Good Words for Today

Mind-blowing truth: God knows you inside and out, and he loves you anyway.

Lord Jesus, help me to discern the difference between honest concern and sinful worry. Show me how to cast my cares upon you lest I collapse under the weight of my own problems. Amen.

The only way to be delivered from a spirit of revenge is to be so filled with God that a desire for revenge finds no place in your heart.

Lord Jesus, you promised to return. Today wouldn't be too soon. If not today, then tomorrow. Help me to live so that I won’t be surprised or ashamed when that glad day finally arrives. Amen.

God's holiness demands that sin be punished. Godʹs grace provides the sacrifice. What God demands, he supplies. Salvation is a work of God from first to last. It is conceived by God, provided by God, and applied by God.

Holy Spirit, thank you for faithful pastors and Bible teachers. Fill them with power as they preach and teach. Give me ears to hear what you are saying and a willing heart to respond in obedience. Amen.

Jesus died in accordance with Godʹs plan, at precisely the right moment, in exactly the right way, accomplishing all that the Father intended from before the foundation of the world.

“Never pass up an opportunity to keep your mouth shut.” Elisabeth Elliot

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed” (Romans 4:18). This is always where faith meets the acid test. Are you willing to believe God even when the outward circumstances argue against it? Abraham had no one to encourage him. No one except God. Where is God stretching your faith right now? Where would it be easier for you to doubt God than to believe in Him? As you think about those questions, ponder the story of Abraham and Sarah. God put it in the Bible for at least two reasons: 1. So that we will know that God always keeps his promises. 2. So that we will never stop believing, even though we have to wait a long time for God to answer our prayers. Keep hope alive. You never know what God will do.

"The dying thief rejoiced to see   That fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he,   Wash all my sins away."

“Be patient with everyone” (1 Thessalonians 5:14). The word means to be long-tempered. It has the idea of being tough and durable under pressure. Be slow to anger, slow to give up. Don’t lose your patience as you help others. We must not give way to exasperation. Sometimes I hear people say, “I lost my temper.” I want to reply, “You didn’t lose it, you found it!” Some of us need to lose our temper and never find it again.

Holy Father, thank you for entrusting me with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May I be faithful to share it with others who will keep on believing it long after I am gone. Amen.

Keep me true to you, Lord Jesus, lest I should begin to drift away. May I never take you for granted, not even for a moment. Amen.

There is nothing except your sin that stands between you and God. God's wrath was turned away in the death of his Son; his justice has been satisfied, his love poured out to the world. Now you must choose—your sins or Jesus Christ! Damnation or salvation! If you come to God through Christ, you will be accepted. You will not, you cannot, be turned away.

Did you wake up worried? God is large and in charge. He can handle the details that scare you to death.

Death is the final enemy. It is the end of one thing and the beginning of. . . what? Modern men and women do not know how to finish that sentence. No wonder we are afraid. Jesus Christ says, ʺFear not, for I have conquered death.ʺ He was there. He died just like all men die. And he came back to tell the story. No one else has ever done that.

When we need courage, love, or discipline, we should never say, “We can‘t,” because in Christ, and through the Holy Spirit, God has said, “You can!”

When Jesus died, something stupendous happened in the spiritual realm. Although it was invisible to the naked eye, it was seen by all the angels and the Old Testament saints. They watched as Jesus entered the infernal regions and disarmed the ʺbad guysʺ one by one. Then he marched them in full view of his heavenly Father so that every created being would know that he had won the victory.

When God saves people, he doesnʹt do it because of any potential he sees in them. Most of us secretly feel (though we would never say it) that there must have been something in us worth saving. Human pride dies hard. But itʹs not as if God saw a musician and said, ʺWe need a good piano player in the church. I think Iʹll save him." Or, "Sheʹs got a lot of money, and we could use some extra cash for world missions." Or, ʺThose twins would make excellent ushers. I want them on my team." No, no, a thousand times no. God doesn't save on the basis of your potential. Apart from the grace of God, the only potential you have is the potential for eternal damnation.

God isn’t worried about anything. He’s not up in heaven wringing his hands over who’s going to win the election in November. He’s also not fretting about your next visit to the doctor. He’s not worried about your aging parents or your income taxes or whether or not you’re ever going to get married. God’s not worried about anything in your life or my life or about anything relating to the people we love. He’s in perfect control of the entire universe at all times. He’s working out his plan to perfection, and nothing can hinder him in the least degree.

