God's Word on That

Tag: Daily Slice

  • Accepting the Circumstances

    Circumstances do not change us, they expose us. Look to heaven and realize this current arrangement of circumstances are sovereignly put together for your good and His glory.

    When times are good, be happy.  But when times are bad consider: God has made the one as well as the other (Ecclesiastes 7:14).

    God’s lights in our dark nights are as numerous as the stars in the heavens, if only we would look for them. When you persevere through a trial, God gives you a special measure of insight. Believe in Him steadfastly, and everything that challenges you will strengthen you. For us who believe, our job is to believe God can do His job. Like the special smell that comes with a draught breaking rain, God loves the aroma of His children’s joy, especially when He is the source of its delight.

    Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 35:4).

    Accept your current circumstances, and God will give you wisdom to get through.

  • The Happy People

    The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have. The present (now) is a gift from God. Why not unwrap it in the morning with great expectation and curiosity, and give thanks to God for it? For when you have thanked God for every blessing sent, what time will then remain for murmurs and lament?

    When you are one of the few people who can do something to fix a problem, just how responsible does that make you for it? (It is how you choose to answer this question that defines you.) It is a commandment at every moment and in every condition of life to do the duty of that moment, and to abstain from doing the wrong. So do the duty that is nearest you — that first, and that well. The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.

    O Lord, I pray please bless all I do this day. Accept it as an act of worship and give me grace to find You in every task and duty, however small or dull it may seem to be.

    Enjoy where He has placed you today. Tomorrow will be different.

  • Zen for the Christian Soul

    A blink of an eye is in itself nothing; but the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing; but the man who lives that span, he is something.

    We can never get too weak for the Lord to use us — but we can get too strong, if it is our own strength. We can never be too ignorant for the Lord to use us — but we can be too wise in our own conceit. We can never get too small for the Lord to use us — but we can surely get too big and get in His way!

    When we grumble, it shows our pride. Faith breaks the peace between what is and what ought to be. Faith doesn’t comfort you where you are but challenges you to be where you should be. Faith defies obstacles and laughs at impossibilities. Faith infuses courage, molds character, and directs conduct.

    It is when we move past discouragement to praise that we begin living above our problems. Thanksgiving is vitally important to God. It is the key to releasing His supernatural power around you.

    We are called to be peaceful, unassuming, humble — different from those around us.

  • On Being a Super-Hero

    Wouldn’t it be cool to be a super-hero? To be able to help anyone we wanted to help, and do anything we wanted to do?

    A priest asked me one day, “If you could have any super power in your imagination, what would it be?” I thought about it for a while and decided that the best super power to ever have would be the ability to give people exactly what they need when they need it. To be able to talk to someone and know in my spirit what they need at that moment. Not riches or gold or silver, everyone needs that. But kindness, understanding, comforting… or encouragement, motivation, loving correction… So I prayed.

    Jesus, I come and ask, Please fill my heart with forgiveness and love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – that I may overflow to others (Galatians 5:22-23). Gracious and Loving Father, I pray for the superpower You placed in my heart: that Your Spirit will help me discern the spiritual need of the person I happen to be talking to, that I may be Your instrument in helping them.

    Today as I reflected on this I realize that’s exactly what God intended our lifestyle to be. Everyone needs kindness, understanding and comforting. Everyone could use encouragement, motivation, and loving correction. My abiding in Jesus will show me what and who and where to direct my efforts at each moment. I just need Him.

    Jesus, shining through me, makes everything beautiful and everyone feeling better.

  • Cultural Complacency

    Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion (Jude 11).

    God destroyed those who would not believe in spite of seeing His mighty wonders (Jude 5). God imprisoned even angels that rebelled against His set order (Jude 6). Cain was the first man to turn away from God on purpose, to choose his own way in the universe. Balaam was the first to use his footing in the spiritual realm to get rich and seduce the godly onto ungodliness. Korah was the first to rebel against authority set up by God and start up tolerance levels of what should and should not be acceptable.

    But you, dear friends build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life (Jude 20-21).

    Jude offers scathing rebukes and warnings to false teachers, but in addition he offers insight into how we can protect ourselves from them. Jude uses four instructional phrases: (1) Build yourselves up = studying and doing things to encourage spiritual growth. (2) Pray in the Spirit = cultivating a healthy prayer life. (3) Keep yourselves in God’s love = monitoring your lifestyle and guarding against sin. (4) Look for the mercy of Jesus = cultivating an eternal perspective.

