Daily Devotionals

Matthew 11:28-30

Strange, isn’t it, how we tend toward extremes? What begins as self-improvement becomes self-enslavement...what starts as merely a mellow change of pace leads to a marathon of fanaticism. We’re nuts! Left to ourselves, we’ll opt for extremes most every time. Which explains why God’s Book so often stresses moderation, self-control, softening our sharp-cornered lives with more curves that necessitate a slower speed. 

Psalm 46:10-11

I laughed my way through Judith Viorst’s How Did I Get to Be Forty and Other Atrocities. I’ve long since passed the half-century mark, so it seemed reasonable that I should at least face the music of being 40. Even though I must admit I feel more like 30...until I think about my schedule of involvements. Then I wish I were 90 and had an excuse for hiding away in a cabin, writing my memoirs...as if anybody would ever care to read them. 

Psalm 62:5–8

In pain, grief, affliction, and loss, it often helps to write our feelings...not just feel them. Putting words on paper seems to free our feelings from the lonely prison of our souls. 

It was C. S. Lewis who wrote: 

Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.... No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing. 

Acts 1:8

It’s a cartoon I’ve smiled at again and again. 

There are two Inuit sitting on chairs, fishing through holes in the ice. The fella on the right has draped his line through your typical disk-like opening...about the size of a small manhole. 

The man on the left has his line in the water, too. He also waits calmly for a nibble. His hole, however, is more like a crater, a Rose Bowl-sized opening that reaches to the horizon—in the shape of a whale. 

Now that’s what I call vision. 

Ephesians 5:21-6:4

If you are involved in church or religious activities to the point that your home life is hurting, you’re too involved—and you’re heading for trouble. Look at what you’re doing in the light of eternity. God is primarily interested in the quality, not quantity, of our spiritual fruit. He looks behind our hurry and hustle...to our motive, our inner purpose.

1 Corinthians 3:12–15

God has ordained and established three great institutions: 

    1. the home (Genesis 1:27–28; Ephesians 5:22–31) 
    2. the church (Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:41–47) 
    3. government (Romans 13:1–7) 

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

When it comes to physical healing, often confusion reigns. To combat it, I’d like to point out five “laws” of suffering. These “laws” will do more to help the hurting and erase their confusion than perhaps anything else they could read. Yesterday, we looked at laws one through four. Today we’ll look at number five.

Law Five: It is not God’s will that everyone be healed in this life. 

Matthew 9:35

“Have you heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?” 

That question, found in a small booklet, has been asked and answered thousands—perhaps millions—of times in our generation. These “laws” have been used by God to introduce His plan of love and forgiveness to countless numbers of people who had no idea how to have a meaningful relationship with Him. 

1 Kings 19:9–21

God often delivers His best gifts to us in unexpected ways...with surprises inside the wrappings. Through apparent contradictions. Somewhat like the therapy He used when Elijah was so low, so terribly disillusioned. 

Philippians 2:5-11

Tom Landry, the late head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was once quoted as saying something like this: 

“I have a job to do that is not very complicated, but it is often difficult: to get a group of men to do what they don’t want to do so they can achieve the one thing they have wanted all their lives.”