Max Lucado Daily: A Hope-Filled Heart
You and I live in a trashy world. Unwanted garbage comes our way on a regular basis. Haven’t you been handed a trash sack of mishaps and heartaches? Sure you have. May I ask, what are you going to do with it? You could hide it. Pretend it isn’t there. But sooner or later it will start to stink. So what will you do?
If you follow the example of Christ, you’ll learn to see tough times differently. God wants you to have a hope-filled heart. . .just like Jesus. Wouldn’t you want that? Jesus saw his Father’s presence in the problem. Sure, Max, but Jesus was God. I can’t see the way he saw. Not yet, maybe. But don’t underestimate God’s power. He can change the way you look at life.
From The Lucado Inspirational Reader
Proverbs 21
God Examines Our Motives
Good leadership is a channel of water controlled by God;
he directs it to whatever ends he chooses.
2 We justify our actions by appearances;
God examines our motives.
3 Clean living before God and justice with our neighbors
mean far more to God than religious performance.
4 Arrogance and pride—distinguishing marks in the wicked—
are just plain sin.
5 Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run;
hurry and scurry puts you further behind.
6 Make it to the top by lying and cheating;
get paid with smoke and a promotion—to death!
7 The wicked get buried alive by their loot
because they refuse to use it to help others.
8 Mixed motives twist life into tangles;
pure motives take you straight down the road.
Do Your Best, Prepare for the Worst
9 Better to live alone in a tumbledown shack
than share a mansion with a nagging spouse.
10 Wicked souls love to make trouble;
they feel nothing for friends and neighbors.
11 Simpletons only learn the hard way,
but the wise learn by listening.
12 A God-loyal person will see right through the wicked
and undo the evil they’ve planned.
13 If you stop your ears to the cries of the poor,
your cries will go unheard, unanswered.
14 A quietly given gift soothes an irritable person;
a heartfelt present cools a hot temper.
15 Good people celebrate when justice triumphs,
but for the workers of evil it’s a bad day.
16 Whoever wanders off the straight and narrow
ends up in a congregation of ghosts.
17 You’re addicted to thrills? What an empty life!
The pursuit of pleasure is never satisfied.
18 What a bad person plots against the good, boomerangs;
the plotter gets it in the end.
19 Better to live in a tent in the wild
than with a cross and petulant spouse.
20 Valuables are safe in a wise person’s home;
fools put it all out for yard sales.
21 Whoever goes hunting for what is right and kind
finds life itself—glorious life!
22 One sage entered a whole city of armed soldiers—
their trusted defenses fell to pieces!
23 Watch your words and hold your tongue;
you’ll save yourself a lot of grief.
24 You know their names—Brash, Impudent, Blasphemer—
intemperate hotheads, every one.
25 Lazy people finally die of hunger
because they won’t get up and go to work.
26 Sinners are always wanting what they don’t have;
the God-loyal are always giving what they do have.
27 Religious performance by the wicked stinks;
it’s even worse when they use it to get ahead.
28 A lying witness is unconvincing;
a person who speaks truth is respected.
29 Unscrupulous people fake it a lot;
honest people are sure of their steps.
30 Nothing clever, nothing conceived, nothing contrived,
can get the better of God.
31 Do your best, prepare for the worst—
then trust God to bring victory.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Today's Scripture
2 Timothy 4:1–8
I can’t impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule, so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don’t ever quit. Just keep it simple.
3-5 You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you—keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant.
6-8 You take over. I’m about to die, my life an offering on God’s altar. This is the only race worth running. I’ve run hard right to the finish, believed all the way. All that’s left now is the shouting—God’s applause! Depend on it, he’s an honest judge. He’ll do right not only by me, but by everyone eager for his coming.
Insight
Paul’s second letter to Timothy was written from a Roman prison. Many scholars believe he was incarcerated in the Mamertine prison, known in ancient times as the Tullianum prison. According to one source, the Mamertine prison was a place for political prisoners who were “doomed for execution.” A door in the lower chamber gave access to Rome’s sewer system, which was often used to carry away the bodies of executed prisoners. While there’s no historical evidence that Paul (or Peter) was imprisoned in the Mamertine prison, tradition has long held that to be the case. As a result of that longstanding connection to the church’s great apostles, the prison has been used as a place of worship since around the seventh century. Whether this was the actual location of Paul’s imprisonment or not, his letter makes it clear that he was anticipating his upcoming execution and was ready to see his Savior (2 Timothy 4:6–8). By: Bill Crowder
Finishing Strong
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7
At the age of 103, a woman named Man Kaur competed as India’s oldest female athlete during the 2019 World Masters Athletic Championship in Poland. Remarkably, Kaur won gold in four events (javelin throw, shot put, 60-meter dash, and 200-meter run). But most astounding was that she ran faster than she ran in the 2017 championship. A great-grandmother running into her second century, Kaur showed how to finish strong.
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, a younger disciple, of how he’d entered his concluding years. “The time for my departure is near,” Paul wrote (2 Timothy 4:6). Reflecting on his life, he confidently believed he was finishing strong. “I have fought the good fight,” Paul said. “I have finished the race” (v. 7). He wasn’t confident because he’d calculated his impressive accomplishments or surveyed his vast impact (though they were immense). Rather, he knew he’d “kept the faith” (v. 7). The apostle had remained loyal to Jesus. Through sorrows and joys, he’d followed the One who’d rescued him from ruin. And he knew that Jesus stood ready with a “crown of righteousness,” the joyful finale to his faithful life (v. 8).
Paul insists that this crown isn’t for an elite few but for “all who have longed for [Christ’s] appearing” (v. 8). As we head into a new year, let’s remember that Jesus stands eager to crown all who’ve loved Him, and may we live to finish strong. By: Winn Collier
Reflect & Pray
What would it look like for you to finish strong? Who has been an example of finishing well?
God, I want to finish well. Help me to love You more than anything or anyone else.
For further study, read Finishing Well: Gracefully Living with Life’s Changes.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Yesterday
You shall not go out with haste,…for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. —Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. “…God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “…the Lord will go before you….” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste….” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples. Approved Unto God, 11 L
Bible in a Year: Malachi 1-4; Revelation 22
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