Good Words for Today
Right now we're on a journey from earth to heaven. The road often seems long and lonely. Fear not, child of God. If the Lord is your Shepherd, you have everything you need—now and forever.
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.
"Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest Name I know, Fills my every longing, Keeps me singing as I go."
It would be a tragedy to go through a trial and learn nothing from it. If you find yourself face down in the valley of trouble, worship God there. Let your tears draw you closer to your Savior.
“I’ve given God a million reasons not to love me. None of them changed his mind.”
Sometimes the kindest thing you can do is not to make an unkind comment.
Where anger prevails, murder cannot be far behind. Given the right circumstances, all of us would commit murder. Our hands are not clean because our lips are not clean. Why bring this up? Because we are guilty of the very thing we said we would never do. We are too quick to excuse ourselves. The Lord won't let us off the hook. If we take him seriously, then we've got to stop making excuses for our hidden anger, buried resentments, and a tongue that is as sharp as a razor. Don't bury your anger. Deal with it. Talk it out with a friend. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Don't go to bed angry, or you'll wake up with a short fuse.
If you want what you plant to last a year, plant some flowers. If you want it to last a lifetime, plant a tree. If you want it to last forever, plant the Good News of Jesus in the heart of a lost person.
There are only two possible answers to the supreme question of life: What will you do with Jesus? Either I believe him for who he is. Or I reject him and his claims. Yes or no. Life or death. And a man, depending on his answer, is either wise or a fool.
"But God, who is rich in mercy" (Ephesians 2:4). Here's some good news the whole world needs to hear. God is rich in the one thing we need most: Mercy! That's our hope of heaven.
Three Reminders for Christian Warriors: 1. The world isn’t going to stop trying to seduce us. 2. We can win the battle if we remember who we are. 3. When you know who you are, you can live for Christ anywhere.
God answers prayers, but he doesn’t answer complaints. Make sure you know the difference.
God wants us to believe in him. He begs us to believe in him. He dares us to trust him. Is your problem too hard for the Lord? If you answer yes, then there truly is no hope for you. But if you say no, then you have a bright tomorrow! The choice is yours.
I ran across a wonderful statement that seems to fit the strange, difficult days in which we live: “Christians should be the calmest people on earth.” What a thought that is. We have no right to run around wringing our hands, not when our God is on the throne working out his purpose on the earth.
Omnipotent God, the nations are but a drop in the bucket to you. Open my eyes to see beyond the headlines to the hurting hearts in every land. Amen.
No one elected King Jesus. No one can defeat him. No one can impeach him. Now and forever, he is King of kings and Lord of lords!
A man hired an experienced guide to lead him on a hike in the Swiss Alps. After many hours they came to a high and remote mountain pass. To the man’s dismay, he saw that that path had almost been washed out. What could he do? To the left was a sheer rock cliff, to his right a precipice that dropped nearly 1000 feet. Looking down, the man felt his head growing faint and his knees beginning to buckle. At that moment his guide shouted, “Do not look down or you are a dead man. Keep your eyes on me, and where I put my feet, put yours there as well.” The man did as he was instructed and soon he passed from danger to safety. No one knows what lies ahead for any of us. We all have our plans and dreams, but the times and seasons of life are in God’s hands. Sooner or later we will all come to a dangerous pass where the way ahead seems to be washed out. At that moment we can panic and fall into terrible trouble. Or we can fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ and mark carefully his steps before us. If we will follow him, we will find that we have been kept safe by his amazing grace.
Today the nations rage; tomorrow the King comes to judge them. Between now and then, "Blessed are all who take refuge in him" (Psalm 2:12).
"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers" (Psalm 1:1). Blessings come not only from what we do, but also from what we don’t do. Blessed people avoid certain things. And they avoid certain people and certain situations. They don’t hang out just anywhere and they don’t quickly buy into every line of thinking. And they are very careful not to join themselves to the company of those who do not love the Lord.
When Jesus comes back, sin and sickness will be banished from the earth forever. Until that day, believers can demonstrate their faith amid sickness, and we also have the privilege of bringing our cases to the Great Physician and asking for the healing we need.
There is no shortage of people talking about Christ, but there is a shortage of people living like Christ.
Not everyone who smiles at you loves you. Not everyone who frowns at you hates you. Lord, give us discernment—and patience! Amen.
Father, I rest in the confidence that I will be delivered from all my difficulties sooner or later. Grant that it might be sooner. Amen.
God doesn’t judge according to racial ID. The Pharisees thought going through the motions was enough. They assumed they had a “favored nation clause” with the Almighty that guaranteed them entrance into heaven. But God doesn’t “need” us. He can turn the stones into Abraham’s children. If we will not serve the Lord, he will find someone else who will.
Eternal God, You are so much bigger than my puny faith. I believe, Lord—help my unbelief. Amen.
The quicker you repent, the quicker you can be forgiven. The longer you wait, the easier it is to pretend you never sinned. Don’t put it off!
“Faith is not believing in spite of evidence but obeying in spite of consequence.” Warren Wiersbe
The empty tomb is still empty. No one has ever found the bones of Jesus. No one ever will. Far from being a myth or legend, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best-attested fact in all human history. He is risen indeed!
Lord Jesus, in these momentous days, when the world shakes beneath our feet, help us to be people of the Word, delighting in what you have given us. Amen.
If we know Jesus, we ought to be the happiest, most positive, most optimistic, most encouraged, most forward-looking, most creative, most dynamic, most hope-filled people on the face of the earth. Maybe we should put a sign in front of our churches: “If you’re looking for hope, we’ve got plenty to spare!”
We do not confess our sins to make sure God knows what we did. We confess to make sure we know what we did. Confession blows away the cobwebs of deceit that led us to sin in the first place. When we confess, we are saying, "Lord, you were right all along."
Eternal Father, let your Word be planted deep in my heart today. Amen.
It is a great advance spiritually to come to the place where you can say with conviction, “My trust is in the Lord alone.” But it's not always easy. Sometimes we have to hit bottom and hit it hard before we can say those words.
Life is so short for all of us. We come quickly, we leave quickly, we will all be buried someday. But oh, how precious is the gift of life, and how blessed we are to be here. What sadness if we go through life complaining about our misfortune, focused on ourselves, and blind to all the beauty that God has placed in our path. Rejoice evermore.
Sometimes prayer can be very hard. But that's a good thing because it means you have turned away from the world and in a deep sense have turned away from yourself. Prayer answers the greatest question: Who's in charge here? When you pray, you confess you are not in charge of anything, including your own life.