Tag Archives: Peace

Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman – Forgiven and Forgiving

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Read: Luke 11:2-4

Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Luke 11:4a

Here is the need for a cleansed conscience, for a sense of peace, of rest with God and man. This is the arena where the emotional clutter of our life takes a very deadly toll. Who of us has not experienced troublesome mental symptoms, morbid depressions and unreasoning fears and insecurity? Both Scripture and modern psychology, in its groping after truth, agree that underneath these symptoms lurk two frightening monsters: Fear and Guilt. If we can find a way to slay these fiery dragons, the whole emotional atmosphere of our life will pass into peace.

When we pray, Forgive us our sins, we are asking for the reality that God promises to every believer in Jesus Christ, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1a KJV). I do not know anything that troubles Christians more than a sense of guilt. But in this simple prayer is a fully adequate answer, for if we have laid hold of the forgiveness of God, we know there is nothing any longer between us and the Lord. Our hearts there are absolutely free before him and the result is a pervading sense of peace.

But notice, now, Jesus immediately adds a limitation to this. We cannot say to God, Forgive us our sins, unless we are willing and have said to others that they are forgiven for their sins against us. Jesus is not referring here to that divine forgiveness that accompanies conversion. The Lord’s Prayer is meant for Christians — for only Christians can really pray it intelligently. No non-Christian ever receives forgiveness from God on the basis claiming to forgive everyone else. It is impossible for him to forgive until he himself has first received the forgiveness of God, and that forgiveness is offered because of the death of Jesus. We Christians come thanking him for what the death on the cross has already done in taking away the awful burden of our sin.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Forgiven and Forgiving →

Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – A New Start

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Read: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Behold, the new has come. (v. 17)

What do you picture when you hear the claim that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation? Perhaps a baptism of a new believer, or an occasion where reclaimed faith seems to bring a bright new beginning? “New creation” doesn’t usually conjure up images of those who are nearing the end of their lives, and yet there is often abundant newness in life’s final chapters. In the face of physical decline and a sense that time is running out, there can yet be remarkable growth in our spiritual lives and in our relationships.

Sometimes a long-awaited reconciliation may finally occur when death is at hand. For others, a new level of awareness of God’s provision and promises might suddenly feel more real than ever. And for both the dying and their survivors, the opportunity to forgive past wrongs can lift the burdensome weight of the past, restoring even a fragile reconnection before it’s too late. As American abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe remarked, “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” Sometimes the words or deeds of those who passed away without reconciling difficult relationships are left to us as we seek to make sense and somehow move on. In those situations too, new creation is possible. The Lord of life is at work, sometimes mysteriously, turning our mourning toward a stunning newness of life.

Prayer: Re-create us according to your life abundant, gracious God.

Jessica Bratt Carle

https://woh.org/

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – A Powerful Testimony to a Watching World

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But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.—Acts 16:25

I think the worst thing that ever happened in history, the greatest travesty, the greatest injustice, was when Jesus Christ Himself was crucified. What could have been worse than that? What could have been worse than for God the Father to look down from Heaven and see His Son who He loved with all His heart suffering and dying for the sins of the world? How could God allow that? It was so awful.

Yet the Bible says, “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him” (Isaiah 53:10). Does this mean God was pleased in watching His Son suffer? Absolutely not. But God the Father was pleased in knowing this suffering would produce something wonderful called salvation for you and for me. As awful as it was, it accomplished God’s purpose. Out of the greatest bad came the greatest good. That is how God showed His love for us. As John tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

In the same way, when hardship comes and you are still praising the Lord, that blows the mind of the nonbeliever. Remember the story of Paul and Silas when they were thrown into prison for preaching the gospel? We read in Acts that “at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (16:25).

Maybe you are going through a hard time right now. Maybe you’re asking, “Why, God?”

