Max Lucado Daily: PRAYER CAN BE SIMPLE, YET POWERFUL
Prayer really is simple. Resist the urge to complicate it. Don’t take pride in well-crafted prayers. Don’t apologize for incoherent prayers. No games. No cover-ups. Just be honest. Honest to God.
Climb into His lap, tell Him everything that is on your heart. Or, tell Him nothing at all. Just lift your heart to heaven and declare “Father, Daddy.” Stress, fear, guilt, grief…demands on all sides. At times, all we can summon, is a plaintive, “Oh Father.” If so, that’s enough. Your Heavenly Father will wrap you in His arms.
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 128
A Pilgrim Song
All you who fear God, how blessed you are!
how happily you walk on his smooth straight road!
You worked hard and deserve all you’ve got coming.
Enjoy the blessing! Revel in the goodness!
3-4 Your wife will bear children as a vine bears grapes,
your household lush as a vineyard,
The children around your table
as fresh and promising as young olive shoots.
Stand in awe of God’s Yes.
Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God!
5-6 Enjoy the good life in Jerusalem
every day of your life.
And enjoy your grandchildren.
Peace to Israel!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, November 15, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Corinthians 9:19–27
(though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Insight
In today’s text, Paul illustrates his point with references to running. The Corinthians were very familiar with these word pictures because Corinth was home to the Isthmian games—a competition second only to the ancient Olympics. As Jesus illustrated His teaching with ideas familiar to His Jewish audience (farming, fishing, etc.), Paul utilized ideas familiar to his readers/hearers as well. To the sports-conscious people of Corinth, he talked about athletics. To the intellectuals of Athens, Paul quoted Greek poets (Acts 17:28). This is a reminder that teaching isn’t simply about dispensing information; it’s also about encouraging understanding by making the ideas relevant to one’s audience. By: Bill Crowder
Aiming for the Prize
Run in such a way as to get the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24
In the 1994 fictional movie Forrest Gump, Forrest becomes famous for running. What began as a jog “to the end of the road” continued for three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours. Each time he arrived at his destination, he set another one and continued to run, zig-zagging across the United States, until one day when he no longer felt like it. “Feeling like it” was the way his running began. Forrest says, “That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run.”
In contrast to Forrest’s seemingly whimsical running, the apostle Paul asks his readers to follow his example and “run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24). Like disciplined athletes, our running—the way we live our lives—might mean saying no to some of our pleasures. Being willing to forgo our rights might help us reach others with the good news of our rescue from sin and death.
With our hearts and minds trained on the goal of inviting others to run the race alongside us, we are also assured of the ultimate prize—eternal fellowship with God. The victor’s crown God bestows will last forever; we win it by running our lives with the aim of making Him known while relying on His strength to do so. What a reason to run! By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
What is your “aim” in life? How is it similar to or different than Paul’s?
Jesus, help me stay focused on the reason I run: to share about You with those around me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, November 15, 2019
“What Is That to You?”
Peter…said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "…what is that to you? You follow Me." —John 21:21-22
One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, “He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t.” You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, “What is that to you?” Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.
Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. Disciples Indeed, 393 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, November 15, 2019
Beauty in Out-of-the-Way Places - #8570
I have an inspiring view out of my office window. I look out at a mountain with this rolling field in between me and the mountain. The field dips down into a hollow, or a "holler" as they call it in the South. In the spring, some of the trees in the hollow start to bloom in living color. The redbud, the dogwood, they just start setting out their blossoms in all their glory. Well, one spring, someone walked into my office, glanced out that window, and said, "Well, look at those beautiful trees down there." They are beautiful, but you know what? They're in a spot where very few people ever see that beauty.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beauty in Out-of-the-Way Places."
God doesn't reserve His beauty for places where lots of people can appreciate it. He also plants some beautiful things in out-of-the-way places. Hey, maybe you're one of them. Not many see beauty when it's in an unlikely or a little known place, but it's no less beautiful.
As Jesus is evaluating each of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, He seems pretty unimpressed with the ones that look beautiful to everyone else. Like the church at Sardis that "has a reputation of being alive" but Jesus says to them, "You are dead" (Revelation 3:1). Or the rich and powerful Christians at Laodicea who Jesus says are actually "pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Revelation 3:17).
But then there's this church - this out-of-the-way, little known church that Jesus thinks is beautiful. He says in our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 3, beginning in verse 8, "I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept My word." Then He promises them something that He offers to none of the other, highly visible churches, "I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut." He's going to give them special blessings and opportunities because of their quiet faithfulness.
For someone listening today, that's exactly how He feels about you. You've been asked to serve Him, to be faithful to Him in a little place, maybe a hard place, a place where you receive little or no appreciation or affirmation. Maybe you work or live in a situation where no one appreciates the beauty of Christ in you. But God wants you to know today He loves to look at you. He thinks you're beautiful!
Think about Hannah in the Old Testament. She was a childless woman who kept on trusting the Lord. She had beauty that no one saw except God. And He made her the mother of Samuel, the greatest spiritual leader of his time. And then there's Mary, the little known girl from a ridiculed, backwater village called Nazareth, but God knew all about her and He looked to her when it came time to find a mother to carry and raise His Son. God seems to have special rewards for quiet, unnoticed faithfulness. Maybe like yours.
It's easy to get discouraged. It's easy to get down on yourself when you've been asked to bloom for God in a place where few can see you, where few appreciate your service, few appreciate your sacrifice. But God sees you. You are His "something beautiful" in an out-of-the-way place. And although there aren't many who see you blooming there, like those glorious trees hidden in the hollow outside my window, your life is no less beautiful.
