2017-10-05
Zephaniah 3:17 CEV
Some of us think so little of ourselves that we’d rather be in a bad relationship than none at all. Being around people doesn’t guarantee you won’t feel lonely. Actually, being with the wrong people guarantees you’ll end up feeling empty and used. Until you overcome your fear of being alone and wait for God to give you the right relationships, you’ll continue to feel lonely. Sometimes loneliness is more about not liking yourself than about not having people around who like you. Otherwise, why would you spend so much energy avoiding rejection instead of building healthy relationships? Perhaps you think if you don’t get involved you won’t get hurt. Or you’re afraid to open up in case people criticize you for sharing anything personal. Such anxieties just contribute to your sense of isolation. Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said, “What you picture in your mind, your mind will go to work to accomplish. When you change your pictures, you automatically change your performance.” So: (1) You need a true picture of how God sees you. Paul says, “Because of what Christ has done we have become gifts…God…delights in” (Ephesians 1:11 TLB). Zephaniah writes, “He celebrates and sings because of you, and he will refresh your life with his love.” (2) You need a true picture of yourself. David said, “You…put me together inside my mother’s body, and I praise you because of the wonderful way you created me. Everything you do is marvelous!” (Psalm 139:13-14 CEV). Having these two pictures clearly in mind stops you from operating with a devalued self-image, and enables you to ask for what you need in a relationship.
Soul food: Lev 23:33-44; John 7:1-40; Zech 14:16-21
2017-10-04
1 Peter 5:7 TLB
Author John Mason writes: “I couldn’t feel at peace. Unless I had everything figured out, I became anxious, restless, nervous, worried, and grouchy…similar to a drug addict who needs a fix. The severity wasn’t the same but the symptoms were. I was a Christian and supposedly walked by faith. I trusted Jesus for salvation, but in other areas I trusted myself.” Are you living that way? Inspirational author William Ward wrote: “Worry is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, assurance of disaster, and belief in defeat. It’s a magnet that attracts negative conditions. Faith is a more powerful force that creates positive circumstances. Worry is wasting today’s time, and cluttering up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s troubles.” When an old man was asked what had robbed him of joy in his life, he replied, “Things that never happened.” Do you remember the things you worried about a year ago? Didn’t you expend a lot of energy on them? And didn’t most of them turn out to be fine after all? Almost 99 percent of the things we worry about don’t happen. Did you know that a dense fog covering seven city blocks one hundred feet deep, is composed of less than one glass of water? Just one glass! But it can blot out practically all vision. And a cupful of worry can do the same thing. The Bible says, “Mere mortals can’t run their own lives…men and women don’t have what it takes” (Jeremiah 10:23 TM). Stop trying to control every possible outcome. Life goes better when you decide to stand on God’s Word and trust Him to take care of you.
Soul food: Exo 4-6; Mark 16:9-20; Ps 92; Prov 26:1-3
2017-10-03
Proverbs 25:22 NKJV
It’s not enough to simply leave your enemies alone; you must demonstrate God’s love toward them. “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for so you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you” (vv. 21-22 NKJV). What does it mean to “heap coals of fire on his head”? Charles Swindoll explains that in ancient days, homes were heated and meals were fixed on a small portable stove, somewhat like our outside barbecue grills. Frequently, a person would run low on hot coals and need to replenish his or her supply. The container was commonly carried on the head. So as the individual passed beneath second-story windows, thoughtful people who had extra hot coals in their possession would reach out the window and place them in the container atop their head. Thanks to the thoughtful generosity of a few folks, they would arrive at the site with a pile of burning coals on their head, and a ready-made fire for cooking and keeping warm. “Heaping burning coals on someone’s head” came to be a popular expression for a spontaneous and courteous act one person would voluntarily do for another. When you treat an enemy this way, the Bible promises, “The Lord will reward you.” You have a choice. You can experience the short-term satisfaction of retaliating and get into trouble with God for doing it, or show mercy and kindness and be rewarded by God for doing it. So the word for you today is – treat your enemy with kindness.