God has a purpose. He has allowed it. God has either done it or He has allowed it. Deal with it the best that you can and seek to bring Him glory. That is a powerful testimony to a world that doesn’t know God.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God’s Plan Is Perfect

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“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

My mom loves to work with her hands. All around our house hang pictures she made by cross-stitch. Before she starts any cross-stitching project, she always makes sure that she has all of the different colored threads she needs. In order for the picture to turn out right, she has to use black thread when the pattern calls for black thread, and red thread when the pattern calls for red thread.

You can think of your life like one of the cross-stitch projects my mom makes. If you were watching my mom cross-stitch with beautiful red thread – and you hadn’t seen the pattern – you might wonder why sometimes she stops using red and starts using black thread instead. In the same way, you might wonder why God takes away the “good things” in your life and lets “bad things” happen instead. Why is your sister sick? Why did your father lose his job? Why did your family have to move to a different city?

In Isaiah 55:8-9, God tells us that His thoughts and ways are much higher than yours. Sometimes, you don’t understand God’s plans. But whether God is using a red thread or a black thread in your life, you can be confident that He knows what He is doing! Romans 8:28 promises that you don’t have to worry about whether or not your situation will work out right; you don’t have to worry, because you can know that it will work out for your good! My mom has to use many different colors of thread, but in the end the picture turns out right. God knows the picture He wants to make with your life, and He uses many different things – some you may like, and some you may not like – in order for the picture to turn out just the way He planned.

Continue reading Kids 4 Truth International – God’s Plan Is Perfect →

The Navigators

The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – The Great Exchange

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 10:4

“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Like his fellow Jews, Paul sought to establish his own righteousness through keeping the law (Romans 10:3-4). But there came a time, possibly during his three days of blindness and fasting in Damascus (Acts 9:7-9), when he realized his efforts to become righteous through law-keeping were going nowhere. They kept him from the only means of salvation God has provided. As he realized more clearly the perfect righteousness God has provided through his Son, Jesus Christ, he saw his own efforts to be righteous as no more than garbage to be dumped overboard.

Paul made what I call his “great exchange”—his own righteousness for the perfect righteousness of Christ. He not only threw his own righteousness overboard, but he regarded it as mere garbage compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ as his savior and being credited with his righteousness. He exchanged the garbage of his goodness for the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Of course, Paul could make his great exchange only because God had already made the great exchange described in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him [that is, through union with Christ] we might become the righteousness of God.” God laid our sin upon Christ that he might lay Christ’s righteousness upon us.

Note the subtle wording. Paul exchanged his righteousness through keeping the law for Christ’s righteousness that comes by faith. Yet in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God exchanges our sin for Christ’s righteousness. Our own efforts at righteousness are, at bottom, only sin because they fail to measure up to the perfect righteousness required by God’s law. They’re only scraps to be thrown out as garbage. (Excerpt taken from The Gospel for Real Life)

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Baptism and the Fullness of the Holy Spirit

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Today’s Scripture: Galatians 3:26-29, Ephesians 5:18

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. – Acts 5:32

I was walking in downtown Colorado Springs when I saw a car going the wrong way on a one-way street. People on the sidewalk were waving and shouting; people in cars were honking their horns. But the most interesting sight of all was the look of wild panic and confusion on the driver’s face.

Many aspects of our walk as disciples can be confusing, especially if we’re heading the wrong way! For instance, there are two words relating to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. One is baptism, and the other is fullness. Is the baptism of the Holy Spirit the same as the fullness of the Holy Spirit? In 1 Corinthians 12:13, Paul writes, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.” And to the Galatians, he wrote, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (3:26-27). The teaching is clear. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a once-for-all event and occurs when a person invites Christ into his or her heart and becomes part of the body of Christ.

The filling of the Holy Spirit is another matter entirely. Paul says in Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine… Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” When a person is drunk with wine, he is under the control of that wine. Paul says to be filled with the Spirit, so we can be controlled by the Spirit. As we walk in obedience to the Word of God–submitting ourselves to the Spirit’s control and yielding our will to Him day by day–we are walking by the Spirit’s power.

