God Is Good!: Guidance / David Jeremiah

 

God Is Good!: Guidance

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6

 Recommended Reading: Proverbs 16:1-9

Think of the progress humanity has made when it comes to guidance. We’ve graduated from navigating by terrestrial signposts to celestial signposts to rough-drawn maps to sophisticated maps to digital maps courtesy of GPS. Today, with devices that fit in one hand, we can get directions to anywhere we want to go—and a voice to tell us when to turn!

The ease with which we are guided today may make us resent the process of gaining guidance from God about life’s decisions. We want Him to direct our paths—and He will—but the means to that end involves trusting Him, leaning on Him instead of our own understanding, and acknowledging Him in all our ways. Those are not “click here for directions” instructions, but disciplines we develop over time. God’s guidance is a fruit of our intimacy and faithfulness to Him.

Because God is good, He gives us the gift of His guidance. If you need guidance today, continue to trust Him, lean on Him, and acknowledge Him in all your ways.

God’s promises of guidance are not given to save us the bother of thinking.
John R. W. Stott

The Importance of Thanksgiving / Alistair Begg

 

The Importance of Thanksgiving 

I will give thanks to the Lord. 

Psalm 9:1

Thanksgiving should always follow answered prayer, just as the mist of earth’s gratitude rises when the sun of heaven’s love warms the ground.

Has the Lord been gracious to you and inclined His ear to the voice of your prayer? Then thank Him as long as you live. Let the ripe fruit fall upon the fertile soil from which it drew its life. Do not fail to sing in praise of Him who has answered your prayer and has given you the desire of your heart. To be silent about God’s mercies is to incur the guilt of ingratitude; it is to act as poorly as the nine lepers who after they had been cured of their leprosy did not return to give thanks to the healing Lord. To forget to praise God is to refuse to benefit ourselves; for praise, like prayer, is one great means of promoting the growth of our spiritual lives. It helps to remove our burdens, to excite our hope, to increase our faith. It is a healthy and invigorating exercise that quickens the pulse of the believer and prepares him for new enterprises in his Master’s service.

To bless God for mercies received is also the way to benefit our fellowmen; “let the humble hear and be glad.”1 Others who have been in similar circumstances will take comfort if we can say, “Magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. . . . This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him.”2 Weak hearts will be strengthened, and sagging spirits will be revived as the saints listen to our “shouts of deliverance.”3 Their doubts and fears will be rebuked as we teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. They will also “sing of the ways of the LORD”4 when they hear us magnify His holy name.

Praise is the most heavenly of Christian duties. The angels do not pray, but they do not cease to praise both day and night; and the redeemed, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, are never tired of singing the new song, “Worthy is the Lamb.”5

1) Psalm 34:2
2) Psalm 34:3,6
3) Psalm 32:7
4) Psalm 138:5
5) Revelation 5:12

Battle of the Spirit / Billy Graham

 

Battle of the Spirit

When we examine the problems that confront us in our world today, we find that every one of them resolves into a problem of “inner space,” a problem of the dark side of the human spirit. From thousands of letters we receive, it is evident that a large proportion of the population is facing deep personal problems. They vary from person to person, but they do exist, and they are all problems of “inner space.” 

Yes, we are the people who have been conquering outer space, but are in danger of losing the battle of the spirit. But there is a solution—for millions it has already been reached—and that solution is in Jesus Christ. He said, “My peace”—my liberty, my freedom—“I give unto you” (John 14:27). 

Today if we will turn the searchlight of truth on the dark side of our human spirits and let Jesus Christ become the Master Control of our lives, a new day will dawn for us. Submit the “inner space” of your life to Him.

Daily Prayer

How often I hurt deep down inside me, Lord, but the knowledge of Your love and compassion brings me hope and peace.

Run With Patience / Streams in the Desert

Run With Patience

Let us run with patience - Heb 12:1

To run with patience is a very difficult thing. Running is apt to suggest the absence of patience, the eagerness to reach the goal. We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet, I do not think the invalid’s patience the hardest to achieve.

There is a patience which I believe to be harder—the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: It is the power to work under a stroke; to have a great weight at your heart and still to run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily task. It is a Christlike thing!

