Let Go Of Your Anger And Offense

 

 

In the moment, everyone's anger always seems righteous. Anger is a feeling, after all, and it sweeps over us and tells us we're being denied something we should have. It provides its own justification. But an emotion is just an emotion. It's not critical thinking. Anger doesn't pause. We have to stop, and we have to question it.

We humans are experts at casting ourselves as victims and rewriting narratives that put us in the center of injustices. (More on this in a bit.) And we can repaint our anger or hatred of someone —  say, anyone who threatens us —  into a righteous-looking work of art. And yet, remarkably, in Jesus's teaching, there is no allowance for "Okay, well, if someone really is a jerk, then yeah — you need to be offended." We're flat-our told to forgive, even — especially! —  the very stuff that's understandably maddening and legitimately offensive.

That's the whole point:

The thing that you think makes your anger "righteous" is the very thing you are called to forgive.

Grace isn't for the deserving. Forgiving means surrendering your claim to resentment and letting go of anger.

 

~From Unoffendable by Brant Hansen 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Come Out Of Your Comfort Zone

 

 

Yоu wеrе nоt created tо ѕіt down оn your gifts, talents аnd рurроѕе.  God іѕ саllіng ѕоmе of уоu tо соmе uр hіghеr.  It scares уоu bесаuѕе dоіng so requires уоu to step оut оf your соmfоrt zone.  It rеԛuіrеѕ a leap оf faith and bеlіеvе іt оr not, thаt’ѕ just where God wаntѕ you!  Hе wаntѕ you tоtаllу dереndеnt оn Hіm tо whеrе уоu аrе ѕееkіng Hіѕ fасе fоr thе next move аnd іnѕtruсtіоn.  Gоd hаѕ саllеd for uѕ to wаlk bу fаіth аnd nоt bу ѕіght (2 Cоrіnthіаnѕ 5:7).  Cаn уоu see whу?  Because thаt is the оnlу wау tо truly please the Lоrd.

 

~From The Best Devotionals For Her, by Rebeca Alison

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Be Bold In Your Prayers; Take That Leap

 

 

How desperate are you for the blessing, the breakthrough, the miracle? Desperate enough to pray through the night? How many times are you willing to circle the promise? Until the day you die? How long will you knock on the door of opportunity? Until your knuckles are raw? Until you knock the door down?

The persistent widow’s methodology was unorthodox. . . . Going to the personal residence of the judge crossed a professional line. I’m almost surprised the judge didn’t file a restraining order against her. But this reveals something about the nature of God. God couldn’t care less about protocol. If He did, Jesus would have chosen the Pharisees as His disciples. But that isn’t who Jesus honored.

Jesus honored the prostitute who crashed a party at a Pharisee’s home to anoint His feet. Jesus honored the tax collector who climbed a tree in his three-piece suit just to get a glimpse of Him. Jesus honored the four friends who cut in line and cut a hole in someone’s ceiling to help their friend. And in this parable, Jesus honored the crazy woman who drove a judge crazy because she wouldn’t stop knocking.

The common denominator in each of these stories is crazy faith. People took desperate measures to get to God, and God honored them for it. Nothing has changed.

God is still honoring spiritual desperadoes who crash parties and climb trees.

God is still honoring those who defy protocol with their bold prayers. God is still honoring those who pray with audacity and tenacity. And the crazy woman is selected as the gold standard when it comes to praying hard. Her unrelenting persistence was the only difference between justice and injustice.

The viability of our prayers is not contingent on scrabbling the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet into the right combinations like abracadabra. God already knows the last punctuation mark before we pronounce the first syllable. The viability of our prayers has more to do with intensity than vocabulary. It has more to do with what we do than what we say.

There is a pattern repeated in Scripture: crazy miracles are the offspring of crazy faith. Normal begets normal.

Crazy begets crazy. If we want to see God do crazy miracles, sometimes we need to pray crazy prayers.

 

~From Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Three Remedies To Fight Temptation

 

 

We saw how three remedies that help us fight temptation are (1) remembering the presence of God, (2) remembering God’s larger plan for our lives, and (3) remembering to rely on God’s power to fight our spiritual battles.

 

~From Taking God to Work: The Keys to Ultimate Success, by David L Winters, Steve Reynolds 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Cling To Jesus

 

 

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. — John 15:4-10 NASB


Jesus’ allegory is simple. God is like a vine keeper. He lives and loves to coax the best out of his vines. He pampers, prunes, blesses, and cuts. His aim is singular: “What can I do to prompt produce?” God is a capable orchardist who carefully superintends the vineyard.

And Jesus plays the role of the vine. We nongardeners might confuse the vine and the branch. To see the vine, lower your gaze from the stringy, winding branches to the thick base below. The vine is the root and trunk of the plant. It cables nutrients from the soil to the branches. Jesus makes the stunning claim, “I am the real root of life.” If anything good comes into our lives, He is the conduit.

And who are we? We are the branches. We bear fruit:

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. — Gal. 5:22 NASB

We meditate on what is “true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable... excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8 NLT). Our gentleness is evident to all. We bask in the “peace of God, which transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7 NIV).

And as we cling to Christ, God is honored.
 

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. — John 15:8 NASB


The Father tends. Jesus nourishes. We receive, and grapes appear. Passersby, stunned at the overflowing baskets of love, grace, and peace, can’t help but ask, “Who runs this vineyard?” And God is honored. For this reason fruit bearing matters to God.