Prayer

Lord, I want to honor You by walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

To Ponder

Today, are you walking under your own steam or by the power of the Holy Spirit?

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BreakPoint

BreakPoint – Monster Madness of Our Own Making: Human-Animal Hybrids

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In one of this summer’s most-awaited novels, “The City of Mirrors,” author Justin Cronin completes his unlikely literary trilogy about a world overrun by vampire-like creatures he dubs “virals.”

Unlike Bram Stoker’s creation, the disaster unleashed by his monsters is entirely man-made. Men, seeking to “play God,” created monstrous hybrids they could never hope to control, with disastrous but completely predictable results.

While Cronin’s work is fiction, its themes ring all too true. As one colleague of mine put it, the book reads like a “warning shot across our bow.”

As if to prove Cronin and my colleague right, a recent story proved that the impulse to “play God” isn’t limited to the fiction segment of the best-seller list. Just in the last few months, several news stories have described how scientists are creating embryos that are part human and part animal.

The purpose of these “chimeras,” as these hybrids are called, is ultimately to “help save the lives of people with a wide range of diseases.” As one report on NPR told listeners, “chimera embryos” might be used “to create better animal models to study how human diseases happen and how they progress.”

These hybrids are made, if not possible, at least significantly easier, by CRISPR, the gene-editing technology that I recently told you about on BreakPoint. In one instance, the “gene that pig [or sheep] embryos need to produce a pancreas” is removed. In its place researchers insert human-induced pluripotent stem cells.

Continue reading BreakPoint – Monster Madness of Our Own Making: Human-Animal Hybrids →

Moody Global Ministries

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – FATHER ABRAHAM

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Read Genesis 15

A popular children’s song begins, “Father Abraham had many sons / and many sons had Father Abraham.” The Scriptures name eight sons of Abraham. One was his child with his maid Hagar (Gen. 16:3–4). Another was his son with Sarah (Gen. 21:1–3). The other six were born to Keturah, the woman he married after Sarah died (Gen. 25:1–6). But we don’t sing about “Father Abraham” because he gave birth to numerous sons. More importantly, he is our father in the faith.

Today’s passage shows why Abraham deserves this title: not because of his parenting skills but because of his faith. Up until this point Abraham had relied on God to provide for his needs (see Gen. 14:21–24). But he was troubled

by his lack of an heir, despite God’s promise to make him a great nation (Gen. 12:2). The Lord reiterated His promise in a vision, and Abraham’s response was one of faith (vv. 5–6). Because of his faith, the Lord rewarded him with the gift of righteousness. In this way Abraham became the prototype of all who believe (see Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23).

Abraham continued to struggle with doubt. His son by Hagar was the result of an attempt to bring about God’s promise through human effort. But in the end, he “was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (Rom. 4:20–21). God waited until Abraham and Sarah were too old to have children by any means other than divine intervention to show that the promise came from God.

We are Abraham’s children if we believe God’s promise to give us the gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:7).

APPLY THE WORD

We can become frustrated when God does not answer our prayers as quickly as we would like, especially when we are praying for God to work in our family life. Trust God to act in His own good time. Ask the Lord to increase your faith that He will not only keep His promises but also will do so in the best way and the perfect time.

http://www.todayintheword.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – HILLARY CLINTON WINS NOMINATION—WHAT’S NEXT?         

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Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. She won last night’s primaries in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, and California. CNN estimates that she now has 2740 delegates, far exceeding the 2383 needed to win.

So much of life is unpredictable. Who would have imagined a year ago that Donald Trump would clinch his party’s nomination before Hillary Clinton won hers? When Golden State was down three games to one against Oklahoma City in the NBA playoffs, who would have predicted that they would now be up two games to none in the finals? Who would have thought that a tech giant like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg could have his Twitter and Pinterest accounts hacked?

While change seems to be the unchanging principle of the universe, human nature doesn’t change. We still feel the same fears our ancestors felt. We still cherish the same desires for ourselves and our families. We still fight the same basic temptations. And we can still choose to live by God’s unchanging, perfect principles for our lives.

