God’s Peace    

If our minds are stayed upon God, His peace will rule the affairs entertained by our minds. If, on the other hand, we allow our minds to dwell on the cares of this world, God's peace will be far from our thoughts.  Woodrow Kroll

I started thinking about the peace that can be found in God.  When we dwell in His presence, we no longer worry about what others may think of us.  Why is it that we place more value in the opinion of others in this world than we do the opinion of the God who created us?   

I think we place so much value on what people on earth think because we want to be accepted by others.  We want to belong to a close knit family who love us through the challenges of life.  The problem with this is we look at others in our life as our source of strength.  The next problem is we expect them to always love us and be there for us but that doesn’t always happen.  If you can get one important piece of wisdom it is this: The people you surround yourself with are sinners and so are you.  If you keep that in mind, your interactions can be different.

The second thing is the God who created us didn’t make a mistake.  I was watching a show on TV about how food products are made.  One segment showed a lady with a hairnet, white coat and gloves who was picking out the bad or damaged fruit that was traveling down the conveyor belt before the good fruit traveled down the line to be placed in boxes.  They didn’t show what happened to the bad fruit, but the correlation here is that God doesn’t only select the good fruit, he wants the bad too.  He wants every one of us.  And guess what?  We are all bad fruit at one time or another, yet He still pursues each of us like there were only one of us.

You are worth God’s time.  When you finally realize that He wants you to come and lay it all at His feet; a peace that surpasses all understanding will be your reward.  If you take the shame, pain, sorrow and heartache and lay it at His feet, He will give you rest.  He will give you strength and He will give you peace.  All you need to do is ask.  The comfort of knowing that there is One who loves you without reservation and who is waiting for you to turn to him is beyond comprehension.  

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, over the years I have learned that You are my refuge.  You are where I go when everything seems to be falling apart around me.  You are also where I go in times of great joy because You celebrate with me.  I give my struggles, sorrows, heartaches and pain to You.  I lay it at Your feet.  I praise You with all my heart for saving a wretch like me.  Thank You for the peace that I can only get through You.

Scripture:  Jesus Gives True Rest

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:25-30

Nothing In Return

How you treat other people, not your wealth or accomplishments, is the most enduring legacy you will leave.  Rick Warren

Have you ever done something for someone and then expected something in return for what you did for them?  I think we all do this or have done this at some point in our lives. We all at some point or another in our lifetime exhibit selfishness.  It is hard not to take on these characteristics when we are surrounded by a world that wants to be first in everything.  We want to win the race, be first in line, or get somewhere first.  We see it daily on the freeway with people cutting each other off to get to their destination first. 

If one of the most important fruits of the spirit is love, why do we have such a hard time giving it without expecting something in return?  How many times do you see millions of dollars donated to a hospital or organization and the donors name goes up on the building but most people don’t know who the person is?  By contrast how many times do you remember a stranger’s kindness because it was so unexpected?

Have you figured out that it is more important to touch someone’s soul than it is their wallet?  Two things happen when we give love to others without any expectation of something in return.   We are blessed and they are too.  It also shows another person what it means to love selflessly.  When that person’s needs are placed before our own we show them what Jesus’ love is all about. Jesus never did anything without love being first and foremost in his heart.  He is our best example of what it means to love and not expect anything in return.     

Love is the essence of God’s character. Love without expecting anything in return will transform lives.  The most important question is will we be a goat or a sheep?

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to love as Jesus did in his life on earth.  As He hung on the cross, He still showed love.  He asked God to forgive those who persecuted Him because they didn’t know what they were doing.  We all have the capacity to love without expecting anything in return.  Teach me to show others that kind of soul touching love. 

Scripture: The Son of Man Will Judge the Nations

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’  And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  Matthew 25:31-46

Give It Your All

We become like that which we behold. We will never be transformed into the likeness of God or be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus until we learn how to behold His beauty. To see Him is to be like Him. As David beheld the beauty of the Lord, as he meditated on the glorious perfections and passions of God's character, he became more like God. More than that, he fell ever more in love with God.  Sam Storms

I want to be more like David.  Not the whole sinful part, but the part where he loved God.  If you read the Book of Psalms, David expresses every emotion and all of the emotions he expressed were in conversations with God.

David went to God with everything.  When he was happy he spoke with God.  When he sinned, was afraid, when Saul was trying to hunt him down and kill him, the one thing that always stood out about David was he turned to God in all times.  The following are a list of some of the things David prayed for to God.

1. The safety of the faithful - Psalm 4

2. Prayed for Guidance - Psalm 4

3. Prayer and Praise for deliverance from enemies - Psalm 7

4. The glory of the Lord in creation - Psalm 8

5. Faith in the Lord's righteousness - Psalm 11

6. Trust in the salvation of the Lord - Psalm 13

7. A plea for deliverance and forgiveness - Psalm 25

8. An exuberant declaration of faith - Psalm 27

9. Rejoicing in answered prayer - Psalm 28

10. The joy of forgiveness - Psalm 32

This is a very small list of the discussions that David had with God. The thing that stands out is that David had an ongoing emotional relationship with God.  He expressed every emotion when he was talking to God.  He didn’t hold back his thoughts, joy, sorrow, hurt, fear and thanks for God’s goodness.

