Words of Encouragement and Thoughts (6)

MOVING BEYOND OUR FEARS

Luke 1:68-75

The Scriptures distinguish between two kinds of fear: healthy and unhealthy. For example, a protective type of anxiety helps prevent avoidable harm by warning us not to touch a hot stove or walk on thin ice. And we are commanded to have a proper fear of God. This includes an overwhelming sense of awe because of who He is—namely, Judge and sovereign King. It also involves a lifestyle of respectful obedience that honors Him.

Unhealthy fear causes us to feel tense, uncomfortable, or threatened. Its source may be a childhood experience or an authority figure’s repeated negative words. The feeling of distress becomes rooted in our thinking and colors our decision-making. Even when there’s no longer any basis for this anxiety, it may continue to inhibit us.

The imagination is also a source of fear. We can get caught up in “what if” thinking, such as, What if something goes wrong? or What if the outcome I want doesn’t come about?

This kind of agitation can block God’s best in our life. His purposes often require that we move beyond where we feel most comfortable. Learning new skills, changing jobs, or trying a different way of ministering to others could be part of what He expects. Such challenges present the opportunity to trust the Lord and obey Him.

Fear doesn’t come from God (2 Timothy 1:7). Let the Holy Spirit guide you from a place of disquiet into the freedom that is ours in Christ. There you will discover the ability to follow His plan without being hindered by overwhelming fear.

InTouch Daily Devotional

The Spiritually Lazy Saint

Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together… —Hebrews 10:24-25

We are all capable of being spiritually lazy saints. We want to stay off the rough roads of life, and our primary objective is to secure a peaceful retreat from the world. The ideas put forth in these verses from Hebrews 10 are those of stirring up one another and of keeping ourselves together. Both of these require initiative— our willingness to take the first step toward Christ-realization, not the initiative toward self-realization. To live a distant, withdrawn, and secluded life is diametrically opposed to spirituality as Jesus Christ taught it.

The true test of our spirituality occurs when we come up against injustice, degradation, ingratitude, and turmoil, all of which have the tendency to make us spiritually lazy. While being tested, we want to use prayer and Bible reading for the purpose of finding a quiet retreat. We use God only for the sake of getting peace and joy. We seek only our enjoyment of Jesus Christ, not a true realization of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things we are seeking are simply effects, and yet we try to make them causes.

“Yes, I think it is right,” Peter said, “…to stir you up by reminding you…” (2 Peter 1:13). It is a most disturbing thing to be hit squarely in the stomach by someone being used of God to stir us up— someone who is full of spiritual activity. Simple active work and spiritual activity are not the same thing. Active work can actually be the counterfeit of spiritual activity. The real danger in spiritual laziness is that we do not want to be stirred up— all we want to hear about is a spiritual retirement from the world. Yet Jesus Christ never encourages the idea of retirement— He says, “Go and tell My brethren…” (Matthew 28:10).

Utmost For His Highest

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand.

James 1:17
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (NIV Bible)

Every good and perfect gift that we receive comes from the hand of God. Our life, our families, everything good comes from the Father of heavenly lights. And God does not change like shifting shadows for He is always faithful and dependable.

We have not always experienced such consistency and purity in our earthly relationships. Some gifts that we have received have come with strings attached and people that we have trusted in have changed like shifting shadows. But God is not like that. He is the giver of good gifts and He never changes. Never. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His love is not fickle or conditional, His gifts are showered on us, not because we have earned them, but because He loves to give good gifts to the ones He adores.

Every golden sunrise is a token of Father's affection. He paints the sky with rainbows and scatters clouds simply for our delight. All of creation bears witness to His love and His majesty.

If we begin to understand that all we receive in life comes as a gift from our Heavenly Father, then we will begin to look at even the simple things with awe and child-like wonder. Our Father is the most generous person in the universe. He loved us so much that He gave us His only begotten Son, and He continues to love us by giving us the gift of life every day that we live. May every breathe that you take, remind you that your life is a gift from your Father, who loves you and does not change like shifting shadows!

PRAYER
Father, I confess that I have not always recognized that every good gift comes from Your hand. I pray that I would have a new awareness and a thankful heart for all that You freely give to me. May each breath that I take, remind me of your precious gift of life, and each sunset of the canvass that You have painted for my enjoyment. I am thankful that You do not change like shifting shadows, and Your love is something I can rely on every day of my life. In the name of Your beloved Son Jesus, I pray, AMEN.