Consider the changing sexual ethics of our day. It’s conventional wisdom today that premarital sex is morally acceptable. However, a new study shows that women who were virgins when they married are far less likely to divorce than those with multiple partners.

Only six percent of women who were virgins when they married were divorced within five years. But thirty-three percent of women with ten or more sexual partners before marriage were divorced within that time. God can redeem our mistakes, but these findings reinforce the wisdom of his perfect will for us.

Continue reading Denison Forum – HILLARY CLINTON WINS NOMINATION—WHAT’S NEXT?          →

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – A Servant’s Rewards

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Hebrews 6:10

In His grace, God freely gives salvation to those who believe His Son Jesus died on the cross for their sins. We cannot earn this gift, nor do we deserve it. Our Father does notice our good works, though, and He promises to reward us accordingly.

Genuine service occurs when we cooperate as the Lord works through us for His glory and honor. True ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels.

Revelation 22:12 encourages us, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.” Whether large or small, service done in Jesus’ name will be blessed. We must be careful, though, that our actions are for Christ’s glory and not our own. If our motives are self-serving, the only benefit we receive is the praise (if any) that we hear from people in this life. And we know that man’s approval is not satisfying or lasting.

While some rewards will be given in heaven, other blessings can be experienced here on earth. For example, we know great joy when God blesses others through us. And there is deep satisfaction in realizing that we are pleasing Christ. In addition, there’s a profound sense of fulfillment when we lead a person to Jesus and teach him or her how to walk by faith.

Serving others is both a great benefit and responsibility for Christians. We should prayerfully consider our motives to make sure that our goal is to glorify Christ. Only then will we receive God’s full blessings—rewards given not just in eternity but here on earth as well.

Bible in a Year: Job 26-30

 

http://www.intouch.org/

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – Tell It!

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Read: Mark 5:1–20 | Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 28–29; John 17

The man went away and began to tell . . . how much Jesus had done for him. Mark 5:20

The year was 1975 and something significant had just happened to me. I needed to find my friend Francis, with whom I shared a lot of personal matters, and tell him about it. I found him in his apartment hurriedly preparing to go out, but I slowed him down. The way he stared at me, he must have sensed that I had something important to tell him. “What is it?” he asked. So I told him simply, “Yesterday I surrendered my life to Jesus!”

Francis looked at me, sighed heavily, and said, “I’ve felt like doing the same for a long time now.” He asked me to share what happened, and I told him how the previous day someone had explained the gospel to me and how I asked Jesus to come into my life. I still remember the tears in his eyes as he too prayed to receive Jesus’s forgiveness. No longer in a hurry, he and I talked and talked about our new relationship with Christ.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story. Psalm 107:2

After Jesus healed the man with an evil spirit, He told him, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19). The man didn’t need to preach a powerful sermon; he simply needed to share his story.

No matter what our conversion experience is, we can do what that man did: “[He] went away and began to tell . . . how much Jesus had done for him.”

What has Jesus done for you? Tell it!

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story. Psalm 107:2

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Problem of Pain

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The announcement this past week that the pop/rock musician Prince died from an overdose of fentanyl confirmed what had been suspected since his untimely death in April 2016. Prince had become addicted to prescription opiate painkillers. Sadly, his was a very public face to what many are calling an epidemic. Though a devoted Jehovah’s Witness and by all reports fastidious about his health, his attempt to alleviate chronic pain morphed into an addiction that eventually took his life.

