A Living Hope ... Dr. Charles Stanley

 A Living Hope

Dr. Charles Stanley

1 Peter 1:3-5

Believers are born into a living hope. However, people who are without Christ have no foundation for their expectations and desires. Many live with a false sense of security. They assume that what is important in this life is the physical and material. But there is no safety in things (1 Tim. 6:9). Those who pursue wealth and health rather than God find that their dreams either go unfulfilled or fail to satisfy.

Believers anchor their hope in the solid rock of Jesus Christ. His words are always true and His promises always kept. I'll sometimes hear a person project his or her unfulfilled desires on God and then argue that He came up short. But Christians who make a request and submit to God's will always get an answer—yes, no, or wait.

The Lord does not disappoint those who seek His will. Don't misunderstand that statement. We might feel temporarily let down when something we hope for is not in God's plan. But He doesn't go back on the biblical promise to give His children the best (Isa. 48:17; 64:4). When one door closes, there is another about to open with something better behind it. Friends, the Lord cannot be outdone. We can't even wish ourselves as much good as God has in store.

The best choice a Christian can make is to fix his or her hope on the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome whatever fits His will for your life, and turn away from all that does not. Circumstances may shift and change, but Jesus never does. He is a living hope who never disappoints.

Make Space for God to Fill..... Craig Denison

 

Make Space for God to Fill

Craig Denison

Weekly Overview:

As this year comes to a close, it’s vital that we take time to both reflect on what God has done and allow him to prepare us for what’s to come. A new year marks a fresh opportunity to center our lives around the goodness of God. I pray that as you begin looking toward what is to come you will make space to gain God’s perspective, ground your hopes and pursuits on his grace, and celebrate all that God has done and is doing. May your time with God this week be filled with the loving presence of your heavenly Father.

Scripture:“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10

Devotional:

The story of Mary, Martha, and Jesus found in Luke 10 encapsulates God’s longing for simple, unfettered relationship with his children. As this year comes to a close I pray that this story would set a fire in our hearts to live out of unhindered union with our heavenly Father. I pray that we would seek to continually make space in our lives for the one thing that truly matters. Scripture says in Luke 10:38-42,

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

I want my life to be centered around “the good portion.” I want all my days to be marked by choosing to sit at the feet of Jesus rather than living a life based solely on works. At the end of my life, I want to look back and know that I sought relationship with my God above all else, and that I gave him my heart in and out of every season, no matter the cost.

The simple truth of Christian spirituality is that God longs to fill whatever space we make available to him with his nearness. The gift he gives us that far surpasses a spouse, a job, a family, earthly success, or financial stability is simply himself. The heartcry of our heavenly Father is simply this, “Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4).

What would it look like if your chief New Year’s resolution was making space for God to fill? What other desires of your heart would that take care of? How wonderful would it be to experience the transcendent peace and joy that comes from centering your life around meeting with God? How continually satisfied would you feel in consistently receiving the powerful love of your heavenly Father?

Take time today to reflect on what truly matters. Take time to choose “the good portion” that your life might be centered around he who alone has the power to truly satisfy your every longing. May your year be marked by unhindered union with the God who fills you with his greatest gift: himself.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on God being “the good portion.” Allow the story of Mary, Martha, and Jesus to fill you with a longing to seek relationship with God above all else.

“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’” Luke 10:38-42

2. Take time to make space for God to fill. Open your heart to him and center your focus on his nearness. Allow Scripture to fill you with faith to receive all he has to offer.

“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” 1 Chronicles 16:11

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

3. Rest in the nearness of God. Cast aside all other concerns, fears, and reservations and simply be with God. He will guide you into all you need, but relationship with him should always be centered around simply sitting at his feet.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” Psalm 139:7-10

If you center your life around abiding in God, your year will be filled with remarkable, heavenly, and eternal impact. May John 15:1-5 fill you with a desire to abide in God that all you do this year may yield lasting fruit:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Extended Reading: Psalm 139

Doing Hard Things Afraid..... SHALA W. GRAHAM

 Doing Hard Things Afraid

SHALA W. GRAHAM

“We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy …” ‭‭Colossians 1:11 (NLT) ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

As I stood with my hands raised and one foot forward, the floor looked so far away. I was nervous. I was paralyzed. I had already done it successfully once that morning, but fear gripped me. Each time I tried again, fear foiled my follow-through.

At my gym that morning, we were working on skills for handstand push-ups, starting with kick-ups. I know … Why would I ever want to do that?! But there I was, doing a front handspring into a wall so that I would end in a handstand against the wall.

Kick-ups were not new to me. When I had done my first kick-up since returning to the gym back in April 2021, I’d gone upside down with surprising ease and held great form against the wall. Ya girl still has it!

But it was the coming out of the handstand where the pandemic pounds had gotten me. I had not prepared for the speed at which gravity would pull my now heavier leg out of the handstand. Practically doing the splits in the air, I’d pulled a muscle in my derrière. Classy, just classy, Shala!

