Daily Archives: February 28, 2024

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — “Help My Unbelief!”

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Bible in a Year :

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Mark 9:24

Today’s Scripture & Insight :

Mark 9:14–24

“Where is my Faith?—even deep down right in there is nothing but emptiness & darkness. . . . If there be God—please forgive me.”

The author of those words might surprise you: Mother Teresa. Beloved and renowned as a tireless servant of the poor in Calcutta, India, Mother Teresa quietly waged a desperate war for her faith over five decades. After her death in 1997, that struggle came to light when portions of her journal were published in the book Come Be My Light.

What do we do with our doubts or feelings of God’s absence? Those moments may plague some believers more than others. But many faithful believers in Jesus may, at some point in their lives, experience moments or seasons of such doubts.

I’m thankful that Scripture has given us a beautiful, paradoxical prayer that expresses both faith and the lack thereof. In Mark 9, Jesus encounters a father whose son had been demonically tormented since childhood (v. 21). When Jesus said that the man must have faith—“Everything is possible for one who believes”—the man responded, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (vv. 23-24).

This honest, heartfelt plea invites those of us who struggle with doubt to give it to God, trusting that He can fortify our faith and hold on to us firmly amid the deepest, darkest valleys we’ll ever traverse.  

By:  Adam Holz

Reflect & Pray

When have you wrestled with doubt in your spiritual journey? What spiritual resources helped you hold on to your faith?

Dear Father, sometimes I doubt. Please help me when I struggle to feel Your presence.

http://www.odb.org

John MacArthur

Grace to You; John MacArthur – Acknowledging the Ultimate Source of Everything

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“Joyously giving thanks to the Father” (Col. 1:11-12).

Joyous thanksgiving acknowledges God as the giver of every good gift.

The inseparable link between joy and thanksgiving was a common theme for Paul. In Philippians 4:4-6 he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! . . . Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” He told the Thessalonians to “rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16- 18).

As often as Paul expressed thanks and encouraged others to express theirs, he was careful never to attribute to men the thanks due to God alone. For example in Romans 1:8 he says, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.” He thanked God, not the Roman believers, because he knew that faith is a gift from God.

That doesn’t mean you can’t thank others for the kindnesses they show, but in doing so you must understand that they are instruments of God’s grace.

Thanking Him shows humility and acknowledges His rightful place as the Sovereign Lord and the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). Those who reject His lordship and refuse to give Him thanks incur His wrath (Rom. 1:21).

Only those who love Christ can truly give thanks because He is the channel through which thanks is expressed to the Father. As Paul says in Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Hebrews 13:15 adds, “Through [Christ] then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”

As one who is privileged to know the God of all grace, be generous in your praise and thanksgiving today. See everything as a gift from His hand for your joy and edification.

Suggestions for Prayer

Recite Psalm 136 as a prayer of praise to God.

For Further Study

From Psalm 136 list the things that prompted the psalmist’s thanksgiving. How can that psalm serve as a model for your own praise?

http://www.gty.org/

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Be Patient

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But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.

— James 1:4 (AMPC)

James teaches us that we can rejoice when we find ourselves in- volved in difficult situations, knowing that God is trying our faith to bring out patience. I have found that trials did eventually bring out patience in me, but first they brought a lot of other junk to the surface—such as pride, anger, rebellion, self-pity, complaining, and many other things. It seems that these ungodly traits, with God’s help, need to be faced and dealt with because they hinder patience as well as other good fruit like kindness, love, humility, and other things.

The Bible talks about purification, sanctification, and sacrifice. These are not popular words; nevertheless, these are things we go through in order to become like Jesus in our character. God’s desire is to make us perfect, lacking in nothing. He wants us to ultimately be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which usually requires us to go through some difficulties that, although are unpleasant, do eventually help us mature.

I struggled with the difficulties in my life for a long time until I finally learned that God would work them out for good and use them to help me in many ways. He simply wants you and me to surrender and say, “I trust You, God. I believe when this difficulty is over, I will be a better person than I was before it began!”

Prayer of the Day: Lord, I trust You to work out the challenges and difficulties I’m facing for my good and pray that it at the same time, these things shape my character. Help me grow in patience and surrender to Your refining process as I grow closer to you every day, amen.

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Alistair Begg

Truth for Life; Alistair Begg –Committed and Consistent

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I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, “Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.”

