Avoiding Compromise..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 Avoiding Compromise

Dr. Charles Stanley

Proverbs 2

Although the temptation to compromise threatens every believer, we don't have to give in. If we're aware of the danger and understand the downward progression and ultimate consequences, we can determine to be vigilant in obedience to the Lord.

The first step in learning how to avoid compromise is understanding why it is so tempting. When others pressure us to take part in in what we know God has forbidden, it's easy to give in because we don't want to feel rejected. But anyone who's committed to living a godly life must be willing to stand alone and face ridicule or even persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). At other times, we consent to activities that violate our conscience just to avoid conflict, but peace at any price means we have to sacrifice obedience to God.

However, the temptation to compromise doesn't always originate with others. In fact, James 1:14 says we are tempted when we're carried away by our own lusts. How many Christians have fallen into sexual immorality or pornography by desiring a second look? Greed is another motivation that drives us to compromise. If you fudge on your income tax or take a few things home from the office, you've stepped over the line of obedience to God. Our choices should be based on scriptural truth, not on our feelings and desires.

In order to stand firm against compromise, we must make God's Word the standard for our conduct. If you begin each day with the Lord in His Word, He will guide your way. Then when the Spirit gives a warning, obey immediately, because giving consideration to the temptation opens a door for Satan.

Making the Most of Our Time..... Craig Denison

 

Making the Most of Our Time

 Craig Denison

Weekly Overview:

This life is marked by a single choice: who or what will we center our lives around? This choice takes each of us down a path of decisions that shape who we are, what we feel, who or what we value, and what we will have accomplished at the end of our days. To center our lives around ourselves or the things of this world leads only to destruction. But, to center our lives around meeting with God fills each moment with the glorious abundance of God’s love, provision, and transcendent peace. May your life be marked by union with your Creator as we explore what it means to center our lives around meeting with God this week.

Scripture:“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16

Devotional:           

Ephesians 5:15-16 warns us, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” Our time is of the utmost importance here on earth. We’ll never get back the days we spend frivolously pursuing the things of the world. We’ll never get back the time spent outside of God’s purposes of receiving and giving love. Our time here is too limited and too important to spend on burdens, stresses, sin, and worldly pursuits. If we’re going to make the most of this life, we must learn to center our time around the eternal value of meeting with God. It’s for this reason James 4:13-15 says,

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Looking at the ways in which we spend our time is one of the best ways to assess the posture of our heart. If we spend all our time working for and thinking about the things of the world, we can know that we have not yet come into a right revelation of God’s purposes for us. If we spend the majority of our time simply getting through our days trying to find happiness rather than seeking the face of our heavenly Father that we might receive sustaining, transcendent joy, we can know that we have yet to surrender our lives fully to our King.            

The great thing about the nature of time is that it is completely ours to do with what we will. We can, right now, decide to make the best use of our time according to the purposes of God as revealed to us through Scripture. We can, right now, decide to stop wasting precious minutes on that which is fleeting and temporal and instead invest our days in the lasting, eternal, and fruitful purposes of our heavenly Father.

Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” God longs to teach us how to use our days wisely. He longs to give us a heart of wisdom that we might center our lives around meeting with him. You have God himself dwelling within you, ready to guide you into a lifestyle of purposeful living. Choose today to open your heart and mind to the Teacher, the very Spirit of God, and live according to his will. May you find peace, joy, and purpose in the ways in which you invest your time today.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the importance of using your time wisely.

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you any ways in which you’ve been using your time unwisely. Know that he is not a God who takes away all the things you enjoy. He’s not anti-entertainment, friends, and parties. He’s a fun God who truly loves you. Don’t mix religion and the heart of your heavenly Father. Trust that whatever he leads you to change will result in the absolute most fun, fruitful, and satisfying way you can live.

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” James 4:13-15

3. Ask God to help you spend your time wisely today. Ask him to help you follow his direction as you go about the day set before you.

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” John 16:7           

You can trust that God has the absolute best plan for your time. Matthew 6:8 promises, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” He has every one of your needs sorted out. He will provide for you perfectly. You can trust him with your life and know that your job, family, and circumstances will be better in the capable and loving hands of your heavenly Father. Devote your time, job, money, and relationships to him that they might be filled with the blessing of God.

Extended Reading: Ephesians 5

Trust Him With the Unexpected..... IZABELLA MCMILLON

 Trust Him With the Unexpected

IZABELLA MCMILLON

“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14 (NIV)

Exodus 14:14 has become for me one of the most quoted verses in the past year. I have been inserting my name in this verse quite a bit: “The LORD will fight for you, [Izabella]; you need only to be still.”

You see, I do not do “still” very well. I prefer being busy and doing something about my circumstances rather than just waiting and being still.

The stillness and waiting-room posture of a worldwide pandemic became quite a challenge for me last year as my dad was diagnosed with cancer. He was an ocean away in Romania, and I literally had no choice but to be “still” … but that did not mean the Lord was not at work.

