Max Lucado Daily: PRAYER IS A HEARTFELT CONVERSATION
Prayer isn’t a privilege for the pious, not the art of a chosen few. Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and His child. When we invite God into our world, He brings a host of gifts: joy, patience, resilience. Anxieties come, but they don’t stick. Fears surface and then depart. I’m completing my sixth decade, yet I’m wired with energy. Happier, healthier, and more hopeful! Struggles come, for sure, but so does God.
My friend, He wants to talk with you. Even now as you hear these words, He taps at the door. Open it. Welcome Him in and let the conversation begin.
Here’s my prayer challenge to you! Every day for four weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!
Psalm 122
A Pilgrim Song of David
When they said, “Let’s go to the house of God,”
my heart leaped for joy.
And now we’re here, O Jerusalem,
inside Jerusalem’s walls!
3-5 Jerusalem, well-built city,
built as a place for worship!
The city to which the tribes ascend,
all God’s tribes go up to worship,
To give thanks to the name of God—
this is what it means to be Israel.
Thrones for righteous judgment
are set there, famous David-thrones.
6-9 Pray for Jerusalem’s peace!
Prosperity to all you Jerusalem-lovers!
Friendly insiders, get along!
Hostile outsiders, keep your distance!
For the sake of my family and friends,
I say it again: live in peace!
For the sake of the house of our God, God,
I’ll do my very best for you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, November 08, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Proverbs 12:12, 24–28
The wicked desire the stronghold of evildoers,
but the root of the righteous endures.
Diligent hands will rule,
but laziness ends in forced labor.
25 Anxiety weighs down the heart,
but a kind word cheers it up.
26 The righteous choose their friends carefully,
but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
27 The lazy do not roast[a] any game,
but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.
28 In the way of righteousness there is life;
along that path is immortality.
Footnotes:
Proverbs 12:27 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
Insight
Proverbs is one of the Old Testament books of Wisdom Literature, along with Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. One characteristic of these works is their large use of poetry. And, as the name of this genre implies, their main focus is on attaining wisdom. In Proverbs, the authors (mainly Solomon and others) primarily use pithy sayings to instruct God’s people in applying wisdom to daily life. As one commentary explains, wisdom here denotes “skill in the art of godly living.” Among the main themes of Proverbs are friendship, speech, marriage, child-rearing, work, and diligence and laziness. We see the contrasting theme of laziness and diligence in today’s passage, particularly in 12:24, 27, and throughout Proverbs (6:6–10; 10:4; 20:13; 24:30–34).
To learn more about the poetic literature of the Old Testament, visit christianuniversity.org/OT128-08. By: Alyson Kieda
That Was Awesome!
Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor. Proverbs 12:24
It was the seventh-grader’s first cross-country meet, but she didn’t want to run. Although she’d been preparing for the event, she was afraid of doing poorly. Still, she started the race with everyone else. Later, one by one the other runners finished the two-mile course and crossed the finish line—everyone except the reluctant runner. Finally, her mom, who was watching for her daughter to finish, saw a lone figure in the distance. The mother went to the finish line, preparing to comfort a distraught competitor. Instead, when the young runner saw her mom, she exclaimed, “That was awesome!”
What can be awesome about finishing last? Finishing!
The girl had tried something difficult and had accomplished it! Scripture honors hard work and diligence, a concept often learned through sports or music or other things that require perseverance and effort.
Proverbs 12:24 says, “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.” And later we read, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (14:23). These wise principles—not promises—can help us serve God well.
God’s plan for us always included work. Even before the fall, Adam was to “work [the Garden] and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). And any effort we make should be done “with all [our] heart” (Colossians 3:23). Let’s work in the strength He gives us—and leave the results to Him. By: Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
What are some areas where I can learn from this teenager to be diligent and persevere? How does doing my best and working hard honor God?
Heavenly Father, whatever it is You have asked me to do today—big or small—help me to do it.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, November 08, 2019
The Unrivaled Power of Prayer
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. —Romans 8:26
We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.
“He,” the Holy Spirit in you, “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.
The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. “…your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 6:19). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, “…He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple” (Mark 11:16). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer…. But you have made it a ‘den of thieves’ ” (Mark 11:17).
Have we come to realize that our “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a “temple of the Holy Spirit.” He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don’t know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, November 08, 2019
Good News When There's No Way - #8565
Little Jessica became America's child that day she fell down that narrow shaft in a backyard in Texas. Here was a toddler, wedged nearly upside down, in a shaft far too narrow for any man to navigate, and unable to help herself in any way. It didn't take long for the press to descend on that little hole in the ground to cover this valiant effort to try to save little Jessica's life. Pretty soon countless people across the country and around the world, including me, were rooting and praying for her life. I was one of them. At first, there appeared to be no way out of this deadly situation, but the rescuers weren't about to give up. No, they began to build a wider shaft parallel to the one Jessica was trapped in. She'd been in there for nearly three days when a rescuer finally went down that new shaft and through the tunnel they had dug to Jessica. Minutes later – a scene many of us will never forget. In the glare of the press's massive lights, a battered but breathing little girl emerged from that hole with her arms tightly wrapped around her rescuer.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Good News When There's No Way."
I can't tell you how many times I've been little Jessica in that hole; trapped in a spot, a situation where there seemed to be no way out. I couldn't plan my way out, think my way out, talk my way out, work my way out. It's that frightening crossroads called "No Way Junction." You might be there right now. If you're not, stay tuned. You will be sooner or later. You're facing a situation, maybe, that is beyond your power to fix or to figure out. The usual delivery systems in your life – the people, the sources which would usually come through for you just aren't doing it. Not this time. It looks like there's no way to turn this around. You're at the bottom of the shaft; you're beyond the reach of any conventional help.
Enter Almighty God. Our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 25:15, describes our "no way" moments – along with the only way out. The Bible says, "My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare." Okay. Now, if you are facing something for which there is no conceivable human solution, then welcome to the "God Alone Zone." It's one of those moments in your life where it's going to be God alone or it's not going to be.
That's not bad news. That's good news. You now have a front row seat on the awesome greatness of the Lord you belong to. Nobody sees God bigger than those who need Him desperately. As King David said in this psalm, "Only He" can release you. Isn't that great? God wants you to believe Him for a solution that will have no human fingerprints on it, only His. He's brought you to "No Way Junction," not because He wants to sink you, but because He wants to show you, and all those who know you, His greatness when there's no human hope, no human explanation, and no shared glory. It will be Him and Him alone.
The wonderful Bible teacher, A. W. Tozer, had it right. He said, "The child of God should always be found living in expectation of the divine." Even when you're not in a "no way" moment. God says to lay our requests before Him in the morning and then "wait in expectation."(Psalm 5:3) Not agitation. Not frustration, but expectation.
God has decided that you're ready for one of those unforgettable Red Sea moments when it's all Him and none of you...when you will go deeper into Him, be more desperate for Him, be more desirous of doing what pleases Him than you've ever been before. He wants you to learn in a way that you'll never forget what the psalmist said to Him in Psalm 87:7 - "All my fountains are in you."
God may use humans to deliver His resources to your life, but it doesn't come from them. It never has. It only comes through them. When all the human sources can't do it, your real source is still there. Yeah, you're stuck. Yeah, there's nothing you can do to get yourself out. Yes, there's no conventional way to get out of this. But if you'll listen very carefully, you may hear some sounds getting closer and closer to you. That's your Rescuer, doing whatever it takes to bring out the one He loves. And He is on His way!