“Who of you by worrying can add one cubit to his height?” — Luke 12:25 The French word for “wooden shoe” is sabot. From this word comes “sabotage,” and it seemed that Dutchmen had a way of sabotaging French plants by casting their wooden shoes into the machinery. Worry is sabotage to our lives. Worry is a great destroyer of the body as well as the mind. Worry is also harmful to the spiritual life. Jesus said that the cares of this world choke out the good seed and keep it from being fruitful. Cares of this world cause some people never to enter the kingdom of God. I remember talking one time to a person that I dearly loved, talking to him about the kingdom of God and about the salvation which Christ offered. And I remember how he cut me off short by telling me that he had so many problems and so many cares and so many worries in the world that he did not have time to think about that. Many people think about worry as a weakness. The Bible tells us that it is a wickedness; that it is because of unbelief. Because, you see, where worry starts, faith ends. You cannot have faith and worry about the same thing at the same time. As water in a glass replaces the air, so worry replaces faith. Worry is practical atheism. But we should cast our cares on the Lord and trust Him. Over and over we see He helps, and most of our worries never materialize. Dear Lord, forgive us for our unbelief. Forgive us for taking on ourselves burdens, which overwhelm us, instead of turning those problems over to You. Thank You that You are more than capable to handle all these problems… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, OUR PROBLEMS ARE HANDED OVER TO THE GREAT PROBLEM-SOLVER.
“After several days, when Felix arrived…he sent for Paul and heard him speak concerning faith in Christ…Felix was afraid and answered, ‘For now, leave! When time permits, I will send for you.’” — Acts 24:24-25 How true it is that has been said, “Of all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been.” We all know that the road to hell is lined with good intentions. But why? Because of procrastination. Procrastination is what keeps good intentions from materializing into good works. If procrastination is harmful in the spiritual exercises of this life, it is most deadly and fatal when it comes to our eternal salvation. We see a spiritual procrastinator in the example of Felix, a Roman leader. Now Felix was a despicable character, far lower than the average Roman governor. He was indeed, the Roman historian Tacitus tells us, “a man of lust and cruelty;” who “exercised the office of a king with the spirit of a slave.” In Acts 24, this man, who did not hesitate to get involved in the most immoral kinds of activities, was now listening to Paul preach. As he talked about these things, Felix began to tremble. Because his sins were crying out against him and his conscience was calling for relief, he should have repented, but he was a procrastinator. So he said, “For now, leave! When time permits, I will send for you” (Acts 24:25). He would take care of it mañana. To our knowledge he never did. How tragic. He provides a great example of what not to do. Heavenly Father, forgive us for our spiritual procrastination. Give us strength for today to share the Gospel with those You have put in our path. Help us to not be like Felix or anyone else who would postpone such important news… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE WILL HEED HIS VOICE TODAY.
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” — Proverbs 27:1 Though we usually joke about it, psychologists tell us that procrastination can be a very harmful addiction with disastrous consequences. Many people addicted to procrastinating just can’t seem to stop, no matter what. During the American Revolution, General Washington had conceived his bold plan to cross the Delaware in the midst of winter and to surprise the Hessian army at Trenton on Christmas night 1776, but a British sympathizer saw what he was doing and sent a messenger across the river with a note to Colonel Rahl, the Hessian commander. When the courier arrived at the camp, he found the Colonel in his tent playing cards with his officers. He gave him the letter, and Rahl, without opening it, put it in his pocket, and said, “Later, but first, let’s finish the game.” He finished the game just in time to stand up, surprised at the American attack. It cost Rahl his honor, his command, and his life—all because of procrastination. It can, indeed, have disastrous consequences. In the business realm, procrastination can have disastrous consequences. Many a person, who, though he is outstandingly talented, educated, and equipped, does not progress nearly as well as some of lesser abilities and talents simply because he procrastinates and the others don’t. When it comes to the spiritual world, procrastination is eternally disastrous. Many important things are left undone because of procrastination. Most vital of all is to not postpone accepting Christ. Let us live today for Christ. Tomorrow may never come. Lord, give me strength for today to do that which I should do today. Forgive me for so often putting off today’s task until “tomorrow,” which often never comes. Help me to truly live for You today… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE LIVE FOR HIM TODAY.
