2021-03-25
John 10:28 AMPC
Your salvation isn’t guaranteed by your performance – but by Christ’s performance at the cross. Yes, you’ll have moments you’re proud of and moments you’re ashamed of. But as long as your trust is in Christ, you’re saved, and you’ll go to heaven. Jesus said: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand.” Even more, God stakes His claim on us. “By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge – a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete” (2 Corinthians 1:22 MSG).
You’ve done something similar: engraved your name on a valued ring, etched your identity on a tool or iPad. Stamping declares ownership. Through His Spirit, God stamps us. Would-be takers are repelled by the presence of His name. Satan is driven back by the declaration: Hands off. This redeemed child is mine! Where there’s no assurance of salvation, there’s no peace. No peace means no joy. And no joy results in fear-based lives.
Grace creates a confident soul who declares, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day” (2 Timothy 1:12 NIV). Your boarding pass for the flight to heaven is secure: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13 NKJV). It’s not about your hold on God – but His hold on you!
Soul food: Job 38-39; Matt 25:22-30; Ps 38:13-22; Prov 8:24-26
2021-03-24
Deuteronomy 33:27 NLT
Consider these timeless words by Margaret Fishback Powers: “One night I dreamed…I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me and one to my Lord. When the last scene of my life shot before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. There was only one set…I realized that this was at the lowest…times of my life. This always bothered me, and I questioned the Lord about my dilemma. ‘Lord, You told me when I decided to follow You, You would walk…with me all the way. But I’m aware that during the most troublesome times of my life there is only one set of footprints. I just don’t understand why, when I need You most, You leave me.’ He whispered, ‘My precious child, I love you and will never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you!'”
And if you need more reassurance, read these two Scriptures: “The Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not” (Deuteronomy 31:8 KJV). “For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:5-6 KJV). The word for you today is – God is with you.
Soul food: Job 35-37; Matt 25:14-21; Ps 38:1-12; Prov 8:22-23
2021-03-23
Ecclesiastes 2:18-19 NLT
If you work harder you can earn more money, but you can’t earn more time. To coin a popular song, “Time may be money, but your money won’t buy time.”
There’s a story about a guy who worked the late shift at a factory, who walked home in the wee hours. One night he took a shortcut through the cemetery. Failing to notice the new grave that had just been dug in the center of his path, he fell into it. After several unsuccessful attempts to get out, he decided to relax until morning when someone was around to help him. As he sat in the corner of the grave half asleep, a fellow traveler who had overindulged at the bar stumbled in beside him. Desperate to get out, the drunk started yelling and clawing frantically at the sides. At that point our hero reached out, touched him gently on the leg, and said, “It’s no use, friend, I’ve tried. You’ll never get out of here.” Not surprisingly – he did! He jumped out!
A periodic visit to the local cemetery might help you reevaluate and reprioritize your life! For example, it might encourage you to stop and ask yourself what you’re really living for. Solomon had an “aha moment” like that: “For though I do my work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, I must leave everything I gain to people who haven’t worked for it” (paraphrased).
A rut is simply a grave with the ends kicked out. Don’t just make a living; get out of your rut and make a difference. Don’t just leave an inheritance; leave a legacy that will enrich the lives of those who follow you.
Soul food: Job 32-34; Matt 25:1-13; Ps 55:12-23; Prov 8:19-21
2021-03-22
John 15:12 NKJV
If love was a sentiment that depended on someone else’s actions and reactions, or an emotion over which you had no control, Jesus wouldn’t have said, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” That means love is a choice you make. It’s initiated by your will.
Jesus also said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (Luke 6:27-28 NKJV). And what He commands you to do, He will give you the grace to carry out.
For thousands of years (and to this day in some Eastern cultures), parents arranged their children’s marriages. Many brides and bridegrooms never saw each other until their wedding day. A certain young lady from India was to be married to a man she didn’t know. One day she received a letter from her fiancé, designed to acquaint her with him prior to the wedding. But the bride-to-be returned the letter unopened, saying she believed love should be developed after marriage, not before. “When we’re born,” she wrote, “we don’t get to choose our mother, father, brothers and sisters, yet we learn to live with them and to love them. So it is with a husband or wife.”
In societies that endorse this philosophy, divorce is almost nonexistent. Now, we’re not advocating arranged marriages, but the notion of “romantic love” that’s so prevalent today has little to do with a successful marriage. When you endeavor to love someone unconditionally the way Christ loves you, you experience joy and fulfillment.
Soul food: Job 29-31; Matt 24:36-51; Ps 55:1-11; Prov 8:17-18
2021-03-21
2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
During the American Revolution, Spain gained control of the Bahamas. In April of 1783, Andrew Deveaux, a lieutenant colonel from South Carolina, recruited a handful of militiamen and Harbour Island settlers to retake Nassau using a clever strategy. Deveaux had only two hundred men with him, a far smaller force than that of the Spanish, but he managed to capture the high ground on the island after a brief skirmish. The Spaniards then watched as boats repeatedly ferried load after load of men from Deveaux’s ships to his defensive position on the shore. What the Spaniards didn’t know was that the same men kept going back and forth, standing up on their trip over to the island, and hiding themselves by lying low in the boat on the trip back to the ships. The leader of the Spanish troops, fearing a defeat from a larger force in an invulnerable position, surrendered.
When you succumb to fear, you’re already beaten. People ruled by fear stay where it’s safe. And that’s sad, because you can’t reach your potential by staying where it’s safe. Shakespeare said, “Our doubts are traitors, and they make us lose what we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”
What would you attempt in life if you were sure you couldn’t fail? Before you answer, read these words of David: “When I cry out to You…my enemies will turn back…I know, because God is for me” (Psalm 56:9 NKJV). Believe that God is on your side today, then step out and attempt the thing you’re afraid to do! You’ll never be the same again – you’ll be liberated!
Soul food: 2 Kings 4:42-44;
Mark 6:30-44
2021-03-20
Job 3:25 NKJV
Do you ever fantasize about solutions to problems you fear may or will come your way? Ironically, when you do, what started out as an unfounded fear can turn into a real problem because you expended energy on wasteful thinking instead of productive action.
Joe Tye, author of Never Fear, Never Quit, says: “Wishful thinking is the lock that fear puts on the prison gate. Fear lets you indulge yourself, for a while, in flights of wishful thinking. Somehow, you think, something will happen to make the problems go away. By the time you wake up, it’s too late. What you feared has happened, and fear has defeated you. The only way to escape from the prison of fear is action. You cannot wish your way out, you cannot wait your way out. You can only work your way out. Every time you escape the prison of fear, you grow stronger” (emphasis mine).
Fear has no benefits and no upside. It either pushes you in the wrong direction by producing nervous energy that causes you to do your worst in new situations, or it saps your energy as you fight its paralyzing effects.
Psychologist Randall B. Hamrock observed: “In twenty years [of practice] I’ve talked with, tested, and given vocational counsel to at least 10,000 young men and women. One characteristic that almost all had was the tendency to sell themselves short.” Don’t let fear rob you of your potential. Don’t let it make you smaller than you really are. Believe God for great things, then step out and attempt to do them in His strength. If you do, you’ll succeed. Guaranteed.
Soul food: Job 24-28; Matt 24:26-35; Ps 13; Prov 8:14-16