Over the past two years, there has hardly been a week without a headline or sobering story concerning the record number of deaths from opiate overdose in the United States. A New York Times article announced an unexpected rise in the death rate for the United States. Death rates—the number of deaths per hundred thousand people—have been in decline for many years, the article noted. Yet a sharp rise has occurred, in part, because of the prescription drug epidemic. If the rise continues, the researchers noted, it could be a signal of distress in the overall health of the nation.(1)

The struggle with chronic pain and the difficult and complex task for professionals who treat it made me wonder about how societies deal with pain in general. In a recent article from The Economist called “The Problem of Pain,” global treatment and attitudes toward pain were explored in light of the U.S. epidemic of opiate prescriptions and overdose. The author notes that when illness strikes, patients in poorer countries expect to suffer. Even when the tumor on his hip grew to the size of a football, Mato Samaile, a frail 50 year-old Nigerian cattle farmer, was reluctant to go to the hospital. “When I found the lump I said to my son: ‘We can’t leave the farm. We should stay until after the rain falls.’” Amina Ibrahim, a surgeon at the hospital where Mato was eventually admitted, notes, “People are brought up to tolerate pain. If you don’t you are a coward. That is just our culture. So even doctors are not liberal on painkillers.”(2)

Of course, in many parts of the world, there is little or no access to any kind of palliative care or pain management. The Economist reported a story about a young boy with cancer in rural India. He had visited several clinics nearer to his home in search of pain relief before stumbling into a Hyderabad hospital, ragged and short of breath. It had taken him more than 12 hours to get there, and he died soon afterwards.(3)

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Problem of Pain →

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Strength for Today – Integrity Conquers Fear

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“The commander of the officials said to Daniel, ‘I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.’ But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, ‘Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance be observed in your presence, and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.’ So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days” (Daniel 1:10-14).

People of biblical integrity tend also to be people with unashamed boldness.

I love to read the biographies of great missionaries and other godly people whose lives reflect an uncommon commitment to Christ and whose boldness in the face of difficulties sets them apart from their peers. Daniel was such a man. From his youth he delighted in doing God’s will and proclaiming God’s Word with boldness. He shared David’s perspective in Psalm 40:89, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy Law is within my heart. I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I will not restrain my lips, O Lord.”

In stark contrast to Daniel’s boldness was Ashpenaz’s fear. Although he thought kindly of Daniel, Ashpenaz feared for his life if Daniel and his friends were to appear pale and malnourished after he granted them exemption from the king’s special diet. So with characteristic wisdom and boldness, Daniel suggested a simple test designed to relieve Ashpenaz’s fears and prove God’s faithfulness. Tomorrow we will see the results of that test (v. 15). But for today I pray that you will have the boldness of Daniel as you take every opportunity to proclaim God’s Word.

Suggestions for Prayer

Like Daniel you may be facing a situation that requires a special measure of boldness. If so, ask the Lord to strengthen you as you set your heart on doing His will.

For Further Study

Read Ephesians 6:19-20; Philippians 1:19-20. What was the source of Paul’s boldness?

http://www.gty.org

Wisdom Hunters

Wisdom Hunters – Three Faces of Grace

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But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. Ephesians 4:7

How many times have I heard the word “grace” in church, on the radio, or from a friend, but still not understood its meaning? According to the biblical definition, grace is unmerited favor, getting something good that you didn’t deserve. It’s the lovingkindness of God. A few years ago, after I read this definition I thought about three faces of grace.

The first is the grace face of salvation. According to the Bible, we are saved by grace. We didn’t earn it; we can’t do anything to get it. We have received it because of God’s lovingkindness, His unmerited favor.

The second grace face is the face of ability. In 2 Cor. 12:7, Paul describes a “thorn in the flesh” that he received. There are various ideas about what this might have been, but whatever it was, Paul asked God to remove it. God said no. Instead He said, “My grace [my lovingkindness, my unmerited favor] is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God’s grace, His favor, freely given, was enough to help Paul endure. This grace face gives us the ability to do stuff: to raise children, to endure something difficult—and to live life on planet Earth.

The last grace face is the grace face of blessings. This one hit me hard as I thought about the definition of grace: it’s His unearned favor. In an effort to understand grace better, I prayed, “Lord, show me your grace.” I expected Him to show me His favor in the days to come or bring my attention to something in the present. Instead, memories of the past came flooding in carrying with them the blessings that I had received and times of unmerited favor. It was as if He was saying. . .

