Max Lucado Daily: Prayer is a Habit Worth Having
Do you want to know how to deepen your prayer life? At the risk of sounding like a preacher-which I am-may I make a suggestion? Why don't you check your habits?
In Romans 12:12, Paul says, "When trials come endure them patiently; steadfastly maintain the habit of prayer." Prayer is a habit worth having. Don't prepare to pray. Just pray. Don't read about prayer. Just pray. Don't attend a lecture on prayer or engage in discussion about prayer. Just pray.
Posture, tone, and place are personal matters. Select the form that works for you. But don't think about it too much. Don't be so concerned about wrapping the gift that you never give it. Better to pray awkwardly than not at all. And if you feel you should only pray when inspired, that's okay. Just see to it that you are inspired every day.
From When God Whispers Your Name
1 Corinthians 8
Food Offered to Idols
8 Now concerning1 mfood offered to idols: we know that n“all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” opuffs up, pbut love builds up. 2 qIf anyone imagines that he knows something, rhe does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, she is known by God.2
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that t“an idol has no real existence,” and that u“there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be vso-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet wfor us there is one God, the Father, xfrom whom are all things and for whom we exist, and yone Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and zthrough whom we exist.
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, athrough former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and btheir conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 cFood will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care dthat this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block eto the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating3 in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged,4 if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is fdestroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers5 and gwounding their conscience when it is weak, hyou sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, iif food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Today's Scripture
1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 21–27
You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
14–18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together.
Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
25–26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
27–31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything.
Insight
Paul used many metaphors to describe the church; for example, “flock” (Acts 20:28), “field” and “building” (1 Corinthians 3:9), and “dwelling” (Ephesians 2:22). But one metaphor Paul used often is “body” (Romans 12:4–5; 1 Corinthians 10:17; Ephesians 1:22–23; 4:4, 12; 5:23, 30; Colossians 1:18, 24).
Some Corinthian believers elevated certain ecstatic gifts (for example, speaking in unknown tongues) above others saying that unless one had these, they weren’t part of the church. Paul refuted this error in 1 Corinthians 12–14. Here he used the body metaphor to promote oneness, unity, and harmony in the church. The church, like the human body, has many parts, but all are needed for the body to function properly. By: K. T. Sim
Lower Deck People
Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. 1 Corinthians 12:22
A friend of mine works on a hospital ship called Africa Mercy, which takes free healthcare to developing countries. The staff daily serve hundreds of patients whose ailments would otherwise go untreated.
TV crews who periodically board the ship, point their cameras on its amazing medical staff, who fix cleft palates and reset club feet. Sometimes they go below deck to interview other crew members, but the work Mick does typically goes unnoticed.
Mick, an engineer, admits being surprised about where he’d been assigned to work—in the ship’s sewage plant. With up to forty thousand liters of waste produced each day, managing this toxic material is serious business. Without Mick tending its pipes and pumps, Africa Mercy’s life-giving operations would stop.
It’s easy to applaud those on the “top deck” of Christian ministry while overlooking those in the galleys below. When the Corinthians elevated those with extraordinary gifts above others, Paul reminded them that every believer has a role in Christ’s work (1 Corinthians 12:7–20), and every gift is important, whether it’s miraculous healing or helping others (vv. 27–31). In fact, the less prominent the role, the greater honor it deserves (vv. 22–24).
Are you a “lower deck” person? Then lift your head high. Your work is honored by God and indispensable to us all. By: Sheridan Voysey
Reflect & Pray
What happens when you compare your gifts with others? Which “lower deck” person can you affirm the efforts of today?
I’m important to You, God. Thank You for noticing me whether others do or not.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, July 30, 2023
The Teaching of Disillusionment
Jesus did not commit Himself to them…, for He knew what was in man. —John 2:24-25
Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from these deceptions. However, though no longer deceived, our experience of disillusionment may actually leave us cynical and overly critical in our judgment of others. But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism. Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another. According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious, and cowardly.
Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering of human life. And this is how that suffering happens— if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; yet we are demanding of a human being something which he or she cannot possibly give. There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God, and in what God’s grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To live a life alone with God does not mean that we live it apart from everyone else. The connection between godly men and women and those associated with them is continually revealed in the Bible, e.g., 1 Timothy 4:10. Not Knowing Whither, 867 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 51-53; Romans 2
