Max Lucado Daily: A Stronghold
What is that one weakness you have, that bad habit, or rotten attitude? Where does Satan have a stronghold within you?
It's a fitting word-stronghold: a fortress, thick walls, tall gates. It's as if the devil staked a claim on one weakness and constructed a rampart around it-placing himself squarely between God's help and your. . .explosive temper; fragile self-image; freezer-size appetite; or distrust for authority.
Stronghold. Seasons come and go, and this Loch Ness monster still lurks in the water-bottom of your soul. He won't go away! He lives up to both sides of his compound name: strong enough to grip like a vise and stubborn enough to hold on.
Remember Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 10:4, "We use mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the devil's strongholds." You and I fight with toothpicks but God comes with battering rams and cannons! So give your strongholds to God and He will break them down!
from Facing Your Giants
Jeremiah 42
Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah[c] son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. 3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”
4 “I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will certainly pray to the Lord your God as you have requested; I will tell you everything the Lord says and will keep nothing back from you.”
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. 6 Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.”
7 Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 So he called together Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest. 9 He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition, says: 10 ‘If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. 12 I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’
13 “However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the Lord your God, 14 and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’ 15 then hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, 16 then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die. 17 Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’ 18 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be a curse[d] and an object of horror, a curse[e] and an object of reproach; you will never see this place again.’
19 “Remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be sure of this: I warn you today 20 that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the Lord your God and said, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.’ 21 I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the Lord your God in all he sent me to tell you. 22 So now, be sure of this: You will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle.”
Footnotes:
Jeremiah 41:3 Or Chaldean
Jeremiah 41:18 Or Chaldeans
Jeremiah 42:1 Hebrew; Septuagint (see also 43:2) Azariah
Jeremiah 42:18 That is, your name will be used in cursing (see 29:22); or, others will see that you are cursed.
Jeremiah 42:18 That is, your name will be used in cursing (see 29:22); or, others will see that you are cursed.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 4:1-11, 1 Corinthians 10:12-13
Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[e]”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Footnotes:
Matthew 4:1 The Greek for tempted can also mean tested.
Matthew 4:4 Deut. 8:3
Matthew 4:6 Psalm 91:11,12
Matthew 4:7 Deut. 6:16
Matthew 4:10 Deut. 6:13
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
New International Version (NIV)
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation[a] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted[b] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[c] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Footnotes:
1 Corinthians 10:13 The Greek for temptation and tempted can also mean testing and tested.
1 Corinthians 10:13 The Greek for temptation and tempted can also mean testing and tested.
1 Corinthians 10:13 The Greek for temptation and tempted can also mean testing and tested.
A Way Of Escape
August 28, 2013 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt
[God will] make the way of escape, that [we] may be able to bear it. —1 Corinthians 10:13
Highway 77, which passes through the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, features a series of runaway truck ramps. These semi-paved exits appear in an area of the highway where the altitude drops nearly 1,300 feet over the course of about 6 miles. This steep descent combined with the road’s winding path can create problems for motorists—especially truck drivers.
Just as a runaway truck needs an escape route from a highway, we also need “a way of escape” when out-of-control desires threaten our spiritual well-being. When we face temptation, “[God will] make the way of escape, that [we] may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). God enables us to say “no” to enticement through the power of His Word. Jesus conquered Satan’s temptation relating to food, authority, and trust by quoting verses from Deuteronomy (Matt. 4:4-10). Scripture helped Him resist the devil despite the effects of a 40-day fast in the wilderness.
When we are tempted, we may feel like disaster is just around the bend. Memories of past failure and isolation from others can intensify this feeling. However, we can trust God in moments of temptation; He is faithful. He will provide a way for us to resist sin’s allure.
I need Thee every hour, stay Thou near by;
Temptations lose their pow’r when Thou art nigh.
I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee. —Hawks/Lowry
The best way to escape temptation is to run to God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 28, 2013
The Purpose of Prayer
. . . one of His disciples said to Him, ’Lord, teach us to pray . . .’ —Luke 11:1
Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
“Ask, and you will receive . . .” (John 16:24). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” (Matthew 18:3). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.
To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
What Love Does to Work - #6948
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
You know, handmade gifts are always the most special. Well, there are better crafted doll houses than the one my daughter got when she was a little girl. But we made it; it's handmade. My wife and I, for better or worse, did it with our own hands. One December we closed the basement and we started hammering and sawing away to build that doll house. There was a sign on the door that said Do Not Open Till Christmas. That meant the basement. That drove the kids crazy, but we were having a great time doing it. Frankly, my month was crammed. But even though the work we did was often very late and it took quite a few hours, especially since I'm not the neighborhood handyman, I enjoyed every minute of working on it. Did I get tired? Yes. Was I too busy to do that doll house? Yes. Was it outside the things I do well? Yes. Was it a pleasure? Yes. Why? Because it was for a little girl I loved very much.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Love Does to Work."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke chapter 7, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 37. It's the familiar story of the lady who loved Jesus very, very deeply. "When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. And as she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them." Now, there's a discussion by the Pharisee with Jesus as to why she did all of this. And He simply says, "For she loved much."
She loves her Master, and she uses everything she can find to serve Him. She kisses His feet. She says, "Wait, I have this perfume. I could use that to express my love for Him, and she breaks open that perfume." She says, "I've got my hair. I can dry His feet with my hair." It's as if she is looking for everything she can use to love Jesus with it.
There's a principle here. Work is so different when it's an act of loving worship instead of grudging duty. Colossians 3:23 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord and not for men." And then it says, "It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Maybe you've just been cranking out your responsibilities lately and it's joyless - drudgery. Maybe those who are around you would testify to hearing more complaining and negative talk lately.
It could be you're working for the wrong person. No, no, not for your boss. Don't do it for your boss, your company, your pastor, your church, your ministry, or your teachers. Don't do it for your children even or your employees. See, work becomes lighter and more joyful when you begin each responsibility by saying, "Lord, I dedicate this everyday chore to You. I love You, and this job I'm doing, I'm doing as an offering to You. I'm giving it my best. I'm doing it for you, Jesus."
A woman in this story used everything she could find to love Jesus. It's a beautiful picture - grabbing everything you do as something with which to love your Master. You're busy, tired, maybe feeling inadequate, like I did when I built that doll house. But it was for someone I really loved. Do your work for someone you really love.
You may not love your work, but it makes a difference when you work for love.