Joshua 14:8–9

Many people get off to a flying start in life only to later lose whatever it was that once made them successful. Perhaps they were well known as a young man or woman. At the age of 40, their life was one of prominence, influence, and status. In the church, we can see such individuals—indeed, we can see ourselves—as supremely useful to God. But too often we are then tempted to become masters of yesterday, frequently looking back to the “good years” and grumbling about the way things have become.

Although it’s true of so many, this was not at all true of Caleb, who fled from potential apathy and kept on in faith. He spent his middle years in a less than desirable environment. From the age of 40, he was stuck wandering around the wilderness for four decades because the people around him had failed to have faith in God. Yet during this time of frustration and wanderings, Caleb remained free of embitterment and disgruntlement.

In fact, things eventually got so bad that the people began to look for a leader to take them back to the good old days (Numbers 14:4). Yet no one really needs a leader to go backward; you can just go back! We need leaders to push us forward. There is a tomorrow. There are generations yet to come. There are purposes yet to be unfolded in God’s plan for our world.

Caleb reveals this spirit. The apparent commitment of his early life was matched by his consistency in the middle years. He was committed and consistent not only at 40 but also at 50 and 60 and 70. Throughout the decades, he “wholly followed the LORD.”

For many, marriage, the establishment of a home, business concerns, health issues, and so on are often accompanied by a loss of spiritual ardor and effectiveness. Many are those who have great resources, energy, and wisdom to offer but who decide instead to chill out, leaving the work of ministry to the next generation. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, they settle for disinterest, criticism, and cynicism, failing to see the disintegration in their own spiritual lives.

What about your commitment, your conversations, and your spiritual edge? Are they the same as they once were? There is a great need in the church today, as there was in Israel’s wilderness generation, for experienced men and women of faith who live lives marked by consistent commitment, in good times and bad, in season and out, as through the years they walk toward the inheritance that the Lord has promised His faithful followers. What will that look like for you today—and in ten years?

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Judges 1:1–20

Topics: Biblical Figures Christian Life Faith Faithfulness of God

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

Kids 4 Truth

Kids4Truth Clubs Daily Devotional – God Thinks About His Own

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“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” (Psalm 139:17-18)

When Heather was little, her family would go camping at the beach. They stayed in tents and cooked over an open fire. Every day, Heather and her twin brother Mitch would go swimming in the ocean! They had so much fun playing in the water, walking along the beach, and, of course, playing in the sand. Mitch and Heather built too many sand castles to count, and one time they even built a car made of sand! Sometimes, Heather wondered if it was possible to count all the grains of sand on that beach. She tried once to count just a bucket full of sand, but as you can imagine, she gave that up quickly! Why? Even in a single bucket, there was way too much sand to count!

The Bible says that God’s thoughts about His people are more in number than the sand. Imagine counting all the piles of sand on a beach. It would be hard to count all the piles of sand on just one single beach. Now imagine trying to count all the piles of sand on all the beaches of the world! Even more incredible is the thought of trying to count every single grain of sand in every pile of sand on every beach in the world! In our wildest imaginations, we could not pretend to understand a number that big!

Like Heather, we would probably give up counting before we got through just one small bucket of sand. The numbers are just too much. Those kinds of numbers are exactly how the Bible describes how many thoughts God has toward His people.

Not only are God’s thoughts toward His own countless, but they are also precious thoughts. That means He cherishes His people and that He plans only good things to do for them, and through them. Here on Earth, we may sometimes feel forgotten or left out, but we can always go back to God’s Word and remember that God is thinking precious thoughts about us!

Psalm 139 speaks of how closely God pays attention to those whom He created, and especially how He feels about people who trust Him and obey Him by His grace. There are many other Bible verses that describe how countless and wonderful God’s thoughts are toward His own. Psalm 40:5 says, “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.”

What a great and good God He is!

God’s thoughts toward His people are countless and precious.

My Response:
» Is it easy to imagine how many grains of sand there are on a beach?
» Is it easy for me to believe that God thinks about those who trust and obey Him?
» How should it help me to remember that God thinks so often and so favorably toward His own?

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Paul McCartney reveals his “Yesterday” inspiration

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“Yesterday” is one of the most haunting songs in the Beatles’ 213-song repertoire. Now, nearly sixty years later, Paul McCartney has explained its emotional bridge:

Why she had to go?
I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.
I said something wrong.
Now I long for yesterday.

It turns out, McCartney had a conversation in which he embarrassed his mother. Then she died at the age of forty-seven when the singer was just fourteen years old. Now he wishes he had an eraser he could use to rub that “yesterday” moment away.

