“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Psalm 23:4 (ESV) One of the common sources of stress is loss. You can lose your job, your health, your money, your reputation, or a loved one. And the coronavirus pandemic is most likely amplifying the stress. When people go through loss, there are two common reactions. One is fear, and the other is grief. Grief is good. Grief is the way we get through the transitions of life. In fact, if you don’t grieve, you get stuck! Grief will not kill you if you let it out. Fear, on the other hand, can be a bad thing. Not once in the Bible does it say, “Grieve not,” “Sorrow not,” “Weep not,” or “Cry not.” What it does say is “Fear not.” And it says that 365 times! Because grief doesn’t paralyze us, but fear does. In Psalm 23:4, David says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (ESV). David knew shepherds always carried a rod and a staff to protect their sheep. And he knew God had the power to protect him. So David trusted God, even in the darkest valleys. We’re collectively going through a dark valley right now, and we can choose to trust God—even in the shadows, where it doesn’t make sense and when it can seem like a long way out of the valley. But, here’s the good news to remember about big, scary shadows. You can’t have a shadow without light. If you see a shadow, that means there is a light shining nearby. So the key when you’re going through the valley of the shadow is to turn your back on the shadow and look at the light. Because as long as you keep your eyes on the light—Jesus, the Light of the World—the shadow won’t scare you. Just like David, trust God in the dark valleys, and pray, “When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn” (Psalm 142:3 NLT).
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“For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.”
Matthew 12:34 (NLT) There is no real secret to changing from an angry person into a peaceful person. In order to get the power you need to go from anger to peace, you need to be filled with God’s love. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:5, “[Love] is not easily angered” (NIV). In other words, if you’re filled with anger, then almost everything can upset you. But when you’re filled with God’s love your perspective changes. Being filled with God’s love requires that you have a relationship with him. Your relationship with Jesus Christ will determine how patient you are and how well you master anger. This means you can change. You can do it through the Holy Spirit! When you become a Christian, you have God’s power living in you. Even in a crisis—when people are out of work, kids are at home, and people are in isolation—you have all the power you need to make the hard changes in your life. And it starts by looking at your heart. Matthew 12:34 says, “For whatever is in your heart determines what you say” (NLT). Here are some things the tongue can reveal:
If your tongue reveals an angry heart, then ask God to heal your hurting heart with his love. The anger in your heart may come from feeling rejected, abused, or unloved in the past. You need to know that Jesus cares about your pain. He can replace the hurt in your heart with his peace and replace your insecurity with his power. As you begin to feel accepted in God’s love, your heart will change and produce the fruit of patience and kindness. God promises, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26 ESV). “Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back.”
Proverbs 29:11 (NLT) Many people think that all anger is sinful, but that’s not true. Anger only becomes sin when it is expressed in an inappropriate way. Sometimes the most appropriate response to a situation is anger. It can even be an expression of love. In fact, the Bible says God gets righteously angry, and the only reason you’re able to experience anger is because you’re created in his image. But there is such a thing as sinful anger. This is when we blow up or clam up. It’s when we threaten, insult, or belittle someone. While mismanaged anger is a sin, managed anger is an asset because it gives you a clear-headed view of the situation and allows you to respond with God’s love—even if you’re wronged. Because God is for you and not against you he gives you the ability to choose how to handle your anger. With the Holy Spirit working within you, you can control it. Have you ever been in a heated argument at home, and the phone rang and you answered it by sweetly saying, “Hello.” What just happened? You were able to change your tone instantly because you wanted to. Proverbs 29:11 says, “Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back” (NLT). Choosing to get angry is just that—a choice. You’ve probably said at some point, “You make me so mad!” But nobody can control your emotions without your permission. You can decide beforehand how you will respond and manage your anger. Your relationship to Christ will determine how well you master the anger in your life. Even in a crisis, in the most difficult of situations, you can manage your anger with God’s love inside you. And when anger is managed wisely and appropriately, it produces great marriages, great friendships, great businesses, great leaders, and great progress. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Matthew 4:4 (NIV) During these days of uncertainty and unrest, it’s important to start and end your day by refueling your soul. Your soul is the way you think, feel, and choose. Just like your physical body has to be fed every day to stay healthy, so does your soul. If you’re not feeding your soul, you’re going to be drained emotionally and spiritually. So how do you refuel your soul? By getting into God’s Word every day. Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4 NIV). The Bible is life! You don’t just read it when you have a problem and need some advice. You don’t open it up just when you need a pick-me-up. You feed on it every day so that you are consistently nourished and growing in truth and love. Do not begin your day by scrolling through your phone or listening to the news. Don’t let the last thing that fills your mind each day be something on the TV. None of those things are going to feed your soul. If you only develop one new habit during this pandemic, let it be starting and ending your day in God’s Word. Wherever you leave your Bible leave it open if you can. If the Bible is closed, you will have a tendency to overlook it. But if you leave it open to where you read last time, you’ll have an easier time remembering to be consistent in Bible reading. It doesn’t matter how long you read. It matters how you let God’s Word change you—how you see yourself and others in light of God’s love, how you view your circumstances, and how your relationship with God deepens and grows. “The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will“ (Isaiah 50:4 NLT). Are you weary and worn down? Nourish your soul and stay emotionally healthy by starting and ending each day with the Word of God. “God gives us even more grace, as the Scripture says, ‘God is against the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.’”
