Dear Friends,

Throughout the course of my messages to you, I’ve shared the need to bring God into your daily life, continually blessing Him and remembering that He is your protector and provider. These teachings are being made crystal clear to me once again as I study the saga of Nehemiah. In this one man’s story, he is asked to believe, repent, embrace the unknown and step out in faith for God’s plan for his life. Surely he does this as shown by his actions when he returns to Jerusalem to oversee the rebuilding of the wall. But I believe it’s very significant to note that before Nehemiah even takes any action, he spends “quiet time” with God praying fervently.

I think that in America today, there needs to be a more of a spirit of remembering, reminding and repenting. So much of what we’ve seen happen in the deep economic recession has its root cause in greed. Many would say that greed was fed by man’s turning away from worshipping God and instead focusing on worshipping the false idols of wealth and possessions. 

How might things have played out differently if people had remembered that God promises to take care of us if we will only hold Him above everything else? What if those of us who live in the most prosperous nation on the planet fulfilled our obligation to bless our success by sharing our God-given resources with others? And what if – and I believe this is the key -- people just stopped for moment to remember the difference between “right” and “wrong” … and then made their decision about how to act?

Our decision to follow God’s plan for our lives begins with doing what Nehemiah did… listening to what God is trying to tell us, praying quietly for forgiveness, seeking His direction, and then asking God for whatever we need to follow His direction. Once we’ve built this firm foundation of assuredness for ourselves, we can take action to fulfill God’s plan. For professional advisors, that action involves viewing their work as their ministry, and sharing God’s word with others to provide thoughtful, engaging, transformational life guidance and financial counsel.

How do you turn it all over to God in prayer? Do you have a certain routine, or time of day, or quiet place that works for you and might inspire others? We look forward to hearing your story.

Blessings,

 

Ron