We don’t have to live very long before we experience such pain ourselves from things we said and did to others and things they said and did to us.

Imagine a world where Jesus’ simple precept was a reality: “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12).

Now imagine the difference if that world was your life.

A “categorical imperative” for life

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was one of the most influential thinkers in Western history. His “categorical imperative” is a powerful and persuasive statement of human morality. As expressed in Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, it states: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”

In other words, stated positively, we should only do what we would want everyone else to do. Stated negatively, we should avoid actions that would be damaging if everyone else did them.

Wouldn’t such a world would be an immense improvement on this one?

  • We want others to accept us unconditionally, so we accept them unconditionally.
  • We do not want others to attack us, so we refrain from attacking them.
  • We do not want others to lie to us, steal from us, or cheat on us, so we refrain from lying, stealing, and cheating.
  • We do not want others to discriminate against us on the basis of our gender, race, or religion, so we refrain from discrimination.

But what do we do when it’s too late, when we’re already the victim of sins we didn’t commit? In our weeklong series on optimism in pessimistic times, how do we find hope in such pain?

One: See trials as an opportunity to develop character.

St. Augustine noted:

Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.

The great theologian was paraphrasing the command of Scripture:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2–4).

Two: Seek the help of God.

Aristotle claimed, “Whatever lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do.” The apostle Paul said the opposite: “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (Romans 7:18–19).

Paul’s confession shows that you and I need the power of God’s Spirit to be godly people. If we bring our hurts immediately to our Father, he will give us the strength to respond in grace rather than reacting in pain. But only then.

Three: Ask God if we have sin to confess.

Before we respond to those who sin against us, we should first ask the Lord if we have sinned against them. Jesus cautioned, “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).

Ask the Spirit to bring to your mind anything in this relationship that is displeasing to God, then confess whatever comes to your thoughts. Claim your Father’s forgiving grace (1 John 1:9), then make things right with those you have wronged as the Lord leads (Matthew 5:24).

Four: Ask God for the power to love as you are loved.

Now we are ready to respond to sin with grace. Biblical forgiveness does not pretend that the sin did not occur or excuse the behavior. Rather, it pardons, choosing not to punish.

I’m not referring to legal criminality or to abuse and danger but to interpersonal, relational sins. When we face such pain, we can ask God to help us choose not to punish. We can then break the cycle of retribution by loving as we are loved. However the other person responds, we will know that we have done what God would have us do. At the very least, since “hurting people hurt people,” we can refuse to let their pain become ours.

How to transform “an enemy into a friend”

Loving as we are loved is the path to hope that can transform our broken world. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was right:

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

Who in your life needs such transformation today?

Wednesday news to know

Quote for the day

“The measure of love is to love without measuring.” —St. Augustine

Denison Forum

John Hagee

Hagee Ministries; John Hagee –  Daily Devotion

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…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5

Broken hearts leave us susceptible to runaway imaginations. Vulnerable and hurting, our minds can drive us to worst-case scenarios. We must keep our imaginations in check.

The Israelites experienced this situation as they prepared to enter the land that God had promised to them for 400 years. Moses sent in 12 spies to canvas the territory. Two of the spies returned and confirmed that Canaan was definitely a land flowing with milk and honey. They encouraged their fellow Jews to take possession of it because they were “well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30).

The other 10 spies verified the beauty and bounty of the land, but their imaginations got the better of them. They proclaimed that the people of the land were like giants, and the Israelites were mere grasshoppers who could not hope to be victorious over them. Imagination won out over their faith.

When we keep our imaginations submitted to God and His Word, no heartbreak exists that is too complicated for God to heal. All things become possible to them that believe. He will answer us with great and mighty things that we do not know (Jeremiah 33:3). Take every thought captive to obey Christ!

Blessing

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you and give you His peace. Even when your heart is breaking, He has not given you a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. His promises to you are established and true.

Today’s Bible Reading: 

Old Testament

Leviticus 22:21-23:8

New Testament 

Mark 9:30-50

Psalms & Proverbs

Psalm 44:1-7

Proverbs 10:19

https://www.jhm.org

Turning Point

Turning Point; David Jeremiah – Fresh and Flourishing

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Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord…. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters.
Jeremiah 17:7-8

 Recommended Reading: Psalm 92

Most of us at some point stop growing taller. We reach our maximum height. Not so with trees. A new study has found that trees never stop growing during their lifespans. In fact, as they age, their growth accelerates. The study, published in Nature journal, involved 38 researchers from 29 institutions who said it’s the older trees and their massive size that most helps the earth keep its air recycled and clean.1

Psalm 92:14 says, “The righteous shall … still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing.” 

