Max Lucado Daily: Your Problems Matter to God
Your Problems Matter to God
Posted: 03 Jan 2011 10:01 PM PST
Thank God! He deserves your thanks. His love never quits. Psalm 136:1 The Message
If I know that one of the privileges of fatherhood is to comfort, then why am I so reluctant to let my heavenly Father comfort me?
Why do I think he wouldn’t care about my problems? (“They are puny compared to starving people in India.”)
Why do I think he is too busy for me?
Matthew 24:29-51 (New International Version, ©2010)
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
The Day and Hour Unknown
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 22:34-40
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
A Lover Of God
January 4, 2011 — by David C. McCasland
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. —Matthew 22:37
In a brief biography of St. Francis of Assisi, G. K. Chesterton begins with a glimpse into the heart of this unique and compassionate man born in the 12th century. Chesterton writes: “As St. Francis did not love humanity but men, so he did not love Christianity but Christ. . . . The reader cannot even begin to see the sense of a story that may well seem to him a very wild one, until he understands that to this great mystic his religion was not a thing like a theory but a thing like a love-affair.”
When Jesus was asked to name the greatest command in the Law, He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matt. 22:37-38). The questioner wanted to test Jesus, but the Lord answered him with the key element in pleasing God. First and foremost, our relationship with Him is a matter of the heart.
If we see God as a taskmaster and consider obedience to Him as a burden, then we have joined those of whom the Lord said, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Rev. 2:4).
The way of joy is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.
Oh, help me, Lord, to take by grace divine
Yet more and more of that great love of Thine;
That day by day my heart may give to Thee
A deeper love, and grow more constantly. —Mountain
Put Christ first and you’ll find a joy that lasts.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 4th, 2011
Why Can I Not Follow You Now?
Peter said to Him, ’Lord, why can I not follow You now?’ —John 13:37
There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.
At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.
Peter did not wait for God. He predicted in his own mind where the test would come, and it came where he did not expect it. “I will lay down my life for Your sake.” Peter’s statement was honest but ignorant. “Jesus answered him, ’ . . . the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times’ ” (John 13:38). This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself or his own capabilities well enough. Natural devotion may be enough to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His irresistible charm, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will deny Jesus, always falling short of what it means to truly follow Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Platform You Would Never Choose - #6257
Tuesday, January 4, 2010
A lot of us were like broke most of the time we were in college. So, it was always nice to find some free Saturday night entertainment. And in downtown Chicago, there was a place called Bug House Square. Yeah, it's not the real name it was, but that was what it was affectionately known in the neighborhood at the time. See, Bug House Square was a small city park just north of downtown Chicago. And it was a place where anybody could get up and make a speech about anything - thus, the name. So, people who couldn't find a platform anywhere else, well, they could find one at Bug House Square. Some frustrated people got to deliver the message that they never got to deliver anywhere else. You know, it's frustrating to have a message and no platform to proclaim it from. And it's surprising sometimes where our platform turns out to be.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Platform You Would Never Choose."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 16 . Now, Paul and Silas are in prison for preaching the Gospel in Philippi. They have been severely beaten, they're in the stocks, they're in the inner dungeon, they are in great pain, and they aren't going anywhere. "About midnight Paul and Silas get to praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners are listening to them." Never heard anything like this in prison! "Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors were open, he drew his sword, he was about to kill himself..." Well, that would mean he'd be executed by Rome anyway. "...he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, ‘Don't harm yourself! We are all here!' The jailer called for lights, he rushed in and he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and he asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'"
Now, Paul and Silas have, up to this point, only been able to come to Philippi and find the places where people prayed together. I think their question might be, "How do we get a hearing for the Gospel here in Philippi?" Well, here you've got people with a message, and they're trying to find a point of entry to preach that message - a platform. Maybe that sounds like you. Now, you're not in Philippi, but you know that you have in Christ what your family is looking for; your friends are looking for; your coworkers. But how do you get their attention? Well, you might be surprised.
God started the church at Philippi by putting Paul and Silas in a prison and in an earthquake. And it was how they handled their prison and their earthquake that opened a way for the Gospel. That suggests a very eye-opening principle. The big problem that you've got may be the best platform you've got. Maybe you're in a prison right now: physical limitations, an injury, an illness. Maybe you're going through a really lonely time, and it's like a prison. Or you're on the edge of financial or business disaster. You're unemployed. People are watching you now. Can you sing in your prison? Can you demonstrate the inner freedom and the peace that only Christ can give? Or maybe you're in an earthquake right now and everything's shaking. Things that have never moved before are breaking loose.
See, if you can demonstrate that inner peace when the walls are caving in, you will preach Christ more eloquently than any sermon ever could. You're surrounded by people who are in depression because of their prison; who are in panic because of their earthquake. And they're watching to see the difference in how you handle yours.
So, let God sanctify that sick bed, that crisis, that unemployment line, that struggle. He will make it into a platform for the life-saving message of the Gospel. It's a platform you'd never choose, but God has. And you can speak eloquently through your songs in the middle of the night.