The muscle wasn’t fully healed even several months later. So now, when I came out of my first kick-up that morning, I reinjured the muscle. I felt the pull. It hurt. I had a reason to be afraid. But the pain wasn’t too terrible, so I continued my workout. My coach came over to help me, but she just made me more nervous. Now someone is going to watch me fail? No ma’am!

I stood there staring at the wall as I prayed. God, why am I so afraid? Why can’t I do this? I know I can do it. Come on, Jesus! Let’s go!

After a pep talk with the Lord, inviting Jesus to join me in my upside-down battle, I regained my confidence. I completed three beautiful kick-ups despite the fear and the pain. I endured and walked away from the wall, feeling like a champ.

When I choose a word for the year, I add it, alongside my memory verse, to the wallpaper on my computer and phone. “Endure” was the word I chose for 2021. I had no idea what I was walking into in 2021, but I sensed it would require endurance. And this year, I’ve repeatedly leaned into my verse for the year, whether working out in the gym or fighting for God’s will in my home.

2021 has been a year where I felt like every day was a new opportunity to patiently endure and do hard things. I still feel the fear and the pain, but I decide to do it anyway. I do it afraid. I do it because God is with me, and He strengthens me with all His glorious power. When I ask, He shows up. And every time He shows up, my confidence and joy grow.

As Paul says in Colossians 1:11, “We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy …” (emphasis added).

As the year comes to a close tonight, I hope you take inventory of all the ways you have been strengthened and how you have endured. And I hope you look forward to the new year with an indescribable joy because, despite all the things that came against you in 2021, you are still here. And when that hard thing that you know you can do — that God is calling you to do — stares you down … do it, even if you are doing it afraid.

Father, it feels like a miracle to make it through another year in a pandemic. I’m grateful to have life. I thank You for all the moments You strengthened me with Your power. As I move into 2022, I choose joy as I courageously do what You have prepared in advance for me to do. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Praying God’s Will for One Another... By Lynette Kittle

 Praying God’s Will for One Another 

By Lynette Kittle

Today's Bible Verse: “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” - James 5:16

Prayer is powerful and effective, and God’s word tells us to pray for each other so that we can be healed of the wounds, hurts, disappointments, and failures suffered in a fallen world.

Yet even in praying for one another, an effort seeming so selfless and noble, we can be tempted to be prideful and to follow our own thinking in how to pray for each other.

In the “Jung Frankenstein” episode of the sitcom, Kings of Queens, the lead character Doug Heffernan (Kevin James), starts seeing a therapist about his overeating habits. When his wife on the show Carrie Heffernan (Leah Remini), sees the positive results occurring from his visits, she starts thinking of the ways she would like him to grow and improve in ways to make her life better.

Her observances lead her to start passing notes to his therapist, pressuring him to direct her husband’s counseling sessions in ways that will benefit her. As she sees noted improvements in Doug’s behaviors and attitudes, Carrie starts adding more and more items to her list of what she wants the counselor to address.

How Am I Praying for Others?

While watching the show’s storyline play out, it challenged me to examine myself to see how I’m praying for others. It encouraged me to ask myself if I ever attempt to use the same type of approach with God, as Carrie did with Doug’s therapist?

Do I ever try to direct God through my prayers to do what I want Him to do in another’s life, instead of seeking His will in how to pray for them? Do I find myself asking God to lead my husband, children, coworkers, and friends in ways I want them to go?

Likewise, how do I pray for my enemies, for those who hate me? Am I praying out of my own hurt and selfish desires for them, or am I truly seeking to pray God’s will for their lives?

Scripture advises to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

Yet how often am I tempted to think I know better how to pray for someone? Still, Romans 12:3 warns us to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

Of course, unlike the counselor, we can’t push, bully, or twist God’s arm to do what we think He should be doing in their lives. However, when we submit to His will in how to pray for them, our prayers have the potential to be powerful and effective in their lives.

How Do We Pray God’s Will For One Another?

So how do we pray God’s will for one another rather than our own?

We can start by asking to God help us to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in praying for one another. “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Ephesians 6:18)

As well we can filter our prayers for one another through God’s word, by correctly handling His word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15), so that we are praying His will for them rather than our own.

The Redemptive Value of New Year's Resolutions..... by Mike Pohlman

 The Redemptive Value of New Year's Resolutions

by Mike Pohlman

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 3:13-14

Thinking about New Years and what resolutions I want to make this year. I, for one, see God's grace in the close of one year and the dawn of another. This yearly cycle gives us the opportunity to take inventory of where we stand in relation to our Creator; are we seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33)? The New Year can be a time for "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead," to recommit ourselves to "setting our minds on things above" (Colossians 3:1-4).