There have been many times in my life when I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the Lord was fighting on my behalf. The hard times I would not have asked for were the times that taught me most about God’s character, and I slowly learned how to trust Him with the unexpected.

I did not ask for religious persecution in communist Romania while hiding a Bible in the floorboard of our tiny apartment. I did not ask for never-ending lines to get bread to eat or items to meet my family's basic needs. I did not ask for mental illness to rock our family to the core.

But unexpectedly, I experienced God’s supernatural protection while attending an underground church and received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift that demonstrated God's intimate love for me for the first time. I experienced miraculous provisions through the kindness of God’s people. I also experienced the protection of my mind and heart through the deep valleys of my mom’s paranoid schizophrenia.

I discovered along the way that God was not surprised by my circumstances; He knew and loved me deeply. God never once stopped fighting for me as a child in Romania. And He has not stopped fighting for me as an adult who, like the Israelites in Exodus, encounters my own “Red Sea” moments. What might have been unexpected for me was already part of His plan.

In reading Exodus, I learned some good lessons from the Israelites. They were facing unexpected circumstances, and God had a big plan in place for it all. God had rescued the Israelites from 400 years of captivity, and Pharaoh’s hardened heart had finally softened. Although Pharaoh’s change of heart was short-lived, God still fought for the Israelites even as the Egyptian army pursued them.

The Israelites, who were spiritually and emotionally weak, stood staring into the Red Sea with no choice but to wait for God to act. Moses told the Israelites, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:13-14, NIV). Then God parted the Red Sea.

Can you imagine? Standing still and keeping silent with an army behind you and a sea before you? Then can you imagine the unfolding of God’s plan that followed as they watched the Red Sea part before them?

The God we serve can do that! He has promised to fight for us just as He fought for His people at the Red Sea, just as He fought for my heart through the Bible in the floorboards of my home, and the shoebox gift packed just for me. The challenges we face are important opportunities for our faith to grow. What might be a huge roadblock or heartache to us is still redeemable in the unfolding of His plan.

Be encouraged and find rest in the promise of His Word that He loves and cares for each one of us. And today, trust Him with the unexpected.

Heavenly Father, thank You for fighting on our behalf in every battle we face. You are never surprised by our circumstances. Help us to trust You and the unfolding of Your plans daily. Help us to stand still and recognize You in every battle. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

When Anxious Thoughts Tie You in Knots..... By: Anne Peterson

 When Anxious Thoughts Tie You in Knots

By: Anne Peterson

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7

No matter what the beginning of our year was like, once the pandemic hit, nothing has been the same. We don’t act the same, we don’t feel the same and with partial coverings over our faces, we don’t look the same. We’re not certain about what will happen in the coming months and even in the coming weeks.

So how do we face each day without worry and fear? What is the answer to our anxious thoughts? I don’t want to give you a pat answer here. But I’m going to give you the only one I’ve found helpful. Prayer. And it’s not even my idea, but it was from the Apostle Paul, who often was tempted to feel anxious.

Paul, the one who would sing as he was shackled in prison, tells us how he found peace no matter what situation Paul found himself in. We go to God.

In fact, the only one who doesn’t want us to go to God in our anxiety is the enemy of our soul, Satan. He wants us to devour all the news we can till we find ourselves tied up in knots. And there we sit, paralyzed with fear of the unknown, and anxious thoughts that fly around our troubled heads like pesky gnats.

Paul tells us to bring everything before the Lord because Paul knew God’s character. God is sovereign, which means supreme. God isn’t surprised by anything we discover. He’s omniscient which means all-knowing. He’s omnipresent, which means always present. He’s omnipotent, which means all-powerful.

Satan wants us to worry and to believe that God has forsaken us. God told us that he would never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). And we know God means what he says. He’s not a man that he should lie (Numbers 23:19).

So, what do we do when we start entertaining some of those lies? How can we get our eyes back on the Lord? We can do this by corralling our thoughts and bringing them into captivity (2 Corinthians 10:5).

I visualize something to make this concept clear to me. I gather up all my thoughts and bring them to Jesus. And he hands back to me only the thoughts he thinks are worth keeping. And I’m not surprised to find the ones Jesus hands me are those that Paul talked about.

God tells us we are to think of things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). Those are the things God wants us to dwell on. And isn’t the Lord, all those things? And don’t all those things pertain to God?

When I go for a walk I spend time singing to the Lord and bringing my concerns to him. I know God has given us access to his throne room. It’s open all the time. Like little children, we can go right in and climb on God’s lap, telling him whatever is troubling us. Nothing is too small, not to the one who created butterfly wings.

So the next time your worries tie you in knots, take them to God. Knots are his specialty.

Knots

I’m trying to untangle, Lord,
these stubborn knots I see.
But every single time I try
they’re getting worse for me.