Father's Love Letter devotioanal

"Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly , than to divide the spoil with the proud." Proverbs 16:19

Proverbs 5:11-14
"And you mourn at last,
When your flesh and your body are consumed,
And say:
“How I have hated instruction,
And my heart despised correction!
I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
I was on the verge of total ruin,
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

TWO TYPES OF LISTENERS

Acts 17:10-12

In order for the Holy Spirit to be unimpeded in His work, we must make an effort to hear God when He speaks. It is possible, for example, to “listen” to every word of a sermon, while actually not hearing a word of it. Sadly, there are some vacant attendees like this in churches every week! Their bodies may be in the pew, but their minds are obviously somewhere else. In fact, there are two types of listeners in practically every church in the world: passive and aggressive.

A passive listener is one who’s present at services—maybe even every week—but just sits in the pew and lets his mind wander. He watches people, notices how they dress and act, socializes with friends, and makes lunch plans. He doesn’t go to church to hear from the Lord. He shows up out of habit, or because the simple act of going makes him feel better about himself.

An aggressive listener, on the other hand, walks into the sanctuary excited about what the Lord is going to say. This Christian has a Bible, notebook, and pen in hand, ready to capture the meat of the message. He scribbles down as much as he can, trying not to miss a single point of the sermon. Throughout the message, he asks himself, How does this apply to my life?

The Lord communicates in many different ways, and when He speaks, we should always listen actively. If you find your mind wandering during worship, perhaps you’re approaching God passively. Ask Him to refocus your thoughts, and decide to be an aggressive listener from now on.

InTouch Daily devotional

The Spiritually Vigorous Saint

…that I may know Him… —Philippians 3:10

A saint is not to take the initiative toward self-realization, but toward knowing Jesus Christ. A spiritually vigorous saint never believes that his circumstances simply happen at random, nor does he ever think of his life as being divided into the secular and the sacred. He sees every situation in which he finds himself as the means of obtaining a greater knowledge of Jesus Christ, and he has an attitude of unrestrained abandon and total surrender about him. The Holy Spirit is determined that we will have the realization of Jesus Christ in every area of our lives, and He will bring us back to the same point over and over again until we do. Self-realization only leads to the glorification of good works, whereas a saint of God glorifies Jesus Christ through his good works. Whatever we may be doing— even eating, drinking, or washing disciples’ feet— we have to take the initiative of realizing and recognizing Jesus Christ in it. Every phase of our life has its counterpart in the life of Jesus. Our Lord realized His relationship to the Father even in the most menial task. “Jesus, knowing…that He had come from God and was going to God,…took a towel…and began to wash the disciples’ feet…” (John 13:3-5).

The aim of a spiritually vigorous saint is “that I may know Him…” Do I know Him where I am today? If not, I am failing Him. I am not here for self-realization, but to know Jesus Christ. In Christian work our initiative and motivation are too often simply the result of realizing that there is work to be done and that we must do it. Yet that is never the attitude of a spiritually vigorous saint. His aim is to achieve the realization of Jesus Christ in every set of circumstances.

Utmost For His Highest

Daily Devotional by Derek Prince.

Do Not Hate Discipline

Proverbs 5:11–14
At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent. You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction! I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors. I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly [or the church].” NIV

Those are the words of somebody who has known the way of righteousness for many years, somebody that is seen regularly in church. Somebody who knows how to say “Amen” when the preacher says the right thing. Somebody who knows many of the hymns by heart. Somebody, maybe, who prays in public meetings. And yet, that person has never given heart obedience to the truths that he has learned.

And here he is pictured at the end of his life, realizing too late that he has missed it all – that he knew it with his head, but he never believed and obeyed it with his heart. It is remarkable that when Jesus speaks about hypocrites, He uses particular language. He says, “The end of the hypocrites will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” I have asked myself why particularly that language about hypocrites, and I believe the answer is: because they are people who have known it all, all along, but never obeyed it. And there is a particular bitterness in finding yourself rejected and in the midst of ruin at the end of your life when all those years you have sat in church and known the right thing, given outward assent, but your heart has never been changed. You have never come to the place of true surrender, commitment and making Jesus truly Lord of your life.