2020-03-20
Isaiah 26:3 NLT
The secret to “perfect peace” lies in this Scripture: “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” It’s not your circumstances, but how you think about them that robs you of peace. Focusing on your circumstances just causes more anxiety, because circumstances constantly change and often spin out of your control. However, God never changes, and nothing ever spins out of His control. Peace and worry are mutually exclusive. Worry throttles your confidence, chokes your perspective, and suffocates your spirit. It robs you of the peace that comes from knowing the God who can handle anything, and through whom all things are possible. The reason we worry so much is because we engage in exactly the opposite behavior to that which brings peace. Worry is like a “no-confidence” vote in God. You may not intend it that way, but every time you give in to worry, in essence, you’re saying: “I don’t believe God can or will handle this for me. I’m not sure I can trust Him in this matter, so I’ll just have to carry this burden and take care of the problem myself.” God is either the object of your trust or just a part-time helper you call on when you can’t handle things on your own. It’s reminiscent of the elephant and the mouse that walked over a bridge. When they got to the other side, the mouse said, “Man, we really shook that bridge!” When you begin to see God as playing the major role and you the minor one, you’ll begin to find the peace which has eluded you for so long.
Soul food: Job 8-10; Matt 24:15-25; Ps 116:12-19; Prov 8:10-13
2020-03-03
1 Peter 1:8 NIV
In his book, Talking Dogs, Sam Mason continues: “During the last couple of years of his life, Tigger, one of our dearly loved Italian greyhounds, gradually lost his sight. He’d developed cataracts. They robbed him of his vision, but they couldn’t steal his precious relationship with his masters. My wife Carol often referred to Tigger as her ‘lovey-dovey boy.’ He would stand (not sit!) on our laps, putting his paws on either side of our necks, then affectionately tuck his head under our chins. It was adorable. Blind though he was, Tigger’s desire for the ones he could no longer see was unaffected. In spite of the cataracts that blurred our features, somehow he still managed to look us in the face. His diminished capacities may have hampered his movements, but his love and trust toward his masters remained rock solid. All of us who have placed our trust in the Lord possess handicaps…even spiritual ones. Do we use them as excuses for not pursuing God as intensely as we ought? Do we allow these hindrances to ration our love for Him? Or do we, with God’s help, find the strength to reach past our limitations to experience the unbounded joy of His presence, and fulfill the calling He’s placed on our lives? Yes, we may sometimes grope about in darkness every now and then, even stumbling and falling. But we can trust the One who understands our seasons of blindness. We can open our hearts to His love and love Him back…sight unseen!”
Soul food: Gen 24:1-25:18; Matt 20:1-16; Ps 70; Prov 6:26-28
1 Peter 1:8 NLT
In yesterday’s reading, we explored what seeking God means. But it can seem really challenging to seek somebody we can’t see. How are we supposed to deepen our relationship with God when we can’t see Him? Peter said: ‘You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him.’ It’s possible to seek, love, and trust God without physically seeing Him. We can find out more about Him through reading the Bible, from looking at things He’s created, and listening to His voice in prayer. We can’t seek God without doing these things. We have to open our eyes up to see Him in the things and people around us. We also have to allow the Holy Spirit to show us more of God. It’s important to be disciplined. We need to be setting aside time to intentionally seek Him through reading the Bible, prayer, and times of silence. We might not feel like we’re getting closer to God, but that doesn’t mean we’re not. We can’t rely on our feelings. The Bible says: ‘The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him’ (Lamentation 3:25 NIV). God loves it when we make the choice to seek Him and discover more about Him. He wants us to discover just how good and loving He is. Seeking Him isn’t challenging, but it does require sacrifice. We need to put seeking Him at the top of our priority list. We can’t just do what we want, and expect to know more about Him. Jesus said: ‘Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness’ (Matthew 6:33 NIV). We have to set aside the other things we want to do, and focus on drawing close to Him.
Gen 24:1-25:18; Matt 20:1-16; Ps 70; Prov 6:26-28
2020-02-25
2 Corinthians 3:5 NCV
God doesn’t want us to be trying to do everything by ourselves. He wants us to trust Him and depend on Him for everything we need. We can easily fall into the trap of feeling like we don’t need God, that we can handle everything ourselves. But the truth is that ‘it is God who makes us able to do all that we do.’ God showed this to Gideon when the Israelites were facing a battle with the Midianites. God had called Gideon to lead the army and save Israel. He gathered together all the men who would fight with him and it came to 32,000 men. But God wanted to show that they would win through Him, not manpower. ‘The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men to defeat the Midianites. I don’t want the Israelites to brag that they saved themselves”‘ (Judges 7:2 NCV). So God reduced the number of men down to just 300 (you can read about this in Judges 7). Imagine how Gideon must have felt. In Judges 6 we already see that Gideon felt inadequate (take a look at verse 15). Now he probably felt unprepared too. But God said: ‘Using the three hundred men who lapped the water, I will save you and hand Midian over to you’ (Judges 7:7 NCV). And He did. God wants us to depend on Him for what we need. He provides for all He has made. The Bible says: ‘All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time’ (Psalm 104:27 NIV). He doesn’t want us to be worrying about our situations or becoming prideful about our own abilities. We should stop leaning on our own strength and resources, and instead depend wholly and solely on God.
Gen 4-6; Matt 17:14-27; Ps 40:9-17; Prov 6:6-8
2 Corinthians 3:5-6 NIV
Jesus told His disciples, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41 NKJV). What did He mean by that? He meant that without the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, which He’d just told them they’d soon receive, they weren’t equal to the challenges they were about to face. It wasn’t a matter of His doubting their devotion and willingness to serve Him; He just knew they couldn’t do it by themselves. And you can’t either. So the sooner you quit trying, the better off you’ll be! God isn’t looking for educated, sophisticated, well-meaning flesh, or any other kind of “flesh,” for that matter. He will only bless you when you acknowledge your total dependence on Him. That means praying and leaning on Him before you start, and continuing to pray and lean on Him until you reach the finish line. It also means that if God doesn’t send you and you insist on going, or if He tells you to do something and you try to accomplish it in your own strength, you’ll surely fail. And what’s more, He will allow you to keep failing until you reach the place where you can say like Paul: “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent.” It’s when we reach the end of our resources that God’s power kicks in. So the word for you today is: Instead of leaning on your own strength and resources, depend wholly and solely on God.
Soul food: Gen 4-6; Matt 17:14-27; Ps 40:9-17; Prov 6:6-8