And then I see Him smiling
as he takes them in his hands.
And I just watch with wonder
as he loosens every strand.

© Anne Peterson

The Context of Stillness..... By Katherine Britton

 The Context of Stillness

By Katherine Britton

"Be still, and know that I am God." - Psalm 46:10

How many times have you heard this verse? A hundred? A thousand? This snippet of a psalm is a pet verse of mine. It constantly pops into my head when I start getting too busy or stressed out. Ironically, I hadn't taken time to read the whole psalm in months until the other night, and I had no recollection of the verses surrounding my favorite one-liner. Here's a sampling of the other verses in Psalm 46:

"Though the earth gives way…" (vs. 2)

"Though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea…" (vs. 2)

"The nations rage, the kingdoms totter…" (vs. 6)

"Be still and know that I am God… I will be exalted in the earth!" (vs. 10)

"The God of Jacob is our fortress." (vs. 11)

I had been picturing an idyllic, Psalm-23-ish passage as the setting for my pet verse, but the context is completely different. This psalm is actually the meditation of a man holding back fear with faith. In a setting of uncertainty, war, and all-around "trouble" (vs. 1), the psalmist focuses on the peace that comes from being the presence of God... even though the earth around him threatens to fall apart. The verse holds even more power in this context than in my imagined setting, doesn't it?

I love the Psalms because of their deep meditations on humanity confronted with God's holiness and faithfulness. I can see real men writing the lines, reminding themselves of the bigger context for their troubles. I see people who - like me - wondered what would happen next in this life. But every one of them comes to the realization that they serve a God who supersedes their worries and replaces them with worship. The psalmists heard the command to "be still and know" and found that God blew their imaginations.

I often look at looming elections and financial woes and start getting jittery, wondering about outcomes and impacts. In times like this, I slip into a mentality that thinks "being still" and listening to God can only happen in Psalm 23's green pastures. But the real context of Psalm 46 tells me otherwise. God's amazing peace works most powerfully when the world's craziness reaches a crescendo. Hope lives amid despair, not perfection. Like they say, context is everything.

Intersection of Faith & Life: Look up your favorite one-liners of the Bible today, and read the surrounding passages and chapters. How does the context add to your understanding of the verse? What more does it reveal about living the Christian faith?

Further Reading:

Psalm 37

A Prayer for the Weary Mother..... By: Emily Rose Massey

 A Prayer for the Weary Mother

By: Emily Rose Massey

“And He [Jesus] sat down and called the Twelve [disciples], and He said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he must be last of all, and servant of all.” And He took a little child and put him in the center of their group; and taking him in [His] arms, He said to them, "Whoever in My name and for My sake accepts and receives and welcomes one such child also accepts and receives and welcomes Me; and whoever so receives Me receives not only Me but Him Who sent Me” (Mark: 35-37, AMP).

As a mom of three boys, my “quiet time” is not really quiet. It’s full of tiny distractions and interruptions from these little ones. Nap times are quite short and to-do lists are quite long. My days seem to go by in the blink of an eye, and I’m often left exhausted, only getting the chance to pray “Help me, Lord” in between homeschooling, my writing deadlines, continuous snack requests, laundry loads and diaper “loads.” Knowing very well that this season in life won’t last forever, I have learned to cast my cares upon the Lord and soak up the few moments that I can in the Word of God because it is what I need to readjust my focus when I’m tempted to complain.

The other day, a passage in Mark 9 met this momma right among the blissful chaos with encouragement:

“And He [Jesus] sat down and called the Twelve [disciples], and He said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he must be last of all, and servant of all.” And He took a little child and put him in the center of their group; and taking him in [His] arms, He said to them, “Whoever in My name and for My sake accepts and receives and welcomes one such child also accepts and receives and welcomes Me; and whoever so receives Me receives not only Me but Him Who sent Me” (35-37, AMP).

By putting my sons and my role as a mom and wife above my desires and my life’s goals, I have been serving Jesus this whole time! And if serving Jesus, worshiping Jesus!

And if that wasn’t uplifting enough, Jesus calls out our service to children specifically in verses 36-37. When we welcome our children into our lives and make them feel loved and accepted every day, we are also welcoming them in the name of the Lord Jesus every day. Jesus compares being the servant of all, a high position in the Kingdom of God, to those who welcome children into their lives. What an honor!

So, to all my tired and overwhelmed mommas out there, take heart! Every time you embrace your child and serve your family, you are embracing Jesus and even more so, your Heavenly Father who is not going to leave you to raise your children alone!

Father, 

We welcome you into our blissful chaos as we raise up our children to trust in You and receive Your love into their lives so that they may point others to You and Your Kingdom. We are thankful that you give us the privilege of embracing little ones every day. Give us eyes to see opportunities to share the Gospel with our children in everyday moments. We ask for your grace and strength when we are feeling overwhelmed and weary. Help us to serve You with all that we are and in everything we do…laundry loads and all.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.