The Reason We Serve..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 The Reason We Serve

Dr. Charles Stanley

Colossians 3:23-24

In His Word, God commands us to serve one another. However, there will inevitably be difficult people in life who make this mandate challenging.

Thankfully, a biblical definition of service can help us obey the Lord's instruction, no matter who the recipient may be. And the reason is that God is actually the One whom we serve.

When we have this motivation underlying everything we do, it will impact the quality of our work and keep us from becoming discouraged. Then, whatever our task--whether we lead a country, teach children, or do something that seems unattractive--if our goal is to glorify God, we will do our best in His strength. And we trust Him to use us for His purposes, even if our labor should appear fruitless to us or to others.

When I was a child, I had to wake up before daylight to deliver newspapers. Even in rain or snow, I still had to complete the job. This was hard for me to do. Then the Lord impressed upon my heart that I was not merely bringing papers to people in my town; I was serving Jesus. As I understood this truth more, waking up and working was purposeful and doable. Truthfully, I still did not always feel like facing the work, but feelings were no longer relevant. I was serving my Maker.

Whomever God calls us to serve, and whatever He tells us to do, we can obey with joyful hearts when it's done for Jesus. If this is our motivation, we won't need worldly approval or evidence of impact. We need to know only that God is pleased and promises to reward those who serve Him (Heb. 11:6).

Life-Saving Truth..... LYSA TERKEURST

 Life-Saving Truth

LYSA TERKEURST

“If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.” Psalm 119:92-93 (NIV) 

I stood on the edge of the pool. I looked over at my sister who was maybe 4 or 5 years old at the time. She was splashing on the steps of the shallow end.

I’m done with the shallow end, I thought. I’m 9 years old. I’m very grown and old enough to jump into the deep end.

I jumped. The cold water enveloped me. I let my body fall all the way until my toes touched the bottom, and I pushed myself back above water. It was exhilarating.

One day it occurred to me I could take my sister out into the deep end with me. I could let her get on my back and half-walk, half-bounce down that slope between the shallow and the deep.

Surprisingly, she was hesitant when I unveiled my plan to her. It took great convincing on my part and lots of promises not to go any farther than where she felt safe.

Finally, she got on my back and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I walked slowly to the slope. One baby step down. Two steps. Three.

At the third step, I slipped.

We both went under very suddenly. My sister’s hands slipped from my shoulders to my throat. It felt as if she believed the only way she could be saved was to hold my throat with an increasingly intense amount of strength. Her grip tightened. My mind got foggy. And I couldn’t figure out which way to go to find safety. The only thing I absolutely felt sure of was that I was drowning.

As crazy as it may sound, I can’t remember how we were saved. Maybe it’s because we made it to safety, and it wasn’t as dramatic to everyone else as I remember it. But that moment of panic is one I think about often. And every time I think about this feeling of panic or feel it rising up in me over something I’m facing, I try to remember that panic usually doesn’t save anyone. Signaling we need help can be lifesaving. But most of the time, panic hinders rather than helps.

You know where I see this drowning — without water and a subsequent panicked response — most often? A woman’s insecurities.

You’ve probably felt the choking effects of insecurity even if you don’t call it that. False ideas like these creep into our thoughts …

You’re not as talented or smart or experienced as she is.

Protect yourself and your dignity. Don’t dare try this new venture.

If only you were as organized or intentional or creative as they are, then maybe you could accomplish this. But the reality is, you’re not.

You know this is never going to work, right?

How do I know you feel these things? Because I’ve experienced them myself.

Just like in that pool all those years ago, I can go from standing securely with my head above water to slipping down a slope with seemingly nothing to grab hold of. Then the insecurity, always kind of present on my shoulder, slips into a death grip around my throat.

My insecurities grip to the point where nothing life-giving can get in. I forget truth. I start pulling back from everyone. My mind gets foggy very quickly, and suddenly I can’t figure out which way to go to find safety.

I’m drowning.

That’s the thing about insecurity. When it grips us, the very thing we need most — truth — is the very thing we have a hard time grasping. I can be close to truth but still drowning in my insecurities. I can have truth sitting on my nightstand. I can have it preached to me on Sundays. But grasping it, standing on it and letting it shift my thinking away from panic — that’s something that requires truth to be more than just close.

That requires truth to be inside me, guiding me, rewiring my thinking, and whispering, “Safety is right here. Insecurity will stop choking you when you remove its grip. Insecurity only has power over you when you allow it control over your thoughts.”

And as we delight in and live out the truth of God’s Word, it truly becomes a lifeline to our souls. Something we see beautifully spelled out in our key verse: “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life” (Psalm 119:92-93).

I want to weave myself into your story. I’m standing in the shallow end. I’m holding on tightly to an immovable bar of truth with one hand — and with the other, I’m reaching toward you.

Grab hold. Come back from the sinking place. And from the deepest place of your soul, catch your breath.

Dear Lord, my insecurities are small things compared to Your truth. But they feel so big and powerful when they have a grip on me! Please help me grasp Your truth and let it change me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

When We Are Slowed to a Stop..... By Meg Bucher

 When We Are Slowed to a Stop

By Meg Bucher

“I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.” - Galatians 2:2b NIV

The empty pages of my running journal smelled like a slice of heaven. I couldn’t wait to fill them with miles and routes, splits and workouts. But it wouldn’t be that way, not this time. This time, my twenty-year-old running injuries would catch up to me, resurfacing and lingering.

