WHY ME?

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

WHY ME?

READ:  Luke 17:11-19

One of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned,

and with a loud voice glorified God.  Luke 17:15

A few years ago, an unkempt, poorly adjusted youth named Tim (not his real name) was converted to Christ in an evangelistic crusade.  Several days later, still unkempt but bathed in the love of Christ, he was sent to my home so that I could help him find a good church.  And so it was that he began attending with me.

Though Tim needed and received much loving help in personal grooming and basic social graces, one characteristic has remained unchanged-his untamed love for his Savior.

One Sunday after church Tim rushed to my side, looking somewhat perplexed.  He exclaimed, “Why me?  I keep asking myself, why me?”  Oh, no, I thought, he’s become another complaining Christian.  Then with arms outstretched, he went on to say, “Out of all the people in the world who are greater and smarter than I am, why did God choose me?”  With that he joyfully clapped his hands.

Over the years I’ve heard many Christians, including myself, ask “Why me?”  during tough times.  But Tim is the first one I’ve heard ask that question when talking about God’s blessings.  Many were converted the same night as Tim, but I wonder how many among them have humbly asked, “Why me?”  May we ask it often.    JY

I  know not why God’s wondrous grace

To me He hath made known;

Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love

Redeemed me for His own. -Whittle

Gratitude should be a continuous attitude.

GREAT THINGS

Great Things!

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

READ PSALM 126

On November 9, 1989, the world was astonished by the news of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wall that had divided Berlin, Germany, was coming down and the city that had been divided for twenty-eight years would be united again. Though the epicenter of joy was Germany, an onlooking world shared in the excitement. Something great had taken place!

When Israel returned to her homeland in 538 bc after being exiled for almost seventy years, it was also momentous. Psalm 126 begins with an over-the-shoulder look at that joy-filled time in the history of Israel. The experience was marked by laughter, joyful singing, and international recognition that God had done great things for His people (v. 2). And what was the response of the recipients of His rescuing mercy? Great things from God prompted great gladness (v. 3). Furthermore, His works in the past became the basis for fresh prayers for the present and bright hope for the future (vv. 4-6).

You and I need not look far in our own experiences for examples of great things from God, especially if we believe in God through His Son, Jesus. Nineteenth-century hymn writer Fanny Crosby captured this sentiment when she wrote, “Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done, and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son.” Yes, to God be the glory, great things He has done!

By Arthur Jackson

REFLECT & PRAY

Great things in the past can inspire great joy, great prayer, and great hope.

What great things have you experienced from the hand of God? How does reflecting on these increase your trust and hope?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Psalm 126 is one of the songs of ascent, a title given to fifteen of the psalms (120-134). These psalms are also known as pilgrim songs and were most likely sung by Jewish worshipers as they ascended the road to the temple in Jerusalem to attend the three required festivals or feasts (Passover, or Festival of Unleavened Bread; Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks; and Tabernacles, also known as Tents or Booths). We read about this requirement in Deuteronomy 16:16. Other scholars believe these songs were sung by the Levite singers as they ascended the steps to minister at the temple. Psalm 126 calls worshipers to rejoice as they remember how God “restored the fortunes of Zion” (v. 1), or Jerusalem, most likely when the people returned from captivity in Babylon during Ezra’s time. Alyson Kieda

ROCK BOTTOM

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

ROCK BOTTOM

READ:  Psalm 119:65-72

It is good for me that I have been afflicted,

that I may learn Your statutes.  Psalm 119:71

I was in my early thirties, a dedicated wife and mother, a Christian worker at my husband’s side.  Yet inwardly I found myself on a trip nobody wants to take-the trip downward.  I was heading for that certain sort of breakdown that most of us resist, the breakdown of my stubborn self-sufficiency.

Finally I experienced the odd relief of hitting rock bottom, where I made an unexpected discovery:  The rock on which I had been thrown was none other than Christ himself.  Cast on Him alone, I was in a position to rebuild the rest of my life, this time as a God-dependent person rather than the self-dependent person I had been.  My rock-bottom experience became a turning point and one of the most vital spiritual development of my life.

Most people feel anything but spiritual when they hit bottom.  Their misery is often reinforced by Christians who take a very shortsighted view of what the sufferer is going through, and  why.  But our heavenly Father is well pleased with what He intends to bring out of such a painful process.

