Max Lucado Daily: Handling the Tough Times
How do you handle your tough times? When you are tired of trying, tired of forgiving, tired of hard weeks or hard-headed people-how do you manage your dark days? With a bottle of pills? Alcohol? A day at the spa? Many opt for such treatments. So many, in fact, we assume they reenergize the sad life. But do they? They may numb the pain, but do they remove it? We like sheep follow each other over the edge, falling headlong into bars, binges and beds. Is there a solution? Indeed there is.
Be quick to pray. Talk to Christ who invites. "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you'll recover your life" (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus says, "I will show you how to take a real rest." God who is never downcast, never tires of your down days! Just go to him!
From Facing Your Giants
John 8:28-59
So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I am he.[a] I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me. 29 And the one who sent me is with me—he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him.” 30 Then many who heard him say these things believed in him.
Jesus and Abraham
31 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?”
34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. 35 A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. 37 Yes, I realize that you are descendants of Abraham. And yet some of you are trying to kill me because there’s no room in your hearts for my message. 38 I am telling you what I saw when I was with my Father. But you are following the advice of your father.”
39 “Our father is Abraham!” they declared.
“No,” Jesus replied, “for if you were really the children of Abraham, you would follow his example.[b] 40 Instead, you are trying to kill me because I told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing. 41 No, you are imitating your real father.”
They replied, “We aren’t illegitimate children! God himself is our true Father.”
42 Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. 43 Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! 44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me! 46 Which of you can truthfully accuse me of sin? And since I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.”
48 The people retorted, “You Samaritan devil! Didn’t we say all along that you were possessed by a demon?”
49 “No,” Jesus said, “I have no demon in me. For I honor my Father—and you dishonor me. 50 And though I have no wish to glorify myself, God is going to glorify me. He is the true judge. 51 I tell you the truth, anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!”
52 The people said, “Now we know you are possessed by a demon. Even Abraham and the prophets died, but you say, ‘Anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
54 Jesus answered, “If I want glory for myself, it doesn’t count. But it is my Father who will glorify me. You say, ‘He is our God,’[c] 55 but you don’t even know him. I know him. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you! But I do know him and obey him. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.”
57 The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?[d]”
58 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am![e]” 59 At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple.
Footnotes:
8:28 Greek When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am. “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.
8:39 Some manuscripts read if you are really the children of Abraham, follow his example.
8:54 Some manuscripts read You say he is your God.
8:57 Some manuscripts read How can you say Abraham has seen you?
8:58 Or before Abraham was even born, I have always been alive; Greek reads before Abraham was, I am. See Exod 3:14.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Read: Matthew 15:7-21
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
8 ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’[a]”
10 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 11 It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”
13 Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, 14 so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”
15 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.”
16 “Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked. 17 “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. 18 But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. 20 These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”
The Faith of a Gentile Woman
21 Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
Footnotes:
15:8-9 Isa 29:13 (Greek version).
Insight:
In today’s passage, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, a group of the religious elite in Israel. They taught that obeying the law was the most important thing, so they emphasized external behavior. Jesus called attention to the condition of the heart and essentially said, “It doesn’t matter if you do everything right. If your heart is bad, you are still defiled.”
Whose Mess?
By Julie Ackerman Link
Out of the heart come evil thoughts . . . . These are what defile a person. —Matthew 15:19-20 niv
“Could they not carry their own garbage this far?” I grumbled to Jay as I picked up empty bottles from the beach and tossed them into the trash bin less than 20 feet away. “Did leaving the beach a mess for others make them feel better about themselves? I sure hope these people are tourists. I don’t want to think that any locals would treat our beach with such disrespect.”
The very next day I came across a prayer I had written years earlier about judging others. My own words reminded me of how wrong I was to take pride in cleaning up other people’s messes. The truth is, I have plenty of my own that I simply ignore—especially in the spiritual sense.