James 4:6 (NCV) To make it through the extraordinary crisis of a pandemic and social unrest, you need to treat yourself and other people the way God treats you: with grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Grace means that God always gives you what you need, not what you deserve. If you got what you deserved, you wouldn’t even be here. “God gives us even more grace, as the Scripture says, ‘God is against the proud, but he gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6 NCV). God opposes the prideful and arrogant because they think they can do it all by themselves, apart from God. They don’t think they need God or his grace. They approach life—even life in turmoil—with the mindset, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” But when you’re humble and admit that you can’t make it through this situation on your own, God opens the floodgates of heaven. He pours out his grace. And he expects those who have been shown amazing grace to then show that grace to others. Everybody’s having a tough time right now. To maintain your emotional health, you need to cut yourself some slack and do the same for others. Everybody’s feeling the stress, particularly the millions of people who are out of work and concerned about the future—maybe even about how they will make it to the next day. Be kind. Be gentle. Even the hardest people to love are fighting some kind of battle right now and need your grace. This will often take a lot of humility. With tensions high, it’s easier right now to return wrong for wrong, give a sharp answer, withhold the benefit of the doubt, and speak before listening. Your neighbor needs your grace. Your children need your grace. The person you disagree with politically needs your grace. The world is on the defense, and there is nothing that will disarm people more than being given unexpected grace. God has given you great grace. Go and extend that grace to others so they get a glimpse of what Jesus has done for them. “As believers in our Lord Jesus . . . you must never treat people in different ways according to their outward appearance.”
James 2:1 (GNB) Racism begins with a lack of love. You can’t love someone like Jesus does and harbor prejudice in your heart toward that person. It’s impossible. We must love everybody the way Jesus does. Jesus gets very specific about this in John 15:12: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (NIV). How does Jesus love us? Unconditionally, freely, completely, and continually. So how should you love other people—even those of other races? Unconditionally, freely, completely, and continually. Love doesn’t mean we approve of everything someone else does. Jesus doesn’t approve of everything we do, but he still loves us. The Bible says, “As believers in our Lord Jesus . . . you must never treat people in different ways according to their outward appearance” (James 2:1 GNB). Although a person may look to be homeless, you should treat that person as you would a CEO. Love is very practical. A couple has seven kids, four biological and three by adoption from Rwanda. Knowing the three kids from Rwanda would likely have experienced racism, They were asked recently how they believe Christians should deal with race. They responded with very practical ways to love people of other races. 1. Don’t be colorblind. They like their color, so you don’t have to ignore it. Just don’t make decisions about them based upon their race. 2. Don’t tell people who’ve been treated unjustly that you understand. You don’t. Nobody knows the injustices others have faced. To say you do is simply being dismissive. 3. Remember that your history is not the same as their history. Someone born in inner-city Chicago and a person born on a ranch in Gallup, New Mexico, have different histories. And history matters. 4. Don’t ignore history or say, “Get over it.” Pain matters. These three kids with whom I was talking were orphaned because their parents were killed in a genocide. Your parents weren’t killed in a genocide. You can’t possibly understand their pain. 5. Fight all stereotypes. Everybody in the world feels stereotyped. But stereotypes are never true. Let’s commit to seeing each and every person as an individual, not someone stereotyped because of their skin color, creed, or nationality. Together, when we love like Jesus does, we can eradicate racism. Are you ready to start? “The LORD our God does not tolerate perverted justice, partiality, or the taking of bribes.”
