This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.

Today we begin a series called Building a Better Future.

In these lessons, Pastor Rick shows us how to build a foundation for a better future by following the examples of leaders in the Bible

who followed God's calling to rebuild after a time of captivity.

What you probably notice, the more grateful a person is, the happier they are.

That's the power of gratitude.

But it's not always easy to feel grateful.

That's why Pastor Rick developed a great new resource called The Power of Gratitude.

Go to PastorRick.com to find out more or just text the word daily to 800-600-5,000-4.

Now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with Part 1 of a message called, Making a Plan to Improve Your Life.

There are five books in the Bible that specifically give us instructions for how to build a better future after a time of captivity.

And those books are Nehemiah, Ezra, Zachariah, Haggai, and Malachai. They're all in the Old Testament.

And the first principles, they're on your outline, if you pull out your message and notes, the first principle is this, principle number one.

You've got to get dissatisfied with your current situation.

If you're going to build a better future, you've got to get dissatisfied with your current situation.

That's what happened with Nehemiah.

Nehemiah held a very high position in the King's Court in Persia, and he was the King's actually a steward of the wine.

But he got a burden for his hometown in Jerusalem.

And some of the captives had been allowed to return to Jerusalem after 70 years, but when they got home, they discovered that the temple and their homes and the entire city had been destroyed.

And there were no walls or gates around the city anymore, so it was defenseless.

Now, this really concerned Nehemiah. I hadn't made him very sad, and he became burdened about it.

Principle number two is, Start with what needs changing inside of me.

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