How God Views the Self-Directed..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 How God Views the Self-Directed

Dr. Charles Stanley

Luke 12:16-21

We've all heard jokes about men who refuse to stop and ask for directions. But in reality, there's probably a good bit of truth to the stereotype, and it isn't limited to males. Plenty of men and women in this world zoom along without slowing down to ask for guidance.

If you were to look at the situation from a spiritual perspective, you'd see a world of lost souls desperately trying to save themselves. They think  they can earn their way into heaven through hard work and the accumulation of good deeds. But they're wrong.

Today's passage from Luke describes a wealthy person who makes a lot of plans based only on his own thoughts, desires, and experience. Take the time to look at the passage again, and notice how many times he used the words "I" and "my." What you'll see is that his focus was squarely on himself. This parable is a sad picture of the self-directed man trying to make his own way and secure his own future with no help from anyone--including God.

The Lord didn't mince words: He called the man "fool" (v. 20). Worldly wisdom amounts to nothing in the eyes of our omniscient, all-wise Father (1 Cor. 1:20), and He expects His children to request and follow His guidance.

The message for us today is clear: When we figure out our own plans and take action with no thought about what God would advise, we are behaving like fools. The Lord has a plan for your life. He knows where you'll succeed and where you'll fail. Be wise and ask Him for directions.

Having Grace for Others..... Craig Denison

 Having Grace for Others

Craig Denison

Weekly Overview:

The story of the prodigal son moves my heart to delve into the depths of God’s limitless grace. I find myself in every facet of Jesus’ words. I identify with both the son’s rebellion and the power of the father’s love. As children of God we are in constant need of reminders about God’s mercy toward us. When the world rejects us, God calls us in. When the world writes us off, God clothes us with righteousness and honor. May this transformative story of the prodigal son guide you to a deeper and more intimate relationship with your loving heavenly Father.

Scripture:“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” -John 13:34-35

Devotional:

In response to the wealth of grace given to us by our heavenly Father, we are called to be ministers of his grace to others. Until we set others free from having to live up to our standards, we will never experience true freedom ourselves. Living apart from an attitude of continual grace robs us of the joy of living without unrealistic expectations of others. When we are slow to offer grace for the sins of others, we step outside the realm of God’s kingdom and place our hope and security in this fleeting world.

Jesus tells an important story for us to heed in Matthew 18:21-35. In this parable a servant is forgiven of an insurmountable debt owed to the king. But rather than taking the grace he was shown and offering it to others, the servant sought out a fellow servant and began to choke him until he paid his debt. Upon hearing of his servant’s lack of grace, the king has him thrown in prison until he paid off what he owed. And in verse 35 Jesus concludes, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

We are called to offer grace to others, and not because of who they are or what they’ve done. If grace were based on merit or self-worth, it wouldn’t be grace. We are called to offer grace because no debt owed to us compares to the insurmountable debt of sin forgiven by the death of Jesus. There is no wrong someone could ever commit against us that could compare to the amount of unmerited favor we’ve received.

In showing grace to others we begin to experience to greater depths the joy of our heavenly Father. In offering mercy to the undeserving we shine the light of God’s grace into the darkness of a world without second chances. May we not be like the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18, but instead be like our loving Savior. May we not conform to the patterns of unforgiveness found all around us, but instead cast our hope on heaven and let go of that which the world would deem rightfully ours. May we commit scandals of grace that the lost cannot comprehend and the world cannot explain. May the love of our heavenly Father shine through us as we run out to meet the weak and sinful at their point of need and offer them mercy and compassion.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” May we gain everything as we seek to love others with God’s compassion and grace. May we love beyond what the world understands and offer grace beyond what anyone could expect. Take time in guided prayer to allow God to fill you with a fresh revelation of the grace you’ve been shown. Allow your Father to fill you with his heart for others. And ask the Holy Spirit to transform you into a minister of his divine grace today.

Guided Prayer:

1. Allow God to fill you with a fresh revelation of his limitless grace. Meditate on Scripture and allow it to fill your heart with thanksgiving at how compassionate your heavenly Father is.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” >Ephesians 2:8-9

“So that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” >Titus 3:7

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” >John 3:16

2. Ask your heavenly Father to fill you with his heart for others.Ask him to whom he wants to offer grace through you today. Ask him how you can reveal his love and compassionate heart to the lost around you.

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” >Matthew 5:16

3. Ask the Holy Spirit to transform you into a minister of his divine grace. Ask him to give you the courage and perspective to love, forgive, and show grace to the undeserving.

