Max Lucado Daily: GOD HEARS YOUR PRAYERS
God loves the sound of your voice—always! God never places you on hold or tells you to call again later. He doesn’t hide when you call. He hears your prayers. For that reason “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).
With this verse the apostle calls us to take action against anxiety. We tell God exactly what we want. We pray the particulars of our problems. What Jesus said to the blind man, he says to us: “What do you want me to do for you” (Luke 18:41)? One would think the answer would be obvious. When a sightless man requests Jesus’ help, isn’t it apparent what he needs? Yet Jesus wanted to hear the man articulate his specific requests. He wants the same from us. “Let your requests be made known to God!”
Ephesians 5:17-33
Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.
18-20 Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.
21 Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.
22-24 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.
25-28 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.
29-33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ecclesiastes 4:9–12
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Insight
The author of Ecclesiastes uses practical illustrations that show the importance of companionship. Looking at verse 9, we learn that two “have a good return for their labor.” This verse points back to verse 8 which explains that it’s meaningless and miserable to toil for oneself. Not only do two have a better return, but two can help each other in multiple ways.
In the illustration of one person falling down, many commentators believe it refers to a serious fall (v. 10). In that time, it was common to dig pits and cover them to trap animals. Falling into one could cause injury and being left alone could be fatal. Additionally, roads were dangerous in the ancient Near East, and two could better defend themselves against robbers and other attacks. The author’s conclusion that “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (v. 12) emphasizes the need for companionship.
The Saddest Goose
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12
Why is there a football in the parking lot? I wondered. But as I got closer, I realized the greyish lump wasn’t a football: it was a goose—the saddest Canada goose I’d ever seen.
Geese often congregate on the lawn near my workplace in the spring and fall. But today there was only one, its neck arced back and its head tucked beneath a wing. Where are your buddies? I thought. Poor thing was all alone. It looked so lonely, I wanted to give it a hug. (Note: don’t try this.)
I’ve rarely seen a goose completely alone like my lonesome feathered friend. Geese are notably communal, flying in a V-formation to deflect the wind. They’re made to be together.
As human beings, we were created for community too (see Genesis 2:18). And in Ecclesiastes 4:10, Solomon describes how vulnerable we are when we’re alone: “Pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” There’s strength in numbers, he added, for “though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (v. 12).
This is just as true for us spiritually as it is physically. God never intended for us to “fly” alone, vulnerably isolated. We need relationships with each other for encouragement, refreshment, and growth (see also 1 Corinthians 12:21). During these extraordinary days, due to the Covid-19 virus many of us have needed to practice physical distancing to help contain the disease. But how we look forward to the time we can meet face-to-face with our local church families again!
Together, we can stand firm when life’s headwinds gust our way. Together. By: Adam R. Holz
Reflect & Pray
What kinds of circumstances tempt you to go it alone? Who do you know who could use a word of encouragement from you?
Loving God, help us to remember that You never meant us to fly solo, but together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Today, help us to see and support someone in need of encouragement.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Do You Worship The Work?
We are God’s fellow workers… —1 Corinthians 3:9
Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work. The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God. This will mean that all the other boundaries of life, whether they are mental, moral, or spiritual limits, are completely free with the freedom God gives His child; that is, a worshiping child, not a wayward one. A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work. He is a slave to his own limits, having no freedom of his body, mind, or spirit. Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated. There is no freedom and no delight in life at all. His nerves, mind, and heart are so overwhelmed that God’s blessing cannot rest on him.
But the opposite case is equally true– once our concentration is on God, all the limits of our life are free and under the control and mastery of God alone. There is no longer any responsibility on you for the work. The only responsibility you have is to stay in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him. The freedom that comes after sanctification is the freedom of a child, and the things that used to hold your life down are gone. But be careful to remember that you have been freed for only one thing– to be absolutely devoted to your co-Worker.
We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R
Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 16-18; Luke 17:20-37
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, April 23, 2020
The Case of the Missing Listener - #8684
The phone rang in my study. I thought my wife was asleep at the other end of the house. Even though I was really preoccupied with what I was writing, I answered the phone so it wouldn't disturb her. A guy named Mike said hello and he started explaining his special offer related to satellite TV. I wasn't interested, and I tried to tell him that. He just kept talking. I was just starting to tell him no a little more forcefully when I heard a little giggle on the phone. My wife was awake; she had picked up the extension. That's when I woke up! I hate to tell you this. I was talking to a recording. Feeling stupid now! Click.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Case of the Missing Listener."
It's no fun talking to machines. (No fun being this dumb.) It's frustrating trying to talk to someone who's not listening. That is a feeling lots of folks understand because they've been trying to talk to a human who isn't listening much more than a recorded salesman on a telemarketing call! The question is: could it be that some person or some people who you know feel un-listened to by you...unheard by you?
Jesus said one of the two great commandments was to love your neighbor as you love yourself. One way that you show that kind of unselfish love is to stop talking and listen to people as you want someone to listen to you. We want people to listen to us without interrupting, don't we? Showing respect for what we're saying. We want them to give us their undivided attention. Then to love them as we love ourselves means to give them that kind of attention.
In fact, our word for today from the Word of God leaves a follower of Jesus little choice. God tells us to listen! James 1:19 - which is probably one of the most disobeyed verses in the entire Bible - says this: "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." Too many of us seem to have slightly rearranged some of the words in that verse, "Be slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry."
What's the connection between not listening and getting angry? When we don't take time to really hear everything a person has to say, we react to the first things they say instead of waiting until we really understand what they're trying to communicate. Listeners try to hear the heart not just the words, the need that's behind the deed. People who would rather talk than listen jump on partial information, partial communication and what's on the surface. No listening, no understanding. No understanding, wrong conclusions and angry reactions.
You can see why God says in Proverbs 18:13 - "He who answers before listening - that is his folly and his shame." I wonder if the people close to you feel really heard by you? Does your wife, your husband feel really listened to and understood? Your parents? Your son? Your daughter? The people you minister with? The people you work with? Your employees? Your friends? Or are you, like that recorded phone salesman, just a talking machine most of the time? When you are, you leave a trail of people who feel lonely, excluded, misunderstood, put down; you might say you leave a trail of tears.
There are few things you can do that say you value a person more than dropping everything to hear what they're saying - not just their words, but their heart. If you can't give them your total attention now, let them know when you can and give it to them. So many misunderstandings, or arguments, or harsh words, so many wounded children, so many broken relationships, so many bleeding churches, so many broken marriages because someone just wasn't listening.
You can do something about it by really listening before you speak; by asking a person, "How do you feel?" before you ever say what you have to say. It's Christ-like love in action. It's listening love.