A person who knows the secret of the God-dependent life can say, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statues” (psalm 119:71).    JY

When a Christian hits rock bottom,

he finds that Christ is a firm foundation.  

USE YOUR VOICE

Use Your Voice

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.

1 Corinthians 12:4

READ 1 CORINTHIANS 12:1–14

I was invited to meet a world-renowned pianist. Since I grew up immersed in music—playing the violin and piano, and primarily singing solos for church and other events—I was thrilled at the opportunity.

When I arrived to meet the pianist, I realized he spoke little English; and to my surprise he provided a cello for me to play—an instrument I’d never touched. He insisted that I play and he would accompany me. I screeched out a few notes, trying to mimic my violin training. Finally admitting that I was lost, we parted ways.

I awoke, realizing the scenario had been a dream. But since the musical background presented in my dream was true, in my mind lingered the words, Why didn’t you tell him you could sing?

God equips us to develop our natural talents and our spiritual gifts for others (1 Corinthians 12:7). Through prayerful reading of the Bible and the wise advice of others, we can better understand the spiritual gift (or gifts) that is uniquely ours. The apostle Paul reminds us that whatever our spiritual gift, we’re to take time to find it and use it, knowing that the Spirit distributes the gifts “just as he determines” (v. 11).

Let’s use the “voices” the Holy Spirit has given us to honor God and serve other believers in Jesus.

By Evan Morgan

REFLECT & PRAY

Father, show me how You’ve gifted me and how I’m to use those gifts for others.

What’s your spiritual “voice,” and how can you use it today? Why is it wrong to want others’ spiritual gifts?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

To a Corinthian church struggling with deep divisions, Paul writes about the gifts of the Spirit. His intent is to help heal the divisions and adjust the perceptions of people about their own significance or superiority. One of the first things Paul says about the gifts is that they’re given for the common good. That means that whatever the gift, its use is for the benefit of others. J.R. Hudberg

PATIENTLY ENDURING

PATIENTLY ENDURING

For more great blogs as these go to Daniel’s blog site at:  www.Mannsword.blogspot.com

https://mannsword.blogspot.com/2019/08/patiently-enduring.html

Missionaries are my heroes, and I want to read more biographies about them. I am reading a highly touching one about Adoniram Judson, the missionary to Burma, 1813 to 1852.

I am struck by the loss and suffering he had to endure. I shudder tearfully thinking that if our Lord didn’t answer many of his prayers, why should He answer mine! However, Judson’s experience shouldn’t throw us for a loop. God had promised that the Apostle Paul would have to suffer grievously for Him (Acts 9:16).

And then there is the case of Job, the most righteous of men, whom God held in the highest esteem and who suffered the loss of all things. We are also warned about the great persecution accompanying the end of the age:

∑       “and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.” (Daniel 11:35)

But why must the wise of the Lord - the most godly - be refined through suffering? For the same reason that the Lord had allowed Paul to be afflicted by Satan:

• “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. (2 Corinthians 12:7; Job 33)

I was also perplexed by what was written to the godly Church of Smyrna. Some would be required to die as martyrs (Revelation 2:10). How disturbing! Should not the Lord have instead chosen some lukewarm Christians for martyrdom?

However, these accounts remind me that my ways are not His ways:

• “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

This was a lesson Job had to learn. He had thought that he understood enough about God to bring charges of injustice against Him. However, he subsequently repented of such arrogance.

This is also a lesson that I need to learn, especially when I suffer and speak out angrily against God. But I’ve been left wondering, “Can I trust a God who just wants me to accept His claim that His ways are so above my understanding?”

Moses often had to deal with this very charge coming from the Israelites. He reminded them that they could trust God because of all He had done for them:

• “Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.” (Deuteronomy 4:33-35)

I am also reminded of the many things that God has done for me. Consequently, what I know about my Savior enables me to trust Him despite the many things I don’t know about His ways. Although this is no assurance that I too will not have to suffer (2 Corinthians 4:10-11), I am assured that He will deliver me (1 Corinthians 10:12-13) and use the suffering for a blessed purpose (Romans 8:28).

