2021-02-05
Matthew 18:33 NLT
Jesus said: “The Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold – along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned – to pay the debt. But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and…forgave his debt.
But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. His fellow servant…begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full…the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart” (vv. 23-35 NLT).
If you are harboring resentment and refusing to forgive someone, read this story again. It’s the word for you today!
Soul food: Isa 63-66; Matt 12:38-50; Ps 120; Prov 3:33-35
2021-02-04
2 Corinthians 9:8 NKJV
God doesn’t just love; He lavishes us with love (See 1 John 3:1 NIV). He doesn’t dole out wisdom; He “gives generously to all without finding fault” (James 1:5 NIV). The Prodigal Son got the fattest calf, the guests at the wedding in Cana got the best wine, and Peter caught so many fish that his boat started to sink.
Paul tells us God “supplies seed to the sower” (2 Corinthians 9:10 NKJV), and the Greek word for “supplies” comes from two roots. The first means “to dance,” and the second means “to lead.” It literally means “to lead a dance.” So when God gives to you, He dances for joy. He strikes up the band and leads the giving parade. He loves to give!
One day Peter said to Jesus, “We have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?” (Matthew 19:27 NKJV). Seems like a good opportunity for Jesus to chastise Peter’s “what’s in it for me?” mentality. But He didn’t. Instead, He assured Peter that we shall receive a hundredfold in this life and inherit eternal life too (See Matthew 19:29). Jesus promises a gain of 10,000 percent! If someone gave you ten thousand dollars today for every hundred dollars you gave them yesterday, you might call that person “God-generous.”
God dispenses His goodness not with an eyedropper, but with a fire hydrant; not with a teacup, but with the Mediterranean Sea. You simply can’t contain it. So let it bubble over. Spill out. Pour forth. “Freely you have received; freely give” (Matthew 10:8 NIV).
Soul food: Isa 58-62; Matt 12:22-37; Ps 108; Prov 3:31-32
2021-02-03
2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
There are two kinds of grace: (1) Saving grace. The moment you place your trust in Christ, God expunges the entire record of your sin. (2) Sustaining grace. Paul writes: “I was given a thorn in my flesh…Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'” (vv. 7-9 NIV).
Such vivid imagery! A thorn pierces the soft skin and lodges beneath the surface. Every step is a reminder of it: The child in the rehab center. The red ink on the ledger. The felony on the record. The craving for alcohol in the middle of the day. The tears in the middle of the night. “Lord, take it away?” But what you hear is this: “My grace is sufficient for you.” Sustaining grace promises us not the absence of struggle, but the strengthening presence of God.
John Newton, the Anglican clergyman who wrote “Amazing Grace,” found that God’s grace was sufficient. On the day his beloved wife, Mary, died, he found the strength to preach a Sunday sermon. The next day he visited church members, and later on officiated at her funeral. Looking back he wrote: “The Bank of England is too poor to compensate for such a loss as mine. But the Lord, all-sufficient God, speaks, and it is done. Let those who know Him, and trust Him, be of good courage. He can give them strength according to their day. He can increase their strength as their trials increase…And what He can do, He has promised He will do.”
Soul food: Isa 53-57; Matt 12:15-21; Ps 111; Prov 3:29-30
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