To help me in this endeavor I've enlisted Steven Lawson and his fine book on Jonathan Edwards: The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards, of course, is probably best known for his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” But there is far more to appreciate about this eighteenth-century pastor. Benjamin Warfield referred to Edwards as a “figure of real greatness in the intellectual life of colonial America.” And Edwards scholar George Marsden considers him “the most acute American philosopher.” But perhaps the Englishman Martyn Lloyd-Jones said it best: “I am tempted, perhaps foolish, to compare the Puritans to the Alps, Luther and Calvin to the Himalayas, and Jonathan Edwards to Mount Everest! He has always seemed to me the man most like the Apostle Paul.”

Lawson's aim with his book is "to challenge a new generation of believers to pursue holiness in their daily lives" by focusing on Edwards' seventy "Resolutions" (Amazingly, Edwards wrote these resolutions in 1722 and 1723 when he was just eighteen and nineteen-years-old).

Lawson chose to focus on Edwards' "Resolutions" given how well they demonstrate the towering virtue of his life, namely, his piety. "In short, though Edwards was intellectually brilliant and theologically commanding, his true greatness lay in his indefatigable zeal for the glory of God."

Consider Resolution #1:

Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and the most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.

Edwards was resolved, regardless of the difficulty, to live for the glory of God, his own pleasure (in God) and the good of mankind generally. Profound and convicting.

Now, notice what this puritan - this relic of centuries ago - says in Resolution #2:

Resolved, to be continually endeavoring to find out some new invention and contrivance to promote the aforementioned things.

We don’t usually associate Jonathan Edwards with “innovation” or “cutting edge thinking.” And yet, here he is resolved to continually dream up ways to advance the glory of God.

I want to do that this year. I want to be resolved to live for the glory of God, to find my pleasure in Him and the good of mankind generally. And I want to do this with a determined, vigorous and biblically-wise analysis of ways I can do it better.

Intersecting Faith & Life: What new ways can you think of to advance the glory of God, your pleasure in Him and the good of mankind? And don’t just think innovation. Perhaps what is "old" should become new again.

A Prayer to Keep God First This New Year..... By Debbie McDaniel

 A Prayer to Keep God First This New Year

By Debbie McDaniel

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” -  2 Cor. 5:17

Dear God,

Thank you that you make all things new. Thank you for all that you've allowed into our lives this past year, the good along with the hard things, which have reminded us how much we need you and rely on your presence filling us every single day.

We pray for your Spirit to lead us each step of this New Year. We ask that you will guide our decisions and turn our hearts to deeply desire you above all else. We ask that you will open doors needing to be opened and close the ones needing to be shut tight. We ask that you would help us release our grip on the things to which you’ve said “no,” “not yet,” or “wait.” We ask for help to pursue you first, above every dream and desire you’ve put within our hearts.

We ask for your wisdom, for your strength and power to be constantly present within us. We pray you would make us strong and courageous for the road ahead. Give us ability beyond what we feel able, let your gifts flow freely through us, so that you would be honored by our lives, and others would be drawn to you.

We pray that you’d keep us far from the snares and traps of temptations. That you would whisper in our ear when we need to run, and whisper in our heart when we need to stand our ground.

We pray for your protection over our families and friends. We ask for your hand to cover us and keep us distanced from the evil intent of the enemy; that you would be a barrier to surround us, that we’d be safe in your hands. We pray that you would give us discernment and insight beyond our years, to understand your will, hear your voice, and know your ways.

We ask that you would keep our footsteps firm, on solid ground, helping us to be consistent and faithful. Give us supernatural endurance to stay the course, not swerving to the right or to the left, or being too easily distracted by other things that would seek to call us away from a close walk with you.

Forgive us for the times we have worked so hard to be self-sufficient, forgetting our need for you, living independent of your spirit. Forgive us for letting fear and worry control our minds, and for allowing pride and selfishness wreak havoc over our lives. Forgive us for not following your ways and for living distant from your presence.

We confess our need for you… fresh… new… again. We ask that you make all things new, in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives, for this coming year. We pray for your refreshing over us.

Keep your words of truth planted firm within us, help us to keep focused on what is pure and right, give us the power to be obedient to your word. And when the enemy reminds us where we have been, hissing his lies and attacks our way, we trust that your voice speaks louder and stronger, as you remind us we are safe with you and your purposes and plans will not fail. We ask that you will be our defense and rear guard, keeping our way clear, removing the obstacles, and covering the pitfalls. Lord, lead us on your level ground.

We ask that you would provide for our needs, we ask for your grace and favor. We pray for your blessings to cover us, we pray that you would help us to prosper and make every plan that you have birthed in our heart to succeed. We pray that others would take notice of your goodness and could not help but to say, “These are the ones that the Lord has blessed.”

Help us to be known as great givers, help us to be generous and kind, help us to look to the needs of others and not be consumed by only our own. May we be lovers of truth, may the fruits of your spirit be evident in our lives - your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Shine your light in us, through us, over us. May we make a difference in this world, for your glory and purposes. Set you way before us. May all your plans succeed. We may reflect your peace and hope to a world that so desperately needs your presence and healing.

To you be glory and honor, in this New Year, and forever.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen.