Tender and Tolerant
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.
Look Heavenward
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.
Pleasure and Pain
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.
The Urgency of the Hour
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!
Hope Revived
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?"
An Attitude of Satisfaction
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.
All Walls Finally Fall
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.
Perfect in Him
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?