Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for Tuesday, 11 March 2014 "His Way or Your Way?"

Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for Tuesday, 11 March 2014 "His Way or Your Way?"
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.-—James 4:13–14 
The Bible doesn't condemn the person who makes plans for the future. Rather, it criticizes the person who makes those plans with no thought whatsoever for the will of God. That is a dangerous thing to do. God won't share His glory with another.
There is nothing wrong with making plans. Paul told the believers in Ephesus that he would return for renewed ministry among them, "God willing" (Acts 18:21). He wrote to the Corinthians that he planned another visit "if the Lord willed" (1 Corinthians 4:19). On other occasions, Paul spoke of his plans to do certain things and how the Lord changed his plans. We have our plans. We have our purposes. We have our agendas. But the Lord may redirect us.
Jesus taught us to pray, "Your will be done" (Luke 11:2). Our prayers will be effective and successful when we align our will with the will of God and pray accordingly. Prayer is not getting our will in heaven; it is getting God's will on earth. It is not moving God our way; it is moving ourselves His way. We need to remember that His will may be different from ours. And we must be willing to accept that.
The God who knows you inside out also knows what lies ahead for you in life. We can always fall back on the simple promise of Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."
God's plans for you are better than any plans you have for yourself. So don't be afraid of God's will, even if it's different from yours.
-------
Did you know that God's plans for you are better than the plans you have for yourself? Here's why you don't have to be afraid . .
Today's Bible Reading:
Deuteronomy 16:1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. 3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste; that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. 4 No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh, which you sacrifice the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning. 5 You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you; 6 but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came out of Egypt. 7 You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents. 8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work. 9 You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to number seven weeks. 10 You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you. 11 You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. 12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes. 13 You shall keep the feast of tents seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. 14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates. 15 You shall keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place which Yahweh chooses; because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase, and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful. 16 Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents. They shall not appear before Yahweh empty. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. 18 You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous. 20 You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live, and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 21 You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make for yourselves. 22 Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which Yahweh your God hates.
17:1 You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a defect, or anything evil; for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 2 If there is found among you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, a man or woman who does that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight, in transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the stars of the sky, which I have not commanded; 4 and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even that same man or woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. 6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death. At the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. 7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 8 If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then you shall arise, and go up to the place which Yahweh your God chooses. 9 You shall come to the priests who are Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days. You shall inquire, and they shall give you the verdict. 10 You shall do according to the decisions of the verdict which they shall give you from that place which Yahweh chooses. You shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you: 11 according to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left. 12 The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die. You shall put away the evil from Israel. 13 All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.
14 When you have come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and possess it, and dwell in it, and say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me”; 15 you shall surely set him king over yourselves, whom Yahweh your God chooses. You shall set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, “You shall not go back that way again.” 17 He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
18 It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites. 19 It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; 20 that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel.
18:1 The priests the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of Yahweh made by fire and his portion. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers. Yahweh is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them. 3 This shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the inner parts. 4 The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5 For Yahweh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in Yahweh’s name, him and his sons for ever. 6 If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which Yahweh shall choose; 7 then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before Yahweh. 8 They shall have like portions to eat, in addition to that which comes from the sale of his family possessions. 9 When you have come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, 11 or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. Because of these abominations, Yahweh your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God. 14 For these nations that you shall dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery and to diviners; but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you so to do. 15 Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him. 16 This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, “Let me not hear again Yahweh my God’s voice, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.”
17 Yahweh said to me, “They have well said that which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. 19 It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.”
21 You may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?” 22 When a prophet speaks in Yahweh’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.
Psalm 38: A Psalm by David, for a memorial.
1 Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your wrath,
    neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.
2 For your arrows have pierced me,
    your hand presses hard on me.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation,
    neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head.
    As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
5 My wounds are loathsome and corrupt,
    because of my foolishness.
6 I am pained and bowed down greatly.
    I go mourning all day long.
7 For my waist is filled with burning.
    There is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am faint and severely bruised.
    I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desire is before you.
    My groaning is not hidden from you.
10 My heart throbs.
    My strength fails me.
    As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.
11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague.
    My kinsmen stand far away.
12 They also who seek after my life lay snares.
    Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things,
    and meditate deceits all day long.
13 But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear.
    I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth.
14 Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear,
    in whose mouth are no reproofs.
15 For in you, Yahweh, do I hope.
    You will answer, Lord my God.
16 For I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me,
    or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.”
17 For I am ready to fall.
    My pain is continually before me.
18 For I will declare my iniquity.
    I will be sorry for my sin.
19 But my enemies are vigorous and many.
    Those who hate me without reason are numerous.
20 They who also render evil for good are adversaries to me,
    because I follow what is good.
21 Don’t forsake me, Yahweh.
    My God, don’t be far from me.
22 Hurry to help me,
    Lord, my salvation.
Galatians 2:1 Then after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. 2 I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain. 3 But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage; 5 to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection, not for an hour, that the truth of the Good News might continue with you. 6 But from those who were reputed to be important (whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God doesn’t show partiality to man)—they, I say, who were respected imparted nothing to me, 7 but to the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcision, even as Peter with the Good News for the circumcision 8 (for he who appointed Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision appointed me also to the Gentiles); 9 and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, they who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. 10 They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy; so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do?
15 “We, being Jews by nature, and not Gentile sinners, 16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. 17 But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker. 19 For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. 21 I don’t make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
--------
Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie 
P.O. Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514-4000
Phone: 1(800)821-3300
-------