Many of us would nurse our grief without crying if we were allowed to nurse it. The hard thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in bed, but in the street. We are called to bury our sorrows, not in lethargic quiescence, but in active service—in the exchange, in the workshop, in the hour of social intercourse, in the contribution to another’s joy. There is no burial of sorrow so difficult as that; it is the “running with patience.”

This was Thy patience, O Son of man! It was at once a waiting and a running—a waiting for the goal, and a doing of the lesser work meantime. I see Thee at Cana turning the water into wine lest the marriage feast should be clouded. I see Thee in the desert feeding a multitude with bread just to relieve a temporary want. All, all the time, Thou wert bearing a mighty grief, unshared, unspoken. Men ask for a rainbow in the cloud; but I would ask more from Thee. I would be, in my cloud, myself a rainbow—a minister to others’ joy. My patience will be perfect when it can work in the vineyard. —George Matheson

“When all our hopes are gone,  

’Tis well our hands must keep toiling on  

For others’ sake:  

For strength to bear is found in duty done;  

And he is best indeed who learns to make  

The joy of others cure his own heartache.”

Choose Joy / Chuck Swindoll

 Choose Joy

by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Proverbs 15:13, 15

It’s no secret that I love to laugh. Laughter filled my childhood home, and I hope my children remember their early years as cheerful. I am convinced the Lord has a great sense of humor and that He wants His people to laugh loudly and often. So our study about the constructive use of the mouth concludes on that light note.

5. A good sense of humor

A joyful heart makes a cheerful face,
But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
All the days of the afflicted are bad,
But a cheerful heart has a continual feast. (Proverbs 15:13, 15)

By a sense of humor, please understand that I am not referring to inane, foolish talk or distasteful, ill-timed jesting. By humor, I mean carefully chosen, well-timed expressions of wit and amusing, fun-loving statements. I am convinced of the value of wholesome humor. In fact, I believe that a person without a sense of humor will not be as capable a leader or as effective a communicator as he or she could be.

There are special times when a sense of humor is needed, such as in lengthy, tense, and heated meetings, or when a serious atmosphere has settled in the home, or even after extremely difficult experiences. How quickly and how easily we forget to laugh! Yet medical studies have proven the health benefits of laughter. Look at the last phrase of the final passage I quoted above. The Hebrew text literally says that the cheerful heart “causes good healing.”

How do you measure up, my friend? Honestly now, have you become so serious you can no longer enjoy yourself or others? Let’s face it, if there is one, general criticism we Christians must accept without argument, it is that we have become altogether too serious about everything in life. We exclude or ignore almost every opportunity for a good, healthy laugh! We’re uptight, far too intense, and much too critical of ourselves and others. As a result, our tolerance and understanding are extremely limited. May God loosen us up! And may He ultimately enable us to live beyond the grind of an uncontrolled tongue.

October 30 / Daily Blessings

 Daily Blessings

“My people are bent to backsliding from me.” - Hos 6:7

What a dreadful error it is to deny backsliding! What ignorance it manifests of a man’s own heart! How it stamps a man as a perverter of truth, and one that trifles with sin and the displeasure of the Most High! Who that knows himself and the idolatry of his fallen nature, dares deny that he backslides perpetually in heart, lip, or life? Can any of us deny that we have backslidden from our first love? backslidden from simplicity and godly sincerity, backslidden from reverence and godly fear, backslidden from spirituality and heavenly-mindedness, backslidden from the breathings of affection and pouring forth of the heart into the bosom of the Lord? And if we have not been allowed to backslide into open sin, if the Lord has kept us, and not allowed us to be cast down into the mire, yet have we not committed that twofold evil which the Lord charges upon his people—“They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13)?

And what do we reap from backsliding? do we reap pleasure, comfort, or peace? do we reap the smiles of God, or the solemn testimony of the Spirit in the conscience? No. If conscience speaks in your bosom, what does it say? That every departure from the Lord has brought grief and trouble; that so far from justifying yourself in your sin, you have been ready almost to weep tears of blood, that you have so wickedly departed from the Lord. It has been our mercy that the Lord has not given us up to hardness of heart and searedness of conscience, that we have not been allowed to say with Israel of old, “I am innocent, I have not sinned” (Jer. 2:35); but that he has “led us with weeping and with supplications.”