Today’s verse speaks of running, a hobby close to my heart, a very big part of who I am. It was only in learning to let it go that I realized I could survive without it. I’m learning, as I walk with Christ, that I can survive without anything but Him. In Greek (the language the New Testament is written in), “to run” is the word “trecho.”

According to Strong's Concordance, 'trecho' means to exert one’s self and strive hard. The word occurs in Greek writings to denote extreme peril, which requires the exertion of all one’s effort to overcome.

This kind of striving is the opposite of passivity. In Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary, trechō means “to run” in both a physical sense and a figurative sense. Trechō is used several times to picture the Christian life in the sense of running toward a goal (1 Cor. 9:26c; Gal 2:2; 5:7; Phil 2:16; Heb 12:1). Passivity is not a virtue in the Christian life. 

Passivity is taking all of the wisdom God’s given us throughout our trials, and suppressing it. Barreling on with one solution after the next …none of them working. While Jesus waves His hand in front of our faces to stop, passivity is thinking that we can fix everything without Him.

Walking with Christ is hard. We get knocked down, stripped of things that we identify with and felt once identified us. People leave our lives. Death is an everyday reality. And if we can’t find God in those situations, we have fallen victim to a passive attitude about who God is and what He promises.

He is good. And He knows what’s good for us. His plan for us is good. The way we identify ourselves is not always the same way He sees us. Being open to His version of who were made to be and what we are here to accomplish starts by believing in Jesus. Walking with Him doesn’t always make sense to us, but we can trust that we are being made holy, one stride at at time, until we break the tape in heaven.

Father, Praise You for our losses and our trials. Thank You for the things You strip from us that we think we need more than You. Forgive our flipped perspective of control, and bless us to lift it entirely up to You.

 In Jesus’ Name, 

Amen.

The Bible Is Not a Cheat Sheet..... by Ryan Duncan

 The Bible Is Not a Cheat Sheet

by Ryan Duncan

Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end. Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Psalm 119:33-34

I have a confession to make. Back when I was still in school, I attended a chemistry class that I hated. The building was cold and smelled like chemicals. The lessons were slow, with hours of homework assigned afterward. On top of everything, I had never been good at chemistry, and my frustration usually boiled over faster than our science solutions did.

The class did have one upside though; the way the room was set up allowed me a perfect view of the desks in front of me. So, whenever an exam was held, I cheated. I used a variety of excuses to justify this. Chemistry wasn't my gift, so why should my GPA suffer? The answers were there, they were available, why shouldn't I use them? Who cares how I got the answers so long as they're the right ones?

It was only later that I realized my mistake. Sure, I knew the correct answers, but I didn't understand how the formulas constructed those answers. Without that, my knowledge of chemistry was surface-level at best. I was completely and utterly lost.

I think sometimes we like to use the Bible as a cheat sheet. When the world confronts us with a problem, we open our Bibles and yell, "See, the Bible says it's wrong, end of story!" But the Bible was meant to serve as a textbook, not a cheat sheet. If we don't study God's word, we won't understand why Jesus said the things he did. We fail to ask questions, and we breeze through passages without taking time to consider their meaning. We are, quite frankly, bad students.

Try to think of it this way. Before a doctor can heal a person's illness, they must first understand the disease at work. They have to understand where it came from, what affect it has on the patient's body, what types of treatment can fix the problem, why those treatments work, and which of the treatments is best for the patient. If the doctor does not understand this, there is a good chance they'll end up hurting their patient. God calls us to be healers and lights to the world, but without understanding his word first, we become heavy-handed.

We must not be afraid to question our faith. Instead, we must study it with an open mind and faithful heart. That way, when the real exam comes, we pass with flying colors.

Intersecting Faith and Life

What questions do you have about the Bible? Take some time to talk them over with a friend or pastor.

Further Reading: Psalm 119

A Prayer for When You Don’t Know What to Pray..... By Jennifer O. White

 A Prayer for When You Don’t Know What to Pray

By Jennifer O. White

Last week, I was at a loss for words when it came to praying for a friend. Have you been there?

Thankfully, Jesus knows exactly what to pray in these moments. He knew I didn't have words, so He gave me vision of how to pray. The person I wanted to pray for has more than one illness that affects his brain. The picture God gave me was of my hands holding this man's head and letting it soak in a pool of healing water.

The water represented God, the Healer and the living Water. (Jeremiah 2:13, 17:14; John 7:38)

Holding his head was a picture of intercession. It is reminiscent of the four men who carried their frail friend to see Jesus and even made a hole through the roof to get him in front of Jesus. (Luke 5:19) It is my simple role in the process of praying for him.

I believe God is able to use this prayer for His glory to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we know how to ask of Him. (Ephesians 3:20) He offered this prayer to me when I did not know what to ask of Him.

The mind of an intercessor is certainly in the battle. Satan may work to steal our words, but God triumphs over that scheme with a simple and powerful alternative. For me it was an image, what will it be for you? A song, a word, a Scripture, something else?

When you don’t know what to pray, ask God to give you an intercessory prayer. Ask Him to move and work. Here is a prayer you can pray when you just don’t know what to pray:

Lord God, I am at a loss for words. I’m not sure how to pray for this difficult situation, but I know you promise that you hear our prayers, so I want to try praying now. Please be our comfort, our support, our strength and our shield. Please help us overcome all that the enemy tries to throw our way. Help us depend on your and find great joy and peace from your presence. Thank you for always loving us and never leaving us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!