Matthew 6:1-18 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily:BEAR WITH ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE - May 18, 2021

There is a way the world should be run. And when others behave in ways we don’t like, we call that a pet peeve. Not a colossal divide or a legal violation, just a pet peeve.

You know, joy is such a precious commodity. Why squander it on a quibble? The phrases we use regarding our pet peeves reveal the person who actually suffers. He “gets under my skin” or “gets on my nerves” or she is such a “pain in my neck.”  Whose skin, nerves, and neck? Ours! Who suffers? We do! Every pet peeve writes a check on our joy account.

For this reason the apostle Paul said, “Be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). The patient person sees all the peculiarities of the world. But rather than react, he bears with them. And this is how happiness happens.


Matthew 6:1-18

The World Is Not a Stage

 “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.

2-4 “When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

Pray with Simplicity
5 “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

7-13 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
    as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
    Yes. Yes. Yes.

14-15 “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.

16-18 “When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don’t make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won’t make you a saint. If you ‘go into training’ inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn’t require attention-getting devices. He won’t overlook what you are doing; he’ll reward you well.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Read: Isaiah 9:2–6

The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
    when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
    you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
    and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
    will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

INSIGHT
In the Old Testament, the word yoke is often used to describe the bondage or slavery the Israelites suffered while under the oppressive rule of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and others. Again and again we see God’s promises to lift this heavy yoke (Exodus 6:6–7; Leviticus 26:13; Isaiah 14:25; Jeremiah 30:8; Ezekiel 34:27). In today’s prophecy from Isaiah 9:4, we read of the lifting of another yoke. In his commentary on Isaiah, Edward Young describes this yoke as “the heavy burden of sin and corruption, of departure from God, and of the evil consequences of such departure.” This spiritual battle was won by the child (Jesus, v. 6), who through His death and resurrection delivers all who believe in Him from the burdensome yoke of sin. Now that we’ve been set free, the apostle Paul encourages us to “stand firm” and not “be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

By Glenn Packiam
Facing the Darkness

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Isaiah 9:2

In the mid-1960s, two people participated in research on the effects of darkness on the human psyche. They entered separate caves, while researchers tracked their eating and sleeping habits. One remained in total darkness for 88 days, the other 126 days. Each guessed how long they could remain in darkness and were off by months. One took what he thought was a short nap only to discover he’d slept for 30 hours. Darkness is disorienting.

The people of God found themselves in the darkness of impending exile. They waited, unsure of what would take place. The prophet Isaiah used darkness as a metaphor for their disorientation and as a way of speaking about God’s judgment (Isaiah 8:22). Previously, the Egyptians had been visited with darkness as a plague (Exodus 10:21–29). Now Israel found herself in darkness.

But a light would come. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2). Oppression would be broken, disorientation would end. A Child would come to change everything and bring about a new day—a day of forgiveness and freedom (v. 6).

Jesus did come! And although the darkness of the world can be disorienting, may we experience the comfort of the forgiveness, freedom, and light found in Christ.

What would it look like to embrace a new day of freedom and forgiveness? How can you welcome the light of Christ today?

Dear Jesus, shine Your light into my life. Bring forgiveness and freedom. Help me to live in the light of Your arrival.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Living Simply— Yet Focused

Look at the birds of the air….Consider the lilies of the field… —Matthew 6:26, 28

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin”— they simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars, and the moon— all of these simply are as well— yet what a ministry and service they render on our behalf! So often we impair God’s designed influence, which He desires to exhibit through us, because of our own conscious efforts to be consistent and useful. Jesus said there is only one way to develop and grow spiritually, and that is through focusing and concentrating on God. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Do not worry about being of use to others; simply believe on Me.” In other words, pay attention to the Source, and out of you “will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). We cannot discover the source of our natural life through common sense and reasoning, and Jesus is teaching here that growth in our spiritual life comes not from focusing directly on it, but from concentrating on our Father in heaven. Our heavenly Father knows our circumstances, and if we will stay focused on Him, instead of our circumstances, we will grow spiritually— just as “the lilies of the field.”

The people who influence us the most are not those who detain us with their continual talk, but those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and “the lilies of the field”— simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.

If you want to be of use to God, maintain the proper relationship with Jesus Christ by staying focused on Him, and He will make use of you every minute you live— yet you will be unaware, on the conscious level of your life, that you are being used of Him.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1465 R

Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 4-6; John 6:1-21

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Leave the Choice To the Owner - #8962

It's the issue that can decide who's the senator or congressman in many states. It can decide who the governor is in some states. The battle lines are drawn around the issue of abortion.

Yeah, it's not taxes, or defense spending, or civil rights, or homelessness. It seems like sometimes the most emotional issue oftentimes in our country revolves around that new life that some woman carries inside of her right now. Oh, there's been demonstrating, banners, chants, and slogans. But underneath it all there are actually two logics that war with each other. Pro-life says that a human life is there from conception and no one has the right to destroy that life. And then the pro-choice people say that the person whose body it is should decide what is done with that body. Well, actually, in a sense they're both right. Keep listening.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Leave the Choice To the Owner."

Our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. "Flee from sexual immorality," God says, "all other sins that man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you; whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body."

Okay, this passage settles once and for all the issue of whose body you're walking around in. That's not your body; "you are not your own" the Bible says. You've been made by God, so you're His by creation. You've been paid for by God with the purchase price of His own Son on the cross, so you've been purchased by Him.

Now, the pro-choice advocates use this logic: the person whose body it is should decide what is done with it. I agree with that! Because, see, if that happened, we wouldn't have many abortions to decide about, because God says sexual love; it is reserved for married people committed to each other for a lifetime. And if God is the owner, and we let the owner of the body decide what we do with that body, well then there won't be babies conceived outside of marriage. There will be very few unwanted babies.

Psalm 139 and other passages in the Bible make it very clear that from the very beginning God initiates a new life at conception, and He reserves the right to end any life that He starts, but only the one who starts the life has that right - the creator, the purchaser. And His choice for your body is that it remains pure. It's not yours to mess around with.

His choice for that body that is His really, is that sex be kept special; that you don't flirt with sexual sin by seeing how far you can go; first base, second base, third base as teenagers used to say. And then quickly try to throw the transmission into reverse just as you get to the edge so you can remain a technical virgin.

No, you don't do that with God's body. When we use sex outside the boundaries of marriage, we start a chain reaction of guilt, loss of respect, loss of intimacy, future relationships - ugly choices.

Our body - our life - belongs to Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "You were created by Him and for Him." He made us; He paid for us with His life. We leave the choices about our body, about our future to Him. But see, we haven't lived that way. And someone might be listening right now and saying, "Ron, if I had it to do over again, I would do it very differently."

We all bear the guilt and the shame of the places that we have done it other than God's way. And the good news is that while God hates the sin that we do, He loves us, the sinners. The Bible says, "Christ died for us while we were yet sinners." He died for you.

This could be the day that everything you've ever wished you could ever get rid of, you could leave at His cross - a new beginning. You might have started listening dirty, but by the end of this day you'll be clean inside, forgiven by the One who died so you could be. You tell Him today, "Jesus, I am yours." And that miracle happens.

Our website's all about it - ANewStory.com. Would you go there today? Let this be the day that whatever you've done before today, you'll be clean from now on.