And it matters to you! You grow weary of unrest. You’re ready to be done with sleepless nights. You long to be “anxious for nothing.” You long for the fruit of the Spirit. But how do you bear this fruit? Try harder? No, hang tighter. Our assignment is not fruitfulness but faithfulness.

The secret to fruit bearing and anxiety-free living is less about doing and more about abiding. 

~From Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

God Uses Your Weakness

 

 

Abram had no idea what God had in store for him. His mind couldn’t imagine what God was going to do. Yet he packed up his camels, his turbans, and what-have-you, loaded up the family, and headed toward a strange land. He was the original Grapes of Wrath story. What made him do it? His faith. His faith that God wasn’t going to do him wrong. His faith that God wasn’t going to lead him to a place with no provision for him and his family. His faith in God’s promises.

What if Abram had stayed?

What if he had decided that the whole venture was just a little too risky? What if he chose to stick with what was familiar? I don’t know the answer to all of that, other than knowing that God wouldn’t have been able to use him the way He did. Sure, God has a destiny for all of us, a plan that He has known since before we took a breath, but He never forces us to do anything. We take our own steps, whether they are toward His will or away from it.

The thing that’s scary is that the steps toward His will are the hardest of all because they require us to leave the familiar. Wasn’t it Loretta Lynn who said something like, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”? And yes, I just quoted Loretta Lynn. Bear with me because this isn’t the first time and certainly won’t be the last.

It’s all about faith.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. — Hebrews 11:8

Only [God] can take the weak things of this world and use them for His plans and purposes.

He is the architect and the builder. Our job is to take the step of faith, away from what we know and away from the false security we cling to, toward what He is building with our lives. He never promised it would be easy, and He certainly never promised it would be on our timetable; He just promised that with Him all things are possible and He’ll be with us always.

 

~From Everyday Holy by Melanie Shankle 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Five Great Blessings From Brokenness

 

 

 At least five great blessings come from our being broken.

The Blessing of Understanding God Better

As we are broken, we understand the absolutes of God — that His commandments are exact, His promises are sure, His methods and His timetable are entirely His own, and His provision is complete.

We understand the Scriptures more fully. We see patterns of how God works in human lives. We have a deeper understanding of God’s love. We know more fully what it means to be accepted by God on the basis of nothing in ourselves, but solely because He is a loving Father. We understand more fully the purpose of the Cross. We grow in understanding God’s patience and love and kindness and forbearance. We have an experiential understanding of His long-suffering. We know with a growing certainty that He is in control of our lives completely and eternally.

The breaking process always lifts almighty God, the cross, and the grace of God to a higher level in our lives than we had placed those truths before. We are given a glimpse of God’s glory and of His divine nature. We come to a new depth of understanding of all God’s many attributes.

There is no end to what we can learn about God. This blessing is therefore an infinite one.

The Blessing of Understanding Ourselves Better

As we are broken by God, we come to a much deeper understanding of ourselves. We are able to trace the avenues, thought patterns, and trends of our lives from our childhood through our growing-up years. We can gain a new understanding of certain experiences in our past and how they affected us, for better or worse. We see our emotional flaws and discover how poorly we both show love and receive love. We face our limitations and frailties, and we see how fear has stifled us.

In our brokenness we also come to know our God-given talents, gifts, and abilities. We see ways in which the Lord has strengthened us, prepared us, and fashioned us. We also see how God has dealt with us in tenderness and mercy.

One thing we always understand very clearly in times of brokenness is that we are sinners. Brokenness always involves sin — the sin of pride and the sin of rebellion, among the other sinful behaviors God desires to remove from us. The breaking process reveals to us that we are being continually refined by God. Sin is being peeled from our lives, layer by layer.

What a wonderful blessing it is to recognize that while we still have the capacity to sin, we have been freed by Christ Jesus to denounce sin, be forgiven of it, and have victory over it!

Once we truly are broken and once we have totally submitted our lives to God, a peace floods our souls that is beyond understanding and beyond explaining (Philippians 4:7).

The Blessing of Increased Compassion for Others

Along with gaining a greater understanding of the nature of God and of ourselves through brokenness, we begin to look at other people differently. We begin to see that others are no worse and no better than we are.

We all are sinners at our core. We all are in need of God’s grace and the refining power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We all need to change, grow, and develop in certain ways. None of us is without flaws and weaknesses.

Through brokenness, we come to the place where we can say:
 

    “Father, You were patient with me. I can be patient with him.”
    “Father, You showed kindness and mercy to me. I can extend kindness and mercy to her.”
    “Father, You forgave me. I can forgive this person who hurt me.”


Brokenness makes us less critical and judgmental. It also opens us up to new ways we can share God’s love with others.

The Blessing of a Greater Zest for Life

When we come to the end of ourselves, we find that we have a greater appreciation of all God’s gifts to us. Our hearts are renewed with thanksgiving and the awareness of God’s goodness to us. Our interest in life is rekindled. The hard parts of our souls break up so that we are quicker to laugh with gusto and to cry with tenderness.

The Blessing of an Increased Awareness of God’s Presence

God is with us always, but brokenness makes us more sensitive to His presence. He comforts us and assures us that He will never leave us or forsake us.

And in our brokenness, in the intimacy of our spirits, God speaks to us of His great love for us. He tells us how much He values us and desires good for us. He assures us that He is with us and is working in us.

When we feel assured of God’s presence with us, we are secure, and there’s no greater security. God reveals Himself to us as our all-sufficiency, our total provision, our ultimate protection. That releases us from fear, pressure, and worry. It produces in us an abiding peace that cannot be described and an unspeakable joy that fills our hearts to overflowing, regardless of the circumstances.

