Daily Archives: November 12, 2017

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Unveiling the Hidden

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Jeremiah 33:1-3

Every decade, it seems as though there’s a fresh crop of books on the topic of communication. We can walk down the aisle of any bookstore and take our pick from the many volumes dedicated to public speaking, preaching, and even interpersonal communication. Learning how to speak effectively is, without question, a big industry these days.

But even more important is learning how to communicate with the Lord. Too often, we take what we learn about mass communication and try to apply it to prayer. We carefully craft each word of our petitions, laboring over every phrase and peppering in some fancy biblical words like “thou” and “thee.” Sometimes, we seem to believe that it’s possible to unlock the mysteries of heaven if we just learn how to phrase our prayers.

Friend, this is a misguided approach. We should never come before God’s throne with the presumption that we just have to find the right combination of words in order to get Him to speak. The power is not in what we say, but in what He says.

Our role in prayer is not to impress the Lord with our fine phrasing and fancy vocabulary. Rather, it is to cry out to Him, to express our needs, and then to listen. Sadly, we often miss out on what God wants to say because we’re too busy doing all the talking!

This week, take a different approach to prayer. Practice solitude and quiet meditation in your time with the Lord, and open yourself up to what He may be telling you.

Bible in One Year: Acts 8-9

 

http://www.intouch.org/

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — What’s the Best Gift?

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Read: 2 Chronicles 2:1–10

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 51–52; Hebrews 9

The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods.—2 Chronicles 2:5

My husband recently celebrated a milestone birthday, the kind that ends in a zero. I thought hard about the best way to honor him on this important occasion. I discussed my many ideas with our children to help me home in on the best one. I wanted our celebration to reflect the significance of a new decade and how precious he is to our family. I wanted our gift to be in keeping with the importance of this milestone in his life.

King Solomon wanted to give to God a much greater gift than a “big birthday” would merit. He wished for the temple he built to be worthy of God’s presence in it. To secure raw materials, he messaged the king of Tyre. In his letter, he remarked that the temple would be great “because our God is greater than all other gods” (2 Chron. 2:5). He acknowledged that God’s vastness and goodness far exceeded what could ever be built with human hands, yet set about the task anyway out of love and worship.

Our God is indeed greater than all other gods. He has done wondrous things in our lives, prompting our hearts to bring Him a loving and precious offering, regardless of its external value. Solomon knew his gift wouldn’t match God’s worth, yet joyfully set his offering before Him; we can too. —Kirsten Holmberg

Lord, You are indeed a great God, matchless in worth. May my offerings be pleasing in Your sight.

The most treasured gift we can give to God is our love.

 

http://www.odb.org

Today in the Word

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – WAITING FOR GOD’S JUSTICE

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Psalm 37:1–9

In a sermon titled “The Beauty of Biblical Justice,” pastor and author Tim Keller said: “In the West, when we think of justice, we think of individual rights. . . . Biblical justice has a different trajectory. Biblical justice means interwovenness, interdependence, bringing individuals to see that our stuff isn’t just ours. . . . [Justice] means taking the threads of your life—your emotions, your time, your body, your physical presence, your money—and plunging them into the lives of other people.”

To wait for God’s justice, then, is not primarily about punishment or even fairness. To wait for justice is to wait for shalom, a state of peace, blessedness, and wellbeing in which God is obeyed and worshiped. That day will come when sin and death are finally and fully vanquished.

Psalm 37 describes what waiting for justice feels like in everyday life. We are not to worry or become angry when it seems like sinners are rewarded for their wrong choices and actions. Instead, we are to be still and wait patiently for the Lord, because His justice is certain (v. 7; Isa. 30:18).

We shouldn’t fret over the apparent success of evil; it’s not real and won’t last (vv. 1–2). Instead, we should draw close to God and do as He leads. “He will give you the desires of your heart” because then your heart is in the right place (v. 4). To trust Him is to choose wisely, to see through the fraud of temptations to the truth of righteous obedience.

Those who do so will be vindicated and rewarded for their patience! As for people who choose and act otherwise, they will be destroyed. Only those who hope in the Lord “will inherit the land” (vv. 8–9).

APPLY THE WORD

Both fretting over the “success” of the wicked and worrying about everyday needs show a lack of faith (see Matt. 6:25–34). Instead of anxiety, we have the privilege of taking these needs to God in prayer (Phil. 4:6; 1 Peter 5:7). When you are tempted to complain or worry, take that as a cue to pray for faith to wait on the Lord.

 

http://www.todayintheword.org

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Simplify Your Prayers

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Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].— James 5:16

I’ve learned that simple, heartfelt, full-of-faith prayers always get God’s attention. Unfortunately, we often overlook this and turn our prayers into a big show when in reality, prayer is simply communication with God.

