2025-05-18
Proverbs 23:24 MSG
As a parent, you want your children to turn out well, and the best way to do that is by modelling proper behaviour at home (See Ephesians 5:1 MSG). Learn to say no.
Susan Alexander Yates says: “There are simply too many demands… choices, and too little time. Maturity means learning to postpone something you’d really like to do now… to focus on something even more important. Maybe it’s that career opportunity so you can have more time with your children, or that outing with your friends so you’re around when your teens have their friends at your house. Maybe you need to say ‘no’ to your kids being in yet another sports team so your family can have dinner together. Ask yourself, in 10 years, what will matter most – that you signed your child up for yet another activity and spent evenings apart, or said ‘no’ and had family dinners together? Or that you participated in… another committee, or said ‘no’ so you could spend more time with your husband?
Pursue Christ with fresh vigor… I pray King David’s prayer: ‘Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me’ (Psalm 51:12 NIV). Resolve to recapture that joy. Vary… your time alone with God. Decide on a new topic for Bible study. Begin a fresh journal… If you… still feel stale, ask God to show you the reason. Is there sin in your life you’re ignoring? A wrong relationship, self-pity, jealousy?”
The Bible says, “Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV).” Always be aware that the kids are watching you.
Soul food: Exo 20:14; Prov 6:23-35; Matt 5:27-28; John 8:1-11
2025-05-17
Ephesians 5:1 MSG
Susan Alexander Yates offers us scriptural guidelines for influencing our kids.
(1) Reach out to non-Christians. If you want kids to grow in faith, expose them to people who need faith. God called us to be “salt and light” (See Matthew 5:13-16), but that won’t happen if you spend all your free time with fellow believers. Plus, kids are more likely to reach out to others when they see it modelled at home. Befriend someone who is not a believer, like a neighbour, a coworker, a teacher or coach, or your hairstylist. Reaching out can feel scary, but when you risk it, God will work through you in exciting ways.
(2) Model gratitude. No one enjoys a whiny kid, including God. And when we appreciate Him, it delights His heart. “Children… learn… from their parents;” they pick up on your attitude. Your mood fills the atmosphere of your home, and if you whine, they’re more likely to complain. When you dwell on the negative, they learn to focus on what’s lacking.
(3) Make time for your spouse. We get busy with kids, jobs, and church activities, and we think we will spend time with our spouse when things calm down. The problem is – they never do. Don’t let the weeds of so-called important things choke your relationship. Nurture it; look for ways to bring you and your spouse closer. Start with a weekly date. Your kids’ security is based on knowing you love them, and it soars when they know you love each other! The Bible says, “Wise children become proud parents” (Proverbs 23:24 MSG). You’re raising the next generation, and they need to know a happy marriage takes time and effort.
Soul food: 1 Ki 6-7; Mark 8:1-13; Ps 97; Prov 12:1-3
2025-05-16
Isaiah 8:20 NLT
When asked if they believed that the Bible was the inspired and the infallible Word of God, a majority of sixteen-to-twenty-nine-year-olds in America said, “Yes. Give it to me straight. And if you don’t live it, don’t give it!” It’s an honest response! Think about it: Who told the first lie ever recorded? Satan. In the garden of Eden, he convinced Eve it was okay to eat the forbidden fruit and that God didn’t really mean what He said. And he is still peddling the same old lie! You hear it in comments like these:
(1) “You can interpret the Bible many different ways.” That sounds reasonable until you read this: “Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NLT). Isaiah said, “People who contradict his word are completely in the dark.” Two and two must make four; otherwise, we’re all open to each other’s interpretations and value judgments – and somebody is going to get the short end of the stick.
(2) “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.” What if you’re sincerely wrong? If a doctor prescribes the wrong medication, it could kill you rather than cure you.
(3) “Rather than offend someone, you should say nothing.” If that person’s house were on fire, wouldn’t you warn them in order to save their life?
Before He was betrayed, Jesus said, “All ye shall be offended because of me this night” (Mark 14:27 KJV). The truth hurts, but it heals, so let’s be true to the Scriptures.