Too many times in my life I have not put my all into my prayer life.  There were times when my prayers had no soul.  If I am to have a powerful prayer life, I must give it my all as David did every time he spoke to God.  When he was ashamed he didn’t hesitate to admit it and when he was filled with joy he didn’t hesitate to show God the joy he felt.  The thing that stands out is he gave it his all.  A powerful prayer life means that we give God our all.  When emotions run rampant in our heart we need to give it and show it to God.  He already knows what we are feeling but he wants us to show Him.  Showing Him builds our faith and our relationship with Him and makes us fall more in love with the Lord who created us in His image. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of passionless prayer.  I have often come to You without emotion to express what is in my heart.  If I read what the Bible has to say about the way I am to love You, to love the Lord your God with “all” your heart, “all” your soul and “all” your  strength, then Your Word will live in my heart as it did in David’s.  Help me Father to pour my heart out to You.  Thank you for loving me when I didn’t do such a good job of loving You.   

Scripture: Be strong Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:10-17

Heaven’s Investment Portfolio

There is no such merchant as the charitable man; he gives trifles which he could not keep, to receive treasure which he cannot lose. Francis Quarles

I invest in a 401K plan where I work and I also have money invested in one with a previous employer.  I am not one of those savvy investors who knows everything about each company I invest in.  I went out recently to change my investment strategy.  Some people spend a lot of time watching their stock to see if it is performing at a beneficial rate and then they change their stock choices if it isn’t.  We know a guy who watches his stocks daily and is constantly changing his investments. 

The reason I decided to change my investments is because I buckled under pressure.  By that I mean; I kept getting this traffic light signal every time I received an email from my plan administrator.  Every time I got the traffic light it was red and it would tell me for my age I was investing too aggressively.  I kind of got offended the first time I got that because of the age comment.  I mean your fund administrator tells you you’re old and AARP sends you an application to confirm you’re old.  My theory is I don’t know when God will decide it is my time to go so why not go for the gusto.  That; however is not a good strategy according to the administrator of my money. 

My investment strategy for 401K is very simple, (and you may even call me a stupid investor), but that’s okay with me. When it comes to investing my 401K, I invest in things that I buy and I don’t invest in international stocks.  The thing about investing money is, it can be gone in an instant.  One day you can have millions in investments and all it takes is one world event and it can all be gone.  Investing is a gamble.  You gamble that your money will increase if you invest in a certain company.  Your investment is dependent on someone you don’t know, making business decisions that could make or break your investment. 

Do you ever think about your Heaven Investment Portfolio?  How much do you invest in the portfolio that is the most important, has the best return on investment and is guaranteed?  In 1 Timothy 6:17-19 it says, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

What would you rather invest in?  Do you want riches in this life or your future life?  How much you give to others in this life will make a huge difference in your eternal life.  In Matthew 6:19-21 it says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Treasure in heaven or treasure on earth.  My investment portfolio on earth can be taken from me and destroyed, but my eternal treasure can’t be touched.  Which one is more important to you?

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I often spend more time worrying about the money and investments that I have, instead of spending my time storing up treasure in heaven. Remind me that treasure on earth is fleeting but treasure in heaven is everlasting.  

    

      

Scripture:  The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44

Encouragement & Discouragement

What an encouragement to realize that God has reserved you and me for a special task in His great work. In His hands we're not only useful, but priceless.  Joni Eareckson Tada

The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, 'O God, forgive me,' or 'Help me.'  Billy Graham

If you look at the words encouragement and discouragement they both contain the word courage. 

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is David and Goliath.  If anyone had reason to be discouraged it was David.  He was the smallest of his brothers. Do you remember what one of his brothers said to him when he asked “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

Remember how his oldest brother became angry because David was asking the soldiers what they were going to do about this huge Philistine who was defying the armies of God.  His brother actually told him he knew the pride and insolence of David’s heart and asked him why he left his sheep to come down to the battle.

 

I don’t know about you but that would have discouraged me.  But David didn’t stop.  He just turned away from his brother and asked the same question of the next person.  When David continues to question why someone isn’t doing something about this giant someone brings it to the attention of Saul and Saul sends for David to be brought to him.  

  

In 1 Samuel 17:32 David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”   Here is where David should have been discouraged again because Saul tells him, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” 

So look at this from our perspective. His oldest brother has gotten angry with him and basically told him to go back to his sheep.  Saul has told him that he is not mighty enough to fight the Philistine.  Then Goliath adds his two bits and makes fun of David and curses him and his God. 

David had the courage of God in his heart on that day.  He wasn’t going to let anything discourage him from standing up for God.  We need that very courage today in a world that ridicules our God on a daily basis.  God is looking for warriors to fight the battle of a lifetime and the only way we will get the courage we need is to go to God.  If we have Him going before us we can’t lose.

