Daily Devotionals

Isaiah 50:7

Making one’s own decisions develops healthy mental muscles. But there will always be a few who crave to be told what to do. A major reason some prefer to be indecisive is laziness. Decision-making is hard work. Peter Drucker was correct when he said: 

A decision is a judgment. It is a choice between alternatives. It is rarely a choice between right and wrong. It is at best a choice between “almost right” and “probably wrong”—but much more often a choice between two courses of action, neither of which is probably more nearly right than the other. 

Joshua 24:14–15

2 Timothy 2:14–17

I repeat: Don’t garble the message! 

Psalm 40:10

“Don’t garble the message!” 

If I heard that once during Marine boot camp, I must’ve heard it four dozen times. Again and again, our outfit was warned against hearing one thing, then passing on a slightly different version. You know, changing the message by altering the meaning a tad. It’s so easy to do, isn’t it? Especially when it’s filtered through several minds, then pushed through each mouth. It is amazing how the original story, report, or command appears after it has gone through its verbal metamorphosis. 

Consider the following: 

Isaiah 30:19-21

On October 12, 1972, a Fairchild F-227 of the Uruguayan Air Force was chartered by an amateur rugby team. The plan? To fly from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile...a flight pattern which required flying over the rugged Andes. There were 45 on board, including the crew. Bad weather brought the plane down in Mendoza, a small Argentinian town. Since the weather improved the following morning, the Fairchild set off again, flying south to the Planchon Pass. They would never make their destination. 

Joshua 1:9

Extreme dilemmas are usually solved by radical adjustments. It used to be called “fighting fire with fire.” Minor alterations won’t do. If the situation is getting completely out of hand, a slight modification won’t cut it. It’s get-with-it time. 

James 1:2–4, 12

It was the enraptured Rutherford who said in the midst of very painful trials and heartaches: 

Praise God for the hammer, the file, and the furnace! 

Let’s think about that. The hammer is a useful and handy instrument. It is an essential and helpful tool, if nails are ever to be driven into place. Each blow forces them to bite deeper as the hammer’s head pounds and pounds. 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Yesterday, we talked about innovative people, and I mentioned that there are a whole lot more innovative people around than any of us can imagine. Could you be one of them?

Let’s take a little test and see. I have Earl Nightingale to thank for this list of 25 traits generally found in creative, innovative people. No relax. You don’t need all 25...but if you have most of them, you may be closer than you think.

Proverbs 12:1

Webster defines it: “The introduction of something new...a new idea, method, or device.” When we innovate, we change, we flex. 

It takes guts to innovate, because it requires creative thinking. Thinking is hard enough, but creative thinking—ah, that’s work! To get the juices squirting, you have to be dissatisfied with the status quo.

2 Corinthians 4:7–10

They called him “Old Hickory” because of his tenacity and grit. His mother chose “Andrew” on March 15, 1767, when she gave birth to that independent-minded South Carolina rebel. Wild, quick-tempered, and disinterested in school, Andrew answered the call for soldiers to resist the British invasion at age thirteen. Shortly thereafter, he was taken prisoner. Refusing to black an enemy officer’s boots, he was struck with a sabre—Andrew’s introduction to pain.