Devotionals

Romans 15:7

If you don't get your way, get over it, get on with life.If you don't get your way in a vote at a church, get over it. The vote was taken (if the church has integrity, the vote was handled with fairness), now get on with it. Just press on.

And don't rehearse the fight or the vote year after year. The work of God slows down when we are not big enough to take it on the chin and say, "We lost!"

Having been raised in the South, I didn't know the South lost the Civil War until I was in junior high school...and even then it was debatable among my teachers.

Proverbs 28:26

Psalm 119:105

A healthy fear of God will do much to deter us from sin. When we have a proper fear of the living Lord, we live a cleaner life.

Any born-again person who sins wilfully has momentarily blocked out his fear of God. You and I can do that.

When we actively engage in sin, we consciously put aside what we know to be the truth about God. We suppress the knowledge of Him in our hearts and minds. We lie to ourselves by saying, "We'll get by. God won't mind so much."

Proverbs 18:4

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.–George Washington Carver

I have admired those words for years. They reflect a perspective easily forgotten in a dizzy schedule of demands and deadlines.

Proverbs 5:21

God is exacting in His knowledge.... Not one detail escapes His attention.... He knows everything about us. We are an open book before Him.

Furthermore, He is immutably faithful.

And yet He deliberately surprises us with difficult assignments, premature or unexpected deaths, lost jobs, and disappointing circumstances along the journey, even while we're in the nucleus of His will.

Psalm 25:2

It's impossible to pass through life without experiencing times when you cannot see your way through a deep valley. Times when the package delivered at the back door comes delivered in the ugly wrappingof death or affliction or illness or even divorce.

Revelation 3:11

If you live in the light of Christ's return each day of your life, it does wonders for your perspective. If you realize that you must give account for every idle word and action when you stand before the Lord Jesus, it does amazing things to your conduct.

It also makes you recognize how many needless activities we get involved in on this earth. Sort of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Don't bother! Don't get lost in insignificant details! He's coming soon!

Recognize the urgency and the simplicity of the hour!

Psalm 38:15

Take from us our wealth and we are hindered. Take our health and we are handicapped. Take our purpose and we are slowed, temporarily confused.

But take away our hope, and we are plunged into deepest darkness...stopped dead in our tracks, paralyzed. Wondering, "Why?" Asking, "How much longer? Will this darkness ever end? Does He know where I am?"

Proverbs 23:4

To the surprise of many people, the Bible says a great deal about money.It talks about earning and spending, saving and giving, investing and even wasting our money. But in none of this does it ever come near to suggesting that money brings ultimate security.

Ephesians 2:14

All walls fall...eventually.

No matter how well-constructedor long-standing it is, the wall will fall. It may be as intimidating as an angry giant or as silent as thin air and just as invisible, like the stubborn will of a person or the bitter spirit of an individual.

But all walls finally fall.