godly; the Lord will hear when I call to Him.

Psalm 4:3

No one is more precious in the Lord’s sight than a godly person.God is pleased whenever He finds someone who strives to live arighteous life and bring glory to Him. God sets such people apart in aspecial place in His heart. They are always kept before Him, and Hestands ready to respond to their faintest cries for help. Sinseparates us from God, causing Him to close His ears to our praying.It is futile for us to pray when we are knowingly practicing sin. Butthe opposite is also true. 

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