Worth the Struggle

When we yield to God’s purposes in our lives and begin to experience the blessings that come from brokenness, we can say, “I’m thankful for this trial. Praise God it’s over, but praise God that, because He loves me, He used it to refine me. I wouldn’t trade the blessing of this experience for anything in the world!”

The Purifying Work of Pain

The hallmark of several years in my life was pain. God used it to soften me, change my thinking, and expand my compassion for others who are in pain. I wouldn’t trade those changes for anything.

Some things we may not fully understand until eternity. But the perspective that God is at work keeps me from anger, bitterness, and hostility. So I have chosen that perspective.

The Condition for Blessing

God places only one condition on the blessings that He has for us through brokenness: we must be willing to submit to Him.

If we are willing to surrender ourselves to Him, He leads us to total victory in the aftermath of brokenness. It may take months or years for that victory to be realized or recognized, but victory is assured.

But if we balk in rebellion and refuse to surrender to God, we greatly curtail God’s blessing. We place a barrier of mistrust and rebellion between ourselves and His outpouring of blessings into our lives.

God Continues to Work in Us

God will not give up on us. He will continue to work in us, bringing us from one experience of brokenness to the next and blessing us along the way.

Friend, we never outgrow our need to be broken in one way or other. And praise God for that! He loves us so much that He never gives up on us, never loses interest in us, and never rejects us. He asks only that we trust Him to be our God, so that we might be His people and bring Him glory.

 

~From Finding God’s Blessings in Brokenness by Dr. Charles Stanley

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!
 

Your Desires Must Line Up With God's

 

 

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He meant that wherever we send our money, our feelings and emotions will eventually go there, too. If we send money toward the things God cares about, our hearts will start to look more like God’s.

Generosity is just a means to an end; it is an investment in the love of God for us and for others.

Giving is the same way. If we want God’s heart, we give to the things He cares about. He honors our steps of faith by changing our hearts and aligning our passions with His.

In Luke 16 we’re reminded about giving to the poor; elsewhere in scripture we’re given the additional tasks of strengthening believers in the body of Christ, and saving the lost through evangelism.  As we give toward these three tasks, God shapes and molds us into the image of His son, Jesus Christ.  What a gift!

As Randy Alcorn has said, “Stare at Jesus long enough and you will become a giver. Give long enough and you will become more like Christ.”

 

~From True Riches – What Jesus Really Said About Money and Your Heart by John Cortines and Gragory Baumer

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Give Jesus Your Pain

 

 

I sat and considered Christ’s encounter with Zacchaeus, a man despised by everyone who knew him. He was Jewish, yes, but he was also a tax collector for the Roman occupiers.

The Romans gave this unsavory job to local recruits and allowed them to keep a percentage of whatever they collected. Zacchaeus and his colleagues took more than what was owed. They were parasites living off the vulnerability of their own people. When Christ decided to share a meal with Zacchaeus, the people were horrified. How could Jesus spend time with a man who was bleeding them dry?

This was His response:

The Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost. — Luke 19:10

I considered the verse and thought about the study I’d done on it years ago. The word used here for lost means “destroyed, ruined, broken beyond repair.”

I thought about Jesus, who didn’t come for those who are doing-just-fine-thank-you. He came to save those who were and are willing to acknowledge they are broken beyond repair. And even now, in His tender way, He comes to the doors of our hidden places and invites Himself in for supper.

Jesus comes to us in the secret shadows and bids us into the light. He wants to be in communion with us, wants to help carry the load of the pain and shame we secret away in isolation.

I don’t think I’m the only one who has constructed walls around parts of myself. We all know that pain is part of life, but when too much of it happens all at once — when it happens too early in life or when we feel helpless to combat it — the pain can make us believe we don’t want to go on. It’s why we build a secret place inside ourselves where it can hang out. The pain might follow us there, but we believe it can’t hurt us as much if it’s walled up. And we falsely think that the world can’t see it either.

We can pretend that everything is okay. And perhaps that’s a sort of saving grace for some of us as children. When I think of the stories women have shared with me through the years — stories of the worst kind of abuse and betrayal — I’ve wondered how they’ve made it. Perhaps some have survived by burying the pain deep inside, but I believe now that others have discovered the beauty of living open, yet broken, with Christ.

In Luke 19, Christ makes His way into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The crowds welcome Him with open arms, shouting,

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! — Luke 19:38 NIV

Then Luke tells us that as Christ looked over the Holy City, He wept “because you did not recognize it when God visited you” (Luke 19:44).

Luke moves away from that panoramic picture and focuses on the weeping face of Christ. Why do you think Christ wept in that moment?

I wonder if Christ ever weeps over us when — even as we raise our voices in worship — our hearts, our shame, our pain is hidden? Is there something you have hidden away inside that you need to bring into the light of Christ?

 

~From In the Middle of the Mess by Sheila Walsh

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

 

God Is In The Mountains And Valleys

 

 

We all want to know right from wrong, good from bad, positive from negative, safe from dangerous, and friends from foes.

So, when things happen that we can’t explain or wouldn’t have chosen, it’s hard to stray away from the logic we’ve learned since kindergarten musicals and vacation Bible school. In fact, if we were to combine the two, I think we’d have songs that go a little bit like this:

“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self control go up-up-up… Sin, suffering, pain, illness, hurt, and godlessness go down-down-down.”