When we’re rooted and grounded in Christ, we’ll keep growing in spiritual maturity, and God will use us in exciting new ways. This is encapsulated in 2 Peter 1:5-7 where the Lord tells us we should keep growing in our faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. “For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful” (verse 8).

Whatever your age—keep growing!

As a tree beside the water, has the Savior planted me; all my fruit shall be in season, I shall live eternally.
Alfred Ackley

  1. N. L. Stephenson, et al. “Rate of Tree Carbon Accumulation Increases Continuously With Tree Size,” Nature, 507 (2014): 90-93.

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Greg Laurie

Harvest Ministries; Greg Laurie – Dealing with Guilt

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And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 

—Hebrews 10:19

Scripture:

Hebrews 10:19 

Sometimes, our consciences can condemn us. They go into hyperdrive and won’t let us alone, whispering, “You are unworthy. You have done wrong. You can’t approach God.”

Yet the Bible tells us that God’s Spirit can cleanse us of a guilty conscience because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. Hebrews 10:19 says, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus” (NLT).

And in 1 John 3:20, we read, “Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything” (NLT).

This means that we can approach God no matter what we have done.

However, the devil doesn’t want us to know this. He wants us to think that we can only approach God when we have done well. He wants us to believe that if we have been walking closely with the Lord, then we can pray. But if we’ve fouled up, we can’t.

For example, maybe you’ve had a disagreement with your husband or wife. You think, “Maybe we should pray before we go to bed. But that would be hypocritical because we just had a fight. How can we pray after we’ve had a fight?”

Or maybe you’ve thought, “I can’t pray because I lost my temper in this situation,” or “I can’t pray because I just had an impure thought.”

That kind of thinking is from the devil himself. The Bible calls him “the accuser of our brothers and sisters” (Revelation 12:10 NLT). And as you prepare to go into God’s presence in prayer, he’ll say, “Do you think you are worthy to approach God? You call yourself a Christian! What a hypocrite you are! What a failure and disappointment to God you are!”

But he is a liar. And when Satan talks to you about God, he lies. He lies to you because he wants to keep you away from God. He also wants to keep you out of the Word of God because he knows that is where the power is. That is how changes will take place in your life.

When the Spirit of God convicts us, He will use the Word of God, in love, to seek to bring us back into fellowship with the Father. In contrast, when Satan accuses us, he will use our own sins in a hateful way to drive us away from fellowship with the Father.

God’s Spirit will make us aware of what we’ve done wrong, but He always will bring us back to the cross. When we have messed up, we need to go to the cross. When we have done something wrong, we need to go to the cross. We always need to go to the cross and to God in prayer.

The devil wants to keep us away from God, and his accusations always will drive us away from the cross. God’s Spirit, however, always will bring us to the cross.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie
Days of Praise

Days of Praise – The Law and the Spirit

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by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.

“Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.” (Leviticus 23:16)

This commandment represents the initiation of the Jewish Feast of Pentecost (“fiftieth day”) that many years later was the day on which the Holy Spirit came to the church waiting in the upper room (Acts 2:1-4). There were seven such annual “feasts of Jehovah,” all outlined in Leviticus 23, beginning with the Passover commemorating the deliverance from Egypt and culminating in the Feast of Tabernacles in memory of their entrance into the Promised Land after dwelling in tents in the wilderness.

The middle feast of the seven was Pentecost, which seems to have been the anniversary of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. It was scheduled 50 days after the “morrow after the sabbath” of the wave-offering of the “firstfruits” (Leviticus 23:10, 15), which in turn seems to have been the Passover sabbath on the 14th day of the first month (Exodus 12:2, 6). It was on the third day of the third month that God came down on Mount Sinai to give the law (Exodus 19:1, 11, 16). Jewish time-reckoning included both the first and last days of a time period in figuring the number of days between two events, so both the Lord’s appearance on Sinai and the annual Feast of Pentecost seem to have been 50 days after the Passover offering.

And so was the coming of the Holy Spirit! When the Holy Spirit came to the upper room, there were fiery tongues and a mighty wind (Acts 2:2-3). On that great day, Peter announced to Israel, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), and we have received His great promise of the indwelling Law in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 10:15-17). HMM

https://www.icr.org/articles/type/6