Max Lucado Daily: PRAYERS MATTER TO GOD
God delights in hearing your prayers! We can’t even get the plumber to call us back, so why would God listen to our prayers? Your prayers matter to God because you matter to God. You aren’t just anybody, you are his child.
When God saved you, he enlisted you. He gave not only forgiveness for your past but also authority in the present and a role in the future. This life is on-the-job training for eternity. “If we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12).
When you, as God’s child, seek to honor the family business, God hears your requests. Will God do what you ask? Perhaps. Or perhaps he will do more than you imagined. He knows what is best. Stand firmly on this promise– “When a believing person prays, great things happen” (James 5:16). And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
2 Corinthians 7
With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let’s make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let’s make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God.
2-4 Trust us. We’ve never hurt a soul, never exploited or taken advantage of anyone. Don’t think I’m finding fault with you. I told you earlier that I’m with you all the way, no matter what. I have, in fact, the greatest confidence in you. If only you knew how proud I am of you! I am overwhelmed with joy despite all our troubles.
5-7 When we arrived in Macedonia province, we couldn’t settle down. The fights in the church and the fears in our hearts kept us on pins and needles. We couldn’t relax because we didn’t know how it would turn out. Then the God who lifts up the downcast lifted our heads and our hearts with the arrival of Titus. We were glad just to see him, but the true reassurance came in what he told us about you: how much you cared, how much you grieved, how concerned you were for me. I went from worry to tranquility in no time!
8-9 I know I distressed you greatly with my letter. Although I felt awful at the time, I don’t feel at all bad now that I see how it turned out. The letter upset you, but only for a while. Now I’m glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss.
10 Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.
11-13 And now, isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You’re more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you’ve come out of this with purity of heart. And that is what I was hoping for in the first place when I wrote the letter. My primary concern was not for the one who did the wrong or even the one wronged, but for you—that you would realize and act upon the deep, deep ties between us before God. That’s what happened—and we felt just great.
13-16 And then, when we saw how Titus felt—his exuberance over your response—our joy doubled. It was wonderful to see how revived and refreshed he was by everything you did. If I went out on a limb in telling Titus how great I thought you were, you didn’t cut off that limb. As it turned out, I hadn’t exaggerated one bit. Titus saw for himself that everything I had said about you was true. He can’t quit talking about it, going over again and again the story of your prompt obedience, and the dignity and sensitivity of your hospitality. He was quite overwhelmed by it all! And I couldn’t be more pleased—I’m so confident and proud of you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Timothy 6:6–11
But godliness with contentmenty is great gain.z 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.a 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.b 9 Those who want to get richc fall into temptation and a trapd and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of moneye is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faithf and pierced themselves with many griefs.g
Final Charge to Timothy
11 But you, man of God,h flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness,i faith, love,j endurance and gentleness.
Insight
Paul’s words to Timothy about money reflect his words in Acts 20:35 where he quotes Jesus as saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Yet nowhere in the New Testament do we hear Jesus saying those exact words. So where did Paul get them? One possibility is that he was quoting an oral tradition passed down from eyewitnesses. Another is that Paul was just saying in his own words what he learned from the life and words of Jesus.
Paul had been educated in a system that tended to produce leaders who loved money at the expense of the poor (Luke 16:14; 20:46–47). It took a dramatic conversion of his soul to be able to hear and believe what Jesus said by both word and example—that the net worth of our lives isn’t determined by how much we possess (12:15). By: Mart DeHaan
Rich Toward God
Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6
Growing up during the Great Depression, my parents knew deep hardship as children. As a result, they were hard-working and grateful money stewards. But they were never greedy. They gave time, talent, and treasury to their church, charity groups, and the needy. Indeed, they handled their money wisely and gave cheerfully.
As believers in Jesus, my parents took to heart the apostle Paul’s warning: “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:9).
Paul gave this advice to Timothy, the young pastor of the city of Ephesus, a wealthy city where riches tempted all.
“The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” Paul warned. “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (v. 10).
What, then, is the antidote to greed? Being “rich toward God,” said Jesus (see Luke 12:13–21). By pursuing, appreciating, and loving our heavenly Father above all, He remains our chief delight. As the psalmist wrote, “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14).
Rejoicing in Him daily relieves us of coveting, leaving us contented. May Jesus redeem our heart’s desires, making us rich toward God! By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
How have you mishandled money, or made it more than it ought to be? How might you give your financial concerns to God this day?