We have to beware of talking to impress ourselves when we’re praying. Sometimes I think we feel like we need to sound eloquent. We want to impress God with our phrases and sound holy. But God just wants to have a little chat with us.

He wants us to talk to Him like we would a friend—not with a different tone of voice. If we don’t speak Elizabethan English during the day, we don’t need to use it when we pray.

We also don’t have to pray for hours on end. It’s good to schedule prayer time, but we should just pray until we’re finished and then go about our business until the next time we feel the need to pray some more.

The only way prayer will ever be satisfying is if you simply use it as an opportunity to worship and thank God for all He does for you, to get His help, and involve Him in everything you do. He’s not here to be impressed…He’s here to live life with you. Don’t perform. Just invite Him in.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Satisfies God’s Requirements

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“Love does no wrong to anyone. That’s why it fully satisfies all of God’s requirements. It is the only law you need” (Romans 13:10).

Early in my Christian life, I was troubled over the command to love God so completely, as I mentioned in yesterday’s reading. How could I ever measure up to such a high standard? Then He showed me how to love by faith.

We are to love God. We are to love our neighbors. We are to love our enemies. We are to love our family members. And we are to love ourselves with God’s kind of love, by faith.

Since the greatest commandment is to love God, we are to give Him our first love, never allowing anyone or anything to come before Him. And supernaturally, we are to express the agape kind of love to others – a love no less in its quality and magnitude than that which we express toward God.

In the same way, God loves all His children perfectly. He loves you and me just as much as He loves His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:23).

The person who has not yet learned to love God and to seek Him above all else and all others is to be pitied. Such a person is only denying himself the blessings that await all who love God with all their heart, soul and mind.

It is natural for us to fulfill the command to love our neighbors as ourselves if we truly love God in the way mentioned above. If we are properly related to God, vertically, we will be properly related to our fellow man, horizontally.

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 13

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: By faith I will claim God’s love – for Him, for my neighbors, for myself, for my enemies – and as a result do only good, which is a result of supernatural living

 

http://www.cru.org

Streams in the Desert

Streams in the Desert for Kids – Above the Clouds

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Job 37:21

When you read a verse like the one above from Job, you may begin to wonder what was going on with Job and his friends to bring up such a conversation.

These guys said to Job, “Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised?… Can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?… Now no one can look at the sun, bright as it is in the skies after the wind has swept them clean.” In other words, “Job, you don’t know enough to understand God’s ways.”

Then God answered Job (chapters 38–41; read it sometime—it’s beautiful). God said that he is the one who has created everything the way it is. God sees the sun even when to us it is covered by clouds. Now Job knows he can hear from God. He can understand what God is doing in the world when he learns to consider that God’s perspective is so different from ours.

Do you want to hear from God and see his bigger perspective? You can if you will pray with all your heart and ask God to show you his plan and his way.

Dear Lord, I know you made everything, understand everything, yet you want to talk with me. You give me understanding. Amen.

Wisdom Hunters

Wisdom Hunters – Trust God to Pay Back in His Timing 

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For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:30-31

Someone may be in debt to you. They may owe you money, a reputation, an apology, a job, or a childhood. But God is asking you to let go and let Him. Let Him handle this. He has a payment plan for those who are in debt to his children. It may mean He wipes their slate clean with minimal repercussions. It may mean their stiff neck forces God to bring them to the end of themselves through trials and tribulations. Or, it may mean that what awaits them is an eternity of reaping in hell what has been sown on earth. But God’s position is one of judge and jury. You do not have to carry this burden or responsibility. Your role is to forgive and to trust God with the proper judgment and consequence.

Life gets complicated and draining when we take on the responsibility of making sure a person gets what he deserves. This is arrogant and unwise on our part. How can we know what others deserve for their injustices, neglect, and self-absorption? Our role is not to play God, but to serve God. Playing God is a never-ending disappointment. We were not made for that role. Only the Almighty can fill these shoes. And He does have it under control. There is no indiscretion or blatant injustice that is off His radar screen of sensitivity. He picks up on every “little” sin.

So, rest in the assurance of knowing God will pay back in His good timing and in His good way. Give this person or issue over to God. Do not bear the responsibility of executing payback time. Your role is to forgive and let go. God’s role is to establish a payment plan of justice and judgment. Yes, your parents may have blown it through their own selfish tirades. Their immature choices may have built up over time and led to divorce. Because of their indiscretions and unwise decisions, you grew up in a less than favorable home environment. But look at their faces. The hurt and the consequences are etched in their countenances. The results of their wrongs have caught up with them. They need your grace and forgiveness. Be a good son or daughter, and by this you may facilitate healing for your parents’ soul. Sin has its own harvest of heartache, not to mention breaking the heart of the heavenly Father. Trust God with your parents. Let Him worry about what they deserve.

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