“Stop trying to fix people. Point them to Jesus.” Caleb Kaltenbach

Father, I pray for my friends who don’t know Jesus. Grant them tender hearts to respond to the call of Your Spirit. Amen.

Father, thank you for sending your Spirit to tell me what to say when trouble comes. May I never be ashamed of Jesus or afraid to speak up for him. Amen.

What happens when we worship? When William Temple tried to define worship, he wrote a statement that is both beautiful and profound: To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, To feed the mind with the truth of God, To purge the imagination by the beauty of God, To open the heart to the love of God, To devote the will to the purpose of God. All of that is utterly countercultural. You don’t get that by spending hours on social media. Come to think of it, you won’t get that in the great universities of the world. Cambridge and Harvard can teach you how to think at a high level, but if you want to worship, you’ll need to go into the presence of God.

"Fill my cup, Lord; I lift it up Lord; Come and quench this thirsting of my soul. Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more. Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole."

Heavenly Father, when I am tempted to give up, help me to keep going. Grant me a cheerful spirit when things don’t go my way. Give me the courage to do whatever needs to be done. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The moment we come to Christ, the Holy Spirit gives us a brand‑new wardrobe. We exchange the tattered rags of our self‑righteousness for the dazzling garments of a brand‑new life. For hatred, we receive love. For misery, joy. For bitterness, forgiveness. For cowardice, boldness. For stinginess, compassion. For pride, humility. For envy, contentment.

In our modern society, many people hold tragic misconceptions about who God is. Some think He is a hate‑filled, angry deity who seeks every opportunity to send people to hell; others picture him as a nice old man who sits benignly on a rocking chair in heaven. Against these false notions stands the simple yet majestic truth revealed by Jesus Christ: God has made himself known in the person of his Son. Those who come to him must come by way of Jesus Christ, or they can’t come at all.

"God would never make it in the travel industry because he is always leading his best clients into the wilderness." John Piper

Christ is not an “option” men may choose. He is not an “option” on a long menu of religious choices any more than gravity is an “option” we may disregard if we like. If you think gravity is an “option,” climb to the top of The Empire State Building, jump off, and see what happens! The result will not be a positive experience. Those who treat Jesus as an “option” will one day discover that ignoring him leads to eternal destruction.

Since the days of Jesus, Satan has been a defeated foe. Though he continues to fight against the Lord, his doom is sure, and his final destiny in the Lake of Fire is guaranteed by the victory Christ won at the cross.

Seven blessings of the Holy Spirit pictured as a dove (Matthew 3:16): 1) He brings peace to our souls. 2) He comes quietly, without fanfare. 3) He establishes a personal relationship with us. 4) He produces gentleness within. 5) He leads us toward purity, honesty, and a truly “harmless” life. 6) He brings God’s divine approval that we are indeed his children. 7) He leads us toward a beautiful, grace‑filled Christian life.

The world "as we know it” is coming to an end. There are many things we know and many things we don’t know about the future. This much is certain: Jesus is coming again. His return may be sooner than we think. Jesus is coming. Are you ready?

Nothing on earth or in heaven is more desirable than God. We may die, but even death itself cannot sever our relationship with God because it is as secure as God himself. As long as God is in heaven, we will be with him in glory. No wicked man can take that from us.

"Whoever hates correction will die" (Proverbs 15:10). Failure isn’t final, but it might be fatal if you learn nothing from it.

"In the beginning God." Ponder those four words. This is where all biblical truth begins. Miss this, and you'll miss the whole Bible. If you can believe Genesis 1:1, you won’t have any trouble with the rest of the Bible.

The Bible predicts a time in the last days when God will shake the nations so that those things that cannot be shaken will remain (Hebrews 12:26-27). When Eugene Peterson paraphrased the last part of verse 27 in The Message, he said that God will shake the earth, “getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered." Unshakable essentials. That says it all. God is shaking the earth so that we will figure out what matters most.

God of the impossible, may I never doubt your power or believe that you are not equal to my circumstances. Amen.

No one likes to admit their sin. Hiding and denying seem much more comfortable. But a red face and a few hot tears will go a long way to bring us back to God.