Can you imagine if Joseph would have not listened to God?
‘Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. ‘
Matthew 1:19
Listening to God is not always easy.
Heck, sometimes it means that we move out of our comfort zone and into the frying pan.
And that frying pan is uncomfortable.
Have you ever heard God speak to you in one way or another and refused to listen?
Maybe he told you to stop by this house and knock on the door. Or he gave you the intuition to pick up the phone and call someone.
Did you listen?
If you answered no. what stopped you.
Was it because you were too busy, or maybe you just didn’t want to see a specific person?
Was your answer really good enough to justify not listening to God?
Probably not
If the answer is yes, then awesome. Pat yourself on the back and keep up the good work. Because God loves action takers.
Do you know why?
Because it is much easier to keep moving than it is to get started. (hey that sounds like a whole other devotional though 😉)
Anyways, where was I? Oh that’s right? God LOVES people who take action.
When you take action he continues to reward you with more opportunities. (I can’t even begin to tell you the opportunities that he has rewarded us with, especially in the past 24 months, let alone our whole lives.)
The bible is full of action takers.
Joseph and Mary were action takers. Jesus’ dad and Jacob’s son were both action takers.
But let’s talk about Joseph, Mary’s husband. When he found out that she was pregnant he was going to divorce her quietly. But then God spoke to him and he listened.
When Herrod was getting ready to kill off the boys born at the same time Jesus was, Joseph listened again and loaded up Mary and Jesus and took off to Egypt.
When they discovered that Jesus stayed behind at the temple, he took action and went back for Jesus. Ok, I would have probably done the same thing. But can you imagine that conversation he and Mary had? I’ll bet it went something like this.
Mary, “Has anyone seen Jesus?”
Joseph, “Oh don’t worry I’m sure that he is back there with the other kids. You know how kids are these days. Always glued to their tablet.” (get it. Lol)
Mary, “you are not funny. Now go find him.” Joseph keeps walking.
Mary, “Aren’t you going to go look for him?”
Joseph, “No. I’m sure he’s fine.”
Mary, “Well ok then I guess I have to do all the hard work again, just like when I gave birth to this kid.”
A few moments later, Joseph thinks to himself. “Oh man if I don’t go look for Jesus I will never hear the end of this.” He starts looking for him.
I could go on and on….
But you get the point.
Mary probably had a feeling, from God. And she listened.
My whole point here is the next time you get an intuition, stop and take a moment to pray. God is this from you? If so please let me have the willpower to listen.
Take Action
Now is the time to act.
The very last step that you just read is the best action you can take.
When God tells you to jump, you don’t stop to think about it. You respond with, “HOW HIGH would you like me to JUMP?”
Learn to hear God when talks to you.
For some of us this is harder than others. It’s ok though. Know that God is there for you and you want to hear him.
Next time you get that intuition to do something. Don’t hesitate. Instead, pray!
My favorite prayer is, “Lord, God if this is supposed to be then let it happen. Oh yeah and also if you could give me a warm fuzzy feeling that would really help me make the right choice. That would be AMAZING. Thanks. Dan”
Prayer
Lord, God you are one AMAZING God. You have the power to tell the future and to mold us into what you need us to be. I know that we don’t always follow your advice word for word. So I am thankful that you are a very forgiving God. Lord, today we pray for a few things. First, we pray that you help to stop and take action every time we hear you. Help us to pray more. Help us to hear your voice like you are hollering at us and are right next to us. Help us to KNOW beyond any doubt that you are talking to us. Next God we pray that you help to take action when we do hear you. Help us to jump headfirst into everything that you need us to. Even though it might be scary. Lord, we know that you are always looking out for our best interests. So help us to get our minds to feel that way too. Help us to “trick” our minds into knowing beyond any doubt that you are always here for us and that you are our father and therefore only want what’s best for us. God, like I already said you are AMAZING. And we appreciate that. Lord thank you to everyone who reads this and even those who don’t. Thank you for this amazing opportunity to share this with the world. And God, we pray that you help everyone here to take action today and share this devotion with at least one person who you tell them that needs to read it. Please be with everyone in this world and heal those you need to be healed.
We ask all this in your precious son’s name.
Amen
A Littlle More
There are so many stories that I could write here.
But you are lucky enough to get to hear this one.
One thing you need to know about me is that I DO NOT DREAM. I have never really dreamed in my entire life.
As a child, I never remember dreaming.
As a teen, I never remember dreaming about anything, and we all know what teenage boys dream about.
CARS.
Well I’m my case it would have been tractors and semi-trucks (if you need certification you can ask Jenna, my mom, or dad. They can vouch that I love tractors and semi-trucks)
(That wasn’t what you were thinking. Get your mind out of the gutter. Just kidding.)
The point is that I do not dream. And if I do dream I can’t remember anything about them.
The funny thing is that I used to talk in my sleep, A LOT!
Later I will have to tell you a funny story about Jenna and my honeymoon.
Anyways. Like I said. If I do dream I don’t remember any of it.
So one day I wake up and I remember a dream! Wow, this is so cool I remember thinking. So this is what it feels like to have a dream.
The thing is, I was 25 years old. And I dreamt about work.
After I wake up I head to work. About halfway through the day a coworker meets me in a specific aisle (the exact same one from my dream) and starts a conversation.
The exact same conversation I had in my dream.
I KNOW, CRAZY, right?
Bear in mind that I did not prompt this conversation in any way whatsoever. I was literally headfirst into some boxes looking for something.
The craziest thing was I already knew exactly how the conversation was going to happen.
So I answered back, the exact same words from my dream. And he replied with the same thing I heard earlier. (in my dream)
By now you might be thinking wow this guy is crazy.
Well maybe I am, who knows.
But the way I see it is that God spoke to me, through a dream. So that I would be able to hear him better when we talked later.
After the conversation ended. I stopped right there and looked up and said, “Thank you!” that was exactly what I needed.
Will you pray with us?
Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation
All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel
For all military personal serving our country and their families
Those in Leadership positions throughout the world
Prayer
Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts. We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us. We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us. And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.
We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name
Amen
A Little More
The other day I got a call from one of our clients.
I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.
“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”
My smile immediately vanished.
I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.
So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?”
To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.
They gave me the details.
My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.
But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.
My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.
I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.
so……
I made sure not to smile when I made the call. I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!
That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.
Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!
Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal. I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad.
Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.
The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.
No problem. Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.
Well……..
After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.
Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.
I told him that I would NOT make any promises.
But my team went to work!
Guess what????
We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.
My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.
Here’s the point of all this.
When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.
That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.
Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol
Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!
Dan Greer