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” >2 Corinthians 9:8

The father in the parable of the prodigal son didn’t hesitate to show his rebellious child grace. He ran out to meet him at his point of greatest need and restored him to the life for which he had been born. Don’t hesitate to show grace today. Don’t wait to be used by your heavenly Father. Run out to meet those who are at their lowest points. Affirm and encourage those who have given up on themselves. Love and restore those who feel shame and helplessness. May your heavenly Father use you in powerful ways to reveal his loving grace to a world in desperate need of unmerited mercy.

Extended Reading: Matthew 18

What I Really Need Most..... LYSA TERKEURST

 What I Really Need Most

LYSA TERKEURST

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12 (ESV) 

Have you ever struggled because you know God can do anything, but you can’t understand why He doesn’t seem to be intervening in your situation right now?

You’re trying to hang on to hope, but the more time passes without any apparent change, the harder it is.

In Proverbs 13:12, we’re told, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” The word “deferred” in this verse refers to a hopeless situation that feels long and drawn out. It’s the seemingly unending and disappointing kind of season that can leave us tempted to look at our lives and question, Why is God withholding this from me? Since He’s not intervening, I’ll just try to fix it myself in my way.

This dangerous assumption is reminiscent of when Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve were free to eat from any other tree in the garden. But Eve listened to the enemy. She got alone with her own thoughts and assumptions. And it led her to doubt her Father. Instead of heeding His instruction, (Proverbs 13:1) she took control to get what she wanted. What she thought was best. (Genesis 3)

And as soon as she and Adam ate the forbidden fruit …
Perfection ended.
Curses began.
Consequences were unleashed.
And they were banished from the garden.

If only Eve would have noticed the other tree in the garden with her. The tree of life. The tree of God’s best way and perfect provision. It was there for her. She had a choice.

And so do we.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil may not be in our physical sight today, but Satan is certainly making use of that same sense of disappointment, of our hope deferred. He wants us to be so consumed with our unmet expectations that our hearts just get more and more self-reliant and sick of waiting on God.

But God wants us to look to the tree of life.

Charles Spurgeon once preached, “My dear friends, you will never see the tree of life aright unless you first look at the cross … Thus then, Jesus Christ hanging on the cross is the tree of life in its wintertime.”

In the darkest hour this world has ever known, Jesus died on a cross, or “on a tree,” as Galatians 3:13 puts it in most English Bible translations. But just as we know that trees in the wintertime only appear to be dead, so there was a redemptive transformation at work as Jesus hung on the cross.

Your life may be dark and confusing today. But make no mistake — there is a powerful work happening. And Jesus wants us to hear Him saying, “Eve turned to the wrong tree and received death. I hung on a tree to bring you back to life. I am the fulfillment of your every longing. I am your Tree of Life. Look to Me.”

Let’s make a different choice than Eve did. Turn from the deep desire to know all of the reasons and to control all of the outcomes. That knowledge would be a burden, and attempting to control it all will do nothing but entangle you with anxiety and fear.

That’s why God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge it would give them was a burden God never wanted them to carry. And maybe that’s why we don’t have all the answers to our “why” questions. God isn’t trying to be distant or mysterious or hard to understand. He’s being merciful.

We don’t have to know the plan to trust there is a plan. We don’t have to feel good to trust there is good coming. We don’t have to see evidence of change to trust that it won’t always be this hard.

We just have to close our physical eyes and turn our thoughts to Jesus. Fix our thoughts on Him. Say His Name over and over and over. And know that we can trust our Father’s heart and His plans.

Father God, You keep showing me that I don’t need answers. I need Jesus. Help me stop the madness of my own assumptions of how things must turn out. My soul was made for assurance. And that is exactly what You have given me. The divine assurance of Your Son. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

How Humility and Obedience Go Hand in Hand..... by Jennifer Waddle

 How Humility and Obedience Go Hand in Hand

by Jennifer Waddle

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY: And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. - Philippians 2:8

Jesus humbled Himself many times and in many ways during His life on earth. At the age of twelve, He humbly obeyed His parents by leaving the temple and His “Father’s business” to return home with them. (Luke 2:41-52) He humbled Himself when being baptized by John, fulfilling all righteousness. (Matthew 3:13-17) And, Jesus served His disciples in humility by washing their feet as an example of servanthood to them. (John 13:1-17)

There was, however, no greater example of humility than that of Jesus’ obedience to death on the cross. He chose to humble Himself, despite the immense battle raging within His soul.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:36-39

In the face of intense sorrow, even to the point of death, Jesus humbled Himself in perfect obedience to the Father. He wasn’t afraid to ask that the cup be taken from Him—that God would perhaps deliver Him from suffering—but in the end, Jesus surrendered His will.

“Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Humility and Obedience go hand in hand. Without one, the other is nearly impossible. It’s like the example of a child, when told to clean their room, who stomps down the hall and slams the door. Eventually, the child has a choice. He can either humbly accept the parent’s instruction and clean his room, or he can remain stubbornly defiant.

We, too, have a choice. When called by God to do hard things, we can cross our arms in defiance, or, we can humbly accept the command. It may take some wrestling through prayer, just as Jesus portrayed in the garden of Gethsemane, but ultimately, true obedience will follow humility.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:5-8

Living Water..... by Kelly Givens

 Living Water

by Kelly Givens

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring welling up to eternal life.” – John 4:13-14

The last time I visited Washington D.C.,  a lot of construction was going on at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. It was no sight worth seeing - all that was there was dry concrete and construction cones. But after nearly two years and $34 million worth of renovation, the pool was finally filled and ready to be enjoyed by tourists once again. Unfortunately, less than a month after reopening, the pool was no longer reflecting. Instead, it was full of algae. Visitors described it as similar to “split pea soup.” Disgusting! You would never know all the money and time that went into renovating it.

I can’t help but see a similarity between the reflecting pool and our own hearts. We so often put on our “Sunday best,” attended every church function, volunteer and do ministry in order to fix ourselves and mask our sin problems, but no matter what we do, eventually our algae-like sin comes back.

Algae can grow easily in the reflecting pool because it is shallow and small. Likewise, sin keeps growing when we draw from our own shallow and small resources to fix ourselves up. But the resources Jesus has to offer are better than ours - when we let him fix us, we are drawing from deep, pure water brimming with eternal life.

Jesus says that when we drink of the water he gives, that it becomes in us “a spring welling up to eternal life.” What does that mean? I imagine it’s like God going to the reflecting pool in D.C. and carving out a pool so deep, vast and pure that no algae could ever form. It’s nothing man could ever make, but the solution is permanent and beautiful.

Without Christ, we’re incapable of changing. We can buy all the self-help books, practice all the latest “live your best life” tricks and tips and do every good Christian thing there is to do, but if we are drawing on our own abilities instead of God’s, we will never stop growing sin. Thankfully, Christ has offered us a solution that will be killing the sin in us. It’s himself - the spring of eternal life.

Intersecting Faith and Life: Reflect on your past week - how often have you tried to cover up or fix your sin by putting on a smile and doing a lot of good deeds? Remember, it’s not about what you do; it’s about what Christ has done. We can never do enough renovations on our lives to fix our sin, and that’s okay, because through Jesus our sins are pardoned and we’re invited to drink his water of eternal life.

Further Reading: John 3:16, Romans 6:23, 1 Timothy 1:15-16

A Prayer to Celebrate the “Thorns” in Life..... By: Maggie Meadows Cooper

 A Prayer to Celebrate the “Thorns” in Life

By: Maggie Meadows Cooper

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Thorn: a source of discomfort, annoyance, or difficulty; an irritation or obstacle.

You know how God knows just what you need? And loves to arrange an opportunity to put you in your place, and ultimately teach you what living for Him is all about? Well, as soon as I found out that the name of my little one's soccer team was the Thorns, I knew it was no coincidence... and that He was up to something.

My littlest has challenged me in ways I couldn't have imagined. She has pushed me and stretched me as a mama. And the truth is, the Lord knew I needed her... to see how much I needed Him.

There might have been a few times her behavior as a toddler felt like "a thorn in my side," so I must admit that the team name made me giggle.

And recently, as I cheered her on and yelled, "Go Thorns!" it hit me how ironic that sounds. Thorns are not things we would normally cheer for. They aren't something we want to have in our lives. But just like Paul, we all need them. And here's why:

"...So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Hard things are not fun. But when we are weak, when we are "less than," those are the moments when He can shine. When we realize His strength is all we have...and all we need. Without those hard things...those irritations, obstacles, and difficulties...we might think we can make it on our own. And make ourselves greater than the One who holds the world, and our "worlds,” in the palm of His hand.

My littlest is a gift, just like my other babies, but when she was a toddler having a tantrum in the middle of Winn Dixie, I have to admit that I wasn't thinking "Go Thorns!" However, looking back, the Lord has grown my faith because of those moments.

"So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." 2 Corinthians 4:18

With that perspective in mind, one focused on eternity and not the world we can see right here, we might need to yell, "Go Thorns!" next time a hard thing comes. Because those are the moments that bring us closer to Jesus.

And that's worth celebrating, my sweet friends.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for all of the ways you are working in my life, even through the hard things. Please forgive me for doubting and losing faith at times, and help me to seek your strength, wisdom, and words as you use the “thorns” in life for my good and Your glory. 

In Your Mighty Name,

Amen