“Shana, do you remember the job you were unqualified for that I gave you? ”

“Ah, yes Lord. That was your grace.”

“How about when I provided for you financially in narrow places?”

“Yes, grace too.”

“I healed your illness.”

“Grace indeed, Lord.”

Continue reading Wisdom Hunters – Three Faces of Grace →

Turning Point

Today’s Turning Point with David Jeremiah – Ineffective and Irreligious

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Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Matthew 6:27

Recommended Reading

Philippians 4:6-7

Sometimes Bible translators can’t agree on the meaning of a text. For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus advises against worry. It’s the practical reason He gave that translators can’t agree on. He either said that worrying won’t add to your height (NKJV, The Message) or won’t add to your lifespan (NIV, NASB). Fortunately, both translations mean the exact same thing: Worry changes nothing and accomplishes nothing. You can’t grow taller or live longer by worrying.

Actually, worrying does accomplish something in a Christian’s life: Worry calls into question the sincerity of one’s profession of faith. Worry is not only ineffective, it seem irreligious. It gives the appearance that the “worrier” is indifferent to the role of a sovereign God. If we profess our faith in a loving God who cares for our life, and then worry about how life might turn out, what does that say? That’s why Jesus said, instead of worrying, to focus on God and His kingdom. When we focus on what we know about God, what we don’t know about the future pales in significance.

Are you worried about anything today? If so, put your faith in the One who cares for all His creation—including you.

Worry and worship are mutually exclusive.

John Blanchard

Read-Thru-the-Bible

Psalms 9 – 17

http://www.davidjeremiah.org/

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Raised from the Dead

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Martha then said to Jesus, Master, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. John 11:21

John 11 records the illness and death of Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus. By the time Jesus arrived Lazarus had already been dead for four days. Like Martha, Mary also told the Lord, If You had been here, my brother would not have died (John 11:32).

We all feel like that sometimes. We feel that if Jesus had only shown up sooner maybe things would not be so bad. Verses 23 and 25 tell us how Jesus responded to these words of hopelessness and despair: Your brother shall rise again. . . . I am [Myself] the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live.

As He promised, Jesus called Lazarus to come forth from the tomb and he did so, totally restored. If Jesus can raise a dead man, surely He can raise a dead circumstance.

From the book Ending Your Day Right by Joyce Meyer.

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Girlfriends in God

Girlfriends in God – How’s Your Heart Part 2

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Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour.

1 Peter 5:8

Friend to Friend

I was physically exhausted and had let my guard down. The minute I let my guard down, the enemy moved in with a vengeance. My unguarded heart was in trouble, wounded by the words of someone I love.

I knew what I needed to do – deal with the hurt, forgive the one who had hurt me, and let go of the pain. I just didn’t want to do it. And God calls that sin.

If you did not read yesterday’s devotion about my husband’s defibrillator, I encourage you to take a few minutes to do that now.

As surely as that beeping defibrillator grabbed Dan’s attention, the Holy Spirit grabbed mine. I examined my life for ways to guard my heart against the inevitable attacks of the enemy.

We need to be alert. “Alert” literally means “to stay on guard” or “to keep watch.” Our Father wants us to stay alert and always be on guard. Persecution because of our faith is coming. In the meantime, the enemy is trying to take us down every single day. Make no mistake. His goal is to destroy you and your family, and he will pull no punches. More times than not he is subtle and will try to distract us from God’s highest calling through temptation. We need to be alert to the obvious attacks as well as the subtle ones.

Continue reading Girlfriends in God – How’s Your Heart Part 2 →

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Faith Can Grow

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“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thous has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21, KJV).

At one stage of my spiritual growth, I was able to trust God for a soul – and He answered that prayer by leading me to one person whose heart He had prepared. Through the years God has increased my faith to trust Him for 6 souls then 20, 50, 100, 1000, 1 million, 100 million souls! Always He has honored my faith and obedience. Now I pray for a billion souls and by faith I believe that a billion will be harvested for the glory of God.