Satisfy us in the morning, God, with Your unfailing love—replacing our greed with holy hunger for You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
The Destitution of Service
…though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. —2 Corinthians 12:15
Natural human love expects something in return. But Paul is saying, “It doesn’t really matter to me whether you love me or not. I am willing to be completely destitute anyway; willing to be poverty-stricken, not just for your sakes, but also that I may be able to get you to God.” “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor…” (2 Corinthians 8:9). And Paul’s idea of service was the same as our Lord’s. He did not care how high the cost was to himself— he would gladly pay it. It was a joyful thing to Paul.
The institutional church’s idea of a servant of God is not at all like Jesus Christ’s idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of others. Jesus Christ actually “out-socialized” the socialists. He said that in His kingdom the greatest one would be the servant of all (see Matthew 23:11). The real test of a saint is not one’s willingness to preach the gospel, but one’s willingness to do something like washing the disciples’ feet— that is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation but count as everything to God. It was Paul’s delight to spend his life for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. But before we will serve, we stop to ponder our personal and financial concerns— “What if God wants me to go over there? And what about my salary? What is the climate like there? Who will take care of me? A person must consider all these things.” All that is an indication that we have reservations about serving God. But the apostle Paul had no conditions or reservations. Paul focused his life on Jesus Christ’s idea of a New Testament saint; that is, not one who merely proclaims the gospel, but one who becomes broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for the sake of others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.
Biblical Psychology
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
When There's Nothing Left to Hold - #8642
It was a stark picture of what's happening on Indian reservations across this country. It was the funeral of another Native American young person. There are so many of them, and I've been to too many of them. Their number one cause of death is accidental death. It's often attributable to alcohol or drugs, honestly, followed by suicide, and then homicide. Seventy-five percent of Native young people die a violent death, and James was one of those. Our On Eagles' Wings team of Native young people had brought the hope that they have found in Jesus Christ to his reservation. Later, James and his brother actually traveled with our team to other reservations in the early years of our ministry there. But one deadly night, James became one of those awful statistics. We were honored to be invited by his family to the wake, the funeral and the burial in a small tribal cemetery. The men there stepped up to the open grave and they threw a handful of dirt on James' casket. Then most of the folks there left, except for his family and a few close friends. We stayed. There was a large, homemade wooden cross at the head of the grave. I'll never forget the scene of James' brother, visibly just shattered by shock and grief, hugging and just resting all his weight on that cross, like hanging onto it for dear life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When There's Nothing Left to Hold."
For a grieving brother, for so many of us in moments when we've lost what we never thought we could live without, there's one thing to hold onto that has supported broken people for 2,000 years. It is that cross where God's Son died a shameful public death, bearing the grief and the payment for every sinful thing ever done on this planet.
Several years ago, I toured the Catacombs beneath the Appian Way in Rome - the underground caverns where thousands of early Christians are buried in the sandstone walls; people who died rather than renounce this Savior who had died for them. In those sandstone walls, those brave first followers of Jesus inscribed some of the earliest Christian symbols including what we now know as the anchor cross. It's a cross that has a loop at the bottom - You've probably seen it - thus making it resemble an anchor. How appropriate for those back then who didn't know if they would live another day, and who had buried so many that they loved. That cross was their anchor, as it was for a grieving young Native American by his brother's reservation grave, 20 centuries later.
It's an anchor because of the victory that was won that dark day on Skull Hill. In Hebrews 2:9 and verse 18, our word for today from the Word of God, we learn that Jesus "suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." Translation: Jesus took your hell so you could go to His heaven. He did this, the Bible says, "so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Later, this same book says, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."
The question is, do you have this anchor for your soul? Yes, you have that anchor if you've grabbed the One who died on that cross as your only hope of having your sins forgiven. But if you've never done that, you're missing the one love you'll never lose; the One who can guarantee that you will see again whoever belongs to Him; the only One who can heal your broken heart. There has to b
e that "for me" moment when you look at that cross and say with all your heart, "Jesus, what You did there was for me. And I'm turning from the sin You died for and I'm placing my total trust in You."
Look, our website is there to literally help you cross that line today. Go to it today - ANewStory.com.
It's a fact of life. We will ultimately lose whatever, or whoever, we've been hanging onto except for the love of Jesus Christ, poured out on that cross. It's not just a cross. It's the only anchor that will be there when there's nothing left to hold onto.