In the Bible, we see that mountains and valleys aren’t just “up” and “down” in terms of geography, but they also seem to take on negative or positive connotations.
 

I lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and earth. — Psalm 121:1-2

After [Jesus] had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. Later that night, He was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it — Matthew 14:23-24

And a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Syrians have said, ‘The Lord is a god of the hills but He is not a god of the valleys,’ therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ — 1 Kings 20:28

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. — Psalm 23:4


And so, when we walk through our own circumstantial valleys and encounter things that never would have happened in the Garden of Eden, we think our lives are headed, well, down. Casseroles will arrive and bad news may keep coming, and everything about suffering, from funeral dresses to sympathy cards, sharply remind us of darkness and defeat.

There’s a unique tension that happens when we walk through dark valleys with our mountaintop God. Yes, the pain is real, but so is hope. Maybe “up” or “down” and “joy” or “suffering” seemed like the only options to me, but not to God.

Yes, mountains go up and valleys go down, but God is steady and constant. Maybe the writer of the song took a little inspiration from theologian Samuel Rutherford, who said, “Believe God’s love and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your rock is Christ, and it is not the rock that ebbs and flows but the sea.”


So, whether we’re talking about rocks or mountains or valleys, one thing remains true: He is with us. God is our only true comfort, and His Word is unfailing.

May we look above the ebb and flow of our circumstances and rest our eyes upon the God who does not move. He is steady in the ups and downs, and His heart is to turn things right-side-up.

Thanks be to Him.


When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. — Isaiah 43:2

He provided redemption for His people; He ordained His covenant forever — holy and awesome is His name. — Psalm 111:9

 

~Written for Devotionals Daily by Kaitlin Wernet, co-author of The Book of Comforts with Rebecca Faires, Cymone Wilder, and Caleb Faires.

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Don't Burn Out, Turn To God

 

 

 If you are worn out, here’s the deal: you’re human.

You live with the effects of a fallen world. You live in a world where people need sleep and rest and restoration. God made your body with the need to shut down for eight-ish hours a night. He made your mind with an intrinsic desire to get quiet and recuperate when things are too hectic or overwhelming. He made your soul desperate to find respite and rejuvenation in Him.

If you’re burned out, worn out, needing rest, and feeling tired, the good news is that you’re human.

The bad news is that if we continually resist His invitation to be human and resist our God-given need of recreation, He has the capacity and the loving inclination to break us a little so we are forced to stick close to Him.

God is beckoning you into a life full of pushing, pulling, and advancing for the sake of His kingdom. But He’s also inviting you into a life full of rest and stillness so you can draw near to Him. What would it look like to rewrite Psalm 23 for yourself, reading “He made me lie down” and remembering that first “He invited me to lie down. He went to quiet waters and so I followed Him”?

What would it look like to finally trash the idea that needing rest automatically equals some kind of deficiency or lack?

This is how He made us. He is not surprised. Rather, He is glorified by our resting and trusting in Him.

Let’s follow our Shepherd to the water and the quiet spaces.

And let’s kick the Enemy in the teeth when he tells us we’re not enough because we’re worn out! 

~From Always Enough, Never Too Much by Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Jesus Bore Our Sins

 

 

The cross is so common in our culture that most people don’t think twice when they see one on a church. But unfortunately, familiarity with the symbol can actually get in the way of understanding what it truly means. So let’s stop to consider how Jesus became the bearer of sin.

We begin with Scripture written long before Jesus was born. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, explains how man chose to disobey God. Because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, their descendants are all born under the curse of death, having inherited a sinful “flesh” nature.

In Leviticus, God’s laws for the Jewish nation included observance of Yom Kippur, the day each year when the Israelites fasted, prayed, and sacrificed an animal to atone for sin. In essence, the goat would bear the wrongs done by the people and suffer the penalty that divine justice required.

Centuries later, Isaiah prophesied that a Savior would atone for transgression once and for all (Isa. 53:5, 8; Heb. 7:27). After another 700 years, John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The Messiah had come, though He was totally different from what the people expected—so much so, in fact, that they rejected Him and requested His crucifixion.

In all, God gave 613 laws through Moses. But none of us can perfectly follow even the Ten Commandments. In fact, one reason He gave us these rules is to show us our need for a Savior (Ps. 19:7; Gal. 3:24). Meditate on those commands (Ex. 20:1-17), asking God to speak to your heart.

 

~From Pastor Charles Stanley, Intouch Ministries, Intouch.org 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Jesus Washes The Disciples' Feet

 

 

The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus… got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing,… and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. — John 13:2-5 NIV

It has been a long day. Jerusalem is packed with Passover guests, most of whom clamor for a glimpse of the Teacher. The spring sun is warm. The streets are dry. And the disciples are a long way from home. A splash of cool water would be refreshing.

The disciples enter the room, one by one, and take their places around the table. On the wall hangs a towel, and on the floor sit a pitcher and a basin. Any one of the disciples could volunteer for the job, but not one does.

After a few moments Jesus stands and removes His outer garment. He wraps a servant’s girdle around His waist, takes up the basin, and kneels before one of the disciples. He unlaces a sandal and gently lifts the foot, places it in the basin, covers it with water, and begins to bathe it.

One grimy foot after another, Jesus works His way down the row. In Jesus’ day the washing of feet was a task reserved not just for servants but for the lowest of servants.

In this case the One with the towel and basin is the King of the universe.

Hands that shaped the stars now wash away filth. Fingers that formed mountains now massage toes. And the One before whom all nations will one day kneel now kneels before His disciples. Hours before His own death, Jesus’ concern is singular.