Have not some of us (I am sure I have for one) been obliged “to go and weep,” and tell the Lord a piteous tale of backsliding; how we have departed from his fear, and sinned basely against him; how unwilling we have been to take his yoke upon us, and walk in his precepts? Have we not been forced to tell him that we have been disobedient and stubborn, filthy and vile, and has he not, in some faint measure, led us “to turn our faces Zionward,” to turn our back upon all false ministers, upon all idol shepherds, upon all the strength and wisdom and righteousness and will of the creature, and given to us some simplicity, uprightness, and integrity of heart and conscience, whereby we have turned our face Zionward, looking for a blessing to come out of Zion, looking for grace, looking for glory?

“I will make you sick in smiting you,” says the Lord (Micah 6:13), alluding to the feeling of sickness produced by a wound, (“I am made sick,” 1 Kings 22:34, margin.) And have not these wounds in our conscience made us, in our measure, sick of the world, sick of the professing church, sick of hypocrites, sick of whitewashed Pharisees, sick of carnal professors, sick of our backslidings, sick of all but the word of God revealed with power, sick of all but the blood and love of the Redeemer, of all teachings but the teachings of the Holy Spirit, of all company but the company of the children of God?

Can you say thus much? that you have turned your back upon everything but Christ, and him crucified? that you have turned away from all doctrines but those which center in the blood of the Lamb? that you have turned away from universal charity and general philanthropy, as substituted for the power of vital godliness, (though you would desire to love and serve your fellow men as men,) and that your spiritual affections are toward God and his people? And has there been in your soul any such feeling as Ruth had when she said, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God?” Any sweet response in your bosom to the voice of the Lord, “My son, give me your heart?” “Take it, Lord, with all that I have and am!” Any casting yourself at the foot of the cross, and there entreating the Lord of life and glory to speak peace to your soul?

“Lord, if only you had been here . . .” / Greg Laurie

 “Lord, if only you had been here . . .”

“Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died’” (John 11:21 NLT).

Lazarus was dead. And when his sister Martha heard that Jesus was on His way, she went out to meet Him and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21 NLT).

In other words, “Lord, where were You? Lord, we were telling everyone that You would come through for us.”

Maybe you’ve said something like that to God. “Lord, where were you when my marriage dissolved?” “Lord, where were You when my parents divorced?” “Where were You when my child went astray?” “Where were You when my loved one died?”

Martha was very outspoken. She was always one to speak her mind. But notice that Jesus didn’t reprove her. Actually, He was very understanding and patient with her.

Like Martha, we can be honest with God. It isn’t a bad thing to tell Him how we feel. For example, we can say, “Lord I don’t like the way things are going right now, and I don't understand why You’re doing what you’re doing. But I’m crying out to You, Lord, because I have nowhere else to go.”

When Jesus asked the disciples, “Do you also want to go away?” (John 6:67NKJV), Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (verse 68 NKJV).

Loosely paraphrased, Peter was saying, “Lord, You’re the only game in town”

It’s okay to pour out your heart to the Lord. Yet sometimes people say they’re made at God and aren’t talking to Him anymore. They’re not going to church, and they’re not reading the Bible.

That is foolish. We need to come to the Lord and cry out to Him. Be honest. At the same time, understand that He is in control. There is nothing wrong with asking why. Just don’t expect an answer.

Copyright © 2021 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.

The "Whys" of Life by Kelly Givens

 The "Whys" of Life

by Kelly Givens

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Towards the end of work some weeks ago, our office was informed that a few cars in our parking deck had been broken into. The vandalism and robberies had been contained to Level 2—the level I had parked my car. Thankfully, my car had been left untouched. The SUV directly across from me, however, hadn’t fared so well- the shattered glass on the ground evidenced the vandals’ quick and effective work. As I began my drive home I prayed God would give the owners of the busted-up cars a measure of his peace, mercy and patience.

Nearing my exit, I noticed cars slowing down, and around the bend in the road, I saw why. A cop was getting out of his car; he had been called for a minor fender bender and traffic was slowing to accommodate. I inched past, glancing at the guy in the truck that had been hit. He had his head in his hand and was looking up at the sky in exasperation. You could tell he was thinking, “I can’t believe this happened. Why me?! What did I do to deserve this?!” I thought back to the owners of the cars in the parking deck, knowing they would be asking those same questions when they discovered their vehicles had been broken into.

