Tag: control
Walk of Faith (part 2)
by Donny on Feb.27, 2010, under Uncategorized, devotionals, devotions, prayers
Psalm 25:15 (NCV)
My eyes are always looking to the Lord for help. He will keep me from any traps.
John 1:12 (NCV)
But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God.
John 7:38 (NCV)
If anyone believes in me, rivers of living water will flow out from that person’s heart, as the Scripture says.”
Acts 15:9 (NCV)
To God, those people are not different from us. When they believed, he made their hearts pure.
Romans 4:1-5 (NCV)
So what can we say that Abraham, the father of our people, learned about faith?2 If Abraham was made right by the things he did, he had a reason to brag. But this is not God’s view,3 because the Scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.”4 When people work, their pay is not given as a gift, but as something earned.5 But people cannot do any work that will make them right with God. So they must trust in him, who makes even evil people right in his sight. Then God accepts their faith, and that makes them right with him.
Romans 4:18 (NCV)
There was no hope that Abraham would have children. But Abraham believed God and continued hoping, and so he became the father of many nations. As God told him, “Your descendants also will be too many to count.”
Romans 10:4 (NCV)
Christ ended the law so that everyone who believes in him may be right with God.
Romans 11:20 (NCV)
Those branches were broken off because they did not believe, and you continue to be part of the tree only because you believe. Do not be proud, but be afraid.
1 Corinthians 2:5 (NCV)
This was so that your faith would be in God’s power and not in human wisdom.
1 Peter 2:6 (NCV)
The Scripture says: “I will put a stone in the ground in Jerusalem. Everything will be built on this important and precious rock. Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed.” (Isaiah 28:16)
2 Corinthians 1:24 (NCV)
We are not trying to control your faith. You are strong in faith. But we are workers with you for your own joy.
Ephesians 6:16 (NCV)
And also use the shield of faith with which you can stop all the burning arrows of the Evil One.
Hebrews 10:22 (NCV)
Let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:38-39 (NCV)
Those who are right with me will live by faith. But if they turn back with fear, I will not be pleased with them.” (Habakkuk 2:3–4) 39 But we are not those who turn back and are lost. We are people who have faith and are saved.
Matthew 9:28 (NCV)
After Jesus went inside, the blind men went with him. He asked the men, “Do you believe that I can make you see again?” They answered, “Yes, Lord.”
Mark 9:24 (NCV)
Immediately the father cried out, “I do believe! Help me to believe more!”
“Learning to Love Loved” by Max Lucado (UpWords Ministry)
by Donny on Feb.07, 2010, under Uncategorized, devotionals, devotions, prayers
(from MaxLucado.com)
God’s love does not hinge on yours. The abundance of your love does not increase his. The lack of your love does not diminish his. Your goodness does not enhance his love, nor does your weakness dilute it. What Moses said to Israel is what God says to us:
“The LORD did not choose you and lavish his love on you because you were larger or greater than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! It was simply because the LORD loves you.” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8 NLT)
God loves you simply because he has chosen to do so.
He loves you when you don’t feel lovely.
He loves you when no one else loves you. Others may abandon you, divorce you, and ignore you, but God will love you. Always. No matter what.
This is his sentiment: “I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies; I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.” (Romans 9:25 MSG).
This is his promise. “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” (Jeremiah 31:3 NLT).
Our love depends on the receiver of the love. Let a thousand people pass before us, and we will not feel the same about each. Our love will be regulated by their appearance, by their personalities. Even when we find a few people we like, our feelings will fluctuate. How they treat us will affect how we love them. The receiver regulates our love.
Not so with the love of God. We have no thermostatic impact on his love for us. The love of God is born from within him, not from what he finds in us. His love is uncaused and spontaneous. As Charles Wesley said, “He hath loved us. He hath loved us. Because he would love.” 1
Does he love us because of our goodness? Because of our kindness? Because of our great faith? No, he loves us because of his goodness, kindness, and great faith. John says it like this: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us” (I John 4:10 NIV).
Do you know what else that means? You have a deep aquifer of love from which to draw. When you find it hard to love, then you need a drink! Drink deeply! Drink daily!
Don’t forget, love is a fruit. Step into the orchard of God’s work, and what is the first fruit you see? “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22 NIV).
Love is a fruit. A fruit of whom? Of your hard work? Of your deep faith? Of your rigorous resolve? No. Love is a fruit of the Spirit of God. “The Spirit produces the fruit” (Galatians 5:22 NCV).
And, this is so important, you are a branch on the vine of God. “I am the vine, and you are the branches” (John 15:5 NCV). Need a refresher course on how vines function? What is the role of the branch in the bearing of fruit? Branches don’t exert a lot of energy. You never hear of gardeners treating branches for exhaustion. Branches don’t attend clinics on stress management. Nor do they groan and grunt. “I’ve got to get this grape out. I’ve got to get this grape out. I’m going to bear this grape if it kills me!”
No, the branch does none of that. The branch has one job-to receive nourishment from the vine. And you have one job-to receive nourishment from Jesus. “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing” (John 15:5 MSG).
Our Lord gets no argument from us on that last line, does he? We have learned the hard way apart from him we can’t produce a thing. Don’t you think it’s time we learn what happens if we stay attached?
His job is to bear fruit. Our job is to stay put. The more tightly we are attached to Jesus, the more purely his love can pass through us. And oh, what a love it is! Patient. Kind. Does not envy. Does not boast. Is not proud.
Let’s rewrite 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 one more time. Not with your name or Jesus’ name but with both. Read it aloud with your name in the blank, and see what you think.
