The more areas of your life you involve the Lord in, the more you can experience His protection.

Gospel Corner

16/05/25

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
Today’s Word

Today’s Scripture
May he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him.
Hebrews 13:21, NLT

Preparation Time
There’s a plant called the Chinese bamboo. For the first four years, it barely grows above ground. But underground, it’s developing a massive root system. In the fifth year, the plant will take off and shoot up to as high as eighty feet in the air. What makes the fifth year possible is the four years of preparation.

Perhaps you’re frustrated because you’re being your best, but you don’t see any signs of increase—the business isn’t growing, you’re not getting any good breaks, you’re marriage hasn’t improved. The problem is that we want fifth-year results without having to go through the four years of preparation that develop our character and prove to God that we’ll be faithful. Don’t be discouraged. What you can’t see is that God is doing a work in you. Your roots are going down deeper. At the right time, when God knows you’re ready, you’re going to come into your fifth year when you suddenly shoot up—suddenly you come out of debt, suddenly you meet the right person, suddenly your health improves, suddenly your career takes off.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You for the dreams You put in my heart. Thank You that You are equipping me and empowering me to accomplish all of Your promises. I believe that the preparation process that You are taking me through will take me to where You want me to be. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

SECTION TWO

The more areas of your life you involve the Lord in, the more you can experience His protection. You can even ask the Lord to guide you in something as seemingly natural as your travel itinerary.

In fact, read the passage above. The apostle Paul allowed the Holy Spirit to lead them at every step.

We see from those Scriptures that closed doors are not necessarily negative, and could be signs of God’s protection over our lives. The challenge for some of us is that we are so adept at planning and scheduling our busy lives that many times, we don’t make room for the Lord to intervene and to guide us to be at the right place at the right time.

Let’s not put our trust in our intelligence and planning, but in His wisdom, leading, and counsel. There is a proverb that says, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9). Even as we plan, I pray that we will always remember to commit all our ways to the Lord, and allow Him to direct our steps.

Being led by the Spirit does not have to be something complicated. When you walk close to the Lord and have a close relationship with Him, He can lead you in supernaturally natural ways.

Some years ago, a couple in our church were vacationing at a beach resort on Penang Island in Malaysia, when the wife felt like eating something in another location on the mainland. Because of that “prompting” in her belly, they headed off earlier than they had originally planned. While they were loading their vehicle, a man kept hurrying them and asking them to move off as they were apparently blocking the hotel driveway, and that had really irritated them at that time.

In any case, just fifteen minutes after they had crossed from the island to the mainland, they heard the news that an earthquake in the Indian Ocean had triggered a killer tsunami that crashed onto the beachfront they were at, killing more than fifty people. Had they left just a little later, they could have been among the casualties of the tragedy that day. Looking back, the couple believes that the man at the hotel might even have been an angel sent by the Lord to get them out of harm’s way quickly.

I don’t know about you, but I want the Lord to direct all my steps! Call upon Him today and He will answer you.