2018-05-21
Exodus 3:8 NIV
For four hundred years the Israelites were enslaved by Egyptian taskmasters who oppressed them and “made their lives bitter” (Exodus 1:14 NIV). Many of us can relate to their feelings of helplessness when we think about areas in our own lives where we struggle with habits. Whether it’s food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, or abusive relationships, we’ve all experienced a sense of powerlessness in our repeated attempts for freedom. Failure can produce chronic hopelessness, to the point where you give up trying. Broken and crushed, Israel cried out to the Lord and He responded, “I have…seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out…and I am concerned about their suffering” (Exodus 3:7 NIV). Notice how God extended compassion toward them: “So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into…a land flowing with milk and honey” (v. 8 NIV). God came down to bring them up – and He can do the same for you today. Israel’s deliverance called for the slaying of a spotless Passover lamb. They applied its blood to their doorposts and the death angel passed over them. The Bible says, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7 NIV). Jesus Christ, our sacrificial lamb, shed His blood to set us free from whatever it is that’s enslaving you. What are you struggling with today? You can be released from captivity – not by your own futile efforts – but by trusting in the God who answers the cries of His people.
Soul food: Judg 1-3; Mark 10:1-12; Ps 88:1-9a; Prov 13:1-3
2018-05-20
Proverbs 31:11 NKJV
If you want a happy marriage, here are two things you must always keep in mind: (1) Never demean your mate in public. When you do, you demean yourself. Solomon writes, “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her…She does him good…all the days of her life” (vv. 10-12 NKJV). Somebody said, “Before you criticize your mate’s taste, stop and remember they picked you!” The fact is we all have habits, struggles, weaknesses, fantasies, childhood memories, unspoken needs, and longings hidden deep inside. Our yearning for someone to trust is profound and unchanging. That’s why God designed marriage to be a safe haven in a dangerous world. If you can’t trust your mate – who can you trust? (2) Always have shared dreams and goals. Today couples are divorcing at an alarmingly high rate between the seventeenth and twenty-fifth year of marriage. Do you know why? That’s usually when the last child graduates from high school or college and leaves home. Now there’s just the two of you. And when you’ve spent all your time focusing on your kids and neglecting one another, you can wake up one day and feel like you’re living with a stranger. So how do you avoid that? By having lifetime goals and dreams you’re both working toward. Remember, you’re more than just parents – you’re people – and God has a plan for your lives as a couple. If you haven’t discovered it yet, talk about it, then pray together and ask God to reveal it to you. That’s a prayer He’ll answer!
Soul food: Lev 23:15-22; acts 2:1-18
2018-05-19
Romans 8:28 NIV
Novelist A. J. Cronin had been practicing as a physician for almost ten years when he developed a gastric ulcer that required complete rest. So he went to a farm in the Scottish Highlands to recuperate. He says, “The first few days of leisure were pleasant enough, but soon the enforced idleness of Fyne Farm became insufferable…I’d often, in the back of my mind, nursed the vague illusion that I might write. I had actually thought out the theme of a novel – the tragic record of a man’s egotism and bitter pride…Upstairs in my cold, clean bedroom was a scrubbed deal table and a very hard chair. Next morning I found myself in this chair facing a new exercise book open on the table, slowly becoming aware that, short of Latin prescriptions, I’d never composed a significant phrase in my entire life. It was a discouraging thought, as I picked up my pen. Never mind, I began.” Even though Cronin struggled to write five hundred words a day and ended up throwing his first draft on the farm’s trash heap, he finished Hatter’s Castle. The book was dramatized, translated into twenty-two languages, and sold some five million copies. The world had lost a physician, but gained a novelist. When God gives you a dream, sometimes the circumstances required to fulfill it won’t be to your liking. In Joseph’s case it involved betrayal and false imprisonment. But that’s what it took to get him to the throne of Egypt. So ask God today, “What are You saying, or trying to show me, in the middle of this situation?”