This was also the conclusion that Judson embraced after losing his dear wife Ann and their children. I pray that I will not have to endure such loss. However, I am trusting that my Savior will give me what I need to endure, perhaps even with joy and peace.

FACING YOUR ENEMIES

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

FACING YOUR ENEMIES

READ:  Psalm 27

Though an army may encamp against me,

my heart shall not fear.  Palm 27:3

During the U.S. Civil War, fierce fighting was taking place near Moorefield, West Virginia.  Because the town was close to enemy lines, it would be controlled one day by Union troops, and the next by Confederates.

In the heart of the town lived an old woman.  According to the testimony of a Presbyterian minister, one morning several enemy soldiers knocked on her door and demanded breakfast.  She asked them in and said she would prepare something for them.

When the food was ready, she said, “It’s my custom to read the Bible and pray before breakfast.  I hope you won’t mind.”  They consented, so she took her Bible, opened it at random, and began to read Psalm 27.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (v.1).  She read on through the last verse:  “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart” (v. 14).  When she finish reading, she said, “Let us pray.”  While she was praying, she heard sounds of the men moving around in the room.  When she said “amen” and looked up, the soldiers were gone.

Meditate on Psalm 27.  If you are facing enemies, God will use His Word to help you.    HWR

When you know the Lord is near,

Face the enemy without fear;

Though an army may surround you,

You are safe-God’s arms around you.-Hess

LIVE. PRAY. LOVE.

Live. Pray. Love.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:21

READ ROMANS 12:9–21

Influenced by parents who were strong believers in Jesus, track star Jesse Owens lived as a courageous man of faith. During the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Owens, one of the few African Americans on the US team, received four gold medals in the presence of hate-filled Nazis and their leader, Hitler. He also befriended fellow athlete Luz Long, a German. Surrounded by Nazi propaganda, Owens’s simple act of living out his faith impacted Luz’s life. Later, Long wrote to Owens: “That hour in Berlin when I first spoke to you, when you had your knee upon the ground, I knew you were in prayer . . . . I think I might believe in God.”

Owens demonstrated how believers can answer the apostle Paul’s charge to “hate what is evil” and be “devoted to one another in love” (Romans 12:9-10). Though he could have responded to the evil around him with hate, Owens chose to live by faith and show love to a man who would later become his friend and eventually consider belief in God.

As God’s people commit to being “faithful in prayer” (v. 12), He empowers us to “live in harmony with one another” (v. 16).

When we depend on prayer, we can commit to living out our faith and loving all who are made in God’s image. As we cry out to God, He’ll help us break down barriers and build bridges of peace with our neighbors.

By Xochitl Dixon

REFLECT & PRAY

Heavenly Father, please strengthen us to come together in prayer, fully committed to loving others and living peacefully.

How can you build a bridge of peace between you and a neighbor? When have you seen your faithfulness in prayer bear fruit?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Romans 12:9-21 is a difficult passage to outline—like the snippets of sayings in the book of Proverbs. But Paul is still on the subject of a renewed mind and a transformed life (12:1-2). And the central focus is love—the priority of love in the life of a believer in Jesus (v. 9). The clearest demonstration of a Christlike life is Christlike love. A transformed life is a life of radical loving and sacrificial giving. Paul tells us how we are to relate to both believers (vv. 9-16) and non-believers (vv. 17-21) in a world of evil. Love of others—especially of enemies—is a key test of the reality of a renewed mind and a transformed life (v. 21). K. T. Sim

WALKING AWAY

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

WALKING AWAY

READ:  Exodus 33:12-23

My presence will go with you, and I will 

give you rest.  Exodus 33:14

After winning a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, wrestle Rulon Gardner took off his shoes, placed them in the center of the mat, and walked away in tears.  Through that symbolic act, Gardner announced his retirement from the sport which had defined his life for many years.

Times of walking away come to all of us, and they can be emotionally wrenching.  A loved one “walks away” in death.  A child moves away from home.  We leave a job or a community and it feels as if we’ve left everything behind.  But when we know the Lord, we never have to walk into an unknown future alone.

It’s worth pausing to reflect on how much the children of Israel walked away from when Moses led them out of Egypt.  They left the heavy burden of slavery, but they also left everything stable and predictable they had ever known.  Later, when the Lord told Moses, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14).  Moses replied, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here” (v.15).

