God's Plan and Purpose for Man Part 3

In our previous post regarding this very important topic, we closed by noting that God's plan is not realized in us by accident or on the basis of mere coincidence. We have to set ourselves in the place where we can come into agreement with God, and that is done primarily by spending quality and premium time with God. This is realized in prayer, praise, worship, and in time meditating on the Word of God. In this blog, the emphasis will be primarily on prayer, praise and worship. 
 
Incidentally, let me pause here and insert this observation that took me a long time to learn: Spending time with God deliberately is not only never wasted time; it is one of the greatest time-savers you will ever experience. The great reformer, Martin Luther, speaking to a friend one day was observed to say, "I have so much to do today that I must spend at least three hours in prayer."
 
At first it may seem very challenging, even boring , but as you persist in that commitment, you will discover that something intangible and real is transpiring in your innermost being, and you will come to truly miss that time together with God should some legitimate circumstance or situation call you away from it temporarily.
 
It is in the quiet of quality time with God that we become pensive, transparent, real and truly open to God. There in His presence we sense that we can be absolutely honest with God without condemnation, guilt or shame. There we recognize in reality that the war is over between us and God. Of course God has known this all the while, but what a joyous release it is to discover that He delights in our presence with Him even though we may yet be carrying a few spiritual warts and some unsightly smudges.
 
There in the presence of God, we begin to understand that many of the things we thought were so important have no real value at all. There we learn to discern what really is valuable to God...for instance; Jesus didn't give nearly as much time or attention to the murmuring, fault-finding Scribes and Pharisees as He gave to the lowly Samaritan woman at the well. Selah!
 
He was enabled to know what had value and what didn't by spending time with His Father. He learned to discern the nature and the purpose of things, events and people. He could tell whether those who approached Him had a hungry heart, a mere curiosity or whether they were bearing a critical attitude.
 
In essence, He learned the serious power of the words that flow from the hearts of men. In the presence of the Father, we too learn such things...we learn the truth of great scriptures such as Proverb s 6: 2, "Thou art snared by the words of thy mouth..." and of Luke 6: 45c, "...for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
 
In the presence of the Father, we learn to refuse the entrance of words of defeat, depression and discouragement that flow out of the mouth of men toward us. We also learn not to allow such words to build up in us and flow forth from us. There is a principle here: We learn never to speak or to entertain words that could cause our adversary to assume for one moment that he is winning. Instead, we become so excited about the triumphant words of our redemptive position in Christ that we never rehearse anything that is a contradiction to God's purpose or plan for us.
 
In this place of quality time with God, we even learn that some adversities can bring great advantages to us. For there in the presence of the Father, the depth and quality of our spiritual lives will be revealed in the face of temptations and challenges. Here we learn the level of our loyalty and of our own reliability. Here we learn that not all negatives are necessarily things to shun because by them we see the truth of the words of Solomon in Proverbs 27:17, "Iron sharpens iron."
 
As a matter of fact, adversity has the effect of compelling us into the presence of the Father with even greater determination. It spurs us to seek with more eagerness and sincerity true and accurate information and substantiating proof from the heart of the Father. Such earnest seeking will reveal what we really believe and why. Here we learn that we could never be a winner unless we had something to overcome; therefore, one of God's plans for us is that we might rise up a WINNER and a CHAMPION in His eyes.