Max Lucado Daily: BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING - March 4, 2024
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are reaching epidemic proportions. It’s enough to make us wonder if the apostle Paul was out of touch with reality when he wrote, “Be anxious for nothing.”
“Be anxious for less” would have been a sufficient challenge. Or “Be anxious only on Thursdays.” But Paul doesn’t seem to offer any leeway here. Be anxious for nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Is this what he meant? Well, not exactly. The Lucado Revised Translation reads, “Don’t let anything in life leave you perpetually breathless and in angst.” The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety? That’s optional.
Israel’s Been to Hell and Back
1 2 The juggernaut’s coming!
Post guards, lay in supplies.
Get yourselves together,
get ready for the big battle.
2 God has restored the Pride of Jacob,
the Pride of Israel.
Israel’s lived through hard times.
He’s been to hell and back.
3–12 Weapons flash in the sun,
the soldiers splendid in battle dress,
Chariots burnished and glistening,
ready to charge,
A spiked forest of brandished spears,
lethal on the horizon.
The chariots pour into the streets.
They fill the public squares,
Flaming like torches in the sun,
like lightning darting and flashing.
The Assyrian king rallies his men,
but they stagger and stumble.
They run to the ramparts
to stem the tide, but it’s too late.
Soldiers pour through the gates.
The palace is demolished.
Soon it’s all over:
Nineveh stripped, Nineveh doomed,
Maids and slaves moaning like doves,
beating their breasts.
Nineveh is a tub
from which they’ve pulled the plug.
Cries go up, “Do something! Do something!”
but it’s too late. Nineveh’s soon empty—nothing.
Other cries come: “Plunder the silver!
Plunder the gold!
A bonanza of plunder!
Take everything you want!”
Doom! Damnation! Desolation!
Hearts sink,
knees fold,
stomachs retch,
faces blanch.
So, what happened to the famous
and fierce Assyrian lion
And all those cute Assyrian cubs?
To the lion and lioness
Cozy with their cubs,
fierce and fearless?
To the lion who always returned from the hunt
with fresh kills for lioness and cubs,
The lion lair heaped with bloody meat,
blood and bones for the royal lion feast?
13 “Assyria, I’m your enemy,”
says God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
“I’ll torch your chariots. They’ll go up in smoke.
‘Lion Country’ will be strewn with carcasses.
The war business is over—you’re out of work:
You’ll have no more wars to report,
No more victories to announce.
You’re out of war work forever.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, March 04, 2024
Today's Scripture
Ephesians 3:14-20
My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20–21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Insight
The word dwell in Ephesians 3:17 is a translation of the word katoikeo. Literally, the word means “to settle down in a dwelling, to dwell fixedly in a place.” Twice in Colossians Paul used this word to emphasize the deity and supremacy of Jesus: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (1:19); “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (2:9). Christ Himself, through His Spirit, makes His home in us (Romans 8:9, 11; Ephesians 3:17), and the implications of Him residing in each member of His body are significant. Believers in Jesus are to conduct their lives in a manner that acknowledges and respects the residency of a “houseguest” like no other. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you . . . ?” Paul says. “Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). By: Arthur Jackson
Jesus Dwells Within
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts. Ephesians 3:17 nlt
As a blizzard bore down on my state in the western United States, my widowed mother agreed to stay with my family to “ride out” the storm. After the blizzard, however, she never returned to her house. She moved in, dwelling with us for the rest of her life. Her presence changed our household in many positive ways. She was available daily to provide wisdom, advice to family members, and share ancestral stories. She and my husband became the best of friends, sharing a similar sense of humor and love of sports. No longer a visitor, she was a permanent and vital resident—forever changing our hearts even after God called her home.
The experience recalls John’s description of Jesus—that He “dwelt among us” (John 1:14 kjv). It’s a compelling description because in the original Greek the word dwelt means “to pitch a tent.” Another translation says, He “made his home among us” (nlt).
By faith, we also receive Jesus as the One who dwells in our hearts. As Paul wrote, “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong” (Ephesians 3:16–17 nlt).
Not a casual visitor, Jesus is an empowering permanent resident of all who follow Him. May we open wide the doors of our hearts and welcome Him.
By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What does it mean for you to open your heart to Christ? How can you make Him more welcome?
As You live in my heart, loving Jesus, make me more like You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 04, 2024
Is This True of Me?