During our most difficult times, our stability comes from the presence and peace of God.  Because He goes with us, we can walk into the future with confidence.   DCM

Every loss leaves a space that only God’s presence can fill.

A REASON TO SING

A Reason to Sing

He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

Psalm 121:4

READ PSALM 121

For a man who lives by a code, so to speak, it felt like a major failure. What’d I do? Well, I fell asleep. Our kids have a curfew to meet when they’re out for the evening. They’re good kids, but my practice is to wait up until I hear their hands turn the front doorknob. I want to know they’re home safe. I don’t have to do this: I choose to. But one night I awoke to my daughter saying through a smile, “Dad, I’m safe. You should go to bed.” Despite our best intentions, sometimes fathers fall asleep at their posts. It was very humbling, and also very human.

But that never happens with God. Psalm 121 is a reassuring song about Him as guardian and protector of His children. The psalmist declares that God who watches over us “will not slumber” (v. 3). And for emphasis, he repeats that truth in verse 4: He “will neither slumber nor sleep.”

Can you even imagine? God never falls asleep at His post. He is always keeping watch over us—the sons and daughters and aunts and uncles and mothers, and even fathers. It’s not so much that He has to do this, but rather that, out of His great love, He chooses to. That promise is definitely something to sing about.

By John Blase

REFLECT & PRAY

Father, thank You for Your constant care over our lives. We know that doesn’t mean a life absent of trouble, but rather a life held close by Your love and presence. Help us to confidently rest in the assurance that You’re always at Your post.

In what ways do you sense God’s presence? When you don’t, what truths can you depend upon?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Psalm 121 is a song of ascent that would have been sung by worshipers on their annual journey to Jerusalem. The assurance that God “watches over” His people is repeated five times (vv. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8). The psalm is structured poetically into four couplets, each with a different theme, but all pertaining in some way to God’s protection. Verses 1 and 2 reverently declare that help comes from the “Maker of heaven and earth.” Verses 3-4 emphasize that He never slumbers as He watches over His people. Verses 5 and 6 proclaim His protection over Israel both day and night. And verses 7 and 8 point out God’s eternal protection both “now and forevermore.” Julie Schwab

COUNT IT ALL JOY

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

COUNT IT ALL JOY

READ:  James 1:2-12

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been

approved, he will receive the crown of life.  James 1:12

 A pastor placed this sign on his door.  “If you have problems, come in and tell me all about them.  If you don’t have any problems, come in and tell me how you avoid them.”

What do we do when problems come unannounced and with great intensity?  James told us to “count it all joy,” because trials do not happen without a reason.  He said, “The testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete” (James 1:3-4).  Armed with this understanding, our prayer changes from asking God “why” to thanking Him for what HE is doing.

Having endured many trials and facing a new struggle with cancer, Our Daily Bread author Joanie Yoder shared her thoughts in a letter:  “I have relinquished my destiny to God’s will.  Nothing, praise God, not even cancer,, can thwart His will.  I may have cancer, but cancer doesn’t have me-God alone has me.  So in this light, I would value your prayers that Christ may be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.”

Trials are unavoidable and unpredictable, and they come in an unimaginable variety.  Knowing that our sovereign God will walk with us and use trials to deepen our maturity, we can count them “all joy.”  AL

Heavenly peace, divinest comfort,

Here by faith in Him to dwell!

For I know, whatever befall me,

Jesus doeth all things well. -Crosby

We can endure trials in this life because of the joys

in the life to come.

ANOTHER CHANCE

Another Chance

Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!

Micah 7:19

READ MICAH 7:1–3, 18–20

At the Second Chance Bike Shop near our neighborhood, volunteers rebuild cast-off bicycles and donate them to needy kids. Shop founder Ernie Clark also donates bikes to needy adults, including the homeless, the disabled, and military veterans struggling to make it in civilian life. Not only do the bicycles get a second chance but sometimes the recipients get a new start too. One veteran used his new bike to get to a job interview.

Second chances can transform a person’s life, especially when the second chance comes from God. The prophet Micah extolled such grace during a time the nation of Israel groveled in bribery, fraud, and other despicable sins. As Micah lamented, “The godly people have all disappeared; not one honest person is left on the earth” (Micah 7:2 nlt).