      

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, sometimes I lack courage to face daily obstacles.  The thing I often fail to do is to turn to You for the courage I need.  I pray for the courage of David who knew whose he was and he had a heart for You.  Please give me that same heart.  A heart that will not accept words against You.  If I go to You for courage You will give more than I will need.  Thank you for giving us examples to follow like David.

Scripture: They wander about for food and howl if not satisfied.  But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. You are my strength, I sing praise to you; you, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely.  Psalm 59:15-17

Patience, Wisdom & Love

God's way of answering the Christian's prayer for more patience, experience, hope and love often is to put him into the furnace of affliction.  Richard Cecil

Have you ever prayed for patience or how about wisdom or love?  Too many times I think when we pray for these things we expect a different result from God don’t we?  We want him to make us instantly patient with the person we work with who irritates us.  We expect God to make us wise beyond our years without any effort on our part.  Then there is the whole love thing.  God tells us specifically to love our enemies but I think too many times we want Him to make exceptions.  We try to rationalize it with God.  “God, You really don’t want me to associate with that sinner do You?  This person has treated me badly and You still expect me to love them?” 

Sometimes God answers our prayers by throwing us into the very fire we are trying to escape from.  He challenges us to step up to the plate and hit a home run, but too many times we swing and miss the ball altogether because we haven’t figured out that the challenge God has placed before us is His answer. 

If you want to learn to be patient you will need to be in a circumstance that requires extreme patience and sometimes it takes a long time and we are required to exercise it over and over again.  If you want God’s wisdom you aren’t going to get it by going to the store and buying a program and downloading it.  You will need to search for it.  Sometimes the best way to learn something is repeating it over and over again.  Then there is the whole love thing.  Love our neighbor who irritates us; love the person who hurt us.  This kind of love takes sacrifice, so don’t be surprised if God puts you in the exact place where a person is most unloving to you. 

God doesn’t respond the way we think He should because He is God and we are not.  If we learn that one simple rule, our lives will be much easier and we will be able to see His work in everything we do.  When it comes to God, expect the unexpected.    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I praise You for teaching me Your precepts by placing me into the very circumstance that I want to avoid.  The best lessons I have learned in life and the ones that stick with me are the very ones I prayed for You to remove.  If I understand this concept, I will learn patience, wisdom and love.    

Scripture: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you.  Proverbs 9:10-11

An Example

The cross is the greatest example of humility and devotion in the universe. Jesus put your needs ahead of His own. He considered you more valuable than Himself.  Chip Ingram

He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.  Francis Bacon

Have you ever asked yourself what kind of example you show the world?  Many of us, including me, often play charades.  We pretend to be something we aren’t.  We become great actors and imitators.  If we think about it from Satan’s standpoint, he can’t wait for us to play charades.  It happens to all of us and he is cheering us on from the sidelines.  How many of us show the world a totally different picture from the one our family sees?  If our life isn’t an open book where anyone could read it and you wouldn’t be ashamed of what is in it, then we aren’t a good example for God.    

How do we become that person who gives good advice and lives it? The following are a few things to consider:

Give up on self.  Get rid of me in the equation because it isn’t all about me.  It’s about Him. It’s about being what God created us to be. 

Humble yourself.  One of the hardest things for me to learn was to be vulnerable and humble myself to others.  When you do this you can be rejected and who wants that?  When I finally learned to let others see the bad sides of me, I was free.  Finally free from the worry of wondering when someone would find out the mistakes I made.  It also taught me how to lean on God.  The first thing we should ever learn is that God is the One constant in our life.  He loves us, gave His Son for us and will not betray us.  It is freeing to know that God is always there; not just sometimes or when He feels like it. 

Speak God’s truth.  This one is tricky because we often have our own version of the truth don’t we.  Our version of the truth often isn’t the truth at all.  It is so easy to slip away from God’s truth and guess who is standing on the sidelines cheering us on.   

Study His Word.  Did you know that the weekend edition of the New York Times has as many words in it as the New Testament and there are a lot of people who will read that every weekend but have never read the New Testament? I am guilty of spending more time reading a magazine than I do my Bible.  It we are to learn God’s truth, we need to read it, study it, meditate on it and fill our very soul with it.

If we want to be a good example for Christ our lives will need to change and that is going to take work.  It is also a given that some people in your life are not going to like this change in you.  In some cases you will lose friends, family members and even jobs to follow Him.  It is going to mean letting go of pride, humbling ourselves to others, speaking God’s truth and living it.  When you are setting a good example you will be rewarded.  What example will you show the world?   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I confess that I am not always a good example in showing others You.  I fail over and over again.  I need Your help to overcome the many obstacles in my life that hinder my relationship with You.  I pray for the strength to put You first, humble myself, study Your Word and speak Your Truth.  I can do all things through You because You alone give me strength.  

Scripture: The Race of Faith

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:12

Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. 1 Timothy 4:12-16