Christ in _____ is patient, Christ in _____ is kind. Christ in _____ does not envy, Christ in _____ does not boast, Christ in _____ is not proud. Christ in _____ is not rude, Christ in _____ is not self-seeking, Christ in _____ is not easily angered, Christ in _____ keeps no record of wrongs. Christ in _____ does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Christ in _____ always protects, always perseveres. Christ in _____never fails.
Will we ever love like that? Will we ever love perfectly? No. This side of heaven only God will. But we will love better than we have. By being loved, we will love.
My Wish For You:
- Where there is pain, I wish you peace and mercy.
- Where there is self-doubting, I wish you a renewed confidence in your ability to work through it.
- Where there is tiredness or exhaustion, I wish you understanding, patience, and renewed strength.
- Where there is fear, I wish you love and courage.
1 J.I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, Ill,: InterVarsity Press, 1973) 112.
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Excerpted from A Love Worth Giving W Publishing, 2002
Available for purchase at MaxLucado.com
“Thank God for guardian angels!” – story by Joan Wester Anderson
by Donny on Feb.02, 2010, under Uncategorized, devotionals, devotions, prayers
(by Joan Wester Anderson)
Marie Vincze was driving on a lonely ten-mile stretch of red clay road to drop off her teenage daughter at a wilderness camp. It was hard enough to keep the car on the slippery mud and not end up in a ditch, but her three young boys were bouncing around in the back seat, and the noise was deafening. “Pray,” she heard the word in her heart just as the car slid off the road and came to a stop, its wheels stuck in the clay.
“Oh, no!” Marie opened her door and realized that the mud was almost up to the floorboard. There was no way they were going to get out of here without help.
“I could have panicked, but I decided to have faith instead,” Marie says. She turned to the three boys, now completely silent, and said, “Sing your Sunday School songs—right now!—and don’t stop until I tell you to, no matter what!” Beside her, her daughter rolled her eyes. This girl believed in nothing at the moment, unless she could see and hear it. But right now, Marie had to pray.
“God,” she began, “please remember Psalm 91 and let the angels bear us up. If I ever needed help, it’s now!” The boys continued to sing, and Marie felt peace spreading over all of them, warming their souls. Very slowly the back of her small car lifted. Marie did not ask questions—she gassed the car and somehow drove out of the ditch. The boys cheered.
“Boys, look back and see what an angel looks like!” Marie cried in delight.
“Momma, we can’t see anything,” the oldest told her.
“Well, it’s enough that he is here for us,” Marie pointed out.
“Oh, Momma…” her skeptical daughter started, but Marie interrupted.
“Don’t say anything negative. Just sit there and observe.”
The boys continued to sing, as they traveled on. Marie was still praying. “Lord, I hate to bother you, but there’s a cement road coming up. It goes over a creek, and the embankment is red clay. It drops off on each side, and I’m a little worried….” Fear gripped her for a moment as they approached the trouble spot. “Sing louder, boys!” she told them.
Taking a deep breath, Marie sped down the crossing, gunned the engine, shot up the embankment…and lost control of the car. “We started to tip over the embankment,” she says, “and then I heard a gentle tap on the car, and it moved into the center of the road,” Marie says. “It veered to another drop on the opposite side, and again it was tapped, and it straightened up.”
Again the boys cheered, and Marie gave thanks as she made it across. She wondered how her non-believing daughter was handling this wonderful occurrence, but there would be time to talk about it all later.
In just a few minutes, the car pulled safely into the camp parking lot, and Marie sighed with relief and opened her door. The mud, she noticed, had seeped all the way inside to her floorboards. Well, mud was easily removed. She got out, went around to the trunk and stopped in astonishment, as the children gathered around her. “Mom, look!” one of the boys pointed in awe. There on the back of the muddy car window was a large man’s handprint.
“God does indeed give us a hand in our daily lives,” Marie says, “and thank God for guardian angels.”
Know a Mom who needs to laugh? Check “Moms Go Where Angels Fear to Tread” on the website: http://joanwanderson.com
Copyright 2009 by Joan Wester Anderson. Published by Joan Wester Anderson, P.O. Box 127, Prospect Heights, IL 60070. For more stories of God’s love, check the blog at http://www.joanwanderson.com.
“When God Says Do or Don’t” by Charles Swindoll (Insight for Living)
by Donny on Jan.31, 2010, under Uncategorized, devotionals, devotions, prayers
(by Charles Swindoll from Insight for Living)
Deuteronomy 5:33 (NCV)
Live the way the Lord your God has commanded you so that you may live and have what is good and have a long life in the land you will take.
Now you say, “Well, what if we find a list of do’s and don’ts in Scripture?” That is a very different issue! Any specified list in Scripture is to be obeyed without hesitation or question. That’s an inspired list for all of us to follow, not someone’s personal list. Let me encourage you to guide your life by any and all Scripture with all of your heart, regardless of how anyone else may respond. But when questionable things aren’t specified in Scripture, it then becomes a matter of one’s personal preference or convictions.
God has given His children a wonderful freedom in Christ, which means not only freedom from sin and shame but also a freedom in lifestyle, so that we can become models of His grace. Being free, enjoying your liberty, and allowing others the same enjoyment is hard to do if you’re insecure. It is especially hard to do if you were raised by legalistic parents and led by legalistic pastors with an oversensitive conscience toward pleasing everyone. Those kinds of parents and pastors can be ultra-controlling, manipulative, and judgmental. Frequently, they use the Bible as a hammer to pound folks into submission rather than as a guide to lead others into grace. Sometimes it takes years for people who have been under a legalistic cloud to finally have the courage to walk freely in the grace of God. Unfortunately, some who finally grasp this freedom go so far in it they abuse the grace of God by flaunting their liberty.
That can be just as tragic as those who don’t go far enough. To return to one of my favorite words, we need the balance.
The Grace Awakening Devotional, Charles R. Swindoll, © 2003, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