He wants His disciples to know how much He loves them.

You can be sure Jesus knows the future of these feet He is washing. These feet will dash for cover at the flash of a Roman sword. Only one pair of feet won’t abandon Him in the Garden… Judas will abandon Jesus that very night at the table.

What a passionate moment when Jesus silently lifts the feet of His betrayer and washes them in the basin.

Jesus knows what these men are about to do. By morning they will bury their heads in shame and look down at their feet in disgust. And when they do, He wants them to remember how His knees knelt before them and He washed their feet…

He forgave their sin before they even committed it. He offered mercy before they even sought it.

~ Just Like Jesus

King of the universe, I’d like to think I would have washed Your feet and done better than the other disciples, but I know that’s not true. Thank You for loving me and washing my feet and offering me mercy when I deserve none. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

 

~From  On Calvary’s Hill by Max Lucado

Get Nourished By The Word of God

 

 

In Matthew 6, Jesus told us to treat partaking in the presence of God like eating our daily bread. You don’t have to know the whole Bible to take a bite of it today. And you don’t have to understand the overwhelming scope of the people of Israel to go to the Word right now and grab a fistful of nourishment for your heart. No one (least of all God) is expecting you to stuff yourself with knowledge, and you’re enough, just as He made you, to seek Him right where you are. Maybe you can remember the Bible better than I can. But whatever you do, don’t let the Enemy convince you that God’s Word isn’t for you.

 

~From Always Enough, Never Too Much by Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Plan For God's Guidance

 

In order to stay on the path God intends for our lives, we should plan times to stop, ask, and listen for guidance. The world throws confusing messages at us all day long, and we need to check our course frequently. These conversations with the Lord are vital for a thriving life of godly impact.

 

~From Pastor Charles Stanley, Intouch Ministries, Intouch.org

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

God's Assurance Of Your Salvation

 

 

Paul’s words in Romans 8:28-39 are the most compelling on the subject of preservation anywhere in Scripture. I say this for two reasons. First, their purpose is to teach preservation. Second, this is the most extensive biblical passage teaching that God keeps his saints.

Familiar words lead off:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. — Romans 8:28

In context, “all things” means even “present sufferings” (Romans 8:18). Those who love God, namely believers, should realize that God works all things, even their difficulties and pain, for their ultimate good. Paul tells us how: God has planned their greatest benefit, their final salvation (Romans 8:29-30). The apostle here begins the first of four arguments for why Christians are safe in God’s grace. He bases each argument on one of God’s qualities: God will preserve His saints because of His sovereignty (Romans 8:29-30), might (Romans 8:31-32), justice (Romans 8:33-34), and compassion (Romans 8:35-39).

We Are Safe Because of God’s Sovereignty (Romans 8:29-30)

Paul begins verses 29–30 with the Greek word meaning for or because to explain how we know that God works all things for our ultimate benefit. It is because He has planned salvation, our highest good, from start to finish. Paul employs five verbs in the past tense to set forth God’s plan. God is the subject of each verb, and God’s people are the direct object of each verb.

God foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified believers.

God foreknew His saints. Foreknow and foreknowledge have several meanings in the New Testament. They refer to God’s choosing Christ (Acts 2:23; 1 Peter 1:20) and to people knowing facts beforehand (Acts 26:5; 2 Peter 3:17). But whenever God is the one who foreknows and Christians are the ones He foreknows, foreknew and foreknowledge refer to God’s prior love for them (Romans 8:29; Romans 8:11:2; 1 Peter 1:2).

For two reasons foreknew in Romans 8:29 does not mean that God knows facts beforehand, including who would believe in Christ. (Of course, God knows all facts, including these, but that is simply not what Romans 8:29 is talking about.) First, here God does not foreknow facts but people: “those God foreknew.” Second, here only some are foreknown. Paul would say that all were foreknown if He meant that God knew people’s responses to the gospel beforehand. But Paul says some, not all, are foreknown because the ones foreknown are the same people who are predestined, called, justified, and glorified. Plainly, not all human beings will be glorified. Therefore, in this text God foreknows some and not all people — that is, He loved them beforehand. Elsewhere Paul tells us how far beforehand — “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4 ESV) and “before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9 ESV).

Those He foreknew, God “also predestined” (Romans 8:29). Predestination is God in sovereign mercy choosing people for salvation. Paul writes succinctly,

God… has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. — 2 Timothy 1:8-9

The apostle highlights predestination more than the other four verbs in Romans 8:29-30. Notice that it is only this verb that Paul expands: we were “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29). All who become God’s children by faith in His Son (John 1:12; Galatians 3:24) will be conformed to his character. This is a great encouragement for us who frequently struggle with temptation!

Paul says, “And those He predestined, He also called” (Romans 8:30). He means those God chose for salvation He successfully summons to Christ in the gospel. God “calls” them by bringing them to believe in His Son. “And those He called, He also justified.” Those God summons to Christ, He declares righteous based on Christ’s saving death and resurrection.

Paul’s next words concern God’s preservation of His people. He says, “Those He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:30). Remarkably, glorification, a future aspect of salvation, appears in the past tense like the other four verbs. Glorification is the act of God’s grace by which His resurrected people see Christ’s glory and are thereby transformed so they share that glory (Colossians 3:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:14; 1 Peter 5:1).

Why does Paul put future glorification in the past tense? “Those He justified, He also glorified.” He does so to present all five actions in the same way, as accomplished realities.