The “whys” of life point us to a story larger than our own. When we ask why bad things happen, we’re acknowledging that the way life is right now is not how it ought to be. Why is that significant? It’s significant because, in a world that wants us to believe we were created at random and have lived on through survival of the fittest or just good luck, our souls actually cry out against randomness and unjust advantage. We crave order, justice, and mercy, and we feel angry and sad when a seemingly arbitrary, awful thing in life happens. There’s a disconnect between what we believe should happen and what really does happen.  I find it interesting that my friends who believe in a random, chance creation still feel indignant when apparently random, chance events work against their lives. Their heads may believe one thing, but their hearts believe something else. As Christians, our heads and hearts are more aligned.

At the beginning of Creation, we’re told “God saw all he had made, and it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). You were created to live in a perfect world, where the question of why bad things happen was never supposed to exist. But then man sinned and the world was corrupted (Gen. 3:6-7). Adam and Eve immediately recognized sin for what it was, and in their guilt hid from God (Gen. 3:10). In the same way, we recognize evil as evil because it goes against the very nature of our intended existence. We cry out against suffering because we were never meant to suffer. We are distraught over death because no one was ever supposed to die.  As believers, we can take encouragement from this gut reaction to pain and suffering. It reminds us we were created for a world absent of these things, and we can look forward to the day when Jesus comes back and takes away our tears and frustrations. We will never utter “Why me?” again. Everything good that can be, will be. Everything evil will be undone. That is such good news; it fills me with joy and hope to think on it.

Intersecting Faith and Life: Are you experiencing seemingly random suffering and sorrow in your life? Cling to the comforting truth of your faith - all suffering is temporary, it is not random, and Jesus is coming soon to restore this world and everything in it - including you - to perfection.

Further Reading:
Isaiah 25:6-9
Romans 8:18-39

October 30 / Wisdom from the Psalms

 Psalm 130:1

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.

 

Funny how some people never ask for help until everything comes crashing down upon them. They wait until the last minute, then send out the distress signal. Many people work their relationship with God that way. They call on Him infrequently while things are going well, but when trouble rears its ugly head, they are pounding on His door for help. It is a wise person who learns to include God in everything he does. When God is a full part of your life, you never feel panic when things go wrong. Still, it is good to know that God will hear us when we cry out from the depths, and that He will always come to the aid of His children.

 

Prayer: Make me to remember You in all times, Lord, not just times of trial. Help me to share my whole life with you and to glory in Your presence. Thank You for staying beside me always. Amen.

Troubles Come with Life / Max Lucado

 

Troubles Come with Life

Click below to listen to today's devotional

TROUBLES COME WITH LIFE - October 29, 2021

How do we survive the bitterly cold winds of life? When the account has no cash. When the marriage has no joy. When the crib is empty or the grave is occupied. Well Scripture offers a couple of starchy observations.

First, no one gets a free pass. Trouble knocks at the door of us all. Someone needs that reminder. Someone has been led to believe that the Christian life is a yellow-brick road. Consequently, when the inevitable bad stuff happens, the person is forced to face the tough questions about a God who didn’t keep his promises. To which God says, “Well I never made those promises.” God did promise, in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble.” Troubles come with life. We gain nothing by pretending they don’t.

No one gets a free pass, but we can believe this: one way or another, relief and deliverance will come.

Substitution / Oswald Chambers

 

Substitution He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of sympathy, but because of His identification with us. He was “made…to be sin….” Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the fatherhood and the lovingkindness of God, but the New Testament says that He came to take “away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 ). And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior. In speaking to the world, Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24). John 14:9, where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” was spoken to His disciples. That Christ died for me, and therefore I am completely free from penalty, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15 )— not, “He died my death”— and that through identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have His very righteousness imparted as a gift to me. The substitution which is taught in the New Testament is twofold— “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The teaching is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians 4:19).

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS We all have the trick of saying‚ÄîIf only I were not where I am!‚ÄîIf only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. from The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L

The Nature of Conviction / Charles Stanley

 The Nature of Conviction

John 16:7-11

 

Jesus assured His disciples that it was to their advantage that He go away so that the Helper could come (John 16:7)--God sends Him to convict people of their sin. Since the Holy Spirit is unlimited by time or space, He can reach out to every individual on the planet. However, His work differs with regard to believers and unbelievers.