I am quick to claim that the reason I can’t get my life in order is because others keep messing it up. And I am quick to conclude that the “garbage” stinking up my surroundings belongs to someone other than me. But neither is true. Nothing outside of me can condemn or contaminate me—only what’s inside (Matt. 15:19-20). The real garbage is the attitude that causes me to turn up my nose at a tiny whiff of someone else’s sin while ignoring the stench of my own.
Forgive me, Lord, for refusing to throw away my own “trash.” Open my eyes to the damage that pride does to Your natural and spiritual creation. May I have no part of it.
Share this prayer from our Facebook page with your friends. facebook.com/ourdailybread
Most of us are farsighted about sin—we see the sins of others but not our own.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Do You See Jesus in Your Clouds?
July 29, 2015
Do You See Jesus in Your Clouds?
Behold, He is coming with clouds… —Revelation 1:7
In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. “The clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds— He does not come in clear-shining brightness.
It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. Through every cloud He brings our way, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in using the cloud is to simplify our beliefs until our relationship with Him is exactly like that of a child— a relationship simply between God and our own souls, and where other people are but shadows. Until other people become shadows to us, clouds and darkness will be ours every once in a while. Is our relationship with God becoming more simple than it has ever been?
There is a connection between the strange providential circumstances allowed by God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Until we can come face to face with the deepest, darkest fact of life without damaging our view of God’s character, we do not yet know Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
The Wonderful Thing About Your Wilderness - #7448
My friend Jim loves to wear this shirt that says, "I've been to the wilderness". That's what it says on the front. On the back it says, "I can handle anything." Sounds a little cocky maybe, but he did earn the right to wear the shirt. He went out on a two-week wilderness program where they pushed him, and all those on the trip, to go way beyond their limitations. Running for miles, climbing for hours with a heavy backpack, living off the land, blazing trails, enduring the heat, going solo for two days with almost nothing to live on. Hard? Yes. Fun? Not particularly. Worth it? Ask Jim. Or, better yet, read his shirt. "I've been to the wilderness. I can handle anything!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Wonderful Thing About Your Wilderness."
Our Word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 4:1. "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days." Now, Satan's trying to exploit Jesus' vulnerability and detour Jesus from God's plans. But Jesus is withstanding him every step of the way by answering with the Word of God through these three macro temptations.
And then picking up again in verses 13-15, "When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left Him until the next opportunity came. Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit's power. Reports about Him spread quickly through the whole region." Jesus had been to the wilderness. And from those dark days, He emerged ready to handle anything. He came out of His wilderness experience in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that power exploded across the country as Jesus healed the incurable, stopped a storm with a word, evicted demons, and magnetized thousands with His message. But first, He had to go to the wilderness.
So do you. My friend would tell you that surviving the wilderness is not easy. He didn't do it because he wanted aching muscles and total fatigue. He did it because he wanted the strength that he could gain only by making it through the wilderness.
Jesus didn't choose the wilderness anymore than you or I do. The Bible says He was led by the Spirit there. God decides when it's time for a wilderness experience in your life. And as Je-sus experienced, it's a time when there aren't many resources, when the only voice you seem to be able to hear is the voice of the evil one, when you feel all alone or when you feel sometimes like you can't go on. But those are the very dynamics God uses to make your life more powerful than it's ever been before.
Because you're out of resources, you get to see how big God is, because everything else is out of the way. It's in the wilderness time that you see how much you can handle with the very big God you discovered there. It's more than you ever dreamed you could handle. It's in the wilderness that you can finally see what really matters and what really doesn't. Your struggle forces you deeper into the holiness of God, the power of God than you've ever been before. And when you come out of the wilderness, you really know "You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength" (Phil. 4: 13).
It's the deserts of your life that turn you from being a wimp to being a warrior. And there is no shortcut through or around the wilderness in that process. There wasn't for Jesus and there isn't for you. If you're in the wilderness right now, would you step back for a moment and see what it's really for? It's God's school for a warrior, a place to know Him and to know yourself more than you ever have be-fore.
And then, when you face the stresses and obstacles that may have once defeated you, you can show them your shirt. "I can handle this. I've been to the wilderness."
