Harvest Daily 01/24/05

 

January 24
The Purpose of Your Heart

Youth is a time of great uncertainty.  You wonder what course your life will take, what your future holds.

The book of Daniel provides some role models for this time of great uncertainty called youth.  Historians estimate that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were approximately 14 to 19 years old.  They were in the early stages of life.  But their incredible stand that they took for what was right is amazing.  How easily they could have been sucked into the Babylonian system and rationalized their behavior with a "when-in-Babylon-do-as-the-Babylonians-do" type of philosophy.  Instead, these four young men of God decided to stand for what they knew was right.

In the same way, you decide what the evening of your life will be by the morning of it, or the end of it by the beginning of it.  The future is not some mystical thing that we have no control over.  You decide and I decide what principles we will live by, and what road we will take.  God says in Deuteronomy 30:19, " 'I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.' "  God has given us a choice.  We can throw our life away or we can give it to Him and say, "I want to be a man or a woman of purpose and direction."  Such were Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego, and Daniel.  You can be too, if you only purpose it in your heart.