 

With regard to unbelievers, God's Spirit penetrates the heart and brings awareness of wrongdoing. He reveals that according to God's holy standard, they have sinned and stand condemned by their transgression. Unbelief is the greatest sin against God, so every prick of the heart is meant to point out their need for the Savior.

 

As for believers, the Holy Spirit deals with them on the basis of their relationship with Jesus Christ and convicts us of disobedience to Him. In other words, He makes us aware of specific sins and the Lord's attitude about them. But He also prompts us to be accountable before Christ for our wrongdoing by confessing it and repenting.

 

Convicting believers of sin is an important part of the Holy Spirit's job, but He is equally delighted to make them aware of the Lord's approval. God commends righteous living, obedient actions, and loving acts done in His name.

 

While conviction is often uncomfortable for unbelievers and believers alike, it's a beautiful demonstration of God's love. He desires to bring us into the center of His will and keep us there for our good and His glory. The Holy Spirit's work makes that possible, if we choose to follow His promptings.

God Sings Over You / ODB

God Sings Over You [God] will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 READ Zephaniah 3:14–17 Seventeen months after our first child—a boy—was born, along came a little girl. I was overjoyed at the thought of having a daughter, but I was also a bit uneasy because while I knew a few things about little boys, this was uncharted territory. We named her Sarah, and one of my privileges was rocking her to sleep so my wife could rest. I’m not sure why, but I started trying to sing her to sleep, and the song of choice was “You Are My Sunshine.” Whether holding her in my arms or standing above her in her crib, I quite literally sang over her, and loved every minute of it. She’s in her twenties now, and I still call her Sunshine. We usually think about angels singing. But when was the last time you thought about God singing? That’s right—God singing. And furthermore, when was the last time you thought about Him singing over you? Zephaniah is clear in his message to Jerusalem: “The Lordyour God” takes great delight in you, so much so that He “rejoice[s] over you with singing” (3:17). Although this message speaks directly to Jerusalem, it’s likely God sings over us—those who have received Jesus as Savior—too! What song does He sing? Well, Scripture’s not clear on that. But the song is born out of His love, so we can trust it’s true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable (Philippians 4:8). By John Blase What feelings are stirred when you consider God singing over you? Is that something unbelievable or something comforting? Why? Good Father, the thought that You would sing over me in joy is such an assurance and comfort. Thank You.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT While the book of Zephaniah (which means “the Lord hides/conceals”) ends on a note of joy and singing in view of God’s restoration (Zephaniah 3:14–20), the bulk of the book records God’s judgment on Judah and the nations. “The day of the Lord” is the primary theme (1:2–3:8). This term refers to a day when God settles accounts with those who oppose Him (a day of judgment) and rewards the remnant of faithful followers (a day of deliverance/salvation). Indeed, “the Mighty Warrior who saves [and] will take great delight in you” (3:17) is also “the Mighty Warrior [who] shouts his battle cry” (1:14). The sovereign God of all the earth has the right to call the nations into account. Arthur Jackson

 

Does God Hear Me if I’m Not Saved? / Adrian Rogers

 Does God Hear Me if I’m Not Saved?                                                   

There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man…. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!... Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.” Acts 10:1-4

Cornelius was a Gentile, pagan, Roman army officer, a centurion, but one whose prayers God certainly heard. Acts 10 describes him as “a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.” He was unsaved man, but God was aware of and answered his prayer.  

What’s the difference between a child of God who can pray in the name of Jesus and an unsaved person who prays? God has given prayer promises to the child of God that He has not given to the unsaved. But God can hear the unsaved person’s prayers and have mercy upon him.  

Think of it this way—let’s say a banker voluntarily gives money to a charity or worthy cause. He doesn’t have to. No law says he must. It’s just what he wants to do. But on the other hand, let’s say I have money deposited in his bank. I can go in and write a check on my account and expect he will give me that money. Do you see the difference? In my case, it’s legally owed to me, and I receive it. In the other, it’s God’s gift of grace. 

God says, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion” (Romans 9:15). In mercy, God extends his love to us. Rejoice that God is merciful to all who call upon Him. Go before His Throne of Grace knowing that God wants to hear from you and to speak with you in prayer.