Devotionals

Proverbs 28:14

Colossians 1:22

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! 

Enough is never enough....

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!...

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:

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.

In Keep 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."

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.  When something troublesome occurs in our life, we pick up the phone and call a friend, needing the comfort he or she provides. I think there are few things more lonely than having no friend to call. 

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 of hardship that tend to demoralise and paralyze. 

There is nothing better than a joyful attitude when we face the challenges life throws at us.

Trials come in various forms. 

The word various comes from an interesting Greek term, poikolos, which means "variegated" or "many coloured." We also get the term "polka dot" from it. 

Trials come in a variety of forms and colours. They are different, just as we are different. Something that would hardly affect you might knock the slats out from under me—and vice versa. But God offers special grace to match every shade of sorrow....