Devotionals

Proverbs 16:7

Psalm 27:3

Colossians 1:22

Living as we do in a product-oriented culture, we like to package our faith, too. We prefer to sell a slick, shrink-wrapped version of salvation that includes happiness and peace, and happiness here and now, and heaven by and by.While there is nothing wrong with good marketing techniques or teaching principles of authentic success, there is something wrong if we neglect to mention the process, which must inevitably include times of defeat and failure...What I'd like to know is who erected such a happily-ever-after standard of perfection in the first place?

Ecclesiastes 7:29

Everything around us works against reordering and simplifying our lives. Everything!

Ours is a cluttered, complicated world. God did not create it that way. Depraved, restless humanity has made it that way!

Advertisements have one major goal: to make us discontented, woefully dissatisfied with who we are and what we have. Why? So we will acquire what they offer. And acquire we do! The watchword of our consumptive society is very loud and assertive—more!

Matthew 5:9

Peacemakers release tension, they don't intensify it. Peacemakers seek solutions and find no delight in arguments. Peacemakers calm the waters, they don't trouble them. Peacemakers work hard to keep an offense from occurring. And if it has occurred, they strive for resolution. Peacemakers lower their voices rather than raise them. Peacemakers generate more light than heat.Blessed are such great-hearted souls!

Proverbs 16:18

What is it that drives us on so relentlessly? Are you ready? Take a deep breath and allow yourself to tolerate the one-word answer: PRIDE.

We work and push and strive so we can prove we are worthy...we are the best...we deserve top honours. And the hidden message: I can gain righteousness all on my own, by my own effort, ingenuity, and energy. And because I can, I must!

And why is this heretical? Because ultimately this philosophy says:

1.I really don't need divine righteousness. (After all, God helps those who help themselves, right?)

Isaiah 55:9

Despite all of our searching and all of our study of the Scriptures, we'll never be able to see everything clearly, to fully grasp and understand and answer all the questions. They are beyond our comprehension—a puzzle, a mystery.

InKeep a Quiet Heart, Elisabeth Elliott says, "Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future, I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now."

Proverbs 16:9

Nothing wrong with planning. Nothing wrong with thinking it through. Nothing wrong with doing your charts, listing all the pros and cons, talking it over...

But as you are moving along, stay sensitive to the quiet, yet all-important prompting of God through His Holy Spirit. It's easier to steer a moving car. Just get the car rolling and you can push it into the filling station to get the gas. But it's hard to get it moving from a dead stop.

So you're on your way, you're making your plans, you're thinking it through. Just stay open....

Proverbs 17:17

The poet Samuel Coleridge once described friendship as "a sheltering tree."

When you have the quality of a sheltering tree, the branches of your friendship reach out over the lives of others, giving them shelter, shade, rest, relief, and encouragement....Friends give comfort. We find strength near them. They bear fruit that provides nourishment and encouragement.

Psalm 16:11

I know of no greater need today than the need for joy. Unexplainable, contagious joy. Outrageous joy.

When that kind of joy comes aboard our ship of life, it brings things with it—like enthusiasm for life, determination to hang in there, and a strong desire to be of encouragement to others. Such qualities make our voyage bearable when we hit the open seas and encounter high waves ofhardship that tend to demoralise and paralyze.