2 Chronicles 19:7 (NLT) Our nation is desperate for healing on the topic of race. We’re in a mess, and the Church can’t be silent. The Body of Christ has to talk about it, even though it’s uncomfortable. We can’t ignore racism because, quite simply, God hates it. If God hates racial prejudice, then we should, too. Why does God hate racial prejudice? Racial prejudice questions God’s creation. God could have made us all the same. We could have all looked alike, but God didn’t do that. He loves variety! Racial prejudice is a sign of ignorance. When we demonstrate prejudice, we show the world we don’t know what we’re talking about. We’re revealing our foolishness. The Bible says, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them” (1 John 2:11 NIV). The Bible says if I hate someone just because that person is different, I’m in the dark — and blind. That’s a pretty serious accusation from God. Racial prejudice disobeys the Great Commandment. Paul says, “The entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (Galatians 5:14-15 NIV). If you display a racist attitude, you’re disobeying the plain truth of this Scripture. We can’t make judgments about another person based on outward appearance and truly love him or her as a brother or sister. Racial prejudice is a serious sin. Prejudice makes God mad. The Bible says, “If you treat people according to their outward appearance, you are guilty of sin, and the Law condemns you as a lawbreaker” (James 2:9 TEV). Racism is a problem of sin, not skin. One day we’ll give an account for that sin before God. The important thing to remember as we search our hearts for prejudice and bigotry is that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NIV). We will only eliminate prejudice as each one of our hearts is transformed by the love of God. He is willing and able to change us. “Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God's likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.” Ephesians 4:23-24 (GNT)
From the beginning, God’s plan has been to make you like his Son, Jesus. This is your destiny. God announced this intention at Creation: “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image and likeness’” (Genesis 1:26 NCV). In all of creation, only human beings are made “in God’s image.” But the image is incomplete and has been damaged and distorted by sin. So God sent Jesus on a mission to restore the full image that we have lost. What does the full “image and likeness” of God look like? It looks like Jesus Christ! The Bible says Jesus is “the exact likeness of God,” “the visible image of the invisible God,” and “the exact representation of his being” (2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT, Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3 NIV). People often use the phrase “like father, like son” to refer to family resemblance. God wants his children to bear his image and likeness, too. The Bible says, “You were . . . created to be like God, with a life that truly has God’s approval and is holy” (Ephesians 4:24 GW). To be clear: You will never become God, or even a god. That prideful lie is Satan’s oldest temptation. Satan promised Adam and Eve that if they followed his advice, “you shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5 KJV). Many religions and New Age philosophies still promote this old lie that we are divine or can become gods. This desire to be a god shows up every time we try to control our circumstances, our future, and the people around us. But as creatures, we will never be the Creator. God doesn’t want you to become a god. He wants you to become godly—taking on his values, attitudes, and character. As you work to fulfill your calling, remember that God’s ultimate goal for your life on Earth is not comfort but character development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ. You are meant to “take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you” (Ephesians 4:22 The Message). “Some of these people have missed the most important thing in life—they don’t know God.”
1 Timothy 6:21 (TLB) There are 18 inches between your head and heart. But, unfortunately, some people will miss heaven by those 18 inches. They know God in their heads but not in their hearts. They intellectually believe the Gospel, but they’ve never let it change their hearts. Most of us go to school for twelve years or more. and we forget much of what we learned during that time. Here's the most important truth we can ever learn and not forget: We were made by God and for God. Until we understand that, life will never make sense. You were not made for your own sake. The Bible says, “Some of these people have missed the most important thing in life—they don’t know God” (1 Timothy 6:21 TLB). You might know string theory, chaos theory, or quantum physics. But if you don’t know God, you’ve missed the purpose of your life. At the end of your life, God will give you a final test. Here’s the good news: It’ll be an open-book exam. All the answers are in the Bible! On that test, God won’t ask you if you got straight As. He won’t care about how well you did in your career. He won’t ask to see your bank account balance. Instead, he’ll ask you this: Did you get to know me? Did you build a relationship with my Son whom I sent to Earth to die on the cross for you? Decide today that you will set your heart and mind on learning more about the most important truth and getting to know Jesus. “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.”
Proverbs 13:20 (NIV) We can never be the kind of people God wants us to be on our own. We were never intended to do life that way. We all need people who are teaching us, sharing their lives with us, investing in us, and encouraging us to grow. The Bible tells us, “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm” (Proverbs 13:20 NIV). In fact, to be all that God calls you to be, you need to learn from at least four kinds of people: Mentors. These are your coaches. I’ve had nine different mentors in my life. No one can teach you everything you need to know. One person will teach you in one area. Another person will teach you about something else. Role models. These are people who are already doing or have already done what you want to do. Many of the skills you’ve learned in your life, you’ve learned by watching others. Partners. You need co-workers and colleagues who are in your profession, people to support and challenge you on what God wants to do through your life. Friends. Friends don’t necessarily help you with your goals. They’re just friends. They love you no matter what you do. You can mess up, and they still love you. A friend walks alongside you when everyone else walks out. That’s when you know who your true friends are. Trying to live life solo isn’t just lonely. It works against God’s design for us. Find your people, and make yourself available and vulnerable to them and how God wants to use them in your life. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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