Thomas Schreiner explains, “What is envisioned is the eschatological completion of God’s work on behalf of believers that began before history, and the aorist signifies the certainty that what God has begun He will finish.” We who know Christ and fight against sin now will one day fight no more. We will be glorified and in turn will glorify God for such a great salvation.

Almighty God keeps every one of His foreloved, predestined, called, and justified people for ultimate salvation — glorification. This is indicated by Paul’s use of pronouns:

For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son… And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. — Romans 8:29-30

No one who trusts Christ for redemption will fail to be saved.

Our sovereign heavenly Father will keep every believer safe in his Son for final glorification.

 

~From  The Assurance of Salvation by Robert A. Peterson 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Studying Scripture Helps Build Your Spiritual Foundation

 

 

The Word of God is a lifeline for every Christian. Paul instructed his readers that the Word of God will teach us as well as provide encouragement and hope. The psalmist wrote,
 

My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to Your Word. — Psalm 119:28 NIV


The Bible is the primary way God communicates with His people. As we read the Scriptures, we are taking in the message God intends to communicate (2 Timothy 3:16). He uses the Scriptures to increase our understanding, give us strength, correct us, and encourage us. As we approach the Scriptures, we will be wise to ask God to increase our understanding of His Word. Like the psalmist, we can pray,
 

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law. — Psalm 119:18 NIV


Reading God’s Word is a privilege, and being a student of the Scriptures is something every believer in Christ can benefit from.

Father, please give me a deep love for Your Word. Reveal truth to me from Your Scriptures, and allow Your Word to be the guiding authority of my life.

 

~From The God of Comfort by Zondervan

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Speak The Truth In Love

 

 

I once saw a television interview with Mariah Carey, one of the most successful artists in the history of pop music, in which she said that if she hears a thousand words of praise and one word of criticism, that one criticism will eliminate the thousand praises in her mind.

Can you identify with this dilemma? I certainly can.

Praise and approval slip through our fingers like sand. Shaming and criticism, on the other hand, stick to us like Velcro and can feel impossible to shake off, no matter how hard we try.

The serpent that tempted Adam and Eve, also known as the “accuser of the brethren” or Satan (Revelation 12:10), is the same deceiver of us — whispering constantly in our ears, “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1). Has God really said you are forgiven, blameless in His sight, and forever loved? Surely not! We both know you are guilty, shameful, and worthless! The serpent hisses these lies to our hearts constantly.

This is why nineteenth-century minister Robert Murray M’Cheyne said that for every one look we take at ourselves, we should take ten looks at Christ. Our chronic tendency to crank up the volume on the serpent’s voice of accusation and bondage and to dial down the volume on the Father’s voice of pardon and freedom makes this practice of taking ten looks at Christ into an essential, daily endeavor. If we are ever to move past our habitual, primal patterns of posing, self-defending, and hiding, then we must learn and embrace some new patterns of mind and heart. For this to be possible, we are going to need help from each other.

One practical way we can hear the Father’s voice more clearly is to practice what Scripture calls “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) with each other. We must, as writer Ann Voskamp once said in a talk she gave at our church, “only speak words that make souls stronger.”

As the beloved, blood-bought daughters and sons of God, we must use our words to call out the best in each other versus punishing each other for the worst.

To speak the truth in love is to offer encouragement, to put courage into a soul.

One of our primary resources for doing so consists in the carefully chosen, life-giving words that God has already declared over us all.

If all of our Christian communities and churches were sold out to this one simple practice — to only speak words that make souls stronger — I wonder how many spiritually disengaged people would start wanting to engage. I wonder how many religious skeptics would want to start investigating Christianity instead of keeping their distance from its claims and its followers. Do you wonder the same?

It has been said that the best “outreach” we can offer is to become the kind of community that we would want to be part of and the kind of community that is difficult to find anywhere else. This might actually be Christians’ best opportunity in the current cultural moment, where everyone seems to be on a hair trigger, always looking for something or someone to be offended by. I wonder if this simple, age-old, cost-free, compelling initiative is the key to turning a regular faith into an irresistible one. What if all it took for us to become the “light of the world” and the “salt of the earth” and the “city on a hill” to our friends, neighbors, and colleagues was to choose kindness over criticism toward one another, giving the benefit of the doubt over assuming the worst in one another, building each other up instead of tearing each other down. What kind of difference — if we committed ourselves to this — do you think it would make?

Do you remember that silly saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? I think Mariah Carey was a lot more honest than this in her interview when she admitted how much criticism stings. While sticks and stones may indeed break our bones, words can also wound us deeply and crush our spirits. Anyone who has received bad news, been shamed or criticized, or been the brunt of a mean joke or gossip understands this. Millions of men and women are in therapy because of wounds inflicted on them by words spoken to them either by others or by their own hearts.

Here are just few examples: You are worthless. You are ugly. You will never amount to much. You disappoint me. Why can’t you be more like your brother? You are too fat. You are too thin. I want a divorce. You should be ashamed of yourself. I hate you. I wish you were never born.

However, words not only have the power to crush spirits; they also have a mighty power to lift spirits, to bring strength to the weary, to give hope to the hopeless, to put courage back in, to make souls stronger. Words like these:

You matter.

You are the image of God.

You are loved at your best, and you are loved at your worst.

You are uniquely gifted.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

You are God’s child, the bride of Jesus, the vessel of the Holy Spirit, and an heir of the kingdom.

I see potential in you.

I value you.

I need you.

I respect you.

Will you forgive me? I forgive you.