Soul food: 1 Ki 3-5; Mark 7:24-37; Ps 93; Prov 11:30-31
2025-05-15
Luke 23:34 KJV
Some societies in history punished those who committed adultery by making them wear a big scarlet letter A, publicly identifying with their behaviour. And if you were caught stealing, they made you drag a ball and chain around. Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, they deserved it.” Really?
Jesus said if you simply lust after someone, you have committed adultery in your heart (See Matthew 5:28). Then He went on to say the standard of judgment you impose on others is the same standard you will be judged by (See Matthew 7:1-2). God is not soft on sin; notice two things: (1) He won’t just overlook your sin. “The Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Hebrews 12:6 NIV). (2) He won’t turn His back on you. Nothing can separate us from the love of God (See Romans 8:38-39). We don’t use scarlet letters or balls and chains today, but we use computers.
So, when someone hurts you, God says we must forgive them and delete it! Otherwise, it will influence the way we think, act, and talk. Plus, it will keep us tied to old, painful memories. “But forgiving them is hard,” you say. That’s why Jesus said to pray for those who mistreat you (See Matthew 5:44). Forgiving someone begins with praying for them. You say, “But I need to understand why they did it.” Wise people do foolish stuff, good people do bad stuff, and misguided people don’t know what they’re doing. Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Someday you may understand what motivated your offender. But even if you don’t, forgive them and delete it.
Soul food: 1 Ki 1-2; Mark 7:14-23; Ps 88:9b-18; Prov 11:27-29
2025-05-14
2 Chronicles 14:11 ESV
Faced with an enemy he couldn’t conquer on his own, King Asa prayed, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us…we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.’ The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah” (vv. 11-12 NIV).
F. B. Meyer writes: “Remind God of his entire responsibility. ‘There is none like thee to help.’ The odds against Asa were enormous. There were a million men in arms… beside three hundred chariots. It seemed impossible to hold his own against that vast multitude. There were no allies who would come to his help: his only hope therefore was in God. There was none beside to help. It may be that your difficulties have been allowed to come to so alarming a pitch that you may be compelled to renounce all creature aid, to which in lesser trials you have had recourse, and cast yourself back on your Almighty friend. Put God between yourself and the foe.
To Asa’s faith, Jehovah seemed to stand between the might of Zerah and himself, as one who had no strength. Nor was he mistaken… the Ethiopians were destroyed before the Lord, and before His host, as though celestial combatants flung themselves against the foe on Israel’s behalf… Our God is Jehovah of Hosts, who can summon unexpected reinforcements at any moment to the aid of his people. Believe that he is there between you and your difficulty, and what baffles you will flee before him as clouds before the gale.”
Soul food: Heb 11:17-13:25; Mark 7:1-13; Ps 88:1-9a; Prov 11:24-26
2025-05-13
Jeremiah 2:13 NLT
We are desirous by nature. We keep desiring things just like we keep taking our next breath. The trouble is, when we get the things we crave, they don’t bring us the happiness we yearn for. So, we keep looking for more and more things. Online stores are in the business of “creating need.” Things we had assigned to our “want” category are switched to our “need” category.
But according to a theologian, here is the problem: “We cannot get enough of what we do not need… No matter how much we have, we remain ‘not-enough’ people. For not-enough people, there exists no lasting soul satisfaction. I saw an ad that featured the tagline ‘yesterday I didn’t know it existed; today I can’t live without it.’ [It’s called] the myth of more, the myth that one day more will be enough. If we believe this myth, we spend our lives looking for the next thing. It might be a car, or a promotion, or the love of a beautiful woman or handsome man. It might be, depending on your age, an iPod, or a Lamborghini, or a Tickle Me Elmo doll. We keep hoping that the next thing will be it – the source of true satisfaction for our souls. For a few minutes, or perhaps days, we experience true soul satisfaction. Then it wears off. It always wears off.”
Understand this: Only Jesus can satisfy; everything else disappoints. God said, “My people have done two evil things: they have abandoned me – the fountain of living water. And… dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” If you are tired of living an empty life, come to Jesus. He won’t disappoint you.
Soul food: Heb 9:1-11:16; Mark 6:45-56; Ps 75; Prov 11:23
