Max Lucado Daily: CONVERSATION WITH GOD
Mark 1:35 says, “Jesus went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”
This dialogue must have been common among His friends:
Has anyone seen Jesus?
Oh, you know. He’s up to the same thing.
Praying again?
Yep. He’s been gone since sunrise.
Jesus would even disappear for an entire night of prayer. Prayer for most of us, isn’t a matter of a month-long retreat or even an hour of meditation. It’s a conversation with God driving to work, or waiting for an appointment. God will teach you to pray. We speak, He listens. He speaks, we listen. It’s prayer in its purest form. God changes His people through such moments.
Here’s my challenge for you! Every day for four weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!
Psalm 121
A Pilgrim Song
I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
3-4 He won’t let you stumble,
your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
Guardian will never doze or sleep.
5-6 God’s your Guardian,
right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
sheltering you from moonstroke.
7-8 God guards you from every evil,
he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
he guards you now, he guards you always.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 07, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 John 4:7–19
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
Insight
The word love is used twenty-two times in various forms in 1 John 4:7–19. The repetition tells us it’s important. It’s used ten times as a verb, agapao (vv. 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 19), and twelve times as a noun, agape (vv. 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18). Agape is used throughout Scripture to describe love between believers in Jesus as well as the love of God for us and the love of the Father for Christ. By: Julie Schwab
“Love You—Whole World”
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 John 4:16
My three-year old niece, Jenna, has an expression that never fails to melt my heart. When she loves something (really loves it), be it banana cream pie, jumping on the trampoline, or playing Frisbee, she’ll proclaim, “I love it—whole world!” (“whole world” accompanied with a dramatic sweep of her arms).
Sometimes I wonder, When’s the last time I’ve dared to love like that? With nothing held back, completely unafraid?
“God is love,” John wrote repeatedly (1 John 4:8, 16), perhaps because the truth that God’s love—not our anger, fear, or shame—is the deepest foundation of reality, is hard for us grown-ups to “get.” The world divides us into camps based on what we’re most afraid of—and all too often we join in, ignoring or villainizing the voices that challenge our preferred vision of reality.
Yet amid the deception and power struggles (vv. 5–6), the truth of God’s love remains, a light that shines in the darkness, inviting us to learn the path of humility, trust, and love (1:7–9; 3:18). For no matter what painful truths the light uncovers, we can know that we’ll still be loved (4:10, 18; Romans 8:1).
When Jenna leans over and whispers to me, “I love you—whole world!” I whisper back, “I love you whole world!” And I’m grateful for a gentle reminder that every moment I’m held in limitless love and grace. By: Monica Brands La Rose
Reflect & Pray
When do you find yourself feeling pressured to believe fear is greater than love? How might your relationships with others change if you believed you don’t need to be afraid?
Loving God, thank You for Your love. Help us to trust in and follow Your light and love even when the way gets dark.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 07, 2019
The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances
We know that all things work together for good to those who love God… —Romans 8:28
The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, “I’m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that.” All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.
Am I making the Holy Spirit’s work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession— utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.
Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, “…but the Spirit Himself makes intercession” in each of our lives (Romans 8:26). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The emphasis to-day is placed on the furtherance of an organization; the note is, “We must keep this thing going.” If we are in God’s order the thing will go; if we are not in His order, it won’t. Conformed to His Image, 357 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 07, 2019
Smudged Glasses - #8564
When I was new to this business of wearing glasses, it took me a while to adjust to those new things on my face. But I had to get them. It was easier to get glasses than to get longer arms, and the glasses were cheaper. Sometimes when I'm real busy, I start noticing clouds developing between me and what I'm trying to read, and I see strange little spots. Then I remember I'm wearing my glasses which I have neglected to clean for a few days. When I hold them up to the light, I can see the source of the fog and the spots: dirty glasses. It's amazing how much better you can see when you clean your glasses! The world looks so much clearer!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Smudged Glasses."
You might be at a point in your life right now where you really need to be able to see clearly - to see God, that is. You've got important decisions to make, and you really want to be able to figure out God's leading; to see where God is going so you can follow Him into His will for you. You don't want to make a mistake on this one. But maybe you're having a hard time seeing God right now. It might be time to clean your glasses.
In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described the kind of people who would be able to see God, which you really need right now. If you're having a hard time figuring out what God wants, seeing where He's going in your life, these words of Jesus may help you improve your vision. He simply says in our word for today from the Word of God, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." That's Matthew 5:8. If you can't see God, you're going to wander around confused and unsure. And if you're not pure in your heart, you won't see God clearly. There's dirt on your glasses. You've got some cleaning to do.
You might be doing all kinds of good things to get God's guidance; you're reading His Word, you're praying for His direction, and you're seeking godly counsel. But if there's something impure in your heart, it's just going to block your view. That may be why no answer has seemed to come. God is waiting for you to clean up what isn't pure.
Notice, this ability to see God comes from being pure in heart. This is the stuff inside where no one can see it but God. The bitterness, the unforgiveness that you might be harboring, the mind that keeps wandering into lustful fantasies, the pride that's been growing in your heart, the compromises in your integrity, your truthfulness, or that idol in your heart that's been drawing you slowly away from your first love for Jesus.
God sees the junk inside and He's saying, "I have so much I want to show you, my son, my daughter, but I can't show it to you until you get rid of what's coming between us."
Could it be that you haven't been able to figure out God's leading because of dirt that's been accumulating on your spiritual glasses? That's your heart. Isn't it time you dealt with what the real problem is? That would be the impurity in your heart. Once you clean your spiritual glasses - once you are what Jesus calls one of his "pure in heart" - you'll be amazed how clearly you'll finally be able to see that God has all the answers you need.