Soul food: Exo 1-3; Mark 16:1-8; Ps 63; Prov 25:26-28
2017-10-02
Ezekiel 40:4 NKJV
If you train yourself to listen carefully to what someone is saying, they will generally tell you who and what they are before you get into a relationship with them. Prevention is better than cure! But more times than not, when someone begins to warn us of their weaknesses and what to expect, we jump in with our motivational “Oh no, that can’t be true” thoughts, and encourage them to move forward with us. We need to learn the priceless art of listening without interrupting. If you do, you’ll save yourself years of tears, secret disappointments, and negative experiences. Rather than using your optimism and persuasive style to coerce somebody into accepting your goals and objectives, you need to know when a person can’t become something just because you want them to or believe they can. They can’t run on your fuel! Your character and maturity won’t make up for their lack of it. Without your awareness of this principle, these high-maintenance relationships can weary you and drain your strength for years. In private or professional relationships, if you have to keep motivating to get started, you’ll have to keep motivating to maintain. On the other hand, if you look, listen, pray, and observe, you can decide whether it’s worth the effort to engage in the relationship in the first place. And if you ask God, He will guide you in this: His Word says, “Look with your eyes…hear with your ears, and fix your mind on everything I show you; for you were brought here…that I might show them to you.”
Soul food: 1 Cor 15-16; Mark 15:33-47; Ps 51; Prov 25:23-25
2017-10-01
John 15:2 NLT
Jesus said the vine dresser “cuts off every branch…that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes [cuts back] the branches that do bear fruit so they…produce even more.” Notice two things: (1) God cuts some things off. “What kind of things?” Things you’re comfortable with but that stand in the way of your progress. Things He hasn’t chosen for you. Things that will bring you trouble. Things that refuse to change. Things that have served their purpose. (2) God cuts some things back. A fruit tree that’s just been pruned certainly doesn’t look its best. And when God starts cutting back certain things in your life in order to redirect your energies, for a while you may not look so good either. Sometimes this means letting go of things you thought would always be there, or reprioritizing your life, or making do with less for a while, or not being able to explain to your loved ones why you’re going through the pruning process. But life-giving sap flowing into a barren branch with no potential for fruitfulness is a waste! And so is time, attention, and energy taken from first things and given to second and third things. Understand this: God knows what needs to be cut off in your life, and He knows what needs to be cut back. And although you may not understand what He’s doing, pray: “Send whoever You will and take away whoever You will. I’ll praise You when they come and I’ll praise You when they go, because Your approval is my reward and Your purpose is my reason to live.”
Soul food: Eph 5:21-33; S of S 2:1-7; Prov 5:15-19
2017-09-30
Psalm 27:1 NIV
What hope or help does the atheist or agnostic have? None! Writer and editorialist W. O. Saunders said in American Magazine: “I’d like to introduce you to one of the loneliest and unhappiest individuals on earth…the man who doesn’t believe in God. I can introduce you to such a man because I myself am one, and in introducing myself you shall have an introduction to the agnostic or sceptic in your own neighbourhood, for he is everywhere in the land. You’ll be surprised to know that the agnostic envies your faith in God, your settled belief in a heaven after life, and your blessed assurance that you’ll meet with your loved ones in an afterlife where there’ll be neither sadness nor pain. He’d give anything to be able to embrace that faith and be comforted by it, but for him there is only the grave and the persistence of matter. After the grave all he can see is the disintegration of the protoplasm and psychoplasm of which my body and personality are composed, but in this materialist view, I find neither ecstasy nor happiness…He may put on a brave front but he isn’t happy…He sometimes yearns for a staff on which to lean. He, too, carries a cross. For him, this earth is but a tricky raft adrift in the unfathomable waters of eternity with no horizon in sight. His heart aches for every precious life upon the raft – drifting, drifting, drifting, whither no one knows.” But when you put your trust in Christ, you can say with confidence, “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?”
Soul food: Lev 16; Lev 23:26-32; Heb 9:1-14; Heb 13:11-16