I like you.

I love you.

These are the kinds of words that lift a heart and bring healing to a soul. They can free the chameleon from hiding in fear. These life-giving words can provide courage for the performer and poseur in each of us to come out of hiding, step into the light, and tell our true story — our blemishes, struggles, and sin, as well as the beauty, goodness, and mercy of God that we experience in the midst of them.

 

~From Irresistible Faith by Scott Sauls 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Let God Fight Your Battles

 

 

God said He would fight your battles. He would restore the years that were stolen from you. What the enemy meant for your evil, He would turn it around for your good. Nowhere in there does it say that you have to sneak-diss or sub-tweet. Nah, you just keep doing you, as excellently as you’ve been doing, and eventually those who conspire against you will trip over themselves to bless you.

 

~From Bamboozled By Jesus: How God Tricked Me into the Life of My Dreams by Yvonne Orji, Actress, Author, Comedian

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Repent And Clear Your Negative Thoughts

 

 

When we feel frustrated or stuck in our ruts of false belief, we can pray that God will change the very neural pathways in our brain. We can ask Him to rewire the innermost parts of our minds on a biological level. He created us. He knit us together in our mothers’ bellies. I believe that He can change the way my brain tangles together and makes connections. Do you believe that too?

Let’s practice together. We can pray this prayer when we’re feeling the effects of our false beliefs:

Lord, You are mighty in me. You made me. You put every cell together and came up with me. You are the Lord of my life, and You are the Lord of my mind. Lord, I have believed things that are not true, and I’m sorry for that. Please forgive me. Lord, because You are good, would You let the ways I used to think die off and then would You blaze a new trail in my mind? Would You stop connections in my brain that are tied to my old way of thinking and form new neural pathways with Your good truth? Thank You, Lord, for Your forgiveness and for the miraculous way You made me. Please remake my mind to be more like Yours.

That is a beautiful moment of repentance — of receiving His grace that comes after we go to Him, humble, needy, unable to heal ourselves.

That is one moment of repentance — repentance for years of being a false preacher in your own head, repentance for overlooking His good news and still preferring the bad news. This is the kind of repenting that happens a thousand times a day. When you go about your day and all is well, you thank God for keeping you on the narrow path. When you catch a bad news loop gearing up, you shush it, preach to yourself, and then get back to the good news. You pray, “Forgive me, God. I want to believe; please help me overcome my unbelief.”

This is the kind of repentance where you skin your knees and get back up. This is the kind of repentance that you commit to, knowing that God is urging you on to good works. His Spirit is mighty in you, and you are renewing your mind!

Don’t get stuck in guilt and shame. The work of turning around is the work of honesty and wholeness. There is a peaceful kind of power that comes when you go God’s way, however imperfectly it might be.

In Romans 12:2, the apostle Paul writes,

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

You renew; God transforms. To “be transformed” means that something outside of you is doing the transforming. You must be faithful to take the thoughts captive, but ultimately, God is the only one who can change our minds.

 

~From Preach to Yourself by Hayley Morgan 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Are All Your Treasures On Earth?

 

 

Jesus’ words contain the absolute secret of passion in any relationship. He was telling His disciples to invest their lives in the things of God and not to focus on the things of this world. And He concluded with a powerful sentence: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

To understand the importance of that statement, let me help you understand the meaning of two words Jesus used in the original language. In the Greek language that the New Testament was written in, the word for treasure is thesauros. It means treasure or wealth. But it also means a treasury, or the place where we deposit our wealth.

The second important word in Jesus’ statement is heart. It is the Greek word kardia. It means the seat of our emotions and passions. Here is a paraphrase of Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:21: Wherever you are depositing the treasures of your life, your passion will be there also.

Jesus knew if His disciples were investing their lives in worldly things they would lose their focus and passion for Him. So, He wisely exhorted them to lay up their treasures in Heaven. He did this because He knew an important truth:

You cannot separate your treasures from your passions.

In other words, you will always be most passionate about the people, pursuits, and places where you are investing the best of your life. Your passions will always follow the investments of your time, energy, and strengths.

Here is another way to say it: Your passions are telling on you. If you aren’t passionate about your marriage, what are you passionate about? Car racing, golf, children, work, church, friends, QVC?

Where are you investing the best of your time, energy, and strengths?

 

~From Strengths Based Marriage by Jimmy Evans and Allan Kelsey

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Man's Need For God

 

 

In Pensées, Pascal reflects on man’s search for happiness, writing: “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” The same God Who formed us is the God Who knows us and Who wants to be known by us. Just as an artistic masterpiece cannot be fully understood apart from understanding the artist, so we cannot separate our purpose from our Creator—the God Who gave us birth.

 

~From 40 Days of the Names, Titles, and Attributes of God by Gina L. Diorio

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Who Jesus Is

 

 

The first chapter of Revelation gives a compact description of the Lord. In verses 4 to 8, John condenses the wonder of Jesus Christ to the bare but beautiful essentials of who He is:

Jesus Christ is the faithful witness. Jesus came to earth to more fully reveal the character and ways of the Father (John 14:9). The miracles He performed validated His claim to be the Son of God.

Jesus Christ is the first-born from the dead. The Savior bore our sins and died on the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day. His resurrection proved that eternal life is possible for us, too, as Jesus taught in John 11:25: “He who believes in Me will live even if he dies.”

Jesus Christ is the ruler of the kings of the earth. It is the Lord who raises men to power, just as it is He who removes them (John 19:11; Rom. 13:1). Meanwhile, believers have access to a higher authority. In God’s throne room, we can beseech Him on behalf of our nations and lay claim to His promises.