God would rightly punish evil, Micah knew. But being loving, He would give those who repented another chance. Humbled by such love, Micah asked, “Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people?” (v. 18 nlt).

We too can rejoice that God doesn’t abandon us because of our sins if we ask for forgiveness. As Micah declared of God, “Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!” (v. 19 nlt). God’s love gives second chances to all who seek Him.

By Patricia Raybon

REFLECT & PRAY

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us the grace of second chances.

What sin will you repent of and gain a second chance from our loving God?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea, ministered some sixty-five years to both Israel and Judah (Micah 1:1; Hosea 1:1). Both kingdoms were at this time characterized by idolatry, corruption, injustice, and oppression of the poor (Micah 7:2-3). Even as he speaks of God’s disciplining hand, warning that Israel would be destroyed by the Assyrians (1:6), of the exile (v. 16), and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (3:12), Micah also speaks unequivocally of God’s benevolence and blessings if they would repent and “act justly . . . love mercy, and walk humbly with [their] God” (6:8). Micah also prophesied of the blessings of the return of a remnant back to Jerusalem (2:12) and the birth of the Messiah (5:2). Micah thus concludes with a proclamation, “Who is a God like you” (7:18), reminiscent of God’s own self-revelation in Exodus 34:6-7. Interestingly, Micah’s name means “Who is like Jehovah.”

Visit christianuniversity.org/OT223 to learn more about the prophet Micah. K. T. Sim

WHAT WE CANNOT LOSE

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

WHAT WE CANNOT LOSE

READ:  Psalm 92:12-15

Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs

I will carry you!  I have made, and I will bear; even

I will carry, and will deliver you.  Isaiah 46:4

Years ago I heard about an elderly gentleman who was suffering from the first stages of dementia.  He lamented the fact that he often forgot about God.  “Don’t you worry,” said a good friend, “He will never forget you.”

Growing old is perhaps the hardest task we have to face in this life.  As the saying goes, “Getting old is not for sissies.”

Mainly, growing old is about losses.  We devote most of our early life to acquiring things, but they are merely things we will lose as we age.  We lose our strength, our looks, our friends, our job.  We may lose our wealth, our home, our health, our spouse, our independence, and perhaps the greatest loss of all, our sense of dignity and self-worth.

But there is one thing that you and I will never lose-the love of God.  “Even to your old age, I am He,” God said to the prophet, “and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you” (Isaiah 46:4).

“The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,” wrote the songwriter (Psalm 92:12).  “Those who are planed in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.  They shall still bear fruit in old age” (vv.13-14).   DHR

Jesus loves me, this I know,

Though my hair is white as snow;

Though my sight is growing dim,

Still He bids me trust in Him. -Warner

God’s love never grows old.   

SURPRISED BY WISDOM

Surprised by Wisdom

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

Romans 11:33

READ 1 CORINTHIANS 1:18–25

“It seems like the older I get, the wiser you become. Sometimes when I talk to my son I even hear your words coming out of my mouth!”

My daughter’s candor made me laugh. I felt the same way about my parents and frequently found myself using their words as I raised my kids. Once I became a dad, my perspective on my parents’ wisdom changed. What I once “wrote off” as foolishness turned out to be far wiser than I had thought—I just couldn’t see it at first.

The Bible teaches that “the foolishness of God is wiser” than the cleverest human wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:25). “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness” of the message of a suffering Savior to rescue “those who believe” (v. 21).

God always has ways of surprising us. Instead of the triumphant king the world would expect, the Son of God came as a suffering servant and died a humbling death by crucifixion—before He was raised in unsurpassable glory.

In God’s wisdom, humility is valued over pride and love shows its worth in undeserved mercy and kindness. Through the cross, our unconquerable Messiah became the ultimate victim—in order to “save completely” (Hebrews 7:25) all who place their faith in Him!

By James Banks

REFLECT & PRAY

Heavenly Father, I praise You for the wisdom of Your ways. Help me to trust You and walk humbly with You today.

When have God’s ways left you confused? How does it help to know His ways are not our own?

