Good Words for Today
Let's wrap up this year with the familiar words of missionary C. T. Studd: Only one life, ‘Twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. Live for Christ today, and you’ll be glad you did 10,000 years from now.
Sometimes we are guilty of living too fast. We go before we’re ready, speak before we have anything to say, teach before we’re taught, and build high before we build deep. What happens when you hurry, hurry, hurry? You don’t watch where you’re going and you trip and fall. Often we trip not in headlong pursuit of evil but in our over-hasty pursuit of good. The answer lies not in buying a planner or getting organized, but in those ancient words of the Psalmist: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). When we slow down enough to get God involved, we discover that he can do more through us than we can ever accomplish on our own.
“One good deed is worth more than a thousand brilliant theories” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon). We all like to imagine what we would do if we won $10 million. But until that happens, it's more important how you spend the $20 in your wallet today. The future can seem fun and exciting when compared to what seems like the drudgery of the present. But the present is the doorway to the future. So jump in, grab hold, and do whatever lies close at hand. Just do it, and tomorrow you’ll be glad you did.
I ran across a quote from Jarvis James: “If you have a pulse, you ought to have a praise.” He’s right. Are you breathing? Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Is your heart beating? Then let it beat in praise to the Lord who has not forgotten you.
Heavenly Father, you are in charge of everything that will happen to me today–the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the positive and the negative. Please make me thankful for everything that happens in my life today. Amen.
God has put into the heart of every Christian a desire to love all of God’s children everywhere. It’s part of the DNA of being a follower of Jesus. If you are a Christian, that love is already in your heart. You just have to let it loose.
If Christmas means anything, it is this: God wins in the end. At Bethlehem he launched a mighty counteroffensive that started with a tiny baby boy named Jesus, born in a scandalous way, in a barn, to a young couple who were alone. The world had no idea what God was up to. Only in retrospect do we understand. Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Jesus is the most important person in history, and his birth is the most event in history. No one else could do what he has done. That’s why his movement now encompasses more than two billion followers. If you were going to publish a truly accurate list of the most important people in history, Jesus would be number one, and there would be no number two because no one compares to him.
God is good, and his mercy endures forever. He proved it by sending his Son. Christmas is God’s guarantee the darkness won’t last forever and that someday God will wipe all our tears away. Meanwhile, we press on, waiting for the happy laughter of heaven. Chin up, child of God. The best is yet to come!
Spirit of God, we pray for those who feel forgotten this Christmas season. Help them to know they are always welcome at the Father’s table. Amen.
“Where meek souls will receive him still, The dear Christ enters in.”
“When the right time came, God sent his Son” (Gal 4:4). Christ came at exactly the right time in God's plan. His time is not our time, but it’s always the right time. That’s how God works.
Our God is not a frontrunner. He doesn’t need worldly power to accomplish his purposes. When Jesus was born, the world paid no attention to a young couple giving birth in a stable in a tiny village in a backwater province of the Roman Empire. No one noticed the baby wrapped in rags sleeping in a feeding trough. In such an unlikely way, God moved into our neighborhood and became one of us. God’s ways are not our ways. If you doubt that, take another look at that sleeping baby. He will one day rule the world.
We must learn to forgive. Until we do that we can never go forward. As long as we live in the past, we will be chained to the past, and the people who have hurt us deeply win a double victory--once when they hurt us the first time and twice when we refuse to let go and move on.
Sometimes we fly like an eagle. Sometimes we run with stallions. Sometimes we walk in victory. And sometimes we're just stumbling upward. I love that phrase—stumbling upward. That's the testimony of nearly all God's saints—we're stumbling upward toward heaven.
Lord Jesus, you loved the lonely and helped the hurting. Give me a heart like yours to spread your joy this Christmas season. Amen,
It is possible for a Christian to fall into grievous sin, but that's not where we belong, and we will not stay there forever. If you are a Christian, you won't be comfortable living in sin. The direction of your life will be away from sin and toward Jesus Christ. It has been said that "I would rather be one foot away from hell heading toward heaven than one foot away from heaven heading toward hell." Direction makes the difference.
You should plan ahead, but you shouldn’t worry ahead. Make sure you know the difference.
The child of God need not fear death because the grave has lost its victory. If Jesus is your Savior, the grave is now a doorway to glory.
Lord Jesus, Forgive us for complaining when we should be rejoicing. Grant that our lives might be one loud “Thank you, Lord” for all you have done for us. Amen.
Remember Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego. Who showed up in the furnace with them? Jesus! Are you in the furnace today? Be encouraged. You are not alone.
“The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.”
"Right is right even if nobody is right, and wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong. God does not change the moral law to suit our behavior." Billy Graham
Go as far as you can go, to the end of the known universe and beyond. And when you have gone as far as you can go, look up and smile because God’s love is still going. You will never reach the end of it.
“Finally a convenient time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet” (Mark 6:21). When you ignore your conscience repeatedly, a convenient time for sin always comes.
Do not pray for success. Pray for faithfulness because faithfulness is the surest path to success.
“I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more, But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry, From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.”
Happy are they who find joy in every season of life. God knows where you are today, and he knows where you will be tomorrow. Lord Jesus, you have given me much that I do not deserve. I pray for the gift of contentment so I might enjoy this season of my life because it too is a gift from you. Amen.
People are crazy. Love them anyway.
My God, thank you for hope that death cannot destroy. Thank you for Jesus because his coming changed everything. Amen.
Jesus didn't come to put perfume on the corpse. He came to raise the dead.
“Thou that hast given so much to me, Give one thing more, a grateful heart.” George Herbert (1633)
Following Jesus looks like fun until you find out where he's going.
Can God set a table in the wilderness? Yes, he can. But you'll never know as long as you stay in Egypt.
We would all be wise to build our lives on Jesus Christ. He is the one true firm foundation that can stand the test of time. Build your life on Jesus and when the ground shakes beneath your feet and the things of the earth crumble to the ground, your life will be secure because you have built on the foundation that can never be moved.
Face to face with Christ, my Savior, Face to face—what will it be, When with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ who died for me? From the hymn "Face to Face" by Carrie Breck, 1898.
O Lord, when I look back on the last year, give me a good memory of all the good things you have done for me. Amen.