“The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe in Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.’” — Numbers 20:12 Moses did not get to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land, yet his whole life’s work was moving in that direction. Some will say, “Well, it is because Moses smote the rock.” We see in Exodus 17:6 that God said to him, “you shall strike the rock, and there water shall come out of it,” and he did. But later on, in Numbers 20, there is another smiting of another rock, and that time God told him to go and speak to the rock, and the water would come forth. Instead, on that occasion, Moses struck the rock and angered God, who then punished him by not letting Him go to the Promised Land. Sometimes we have to obey without fully understanding, but we know we can trust God because He has proven Himself fully trustworthy. Jesus is the Rock of Ages, but Moses had no way of knowing that God was in a sense demonstrating Christ’s role and work. Jesus was struck once on the cross, and living water flowed forth. After that, we only need to speak to Jesus Christ, and He gives us the living water. Obedience in small things matters. May we always drink of this water that becomes for us a spring of eternal life. Moses lived by the law and was judged by the law. Thank God for His mercy and grace in Jesus Christ. Remember, G-R-A-C-E means “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” God, thank You for Your grace poured out in Jesus Christ. Help us to show our love for You by striving to obey You in all things. Thank You, Jesus, for being struck on Your own body, taking on Yourself the penalty of our wrong-doings… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE EXPERIENCE HIS UNMERITED FAVOR IN CHRIST.
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” — Proverbs 4:23 There is a large corporation whose motto is “Think.” Well we all think all of the time. God is more specific. In Philippians 8, after giving a list of good and wholesome things, He says think on these things. Don’t just think. Hitler was a man who thought, as was Stalin and Mao and Nero and Judas, but the important thing is not merely to think, but what we are to think about. Paul says in Philippians 4:9, if we control these thoughts, if we bring every thought into obedience to Christ, then the God of peace will be with us. So the peace of God within us, the God of peace around us, and that is the kind of life that everyone of us certainly would covet. I would urge you to look at the two verses—verse 6 (don’t worry, instead pray) and verse 8 (think on these positive things)—which precede these two promises of the peace of God and endeavor to put them into application in your own life. God’s peace will be your reward. God’s Word truly gets to the heart of the matter—out of which there proceed the issues of life. We pray we should learn to bring every thought into subjection to Christ and obedience to Him. We should pray the Lord would create new channels where positive, loving, pure, honest thoughts may run, which will result in God’s peace filling our hearts and lives and surrounding us in our homes and wherever we go. Dear Lord, in our age of incredible moral pollution, help us to keep our lives pure. Lord, I ask that You would guard my heart and give me strength for today to feed my soul with good things, while keeping away from that which is harmful… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE BRING EVERY THOUGHT INTO SUBJECTION TO CHRIST AND OBEDIENCE TO HIM.
“Do those things which you have both learned and received, and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you” — Philippians 4:9 Many people say in effect, “Do as I say, not as I do.” But Paul says in effect, “Do what I do, as well as what I say.” Paul tells the Philippian Christians to put into practice that which they saw him do: “Do those things which you have both learned and received, and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you” (4:9). He says something similar to the Corinthian Christians: “Follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Paul is not giving merely theoretical advice, he is saying follow me. Now that is a bold statement. How many of us could say that to others? “What I want you to do, new convert, is watch me closely and do what I do in my life.” That’s how we ought to live. This is a tremendous statement from Paul. They had learned from him in his oral instruction when he had preached to them and taught them when he was at Philippi. They had received this epistle from his hands which they had read. They had heard from others of how he was enduring the punishment in the Roman imprisonment, and they had seen with their own eyes how he had acted while he was in Philippi when he had been persecuted and imprisoned and beaten in stocks while he was among them. Follow me, be emulators of me, as I emulate Christ. And he adds, “the God of peace will be with you.” Lord, give me strength for today to so live my life that if others were to imitate me, that would be a good thing. Help me to be a good example that I would want people to follow me as I follow You… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE ARE GOOD EXAMPLES FOR OTHERS TO FOLLOW.
“Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think on these things.” — Philippians 4:8 We can make a sincere effort to try to counter our thoughts and to bring them into subjection to Christ and obedience to Him, and we will discover that they will affect the life that we lead. I would urge you to look these over from day to day (what Paul lists here) and ask yourself are these the things that you are thinking about? Now ordinarily we don’t stop and consciously ask ourselves what thoughts are going through our minds, but I think that we need to do that more often. We need to be as it were a supervisor of our own thoughts—a bishop, which is an overseer, of the thoughts of our minds to see what kind of thoughts we are dwelling on. When we see that we are beginning to go down one of those well-worn channels again, that we say, “Stop, you are not going down that channel anymore.” We want to replace the ungodly thoughts with godly ones. Unholy thoughts lead to unholy living. Holy thoughts do lead to holy living. Some people have said that a person is what he thinks about all day. That may not be totally true, but the old saying is true: garbage in, garbage out. Be the bishop of your thoughts. Father, give us strength for today to control what we think about. Forgive us for allowing our minds to dwell on evil things. Lord, renew our mind and so renew our lives… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE TAKE EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE FOR CHRIST.
“…for the zeal of Your house has consumed me…” — Psalm 69:6 There was a man who was watching sailboats out on a large lake. The breeze was brisk and the sails were filled, and he noticed one boat did not seem to be moving. He asked a friend, “That boat does not seem to be moving. Why not? The sails are full.” And his friend replied, “It is anchored.” A lot of Christians may come to church and put up their sails; they may even read the Bible. Yet they are anchored into some sin, some carnal habit, something they refuse to give up. Thus, they make no progress in their spiritual life. Christ would have us to grow in our zeal for Him. If the divine principle is within us, if we truly have that which comes from God, it will produce within us a zeal, a flame, and a fire. A flame consumes everything about it. It will continue to grow, transforming everything it touches into its own nature of fire, but a painted flame, a painted fire, will never grow. As Jim Elliot said, “He makes his ministers a flame of fire.” Let’s ask ourselves: Are we ignitable? Are we weak? Yes, weak in ourselves, but strong in God. May our prayer be that cry of young David Brainerd, the missionary to the American Indians, who said, “O God, would that I were a flaming fire in Thy service.” Wouldn’t it be a fantastic thing if ten thousand sparks would spread out from our churches and set afire our communities for Jesus Christ? Father, forgive us that we can be wildly enthusiastic about those things that interest us here on earth, while remaining diffident to You. Give us strength for today, Lord, to love You above all… LORD, GIVE ME STRENGTH FOR TODAY TO BE MORE ZEALOUS FOR YOU!
“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.” — Revelation 2:4 Do you love the Lord more than you did ten years ago? I can think of a little girl of about six who was kneeling beside her bed saying her prayers. Her mother was sitting on the bed, helping her by suggesting things for her to pray about. Finally, her mother said, “Darling, why don’t you pray that God might enable you to love Jesus more.” The little girl looked up in astonishment and said, “But mommy, I am just crazy about Him now.” I wonder how many could really say that today. Paul said, “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed!” (1 Corinthians 16:22). In one of the great art museums, a poor man, not well dressed, was standing in front of a picture of Christ on the cross. He was standing there with his hat in his hand, looking at the picture for a long time. Finally, totally oblivious of those who were in the museum about him, he said, “Bless Him. Bless Him. I love Him. I love Him.” The quiet mumbling stopped and all turned their eyes upon him. Another man walked up to him, took him by the arm, and said, “I love Him, too.” A third said, “And so do I.” A fourth, “And I, also.” A little group of people, totally unknown to one another, was drawn together by the love they had for Christ. It is God’s grace in our hearts that causes us to love the Savior. Oh, Lord Jesus, forgive me for ever taking Your cross for granted. Please, increase my love for You. As the hymnist said, “let me never, never outlive my love for Thee”… IN GOD’S STRENGTH, OUR LOVE FOR JESUS GROWS DAILY.
