Good Words for Today

“Master,” Simon replied, “we have worked hard all night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets" (Luke 5:5). The fish aren’t going to jump in the boat by themselves. There is still work for us to do. Many answers to prayer await only one thing: “Let down your nets.” Put your net down into the deep water, do your part, and then God will do his.    

Someone needs your prayers today. Someone needs your encouragement today. Someone needs your wisdom today. Be ready to share when God opens the door.    

"All death can do to the believer is deliver him to Jesus." John MacArthur

“Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.” Isaac Watts

God prepares us for his call by allowing us to endure personal failure. Until we sense our need of Jesus, we will not be ready to follow him. If you think you are self-sufficient, why would you need Christ? We must be stripped of our self-confidence before we can be greatly used of God.

Father, I praise you for grace so great that it goes beyond my sin, finds me when I have fallen, picks me up, and sets my feet back on the road to heaven. Amen.

Not every acquaintance should become a friend. Not every friend should become a close friend. Choose wisely. We become like the friends we choose.

When we encounter Jesus, we will never be the same again. No one can meet Jesus and walk away unchanged. We may end up closer to God or we may harden our hearts, but no one ever meets Jesus and stays the way they were before.

Jesus never excuses sin, but he shed his blood to forgive it.

“Don’t speak to a fool, for he will despise the insight of your words” (Proverbs 23:9). Didn't Jesus say something about not throwing pearls before swine? Same thing here. Wisdom knows when to walk away from a useless argument.    

If you could lose your salvation, you would. We are not saved by trying harder or even by being faithful. If Jesus is not enough for us, baking cookies for the homeless (a kind thing to do) will not get us to heaven. Let us do good to others because we love Jesus, not because we think doing good will guarantee our entrance into heaven. Nothing dies harder than human pride. Salvation is by grace, not by works.                        

O Lord, may I never doubt Your Word, but simply believe it, obey it, and build my life upon it. Amen.

Lord God, thank you for brothers and sisters who care about me. Help me to be a friend to my friends today. Amen.

To know Christ is our desire. To serve Christ is our privilege. To follow Christ is our goal. To preach Christ is our calling. To see Christ is our reward.    

God already knows what you need before you pray. When you say, "Lord, "I'm out of a job," it isn't news to him. When you say, "Lord, I can't pay my bills," he checked your bank account before you did. He knows you are broke. That's a wonderful incentive to pray. He already knows the details of every problem in your life. So go ahead, tell him the whole story. He won't be surprised. And pray with confidence. He's waiting to hear from you.

“Cheer up, ye saints of God, there's nothing to worry about. Nothing to make you feel afraid, nothing to make you doubt. Remember, Jesus never fails, so why not trust him and shout, You'll be sorry you worried at all tomorrow morning.”

Too many people want . . . The outcome but not the obedience, The answers but not the agony, The crown but not the cross. It doesn’t work that way.        

It is good to be angry at what sin has done to the world. It is better to do what we can to change the situation. We don't always have to take a whip and turn over the tables, but it's worth remembering that Jesus did that--not once but twice.      

When one pastor leaves and another one comes, we learn again that God’s work depends on God, not on God’s messengers. Build your life on God’s Word, not on the man who delivers it.

"See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these" (Matthew 6:28-29). Lilies don't worry about anything because God takes of them even though they are here today and gone tomorrow. But you are going to live forever somewhere. That makes you infinitely more valuable than the lilies of the field. If that's true—and it is—then you don't have to worry about what you are going to wear. God will pick out your wardrobe for you. He will make sure you have what you need.                    

“Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, Still be my vision, O Ruler of all”

C. S. Lewis remarked that God whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain. It would be doubly tragic if our grief caused us to turn away from God. But it doesn't have to be that way. If we are willing to listen, Jesus will speak to us through our tears.                  

You aren't good enough to get right with God, you never were, and you never will be. If we knew our sin better, we would stop chattering about our supposed righteousness. The first step in salvation is admitting we don't deserve it. Christ came to call sinners, not the righteous, to repentance

Lord Jesus, please strip away everything that keeps us from doing your will. Amen.

Spiritual growth can be very discouraging at times. It’s like climbing Mount Everest. The closer you get to the top, the farther away it seems. But God has a reason for all this. He wants us to depend on him for everything. He designed life so that it works only when he is in charge of everything. When we try to run the show—which we often do—things begin to fall apart. If the Christian life is left up to us, we will fail every time. Only God can give us what we need to be victorious. Today we don’t feel blameless because we aren’t blameless. We are, in fact, blameworthy, and we make things worse by what we do and say. Today we are all “unfinished people,” but when God is finally finished with us, we will stand blameless in his presence.

Grant me patience, O Lord, while I wait for your answers. Amen.      

Just as I am, and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark blot, To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

When we stand before the Lord, we may be surprised to know that our bottom line and his aren’t quite the same. He won’t ask how much money we made or lost or how many cars we owned or whether or not we climbed to the top of our profession. His question on that day will be much simpler: “Were you faithful in doing the task I gave you to do?” If we can answer yes, our time on earth will have been well-spent.

Will we believe the Bible, all of it, every word of it, from first to last, and everything in between? Our spiritual ancestors had no problem answering Yes to that question. But we struggle mightily with it. We live in days of spiritual anarchy where society has rejected the word of the Lord. Are we willing to be men and women “under authority” who do what we are told even when it isn’t popular? God help us to answer yes and show the world by how we live that we truly believe what the Bible says.

Let me offer a simple definition of sanctification: It’s everything God does in your life and mine to make sure we turn out right. Sanctification guarantees that God’s investment in us will not be wasted. It assures us that God finishes what he starts. We’re not finished yet—that’s why we pray and seek the Lord. Someday we’ll be finished—that’s what sanctification means.  

Fortify our hearts, Lord Jesus, to trust you more and more. Thank you for Big Promises           That can never be broken. Lord, with you there is           No unfinished business. Forgive us for doubting your plans. We look forward to the day when Our blemishes will be gone, Our weakness removed, Our sickness finally healed, Our defects disappeared, And we are finally made like Jesus! Help us to keep believing Until the day comes when Our faith is turned to sight. In that confidence we say, “Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.” Amen.  

Lord Jesus, lead me to someone who needs my help today. Amen.

Forgive us, Lord, for doubting your Word. We say we trust you, and then we try to manage our own affairs. We believe that you have the answers, but we forget to consult you. Forgive us for our lack of faith. Please, Lord, reach down and change the gears within us, that we may go forward with you. Amen.

God is the author and source of all spiritual progress. It’s easy to forget that truth. In our battle against sin, we crawl into a corner and try to get better. After a while we stand up and say, “See how nice I look, Lord? I did it all by myself.” But we are wrong to boast like that. Remember the words of Jesus in John 15:5, “Without me you can do nothing.”

Somewhere I read that God factors in our stupidity when he promises to bless us anyway. That sounds exactly right to me. Our stupidity is so great and our failures so frequent that were it not for God's grace, there would be no hope for any of us. We're sinners desperately in need of grace, and in Christ we have found all the grace we will ever need.    

Heavenly Father, deliver us from the fear of man. Give us courage to stand for the truth even if no one stands with us. Amen.

Never be ashamed of the blood of Christ. We can’t go to heaven without it.