Soul food: Ruth 1-4; Mark 9:38-50; Ps 18:30-50; Prov 12:25-28
2018-05-18
Genesis 22:16-17 NKJV
God said to Abraham, “Because you…have not withheld…your only son…I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven.” Isaac was the lifelong dream of a barren woman named Sarah and an impotent man named Abraham. But the more God blesses you, the harder it is to keep that blessing from becoming an idol in your life. Money may be the best example. The more money you make, the harder it is to trust Almighty God and the easier it is to trust the almighty dollar. Isn’t it ironic that “In God we trust” is printed on the dollar – the thing we often find most difficult to trust God with? If you’re financially blessed, it is a gift from God (See Deuteronomy 8:18). But God doesn’t financially bless us so that we can use it selfishly. He blesses us more, so that we can be more of a blessing to others (See Genesis 12:2). The truth is, what you’re willing to walk away from determines what God is willing to entrust to you. He wants you to come to the place where you find your identity in Whose you are, rather than in who you are. You can base your identify on a thousand things – the degrees you’ve earned, the positions you hold, the salary you make, etc. But if you base your identity on anything temporal, your identity is in a house of cards. There’s only one solid foundation: Jesus Christ. So, what’s getting between you and God? What feeds your ego? Where do you find your security outside of Christ? That’s what you need to put on the altar today.
Soul food: Obad; Mal 1-4; Mark 9:30-37; Ps 18:1-29; Prov 12:23-24
2018-05-17
Genesis 22:9 NKJV
Abraham considered Isaac to be a special gift from God. But God-given gifts are wonderful things – and dangerous things. Why do we say that? Because as you cultivate the gifts God has given you, you can begin to rely on them more than you rely on God. And at that point your greatest strength becomes your greatest weakness. It was God who gave Lucifer a beautiful form and a beautiful voice. Those gifts were originally used to glorify God. Then Lucifer started looking in the mirror, started reflecting on his own beauty. He glorified the gift he had been given instead of glorifying God. The lesson in Lucifer’s fall is this: Whatever you don’t turn into praise turns into pride. And that’s a problem, because “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6 NKJV). Instead of deflecting praise to God, Lucifer let it feed his ego. It was his sinful desire to be lifted up that led to Lucifer’s downfall. What are your greatest God-given gifts? What are your most significant God-ordained opportunities? What God-sized dreams has the Holy Spirit conceived in your spirit? That’s your “Isaac.” And you should love your Isaac and celebrate him, but he must never be permitted to take the place of God in your life. Sometimes God-ordained dreams aren’t just born, they have to be reborn. If they become more important to you than God, you have to sacrifice them for the sake of your soul. You have to put them on the altar and raise the knife. Sometimes your dream must die before it can be resurrected for God’s glory.
Soul food: 1 Pet 1-5; Mark 9:14-29; Ps 49; Prov 12:20-22
2018-05-16
Genesis 22:1 NKJV
The Bible says: “God tested Abraham, and said…’Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’ So Abraham…went to the place of which God had told him” (vv. 1-3 NKJV). You say, “Why would God test me?” First, to prove Himself faithful to you. Second, to give you an opportunity to prove yourself faithful to Him. Your tests are God’s proving grounds. They’re the way you graduate to the next level in His kingdom. That day Abraham proved there was nothing he loved more than God. And that was the day when God introduced Himself to Abraham as “Jehovah Jireh,” the Lord who provides. It’s when you exercise your faith that you discover God’s faithfulness. That’s why God will test your faith. The tests get progressively harder as the stakes get higher. And the tests will undoubtedly revolve around what’s most important to you. What do you find your identity in? What do you find your security in? That’s your “Isaac.” God will test you to make sure your identity and your security are found in Him alone. Indeed, He will go after anything you trust in more than you trust Him until you put it on the altar. Don’t worry; you don’t have to live in fear that God is going to take away what is most important to you. But if the gift ever becomes more important to you than the Giver, then the very thing God gave you to serve His purposes is undermining His plan for your life. And that’s why God will deal with it.
Soul food: Deut 32:29-34:12; Mark 9:1-13; Ps 62; Prov 12:18-19