God has not changed; I have changed.

I believe that God deals with us in a similar way with regard to spiritual fruit. As we continue to trust God to develop in us all the various love traits, He honors that faithfulness because we are obeying Him by doing what He commands us to do.

Faithfulness is that trait of the Holy Spirit (faithfulness- love) that makes faith a living reality every day in the life of the believer who is living supernaturally. As we continue to walk in the power, love and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we learn to develop greater confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His Word, in our rights as children of God and in the ability of the indwelling Holy Spirit to empower and control our lives.

Faithfulness can be compared to an athlete’s conditioning. A marathon runner does not begin training by running great distances. Instead, he starts with short runs. Then, as his body becomes more conditioned, he increases the distance of his runs until he reaches the full distance of the marathon.

Faithfulness in the life of a Christian also develops over an extended period of time spent in “conditioning.” As we learn to trust God in small things, our faith grows and grows until we are able to trust Him in greater things.

God rewards us for our faithfulness, and each time we see Him respond favorably, He reaches out to us through His Holy Spirit and increases our faith to trust Him for even greater things.

Bible Reading: Matthew 25:14-20

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will seek to cultivate this fruit of the Spirit by being faithful to the calling God has entrusted to me.

http://www.cru.org

Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman – Praying for Your Body

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Read: Luke 11:2-4

Give us each day our daily bread. Luke 11:3

Jesus begins this section of the prayer with the needs of the body. I like that! We have such distorted ideas about prayer that we often feel there is something wrong with praying about physical needs. This is a reflection of a pagan concept of life. The Greeks regarded the body as unworthy of redemption and they therefore mistreated it. They beat their bodies and tormented them. You find this philosophy widespread today, this idea that the body must be subdued by physical torment or suffering, but you never find this in the New Testament.

Prayer must begin on this level. God likes bodies. God engineered and designed them. It is perfectly proper that we pray about the need of the body. Bread here is a symbol of all the necessities of physical life. It stands for all that our physical life demands — shelter, drink, clothing — anything that the body requires. The vital concern in this area is that there be available to us an immediate unbroken supply. So this prayer moves right at the issue when it says, Give us each day our daily bread. The only limit in this prayer is that we are never to pray for a warehouse — a full supply for a year ahead. We are to pray for one day’s supply.

Do we pray daily for our physical needs? Do we pray about the supply of our food, clothing, shelter, and all the physical necessities of life? Do we take time to ask God for them or at least to give thanks for them? Perhaps this has become such a familiar request in the repeating of The Lord’s Prayer that we do not take it seriously. It may be that this is the most flagrant and frequent area of Christian disobedience. For, after all, our Lord meant it when he told us to pray give us each day our daily bread.

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Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Prayers on Our Behalf

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Read: ROMANS 8:18-26

With groanings too deep for words. (v. 26)

Paul’s letter to the Romans runs deep with conviction about what the death and resurrection of Christ mean for believers. What might it mean, for instance, that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that is going to be revealed to us (v. 18)? Sometimes our sufferings, or those of others near and far, feel downright crushing; it is hard to imagine a glory so spectacular that we would think back to those sufferings and say, “Never mind.” This is part of the challenge of living between the times of Christ’s resurrection and his ultimate return. The whole creation longs for the fullness of God’s purposes to be made real, and we humans find ourselves in situations where “we do not know what to pray for as we ought” (v. 26).

I have witnessed many of those situations. Do we pray for a miracle? Do we pray for this person’s suffering to be alleviated, even if that means death is close at hand? The image of the Spirit groaning on our behalf is a picture of intercession that surpasses our words and our control. It is a groan that echoes the labor pains of all creation, pushing toward the restored life that is God’s ultimate trajectory for creation. It is the groan that understands the sting of death, and which holds the promise of that new dawn—a dawn that is both in the past and in our future—when death has lost its sting forever.

Jessica Bratt Carle

https://woh.org/