2021-02-02
Acts 19:18 NCV
Speaking about the church at Ephesus, Paul writes: “Many of the believers began to confess openly and tell all the evil things they had done…. So in a powerful way the word of the Lord kept spreading and growing” (vv. 18-20 NCV). Spiritual healing happens in churches like this one. So if you find yourself trapped in a pattern of repeated sin and failure, seek out mature, committed Christians who aren’t shocked by your problem, who won’t divulge your confidence, and who know how to pray for you and with you.
Jesus gave His followers the authority to hear confessions and proclaim grace. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23 NKJV). A spiritual catharsis takes place when someone looks you in the face and says, “God forgives you, I forgive you, now forgive yourself and walk in God’s forgiveness!” Forgiveness is such a powerful force that it can actually facilitate healing.
James writes: “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:14-16 NIV). And if you’re not sure who you should talk to, or who you can trust, start with your pastor.
Soul food: Isa 58-62; Matt 12:22-37; Ps 108; Prov 3:31-32
2021-02-01
Romans 8:31 NKJV
Some of the world’s greatest people faced the world’s greatest challenges, but they overcame them. Cripple a man, and you have Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in prison, and you have John Bunyan. Raise him in abject poverty, and you have Abraham Lincoln. Subject him to bitter religious prejudice, and you have Benjamin Disraeli. Strike him down with paralysis, and you have Franklin Roosevelt. Have them born black in the society filled with racial discrimination, and you have Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, Marian Anderson and George Washington Carver. Make a man the first child to survive in a poor Italian family of eighteen, and you have Enrico Caruso. Have him born to parents who survived a Nazi concentration camp, paralyze him from the waist down when he’s aged four, and you have the incomparable violinist, Itzhak Perlman. Call a man a slow learner, mentally challenged, and write him off as un-educatable, and you have Albert Einstein. Helen Keller was born blind and deaf, yet she graduated college with highest honors and impacted the world. Margaret Thatcher, England’s first woman Prime Minister, lived upstairs over her father’s grocery store. For a while her childhood home had no running water and no indoor plumbing. Golda Meier, Israel’s first and only woman Prime Minister was a divorced grandmother from Milwaukee.
What do these people teach us? That success doesn’t depend on our circumstances, but on overcoming our circumstances! And with God on our side we can do it! Paul, one of the world’s great over-comers wrote, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Soul food: Isa 45-48; Matt 11:20-30; Ps 107:23-32; Prov 3:25-26
2021-01-31
Philippians 2:3 NLT
Here’s the dilemma of an insecure leader: If others excel in doing a job, they fear it will make them look bad. But they also fear that if they do the job poorly, they will still look bad. So they try to do everything themselves. As a result, they fail to succeed or their success is limited. Paul addresses it this way: “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too” (vv. 3-4 NLT).
Secure leaders are able to believe in others because they believe in themselves. They aren’t arrogant; they know their own strengths and weaknesses and respect themselves. When their people perform well they don’t feel threatened. They go out of their way to bring the best people together, then build them up so that they will perform at the highest level. When a secure leader’s team succeeds, it brings them great joy. They see that as the highest compliment they can receive for their leadership ability.
One author writes: “Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others, than being ill at ease with yourself.” So what should you do? (1) Know yourself. If you’re not naturally self aware, ask someone you trust to name your three greatest strengths and weaknesses. Don’t defend yourself when you hear their answers. Gather the information and then reflect on it. (2) Get help. You deserve it, you’re worth it! As you begin to overcome insecurity you will rise to a new level of blessing and achievement.
Soul food: 2 Kings 6:8-20; Eph 1:15-23
2021-01-30
Luke 12:48 NIV
Author H. Jackson Brown Jr. quipped, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.” If you know you have talent and you’ve seen a lot of motion but little concrete results, you may lack self-discipline. Look at last week’s schedule. How much of your time did you devote to regular, disciplined activities? Did you do anything to grow and improve yourself? If you have been putting these things off and telling yourself that you’ll do them later, you need to work on your self-discipline. A nursery in Canada displays this sign on its wall: “The best time to plant a tree is twenty five years ago…The second best time is today.” So starting today – discipline yourself.
Why? Because: (1) There’s a price to pay to reach the next level. American playwright Sidney Howard remarked: “One half of knowing what you want, is knowing what you must give up before you get it.”
(2) Be willing to start with small things. At first your gains will be small, but they will grow. The difference between the gold medal winner and the other contestants, is often just hundredths of a second.
(3) Get into the right environment. Since improvement always requires some degree of risk and failure, pick a place where growth and experimentation are encouraged.
(4) Believe that you can always do it better. Anything you’ve done in a particular way for a given amount of time, can always be done better. So with God’s help, you can keep improving.
Soul food: Isa 42-44; Matt 11:10-19; Ps 107:17-22; Prov 3:21-24
2021-01-29
Ezekiel 8:4 NIV
When God gives you a vision it will change your life. John Sculley, former president of PepsiCo and Apple computer said, “The future belongs to those who see the possibilities before they become obvious.” The Bible tells us God “calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Romans 4:17 NKJV). Vision paints the target, lights a fire within you, and draws you forward. If what you’re pursuing in life doesn’t come from a burning desire within you – from the very depths of who you are and what you believe – you will not be able to accomplish it. Why is that? Because along the way you will have to overcome obstacles, opposition, roadblocks, and resistance.
Esther’s vision meant putting her life on the line to save the Jewish people from annihilation. She said, “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16). Did she perish? No, but she had to be willing to. Are you? To fulfill your vision you must do two things:
(1) Measure yourself. If you’ve previously thought about your life’s vision and articulated it clearly, measure how well you are carrying it out. Talk to those you trust and ask them to tell you what they think your vision is. And if they can articulate it, then you are probably living it.
(2) Write it down. “Write the vision and make it plain…that he may run who reads it” (Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV). Writing clarifies your thinking. Once your vision is in writing, it becomes the roadmap to your destination. Consult it often, and pursue it with all that lies within you. If you do, chances are you will live to see it fulfilled.
Soul food: Isa 38-41; Matt 11:1-9; Ps 107:10-16; Prov 3:19-20
2021-01-28
Proverbs 22:3 NLT
Here are three things realistic thinking will do for you:
(1) It will give you a sense of security. When you have thought through the worst that can happen and developed contingency plans to meet it, you become more confident and secure. It’s reassuring to know that you are unlikely to be surprised. Disappointment is the difference between expectations and reality. Thinking realistically minimizes the difference between the two.
(2) It will give you credibility. Leaders who are continually surprised by the unexpected soon lose credibility in the eyes of their followers. On the other hand, leaders who think realistically and plan accordingly position themselves to win. That gives their followers confidence in them. So before you invite anyone else to be part of your vision or your project, ask yourself: (a) Is it possible? (b) Have I identified and explained the pros and cons of achieving it? (c) Do I have a solid foundation to build on? Thomas Edison observed, “The value of a good idea is in using it.”
(3) It will help you to make an idea useable by taking away the “wish factor.” Most ideas and efforts don’t accomplish their intended results because they rely too much on what we wish, rather than what is. You can’t build a house in mid air; it needs a solid foundation. Ideas and plans are the same. They need something concrete on which to build, and thinking realistically provides that solid foundation.
Solomon put it this way: “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.” So the word for you today is – think realistically.
Soul food: Isa 34-37; Matt 10:32-42; Ps 107:1-9; Prov 3:13-18