“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands.” — Revelation 9:20 The greatest confrontation that is to be found in all of the Old Testament and perhaps in all of literature, save that confrontation of Christ himself with Pilate, is Moses’ confrontation of Pharaoh. Here we see the true God dealing with unbelief and bringing these ten grievous plagues upon the nation of Egypt and destroying it. These were not the end of plagues in the Bible. We find throughout the whole Old Testament that there were plagues that came upon not only the pagan nations around Israel, but came upon the people of Israel repeatedly because of their sins. And down through the last 2,000 years there have been plagues that have come upon the people of this earth, most notable of which was the bubonic plague in the 14th century, which killed one-third of all of the people of Europe. And now we are asked could God send a plague today? Well, we do know that some of the sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, are ravaging some populations in our world. In effect, we sent a letter to God, and we said, “God, we have thrown off Your law. We have rebelled against your Commandments. We are in revolt against your dominion, and we will now go our own way and do our own thing.” But people are now suffering the physical, emotional, and spiritual consequences of defying God’s law. STDs are a type of plague upon all sexual promiscuity, whether heterosexual or homosexual. God will bring it to an end. Dear God, thank You so much that You spare Your obedient children from all sorts of diseases when we follow You. Of course, the ultimate healing is when You take us home and free us from this body of death. Help us to show compassion to those suffering for whatever reason… LORD, GIVE ME STRENGTH FOR TODAY TO AVOID SEXUAL SIN.
“For I will at this time send all My plagues upon you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth.” — Exodus 9:14 As noted, when Moses confronted Pharaoh, God judged the false gods of the Egyptians, one by one in each of the plagues. The seventh plague was hail that came down from the sky. One of the gods of the Egyptians was the god Shu, who was the god of the atmosphere. Now it is hard to go out to worship the god of the atmosphere when you are being pounded with large hail stones. And then there were the locusts that swarmed all over the land, and this was a rebuke of the god Serapis, who supposedly was the protector against locusts. Their prayers to him were of no avail as the whole country was black with locusts. And then there was the darkness that came upon the land for three days, which was an assault upon the chief god of the Egyptians, the god Rah. Rah was the sun god, the principal deity of ancient Egypt, and here this deity was blotted out. And finally, in the last plague upon Pharaoh himself who was supposedly descended from the sun god Rah, his first born was killed. This was God’s attack upon Satan and Egypt. Egypt here is a picture of the world—an unbelieving, godless, pagan world. And Pharaoh is a picture of Satan, who is the god of this world. Moses was a representative of the living God who took on all of the gods of Egypt. In the ten plagues, God shows the world for all time that He alone deserves our worship. Sovereign One, give us the strength to worship You alone. When we see plagues coming back on a worldwide scale, we tremble. Keep us close to You and keep us safe from demonic power… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE ARE SEALED AND KEPT SAFE IN AN EVIL WORLD.
“…if you will not let My people go, indeed I will send swarms of flies on you…all the livestock of Egypt died, but not one of the livestock of the children of Israel died…and it became a boil breaking forth with blisters upon man and beast…” — Exodus 8:21, 9:6, 10 In the ten plagues, the Lord God did not just judge the Egyptians for their 430 year enslavement of the Hebrews, He also judged their false gods, as we have seen. The fourth plague involved the flies. The Hebrew word means swarms. Scholars say they probably were not flies, but were were the beetles common to that area, called the scarabaeus from which we get the word scarab, which is a black beetle. I am sure after they had a couple hundred thousand of those in every home in Egypt they were not too thrilled with the god of Scarabaeus. The fifth plague was a disease of cattle. The god Apis was the sacred bull. You’ve seen many Egyptian figures of a man with the head of a bull that they worshiped. And sixth, there was the god Typhon. This was when the dust caused the breaking forth of boils and blisters. Typhon was a magical genie that was worshiped in ancient Egypt. Here was a god who was connected with the magicians, who were the priests of the Egyptian religion. We find here that the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boil was upon the magicians and upon all of Egypt. So their power was broken. God alone is to be worshiped. Lord of all, today we see people turning to false gods and playing with spiritual forces they know nothing about. Free us from Beelzebub, “The Lord of the flies.” Thank You for calling us out of darkness and into Your marvelous light… BY GOD’S STRENGTH ALONE, CAN WE STAND AGAINST EVIL.
