To Be Successful Always Refer to #1

See if this resonates with you…

Good golly. In this new season of learning and growing, I need this tattooed on my hand. Since I often raise it to gesture before I speak, hopefully I’d see this note to myself and close my mouth before I gets me in more trouble! Speaking needs to be my last step. First I need to…

Listen to God.

We’re starting here with the new direction of  this blog. As my kids’ children’s pastor used to continuously repeat,

God’s ways are always best.

For every conversation and question in the upcoming posts, referring back to #1 is going to be our default. We’re often wrong, but God never is. As He says,

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)

Here, we’re going to practicing listening to God, and tuning out…

Talk show hosts.

Political pundits.

Influential friends.

Charismatic speakers and writers.

Any other voice except The Voice.

Success in developing a tender heart begins with listening to God. And we’re going to go to the source, Scripture, of where God speaks, using our Bibles as the foundation of how we think, act and speak. Remember the process we’re going to work through?

Listen–> Feel–> Do–> Speak

Through Christmas, I’ll be blogging about listening to God. Forever and always here, our #1 is “Listen to God,” and that will be our answer to every question, point of contention or place of confusion. Instead of slogging around in rhetoric and opinions, we’ll look to see what Scripture says. (Hold me to it, girls! Hold me to it!)

To be clear, I’m not totally oblivious to reality. I understand that true followers can still land on the opposite sides of issues after studying Scripture, but it’s still our best step to faithfully walk with God. The beauty of looking to God through His Word together is that we’ll be unified in our purpose to seek Him instead of divided by parties or church circles.

Each week, I’m going to issue one action step so that we’re truly changing instead of just dealing in ideas. Here’s this week’s challenge:

Listen to God–Challenge #1

1. Read this blog post about a simple but profound way to study Scripture.
2. Print the handouts so that you can give the 3-step method a try.
3. From wherever you’re currently reading the Bible, take one passage of up to 10 verses this week and do the 3-step Bible study.
4. Leave a comment with a picture of your notes on the Facebook post pinned at the top of my Facebook page and tell something you learned.

To keep it fun, anyone who posts a picture before November 1st will be entered to win a drawing for Kathi Lipp’s and Cheri Gregory’s new book You Don’t Have to Try So Hard!