    In short, God is trying to warn us to refuse to be drawn into cultural complacency.

    Conforming to the world will NEVER be accomplished. We are fish-out-of-water here. We were made for better.

  • The Basic Temptations

    The World calls them Hedonism, Materialism, and Narcissism. Christians know them as giving into indulgence, striving for increase, and caring about impressions. The lust of the flesh is craving for sensual gratification, indulging the sinful nature. While lust of the eyes is greedy longings of the mind, wanting what is pleasing to the eye. And pride of life is boasting of what you have and do, assurance in your own resources or the ability of earthly things. You can see where these pull people away from dependence on our Father.

    There are four strategies to counteract temptations. (1) Evaluate everything spiritually; use the mind God gave you know what to do to please Him. (2) Develop strong convictions; live by those convictions and do not take the easy way. (3) Influence others to do good; don’t judge people or their circumstances, but encouraging them to do better is like a silent lesson to self to do better. (4) Love God with your whole being; this is the only safe way to live spiritually in the world.

    Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 35:4).

    We should enjoy life as God supplies it – but temptation is trying to find happiness apart from God.

  • Steadfast Faith

    The key to steadfast faith is in the question: Do you base your faith on what God does or who He is? Every believer falls into one of the two categories. Putting faith in only what He does means you are fueled by sight, which gives a roller coaster – not steadfast – faith. The other choice is a faith that walks steadfastly with God for the pleasure of His company, not His results.

    Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld (2 Chronicles 20:20). Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).

    To reduce anxiety over a problem:

    1. Restate the problem, for a problem well-stated is half solved.
    2. Separate fact from assumption; if you accept assumption as truth, your mind will be pulled to the breaking point.
    3. Determine what is in your control and what is not.
    4. Take control of what is your responsibility.
    5. Once you have handled your responsibility, turn your attention to helping others and away from self-absorption. This brings inner peace as well as love, and God will handle the details.
    Circumstances do not matter. Have faith in God and He will not disappoint you.

  • Satan Preys on the Proud

    1 Peter 5:1-10 and James 4:6-10 talk of spiritual conflict that follows any expression of pride. Where we do not deny ourselves, we give ground to the enemy. Our battle is not in the earthly realm, but by using faith in the spiritual realm.

    Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you (James 4:7-8).

    If you don’ resist, he doesn’t have to go. Or if you pull the covers over your head and say “O God do something about this”, the evil spirits don’t have to leave. Resisting is your responsibility based on authority you possess in Christ.

    Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). The bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

    Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

    A life tuned to the melody of grace that I claim I believe is the life that is destined for me. Doing good, being like Christ Jesus, is the answer to any opposition, cynicism, or persecution.

    Pride makes us lonely creatures. We are meant to display God’s graces.

  • Made For Eternity

    Faith is based on the understanding that the world was created by the Word of God. The Word of God is the permanent real, and the world created from it is secondary, not eternal.

    By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:3).

    Faith must look to the Word behind the world, for we were made for eternity, not time.

    The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:17). Everyone born of God overcomes the world (1 John 5:4). For in this world we are like Him (1 John 4:17), aliens and strangers in the world (1 Peter 2:11) but the elect of God (1 Peter 1:1).

    Let us not cling to the world for we were made for eternity.

  • Sword For the Spirit

    Many people forget, or have not learned, that the Bible is not just a theological book, but a self-contained supernatural power referred to by God Himself as a “sword” for the spiritual realm. The inspired Word has the power to reach to the inmost parts of one’s personality and to judge the innermost thoughts.

    I did not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34).

    If you won’t resist the Holy Spirit, the power of God will melt you down. The Holy Spirit will so take charge of you that you will be filled to the uttermost with the over-flowing of His grace! If you allow yourself to rise up in spirit today, you will edify yourself. For we must be edified before we can edify those around us.

    The body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26). But the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6). The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken are spirit and they are life (John 6:63).

    Why God created the tangible universe and placed us in it is a mystery to us. But be sure of this: it – the world and every tangible thing – is passing away, while we will not.

    We may enjoy the universe God has made, but don’t get deceived into thinking that is all there is.