“But if you refuse to let them go, then I will plague all your borders with frogs….All the dust of the land became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.” — Exodus 8:2, 17 In the 10 plagues of Exodus, we have a confrontation between the one true God and the false gods of the Egyptian people. Plague number two was an attack by frogs. The frogs were one of the many gods of Egypt. It was the goddess Hekt, which is a form of the Egyptian word Hathor, who was the goddess of love and mirth and joy. It is from this goddess Hathor that the Greeks got the name of their goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love and mirth and joy. But when the frogs started hopping over everything—in their houses, into their ovens and into their food, even into their beds—they didn’t have much mirth and joy. And then when they all died and the nation stank, they were not too thrilled, I believe, with the goddess Hekt or Hathor. Plague number three was probably fleas. Now one of the gods of the Egyptians was the god of earth, Seb, and they worshiped the earth. We can picture those fleas hopping up all over the place. The Egyptians’ reverence for their earth god Seb would no doubt have cooled when they saw their land covered with trillions of fleas. These two hard lessons underscore the fact that we should worship the one true God alone. Lord of lords, free us from all false worship and spirituality of our day. Make us aware of subtle forms of idolatry that are attached to seemingly good causes. May we worship You, the Triune God, and You alone… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN OVERCOME FALSE RELIGION.
Thus says the LORD, ‘In this you shall know that I am the LORD: Indeed, I will strike the waters of the Nile with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood.’” — Exodus 7:17 In the Book of Exodus, we see the great confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. This is the Old Testament counterpart to that confrontation between Christ and Pilate, the representative of the pagan Roman Empire, with Pharaoh being the representative of the pagan empire of Egypt. Here is a classic confrontation between good and evil, Christ and Satan. It is the high point in the Old Testament. It is that point to which the Jews looked for centuries afterward remembering the great acts of God. Now these ten plagues are not simply punishments upon Pharaoh and the people of Egypt, but they are a concerted effort on the part of Jehovah to destroy the idolatry of the Egyptian people and to bring to naught their many gods. And so, in the plagues, we have a systematic, cumulative crescendo of attacks on the gods of Egypt before the watching Egyptians. Take, for example, the first plague, the attack that God made was upon the River Nile, which was a great god to the Egyptians because it was the source of all their livelihoods. Egypt of course is a huge desert with the Nile River running down it, giving about a 50 mile wide swath of greenery and life. Without the Nile, that nation would dry up and blow away. And so first of all, God attacked that, the great god of the Nile. God alone is to be worshiped and not any false idols. God above all gods, give us the strength of heart to worship only You. We ask that You cast down any idol in our lives and that our worship might be true and right… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN AVOID IDOLATRY AND DESTROY ANY IDOLS IN OUR LIVES.
“But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.” — Mark 4:6 A man who owned a vineyard noticed that one of the plants was not doing well. It was sickly for two years, and it had never produced grapes of any significance. He wondered why all of those around it were quite filled with fruit, and so he decided to dig down around it and see if there was some problem in the soil. He dug down about six inches and ran into boards underneath the plant covering an old abandoned well. When he took away the boards he noticed that the roots of the plant had gone down between the cracks and were dangling in the empty well, trying desperately to get nourishment. The plant could not grow. What a picture that is of many Christians. They do not grow and they do not produce fruit because their roots are not into the Word of God. I would ask you this: Are the roots of your faith reaching down into the Word of God? If they are not, you will not be growing. If the true principle of grace is in your life, it will be giving you a hunger for the Word of God. If you are growing in faith, you will be growing in repentance, too. Are you growing in that area in your Christian life? Our whole life is a continuation of repentance. Failure to repent is one of the sure ways to stop spiritual growth. Is there some sin in your life that is keeping you from growing? Ask God to show you. Lord, help me to be mindful of the depravity in my own soul. Help me to live in daily repentance, always taking time to confess my sins before You. Thank You for Your blood that washes away my sins and cleanses me from all unrighteousness… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN SEE OUR SINS, CONFESS THEM, TURN FROM THEM, AND BE FORGIVEN DAILY.
