Max Lucado Daily: God is For You
“I have written your name on my hand! Isaiah 49:16”
Romans 8:31 asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Indulge me a moment. Four words in this verse deserve your attention. God is for us.
Say it out loud. God is for us.
Repeat it, emphasizing each word. Come on, you’re not in that big of a hurry.
God is for us! GOD IS FOR YOU.
Your parents may have forgotten you, your teachers may have neglected you, your siblings may be ashamed of you; but within reach of your prayers is the maker of the oceans. God!
God is for you! If he had a calendar, your birthday would be circled. If there’s a tree in heaven, he’s carved your name in the bark.
Isaiah 49:16 says, “I have written your name on my hand!” No one can defeat you. You are protected. God is for you!
Song of Songs 2
She[d]
1 I am a rose[e] of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.
He
2 Like a lily among thorns
is my darling among the young women.
She
3 Like an apple[f] tree among the trees of the forest
is my beloved among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 Let him lead me to the banquet hall,
and let his banner over me be love.
5 Strengthen me with raisins,
refresh me with apples,
for I am faint with love.
6 His left arm is under my head,
and his right arm embraces me.
7 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.
8 Listen! My beloved!
Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattice.
10 My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.
11 See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.”
He
14 My dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
15 Catch for us the foxes,
the little foxes
that ruin the vineyards,
our vineyards that are in bloom.
She
16 My beloved is mine and I am his;
he browses among the lilies.
17 Until the day breaks
and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag
on the rugged hills.[g]
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18
Final Instructions
12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
All Day With God
April 23, 2012 — by Dennis Fisher
Pray without ceasing. —1 Thessalonians 5:17
Brother Lawrence (1614–1691) felt intimately close to God as he humbly scrubbed pots and pans in the monastery kitchen. Certainly Brother Lawrence practiced specific times of devotional prayer. But what he found more life-transforming was prayer during the workday. In his devotional classic Practicing the Presence of God, he says, “It is a great delusion to think our times of prayer ought to differ from other times. We are as strictly obliged to cleave to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer.” In short, he advocated that we “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).That’s a helpful reminder, because sometimes we tend to compartmentalize our lives. Perhaps we pray only during church worship, small-group Bible study, family devotions, and personal quiet times. But what about during our workday? To pray on the job does not mean we have to fall to our knees with clasped hands and pray aloud. But it does mean that work decisions and relationships can be brought to God throughout the day.
Wherever we are and whatever we’re doing, God wants to be a part of it. When prayer enters every aspect of our lives, who knows what God might do for His glory!
Let’s always keep the prayer lines open,
Knowing God is always there;
For we upon His name may call
Anytime and anywhere. —D. De Haan
True prayer is a way of life, not an emergency detour!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 23, 2012
Do You Worship The Work?
We are God’s fellow workers . . . —1 Corinthians 3:9
Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work. The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God. This will mean that all the other boundaries of life, whether they are mental, moral, or spiritual limits, are completely free with the freedom God gives His child; that is, a worshiping child, not a wayward one. A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work. He is a slave to his own limits, having no freedom of his body, mind, or spirit. Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated. There is no freedom and no delight in life at all. His nerves, mind, and heart are so overwhelmed that God’s blessing cannot rest on him.
But the opposite case is equally true–once our concentration is on God, all the limits of our life are free and under the control and mastery of God alone. There is no longer any responsibility on you for the work. The only responsibility you have is to stay in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him. The freedom that comes after sanctification is the freedom of a child, and the things that used to hold your life down are gone. But be careful to remember that you have been freed for only one thing–to be absolutely devoted to your co-Worker.
We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might . . .” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Beautiful But Broken - #6596
Monday, April 23, 2012
Well, it's another sad story from the "entertainment capital of the world." There's a lot of it behind all that Hollywood hype.
The sadness behind the stardom hit me again when I read about something that happened to a woman who at times, has been the highest paid actress in Hollywood. She's been married to two of Hollywood's biggest actors; she's been a cover girl on national magazines. But recently she was the subject of a friend's urgent 911 call. She was rushed to the hospital for her reaction to the dangerous drugs she was using.
Her own words in a recent interview reveal the hurting heart behind the glamour. "What scares me is that I'm going to ultimately find out at the end of my life that I'm really not loveable; that I'm not worthy of being loved. That there's something fundamentally wrong with me." And sadly, a lot of us non-celebrity types hear those words and think, "I know the feeling."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beautiful But Broken."
We've all had disappointing relationships; people who've made us feel like we weren't "worth loving." Experiences that have caused us to conclude that there's "something wrong with me." We know the ugliness behind our smiling facade. I know all too well the things about me that are anything but loveable.
But we're made to be loved. Literally, made by God to be loved. Loved by Him. Love with two words attached that give our lonely hearts a safe harbor - unconditional, and unloseable.
God doesn't care how unloveable we are. His love isn't "I love you if..." or "I love you because..." It's just, "I love you." His love for me is all about Him and nothing about me. How do I know? Because He says in His Book, "God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners." That's our word for today from the Word of God, Romans 5:8.
God initiated the greatest act of love in the history of this planet when He sent His Son to die an unspeakable death on a cross. Not because I was so loveable, but because I was so lost. I'm a rebel against God. I defy the One who runs the universe by refusing to let Him run me. According to the Bible, we're all rebels, pushing God to the margins, dissing His laws, acting like we're God, and breaking the heart of God.
But still He loves us. He offered up His Son to do the dying for my rebellion. As the Bible says, "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son..." (John 3:16). Love without conditions; love that has nothing to do with your performance or your loveableness. It's a love like no other.
And since it's all about Him and not about you or me, it's unloseable love. If God was ever going to turn His back on me, it would have been when His Son was hanging on that cross. But He turned His back on His Son, who was carrying our sin, so He would never have to turn His back on us. So, in the Bible's words, "nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39).
His is the only love in the world that will never disappoint you, never divorce you, never die on you. It is a love that you can finally begin to experience for yourself beginning this very day if you will respond to that love and say, "Jesus, nobody loves me like You do. You died on a cross for me. You're powerful enough to walk out of Your grave and into my life, and I want You to do that today. I'm Yours starting today."
At our website I've tried to lay out there as simply and briefly as I can how to be sure you know Jesus for yourself. Let me urge you to go there; it's YoursForLife.net.
I think of the mistakes we make and the hurt we experience looking for this love anywhere else. The little kids singing their little church song, they "get" it: "Jesus loves me, this I know." You know that when you finally open your heart to His love. And your lifetime search for love ends in His welcoming arms.