None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself… —Acts 20:24
It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because then you are not bothered by what He requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion, becomes your guide. You may be more prosperous and successful from the world’s perspective, and will have more leisure time, if you never acknowledge the call of God. But once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God asks of you will always be there to prod you on to do His will. You will no longer be able to work for Him on the basis of common sense.
What do I count in my life as “dear to myself”? If I have not been seized by Jesus Christ and have not surrendered myself to Him, I will consider the time I decide to give God and my own ideas of service as dear. I will also consider my own life as “dear to myself.” But Paul said he considered his life dear so that he might fulfill the ministry he had received, and he refused to use his energy on anything else. This verse shows an almost noble annoyance by Paul at being asked to consider himself. He was absolutely indifferent to any consideration other than that of fulfilling the ministry he had received. Our ordinary and reasonable service to God may actually compete against our total surrender to Him. Our reasonable work is based on the following argument which we say to ourselves, “Remember how useful you are here, and think how much value you would be in that particular type of work.” That attitude chooses our own judgment, instead of Jesus Christ, to be our guide as to where we should go and where we could be used the most. Never consider whether or not you are of use— but always consider that “you are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). You are His.
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.
Bible in a Year: Numbers 31-33; Mark 9:1-29
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, March 04, 2024
Plane on the Edge and Life's Bottom Line - #9691
I love the view of Manhattan when you fly into LaGuardia Airport. The view around the runways? Not so much. Water on three sides. The thought has crossed my mind, "A plane could end up in the water some day."
On March 6, 2015, one almost did with 127 passengers on board. A jetliner that slid off the runway, crashing through a fence - its nose virtually in the water.
A passenger said he knew the wheels weren't getting traction on that icy runway that day. Next thing - the jet was sliding uncontrollably to the left, off the runway and to the edge of the East River with some passengers crying, some praying, and some frantic. This young man named Jared was praying. He told the reporter, "Something like this makes you reflect on your relationship with God. God must not be done writing the story of my life."
If God hasn't mattered much before, He really matters when you may have been seconds away from seeing Him. I've had a couple of pretty close calls in my life; some on an airplane, some in a car. And you really do - or you really should - start asking the bottom line questions we're usually too busy to consider.
Somewhere along the way, we all get our wake-up call. So we'll stop and examine our life, our priorities, our relationship with God, and our eternal destination. Moments that bring us to the brink of eternity point us to life's big questions. What really matters and what really doesn't? Why am I here? Why did God spare me? If this had been the end, what then?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Plane on the Edge and Life's Bottom Line."
The meaning of our life? The only One who can tell us is the One who gave us our life. And He has in His Book. We are, He says in the Bible, "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). Problem: I've lived pretty much for me. So I'm missing my purpose until I know my Creator.
What really matters? Well, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says "God has set eternity in the hearts of men." What matters - and all that satisfies - is what will last forever. What about eternity? God says in our word for today from the Word of God in Hebrews 9:27, that man is "destined to die once and after that comes judgment." That can be disturbing because we're not ready. Because, as the Bible says, "your sins have cut you off from God" (Isaiah 59:2), and that's a terrible way to meet God.
Thank God for Jesus! On that bloody Good Friday, I'll read you these five life-changing words right out of the Bible, "Christ died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3). So we don't have to. He loved us. He didn't want to lose you. And the Bible gives us this best of good news in John 3:36, "anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life."
What does it mean to believe in Jesus? It doesn't just mean to agree with His teachings, or like Him, or know a lot about Him. No, it's what happened the day I was drowning when I was ten years old and a man jumped in to save me. I grabbed him like he was my only hope, because he was. I'd have died without him.
You know, that's what it means to believe in Jesus. You grab Him like He's your only hope. He is your only hope, because no one else died for your sins. If you don't take His death for you, you pay for your sins. No one else can give you eternal life because no one else has got it except the man who walked out of His grave.
This day He is ready to make you ready for eternity by changing a death penalty for your sin to eternal life you could never earn and never deserved. I'd love to show you how to begin that relationship with Him if you'd just go to our website ANewStory.com. In a very short time there I think you'll understand how to begin that relationship with Jesus Christ.
I gave myself to this Jesus. And because of Him, I - and millions like me - have this anchored peace, even in the face of death. I'm ready for eternity whenever or however it comes. And you can be too.