Tag Archives: facing your giants

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – God Keeps His Promises

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Max Lucado

God keeps His promises. Shouldn’t God’s promise-keeping inspire yours?

People can exhaust you. And there are times when all we can do is not enough. When a spouse chooses to leave, we can’t force him or her to stay. You’re tired.  You’re angry.  You’re disappointed. This isn’t the marriage you expected or the life you wanted. But looming in your past is a promise you made.

Whatever that is, may I urge you to do all you can to keep it?  To give it one more try? Why should you? So you can understand the depth of God’s love. When you love the unloving, you get a glimpse of what God does everyday for you and me.

When you keep the porch light on for the prodigal child, you do what God does every single moment. Pay attention, take notes on your struggles. God  invites you to understand His love by loving others the way he does.

from Facing Your Giants

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – There is a Time to Mourn

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Max Lucado

Solomon said, “There is a time to mourn!” Give yourself some. Face your grief with tears, time, and one more—face your grief with truth. God has the last word on death. And if you listen, He will tell you the truth about your loved ones. They’ve been dismissed from the hospital called Earth. You and I still roam the halls, smell the medicines. They meanwhile, inhale springtime.

You miss them like crazy, but can you deny the truth? They have no pain, doubt, or struggle. They really are happier in heaven. Reunion is a splinter of an eternal moment away. I Thessalonians 4:13 says that there is no need for you “to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.”

God understands. He knows the sorrow of a grave. He buried His Son.  But He also knows the joy of resurrection. And by His power, you will too.

from Facing Your Giants

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Just One More

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Max Lucado

Your spouse calls to apologize, “Sorry, I’ll be out late one more night this week!”

The boss says, “I have one more thing for you to do before you leave!”

Your friend insists, “I need just one more favor!”

The problem? You’ve handled, tolerated, done, forgiven, and taken until you don’t have one more “one more” in you.

Be encouraged. I Samuel 30:6 describes six-hundred men stoking their anger against David. It says, “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” How essential that we learn to do the same. Support systems don’t always support. Friends aren’t always friendly. Pastors can wander off base and churches get out of touch. When no one can help, we have to do what David does.  We have to strengthen ourselves in the Lord.

Are you weary?  Catch your breath.  It’s okay to rest.  Jesus fights when you cannot!  You turn to Him and find strength in your Lord.

from Facing Your Giants

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Don’t Give Up

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Max Lucado

The next time you lack the will to go on, seek healthy counsel! You won’t want to.  Slumping people love slumping people. We love those who commiserate and avoid those who correct. Yet correction and direction are what we need when we’re tired.

I discovered the importance of healthy counsel in a half-Ironman triathlon. After the 1.2 mile swim and the 56-mile bike ride, I didn’t have much energy left for the 13.1 mile run.  Neither did the fellow jogging next to me.  He said, “This stinks. This is the dumbest decision I’ve ever made.”

I said, “Good-bye!” I knew if I listened too long, I’d start agreeing with him. I caught up with a sixty-six-year-old grandmother who said, “You’ll finish this—stay in there!”

Which of the two describes the counsel you seek? Proverbs 15:22 says: “Refuse good advice and watch your plans fail; take good counsel and watch them succeed!”

Don’t give up. And get some good advice!

From Facing Your Giants

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – A Hope We Cannot Resist

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Max Lucado

In a concentration camp, a guard announced a shovel was missing. Screaming at the men, he kept insisting someone had stolen it.  He shouldered his rifle, ready to kill one prisoner at a time until a confession was made. As the story continues, a Scottish soldier broke ranks, stood stiffly at attention, and said, “I did it.”  The guard killed the man. As they returned to camp, the shovels were counted. The guard had made a mistake.  No shovel was missing after all.

Who does that?  What kind of person would take the blame for something he didn’t do? When you find the adjective, attach it to Jesus. Isaiah 53:6 says, “God has piled all our  sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on Him.”

Christ lived the life we could not live and took the punishment we could not take, to offer the hope we cannot resist!

from Facing Your Giants

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Forgiving is Not Excusing

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Max Lucado

Forgiveness is not excusing! Nor is it pretending. To forgive is to move on, not to think about the offense anymore. You don’t excuse him, endorse her, or embrace them. You just route thoughts about them through heaven. Revenge is God’s job.

By the way, how can we grace-recipients do anything less? Dare we ask God for grace when we refuse to give it? It’s a huge issue in the Bible. Jesus was tough on sinners who refused to forgive other sinners. In the final sum, we give grace because we’ve been given grace.

In the story Jesus tells in Matthew 18:32, the master calls the servant in.  “You wicked servant, he said, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? It’s a good question.  We’ve been given grace….shouldn’t we freely give it?

from Facing Your Giants

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Look at What You Have

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Max Lucado

Linger too long in the stench of your hurt, and you’ll smell like the toxin you despise.  I spent too much of a summer sludging through sludge.  Oil field work is dirty at best.  But the dirtiest job of all?  Shoveling silt out of empty oil tanks. The foreman saved such jobs for the summer help.  Thanks boss!  My mom burned my work clothes.  The stink stuck!

Your hurts can do the same.  The better option?  Look at what you have.  Your hurts and pain took much, but Christ gave you more! Catalog His kindnesses.  Everything from sunsets to salvation—look at what you have.

Let Jesus be the friend you need.  Talk to Him.  Spare no detail.  Disclose your fear and describe your dread. Will your hurt disappear? Who knows?  And in a sense, does it matter? You have a friend for life. What could be better than that?

from Facing Your Giants

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – God Looks at the Heart

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Max Lucado

First Samuel 16:7 says:  “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Those words were written for misfits and outcasts.  God uses them all.  Moses ran from justice, but God used him.  Jonah ran from God, but God used him.  Rahab ran a brothel. Lot ran with the wrong crowd, but God used them all.

And David?  God saw a teenage boy serving him in the backwoods of Bethlehem.  Human eyes saw a gangly teenager, smelling like sheep. Yet, “the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one.”  God saw what no one else saw:  a God-seeking heart.

Others measure your waist size or wallet.  Not God.  He examines hearts.  When He finds one set on Him, he calls it and claims it.Your Father knows your heart, and because He does, He has a place reserved—just for you!

from Facing Your Giants