2021-02-22
Psalm 30:5 NKJV
Pain is an inevitable part of life and growth; a beneficial part! Stop and consider some of its benefits:
(1) It lets you know when there’s something wrong in your body that needs to be made right.
(2) It forces you to acknowledge a condition you didn’t know about; one that could potentially claim your life.
(3) It makes you rearrange your priorities and your schedule and seek help.
(4) It makes you willing to submit to treatment you may not enjoy, believing that it will make you whole.
Are you getting the idea? Strange as it may seem, the more you dread and resist the pain, the more you increase the effect it has on you. What we resist persists, and the more pain is resisted, the stronger it becomes.
When a pregnant woman goes into labor, the advice she generally gets from her medical team is to “relax.” They know the more she fights the pain, the stronger it will become and the longer the delivery process will take. So when you are experiencing pain, don’t fight it. Walk through it and allow it to accomplish its purpose.
The Bible says: “When troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know…when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing” (James 1:2-4 NLT).
So the word for you today is – learn to endure this season of pain, knowing that God has promised you joy on the other side of it!
Soul food: Gen 13-16; Matt 17:1-13; Ps 40:1-8; Prov 6:1-5
2021-02-21
Philippians 3:13-14 AMPC
We all have a “past.” It’s filled with hurts others have done to us, mistakes that got us into trouble, and things we’re so ashamed of we wouldn’t dare talk openly about them. What to do? There are only two things you can do with your past: focus on it, or forget it and move on.
If you need forgiveness, ask God for it, receive it by faith, learn from your mistakes, and try to do better next time. Paul wrote: “One thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward” (vv. 13-14 AMPC). Note the words “my one aspiration.” Before Paul met Christ, he routinely imprisoned and executed Christians and shut down churches. And what’s more, he got paid for it! Maybe that’ll make you feel a little better about your past. Now, however, Paul had only one aspiration: “straining forward to what lies ahead.”
When you fail by sinning, you compound your failure by obsessing over it and wallowing in guilt. Why? Because God has provided forgiveness for you! So whether you sinned twenty years or twenty minutes ago, there’s nothing you can do about it except to ask God for forgiveness, receive it, put it behind you, and move on. You must let go of yesterday’s mistakes in order to grasp today’s blessings. When you learn to do that, you will enjoy life the way God intended.
Soul food: 1 Sam 3:1-11; Acts 9:1-9
Filippense 3:13-14 NLV
Ons almal het ‘n ‘verlede.’ Dis gevul met seer wat ander mense ons aangedoen het, foute wat ons in die moeilikheid laat beland het en dinge waaroor ons so skaam is dat ons dit nie waag om openlik daaroor te praat nie. Wat staan ons te doen?
Daar is net twee dinge wat jy met jou verlede kan doen: fokus daarop, of vergeet daarvan en beweeg aan. As jy vergifnis nodig het, vra God daarvoor, ontvang dit deur geloof, leer uit jou foute en probeer om volgende keer beter te doen. Paulus het geskryf: ‘…een ding is seker: ek vergeet dit wat agter my lê, en strek my uit na dit wat voorlê. Ek jaag wenpaal toe, na die hemelse prys wat God aan my wil gee omdat Christus Jesus dit vir my verdien het’ (verse 13-14 NLV).
Voor Paulus vir Christus ontmoet het, het hy Christene gevange geneem, tereggestel en kerke toegemaak. Wat erger is – hy is daarvoor betaal! Miskien laat dit jou bietjie beter oor jou verlede voel. Nou het Paulus egter net een doelwit gehad – om homself uit te strek na dit wat voorlê.
Wanneer jy deur sonde misluk, vererger jy jou mislukking deur daaroor te tob en in skuldgevoelens te verdrink. Hoekom? Omdat God vir jou van vergifnis voorsien het! Of jy dus twintig jaar terug of twintig minute terug gesondig het, daar is niks wat jy daaraan kan doen nie, behalwe om God om vergifnis te vra, dit te ontvang, dit agter jou te sit en aan te beweeg. Jy moet gister se foute laat gaan om vandag se seëninge te kan aangryp. Wanneer jy leer om dit te doen, sal jy die lewe geniet soos God dit bedoel het.
Sielskos: 1 Sam 3:1-11; Hand 9:1-9
Philippians 3:13-14 AMP
We all have things in our past that play on our minds. The past is often filled with hurts others have done to us, mistakes that got us into trouble, and things we’re so ashamed of we wouldn’t dare talk openly about them. But what can we do about it? We can’t change what’s happened, so the alternatives are: focus on it, or let it go and move forwards.
Focusing on the past means we take our eyes off God and His plan, and we stop moving into the future and the blessings He’s got for us. So we need to choose to move forwards. If we need forgiveness for anything in our past, we should ask God for it, receive it by faith, learn from our mistakes, and try to do better next time. Paul wrote: ‘One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the [heavenly] prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’ (vv.13-14 AMP).
Before Paul met Christ, he imprisoned and executed Christians and shut down churches. But after, Paul had only one goal: ‘reaching forward to what lies ahead’. He refused to let his past mistakes prevent him from receiving God’s future.
When we fail, we can make things worse by obsessing over it and wallowing in guilt instead of taking hold of the forgiveness God offers to us. There’s nothing we can do about past sins and mistakes except to ask God for forgiveness, receive it, let the past go, and move forwards. We have to let go of yesterday’s mistakes in order to grasp today’s blessings and enjoy the life God intended for us.
1 Sam 3:1-11; Acts 9:1-9
2021-02-20
2 Korintiërs 4:18 NLV
God het nie gebed moeilik of gekompliseerd gemaak nie, maar regtig eenvoudig. Die waarheid is dat baie van ons meer gereeld bid as wat ons weet. Ons het ‘n effektiewer en suksesvoller gebedslewe as wat ons besef. Die probleem is dat ons nie altyd besef wanneer ons bid nie. Dis omdat jy die verkeerde idee daaroor het. Ons is geleer dat gebed ‘n spesifieke omgewing soos die kerk nodig het, dat ons ‘n spesifieke posisie moet inneem, deur byvoorbeeld te kniel, dat ons spesifieke woorde soos ‘O Heer’ moet gebruik en dat ons streng aan sekere godsdienstige rituele moet voldoen. Nee, gebed is eenvoudig ‘n gesprek met God, waarna jy stil word en Hom toelaat om met jou te praat. Jy kan enige tyd, enige plek, oor enigiets bid, deur jou gedagtes – gesproke en ongesproke – na God toe te rig.
Paulus skryf: ‘Ons oog is nie op die sigbare dinge gerig nie, maar op die onsigbare, want die sigbare dinge is tydelik, maar die onsigbare is vir altyd.’ Verbeel jou dat al God se seëninge en voordele in ‘n pakhuis in die onsigbare ryk gestoor word; dinge soos vergifnis, krag, wysheid, leiding, guns en hulpbronne. Deur gebed gaan jy God se pakhuis van seëninge binne en deur geloof ontvang jy dit en bring dit na jou lewe toe terug.
Die Bybel sê dat ons nie het nie, omdat ons nie vra nie (sien Jakobus 4:2). Wat jy dus ook al vandag benodig, bid en vra God daarvoor – met die geloof dat Hy dit vir jou sal gee. Jesus het gesê: ‘As julle aan My verbind bly en my woorde ‘n stewige vastrapplek in julle gekry het, vra dan net wat julle wil hê, en julle sal dit kry’ (Johannes 15:7 NLV). So, het jy daaroor gebid?
Sielskos: Gen 10-12; Matt 16:13-28; Ps 36; Spr 5:21-23
