Good Words for Today
We can't avoid being hurt, but we can choose not to be bitter about it.
Little things mean a lot. In the midst of the battle, giving a cup of cold water in Jesus' name may preserve a soldier's strength. Nothing is small if it is done for the Master.
God does not call us to courage or greatness. He calls us to faithfulness, and when we are faithful to our family, our church, and our God, we discover both courage and greatness.
"Come home, come home Ye who are weary come home Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling Calling, 'O sinner come home.'"
Lord Jesus, help me today to do your will and trust you for the results. Amen.
The Holy Spirit prays for us when we can't pray on our own. He asks what we would ask if we knew what he knows.
We still die, but Christ has taken the sting out of death. We still fight Satan, but we fight from a position of victory because Jesus Christ won the battle 2000 years ago. We face many hardships in this life, but we know that all things work together for our good and God’s glory. Do not give in to your doubts and fears. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Lord Jesus, I dare not go one more day without your blessing. Show me what needs to change so that your Spirit may fill me once again. Amen.
"Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble" (Psalm 41:1). God blesses those who care for the weak. Are you in need of God's blessing right now? Find someone in need and give them a helping hand. Perhaps you can't do everything, but you can do something. Sooner or later, you'll be the one needing help. You'll be glad you gave a helping hand when someone pulls you out of the ditch.
Repentance starts when we say, "Lord, you were right all along, and I was wrong." But that should not be hard for us to say because when we sin, we are always wrong, and God is always right.
Give to others the grace you ask for yourself. If we say, "They don't deserve it," you are right. They don't. But neither do you deserve grace from the Lord. Grace is not earned; it is freely given. Freely have you received. Freely give to others.
"Bad company corrupts good morals" (1 Corinthians 15:33). Or as one translation puts it: “Wicked friends lead to evil ends.” It's okay to put some people out of your life. You need to put them in the rear view mirror because they pull you down. You can't be friends with everyone. Choose your friends wisely. Say farewell to so-called friends who drag you down. Then keep moving forward with the Lord!
Who are you going to believe? Take 30 days to read the Gospel account. Read the story for yourself and come to your own conclusions. I will tell you what I believe will happen. If you read with an open mind and an open heart, you will come to the inevitable conclusion that what Jesus said is true, that he is the truth, and that his word can be eternally trusted.
Most of us know the verse that says, “This is the day the Lord has made” (Psalm 118:24). One wise observer said that we have turned that on its head: “This is the Lord the day has made.” What a perfect description of modern man and his rebellion against God.
Ο God, I fall so far short of loving people as Jesus did. Create in me the mind and heart of Christ that I might live and love as he did. Amen.
A father prayed for years for his children. When his children went to bed, the father would go into the bedroom and stand over his children, praying for them every single night. They always knew that Dad was there when they were younger. As they got older, he would wait until they were asleep and then go in and pray. Even later when they were gone off to college, he would still go in and pray over where they had been. The father was talking to his children one day and he mentioned that he still prayed for them every night without fail. The kids said they knew that. But how did they know? They said, “We see the footprints in the carpet.”
God gives us what we need today. If we needed more, he would give us more. When we need something else, he will give that as well. Nothing we truly need will ever be withheld from us. Search your problems and within them you will discover the well-disguised mercies of God.
"Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, Has a wondrous attraction for me; For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above To bear it to dark Calvary."
If you want Jesus plus your sinful ways, forget it. You aren’t ready to become a Christian. You don’t really want Jesus until you are willing to agree with God about your sin.
Don’t worry about evildoers. Let them enjoy their little moment in the sun. And don’t waste a moment wishing you could be like them. Put your hope in the Lord and keep moving ahead.
It is hard to humble yourself, hard to admit you were wrong, and very hard (for some of us, at least) to cry out for God’s help. But when we do, we find that God meets us where we are and gives us far more than we ask for.
In the battle for your soul, Satan never takes a vacation.
"What have I to dread, what have I to fear, Leaning on the everlasting arms? I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, Leaning on the everlasting arms."
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.