Jesus Christ loves us and released us from our sins by His blood. Note the change of tense in John’s writing. The Lord’s love is ever-present, but He has freed believers from their past. Both the penalty and power of sin have been broken.

When people ask you about Jesus, introduce Him by guiding them through this mini-biography. In just a few sentences, John describes Christ’s character, divinity, and authority. The disciple was not timid about proclaiming the Lord. We shouldn’t be shy, either, when we serve so great a Savior.

 

~From Pastor Charles Stanley, Intouch Ministries, Intouch.org 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Live A Life Of Service For Christ

 

 

Jesus shows us how to live a life of service by doing the very same for us. Jesus gave it all up for us (2 Corinthians 5:21, 8:9; Philippians 2:5–8), laid down His life willingly (John 10:18), got into the muck and the mess (Mark 5:25–34, 7:33; John 9:6), and served with love, joy, and compassion (Mark 6:30–44; John 13:1–17). Jesus laid down His life to save us, and He calls us His people saved by His work to lay down our lives (our old ways, our selfish desires, ambitions, agendas, and will) for Him, His will, His kingdom, and His purpose.

It’s such a privilege to be a believer. We get to follow the example of our Savior, to live for and be part of something so much greater than we could imagine. We get to be used by God to bring people into salvation and lead them into the hope of eternity. We get to follow in the footsteps of our King and Lord—and all it takes is us laying down our less than lives for a greater kingdom and purpose! Praise Jesus for this glorious call.
 

~From The Gospel Of Mark Devotional, Part 5 on YouVersion

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

God Is Always Near

 

 

I always used to ask God to be near, but recently I’ve tried to shift my prayers a little. I don’t think it’s wrong to ask Him to be near, and I certainly don’t think He gets annoyed if we do even though He is already close by. What He mostly cares about is that we’re coming to Him, that we’re talking to Him. I’ve also realized that all of Scripture points to a God who can’t not be near.

Think about it: when we’re in Christ, what can keep us from His love? Romans 8 tells us that nothing — nothing — can keep us from the love of God. Not death, not height, not depth. Not angels, not demons. Not our fear. Nothing in creation can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35–39).

So why would we ask God to be near if He’s promised that He won’t go anywhere? And why, then, do we not feel near to Him all the time?

I’d like to propose that perhaps we’re the variable, not Him. If He’s always available and nothing we can do will keep Him away, then maybe it’s us. Maybe we’re not recognizing Him. Maybe we’re not acknowledging Him. Maybe we’re ignoring Him. And while that sounds heavy and potentially disheartening, it’s actually really great news, and here’s why: you’re enough for Him to draw near. When He sees you, He sees His Son; and when He looks into your soul, He sees the Spirit. There’s nothing you can do to keep Him away, and there’s no place you can run where He won’t go to meet with you. So if you don’t feel near to Him, it cannot possibly be because you’ve done something to displease Him or make Him turn away.

I dare you to change your prayers, not because it will make Him happier with you (nothing can!), but simply because it will remind your heart how faithful and near He always is.

Rather than asking Him to be near, ask Him to give you eyes to see Him. Rather than asking what you can do to make Him come closer, maybe just ask that He helps you see how close He is. Jesus came the distance, He came all the way to the Cross, and nothing can separate you from His love and grace.

~From Always Enough Never Too Much by Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Jesus Provides Freedom

 

 The apostle Paul once wrote,
 

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free... Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1


He was specifically writing about those who would impose all sorts of religious rules and human traditions on believers. But these words could also apply to personal habits and attitudes that we allow to enslave us, weigh us down, and steal our joy. If Jesus intended to set us free by His sacrifice for us on Calvary, what are those things that tie us up, that trip our feet and weigh on our hearts? Is it a habit? An addiction? A cynical heart? A hardened attitude? An unwillingness to forgive? An old prejudice? Jesus died for our freedom. If we allow anything to restrict us or shackle us to a sad, mediocre life, then we are missing His great gift, paid for at such a high price. 

 

~From Seeing God in America, by Larry Libby

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Condemnation Vs. Conviction

 

 

 

 

~From "Breaking Free From Guilt And Shame," by David Diga Hernandez, Youtube.com

 

 

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
John 16:7-11 NKJV 

 

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!

Know That God Loves You

 

 

 

When God created the heavens and the earth, He wasn’t just trying to keep busy or do something constructive with His time. He created everything we see for you and me. All of creation is an expression of His true love for us.

One time, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Joyce, I do so many things for people every day because I love them, and they don’t even see it.” Then He gave me this example: “Every day, when I speak to the sun and say ‘Rise.’ I do it for you.” (see Matthew 5:45-47).

Stop and think about that. The sun rises in the sky every day for you. When the rain comes and waters the crops. It rains for you. When the grass grows and the flowers bloom, it’s for you!

Wherever you are in your relationship with God, I want you to know today that God loves you. He wants to meet all of your needs, walk with you through your troubles, and bless you above and beyond all that you can ask or think (see Ephesians 3:20).

Take time to receive His love. Read and ponder what His Word says and ask the Lord to give you a revelation of His personal love for you. As you do, the amazing truth of His love will move from your head to your heart . . . and you’ll begin to view everything a whole new way.

 

~From "Do You Believe God Loves You?," Enjoying Everyday Life Magazine, by Joyce Meyer, joycemeyer.org

 

Stay Encouraged and Be Blessed!