Your gift changes lives. Help us share God’s love with millions every day.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia, sometime near the end of his three-year ministry there (around ad 55-57). According to author Ray Stedman in his commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians, the wealthy seaport city of Corinth was a “hub of trade” and a resort city, but it was also “a city of moral depravity—a place where prostitution and other forms of sexual immorality were rampant” and where people “worshiped Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sex.” And so, the Christians in the young church Paul had planted in Corinth during his second missionary journey faced a culture at odds with the gospel. In this letter, Paul offers guidelines and encouragement to the struggling new believers caught between their culture and living for Jesus. He addresses issues such as disunity and immorality, and he talks about what it means to be free in Christ. Alyson Kieda

THE WORRY BOX

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

THE WORRY BOX

READ:  Philippians 4:1-9

Do not worry about your life.  Matthew 6:25

I heard about a woman who kept a box in her kitchen that she called her Worry Box.  Every time something troubled her, she would write it down on a piece of paper and put it in the box.  She resolved not to think about her problems as long as they were in the box.  This enabled the woman to put her troubles completely out of mind.  She knew they could be dealt with later.

Occasionally she would take out a slip of paper and review the concern written on it.  Because she had not been rained by anxiety, she was relaxed and better able to find the solution to her problem.  Many times she discovered that a specific worry no longer existed.

Writing your worries on paper and putting them in a box may be helpful, but how much better it is to place them in the hands of God.  Worry robs us of joy, drains us of energy, stunts our spiritual growth, and dishonors God.  Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34).

Let’s believe the Lord’s promises and trust Him to meet our needs.  Placing our problems in His hands is far better than putting them in a worry box.   RDH

Never a trial that He is not there,

Never a burden that He does not bear;

Never a sorrow that He does not share-

Moment by moment, I’m under His care. -Whittle

When we put our cares in God’s hands,

He puts His peace in our heart.

YOU HAVE TO RELAX!

You Have to Relax!

Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.

Psalm 116:7

READ PSALM 116:1–9

“You must relax,” pronounces a doctor crisply in Disney’s Rescuers Down Under, attempting to treat the injured albatross Wilbur, a reluctant patient. “Relax? I am relaxed!” a clearly not relaxed Wilbur responds sarcastically as his panic grows. “If I were any more relaxed, I’d be dead!”

Can you relate? In light of the doctor’s dubious methods (such as a chainsaw dubbed an “epidermal tissue disruptor”), Wilbur’s misgivings seem justified. But the scene is funny because it captures how we tend to feel when we’re panicking—whether or not what we’re facing is actually life-threatening.

When we’re terrified, encouragement to relax can feel ridiculous. I know when I feel life’s terrors piling up around me, and when painful “cords of death” (Psalm 116:3) tighten my stomach into knots, my every instinct is to fight back, not to relax.

And yet . . . more often than not, my panicked attempts to fight back only tighten anxiety’s vice-grip, leaving me crippled by fear. But when I, albeit reluctantly, allow myself to feel my pain and lift it up to God (v. 4), something surprising happens. The knot inside me relaxes a bit (v. 7), and a peace I can’t understand rushes through me.

And as the Spirit’s comforting presence surrounds me, I understand a bit more the truth at the heart of the gospel: we fight best when we surrender into the powerful arms of God (1 Peter 5:6-7).

By Monica Brands

REFLECT & PRAY

God, help us surrender our desperate attempts at control and let go of the burdens we weren’t meant to bear to find rest in Your grace and goodness.

What struggles do you think of as “cords of death” in your life? How could you grow in surrendering to God’s love and care in the hard times?

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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

It’s said that those who’ve come close to death become more acutely aware of the value of life and the imperative of walking right before God. In this psalm, the unnamed psalmist thanks Him for delivering him from the jaws of death (116:3, 8). Assured of God’s sovereignty over his life even in death, he writes, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants” (v. 15). Given another chance at life, the psalmist gratefully asked: “What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me?” (v. 12 nlt). In response, he dedicated his “extended” years to a life of service to God out of thanksgiving for His goodness (vv. 13-19). He resolved to “walk in the Lord’s presence as I live here on earth!” (v. 9 nlt). Hezekiah and Jonah offered similar prayers of thanksgiving after their lives were spared (Isaiah 38:10-20; Jonah 2:1-9). K. T. Sim