2019-09-21
1 Corinthians 16:9 NKJV
One day the Chamber of Commerce in a small town invited a successful businessman to come and speak. The local economy was bad and they were discouraged, so his job was to motivate them. He took a large piece of white paper and made a red dot in the center of it. “What do you see?” he asked the audience. One person replied, “I see a red dot.” The speaker said, “Fine, but what else do you see?” Others chimed in, “A red dot.” The speaker asked, “Don’t you see anything else besides the dot?” The audience responded with a resounding “no!” The speaker said, “You’ve overlooked the most important thing; you’ve missed seeing the sheet of paper!” Then he went on to explain that in life we are often distracted by small, dot-like failures and experiences. They keep us from seeing the blessings and successes that are more important than the disappointments that try to monopolize our attention and drain our energy. Paul wrote, “A great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” Opportunity and obstacles – they go together like macaroni and cheese or fish and chips. Now, Paul didn’t deny the reality of the opposition he faced; he just chose to focus on the opportunity it presented. The poet wrote, “Two men looked through prison bars. One saw mud, the other stars.” What are you looking at? Are you so preoccupied with what is that you’ve lost sight of what can be? If so, you need to step back and ask God to help you see the bigger picture.
Soul food: 1 Sam 11-13; Matt 26:69-27:10; Ps 13; Prov 21:22-27
2019-09-20
Daniel 1:8 NIV
What was Daniel’s problem? What was wrong with eating the best food in the country? Most people lived on a meager diet. Daniel was going to have the opportunity to eat, literally, like a king. Why the hard line? When you dig down into the cultural realities of the situation, more seems to be at stake. A Babylonian feast was always eaten in honor of the gods. So whenever you sat down to a meal, it wasn’t just dining that you participated in, but an act of worship. This food had previously been sacrificed to a pagan god. For a Jewish teenager who took his faith in God seriously, participation would mean compromising who he was called to be. By eating their meal, he would be worshiping their god. And for Daniel, that was a bridge too far. It was about compromising his character, and that he would not do. You don’t discover your convictions when the pressure is on; you decide them in advance. It’s during the good times that you determine what you will or won’t do during the hard times. The psalmist said: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9-11 NIV). Victorious Christian living is encapsulated in these three statements: (1) “By living according to your word.” (2) “I seek you with all my heart.” (3) “I have hidden your word in my heart.”
Soul food: 1 Sam 8-10; Matt 26:47-68; Ps 54; Prov 21:18-21
2019-09-19
Mark 1:35 NIV
Make prayer your daily habit. Prayer is the great stress-reliever. Jesus began His day with prayer. He often stopped throughout the day to pray, and He ended each day with prayer. Now, if Jesus made time for prayer as busy as He was, how much more do you need to do it! Time alone with God can be a decompression chamber for life’s stresses. We talk to God in prayer, tell Him what’s on our minds, and let Him talk to us as we read the Bible. Then we look at our schedule, evaluate our priorities, and wait for instructions. If we lived that way, the pharmaceutical industry would go broke because we wouldn’t need a fraction of the tranquilizers they market! Many of our problems come from our inability to sit still. We just don’t know how to be quiet. God says, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). And one reason we don’t know God more personally is because we can’t be still. We’re too busy to be quiet and just think. Someone said, “It seems to be an ironic habit of man that when he loses his way he doubles his speed.” The story’s told of a World War II Air Force pilot who flew over the Pacific. When he radioed the tower and the controller asked for his location, he replied, “I don’t know – but I’m making record time!” A lot of us are like that, speeding through life without knowing where we’re headed. We need to start our morning with prayer like Jesus did, and stop throughout the day to pray again and recharge our spiritual batteries.
Soul food: S of Sol 5-8; Matt 26:1-16; Ps 39; Prov 21:9-13
Matthew 11:28 CEV
If the load you’re carrying is too heavy for you to bear, Jesus didn’t give it to you. Others may have, or you may have taken it upon yourself, but Jesus had no part in it. “If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. Take the yoke I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest. This yoke is easy to bear, and this burden is light” (vv. 28-30 CEV). The final stress management principle Jesus taught us is: Give your stress to Him. You’ll never enjoy complete peace of mind until you develop a relationship with the Prince of Peace. Note, Jesus didn’t say, “Come to Me and I’ll give you more guilt, more burdens, more stress, and more worries,” even though that’s what a lot of religious people seem to teach! Some churches create pressure instead of relieving it. But Jesus said, “I want to give you rest. I’m the stress-reliever. When you get in harmony with Me I’ll give you inner strength.” Only Jesus can transform your lifestyle from stressful to satisfied. The greatest source of stress comes from trying to live our lives apart from the God who made us, trying to go our own way and be our own god. What do you need? If you’ve never committed your life to Christ you need a transformation. Give Him your life with all its stresses and say, “Lord, please give me a new life. Replace the pressure I feel with the peace You offer. Help me to follow Your principles of stress management.”
Soul food: 1 Sam 4-7; Matt 26:30-46; Ps 52; Prov 21:17
2019-09-18
Mark 6:31 NIV
Take time out to enjoy life. Jesus did that. “Because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.'” Jesus not only took time for relaxation and recreation, He told those who’d been working hard without relief, “You deserve a break today. Let’s get some rest…take time off.” So they got into a boat, rode to the other side of the lake, and went out into the desert. Jesus was able to handle stress because He knew when to relax. Rest and recreation in life aren’t optional, and they’re not “unspiritual.” Rest is so important that God included it in the Ten Commandments. The Sabbath was made for mankind because God knows our physical, emotional, and spiritual constitutions demand regular periodic breaks. Jesus survived stress because He enjoyed life. J. B. Phillips’s paraphrase puts it like this: “The Son of Man came, enjoying life” (Matthew 11:19). And Paul tells us that God has richly provided “everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17). Balance is the key to stress management. Today if you feel burned out, check two things: (1) Are you drawing daily on God’s grace, or are you depending on yourself? (2) Do you regularly set aside time for rest and recreation? The word “recreation” means “restore, refresh, or create anew.” Are you getting the picture? If you burn out, what use will you be to God’s kingdom, to your family, or to yourself?
Soul food: 1 Sam 1-3; Matt 26:17-29; Ps 34; Prov 21:14-16
2019-09-16
Mark 3:14 NIV
Don’t try to do it all yourself. One of the reasons we get stressed out is because we think that everything depends on us. Not Jesus. He enlisted, trained, and empowered twelve others so they could share the load. He delegated His work. He got other people involved. So why don’t we do that? Two reasons: (1) Perfectionism. We think, “If I want a job well done, I’ll do it myself.” That’s a nice idea, but often it doesn’t work well because there are just too many things to be done. We simply don’t have the time and talent to do everything ourselves. It’s really an egotistical attitude that says, “Nobody, but nobody, can do it the way I can!” Do you think Jesus could’ve done a better job than His disciples? Of course, but even knowing that, He still let them do the work. Why? Because we need to let other people make some of the mistakes in order for them to learn, the same way the disciples learned. Don’t rob others of an education. (2) Insecurity. “What if I turn this responsibility over to someone else and they do a better job than I do?” That possibility is threatening to many of us. But you won’t feel threatened if you know who you are, who you’re trying to please, what you want to accomplish, and the one thing you need to focus on. In order to be effective you must get other people involved, because you can’t focus on more than one thing at a time and do it well.
Soul food: S of Sol 1-4; Matt 25:41-46; Ps 3; Prov 21:4-8
