“Anger gives a foothold to the devil.”
Ephesians 4:27 (NLT) In every quarrel, an unseen spiritual war is going on behind the scenes. At the surface, a quarrel may seem minor. You may think you’re arguing about who didn’t take out the garbage or who left their clothes on the floor. But at a deeper level, Satan is trying to create chaos, distractions, and destruction in your relationships. He is behind the scenes, taking every opportunity to produce conflict in your life. You won’t have peace in your life if you think you’re fighting only with another person. You are fighting against spiritual forces. Satan is not seen, but he is real. He is the source behind all conflict. Ephesians 4:27 says, “Anger gives a foothold to the devil” (NLT). Anger gives Satan something to hold on to in your life. Any time you get angry and use hurtful words, you open the door for Satan to get a foothold in your emotions and create chaos. You can’t have healthy relationships if you have uncontrolled and chaotic emotions. When you become angry, Satan is at the ready with an arsenal of hurtful words that he plants in your mind. He stokes your pride. He makes you think you must be right or have the last word. He keeps you from seeing or caring about the hurt you’re causing. How do you fight against that kind of power? You’ve got to resist the devil. When you realize you’re about to get into a quarrel with someone, be aware that Satan has a plan to upset you. He wants you to be stressed, angry, and hurt. Satan will use any negative emotion in your life to destroy your peace. But you don’t have to let him do that! “We don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!” (2 Corinthians 2:11 The Message). If you don’t know how Satan schemes, then you will be outwitted time and time again. But now you know that—when you get angry and use hurtful words—you’re giving Satan a foothold in your life and your relationships. So you’ll be able to stop the quarrel before it starts. The next time you’re tempted to respond in anger, make the choice to speak life and love instead.
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“You don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it.”
James 4:2 (NLT) One of the biggest causes of quarreling in your family, with your friends, or at your work is that you expect people to fill needs in your life that only God can fulfill. This is often most obvious in marriage, but it’s true in every relationship. You find people you can trust and who know you well. So you start looking to them to keep you emotionally and spiritually fulfilled. It’s common for people to get married and think their spouse should and will meet all their needs. After all, you complete each other, right? But that’s just unrealistic, unfair, and only setting you up for massive frustration? Your spouse is not God. Your best friend is not God. Your co-workers are not God. None of them know you like God does. None of them can provide for you like he can. They are broken human beings, just like you! It’s time to change your expectations so your frustration doesn’t lead to more conflict and quarreling in your relationships. So, what should you do instead of looking to someone else to fulfill every emotional, spiritual, and physical need you have? You should pray about it. “You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it” (James 4:2 NLT). When you expect other people to meet your needs instead of God, it leads to frustration. And frustration leads to quarreling. If you’re not praying and asking God to provide for your needs, then you’re going to spend more time quarreling. If you’re not praying about it, you’re fighting over it. You don’t have because you haven’t asked God for it! If you have a need, don’t look first to your spouse or your friend to fill it. Go to God first. He already knows what you need, and he’s ready to give it to you. You just have to ask. “Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
Matthew 6:34 (NLT) The good thing about the future is that it doesn’t hit you all at once. If you had your entire life thrown at you at one time, it would no doubt be overwhelming. So God gives it to you in bite-size, 24-hour segments. Since God gives you only one day at a time, that’s how he expects you to approach your life. Live one day at a time, and make it count. Jesus taught: “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34 NLT). Jesus is saying to stop borrowing trouble. If there’s something happening next week, why are you messing up today by worrying about it? Worry can’t change the past. It can’t control the future. Worry only makes you miserable today. God gives you all the grace you need—but just enough for today, every day. He doesn’t stockpile all that power in your life and give it to you for the next week or month. He says to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” He wants you to take life one day at a time. When you don’t know what the future holds, you can still take life one day at a time. That’s all you are meant to do! When everything is uncertain and you don’t know how to make wise decisions for the future, then just take care of today. God doesn’t want you to worry about tomorrow, but he also doesn’t want you to presume about it, either. It’s important to plan, pray, and trust God for the future. But God still expects you to put your energy into making today count. A great way to do this, especially during the pandemic, is to reduce your media intake. Focus instead on the things God loves and cares about, like your spiritual growth and caring for people who need help right now. That’s how you make the day count. “Don’t brashly announce what you’re going to do tomorrow; you don’t know the first thing about tomorrow” (Proverbs 27:1 The Message). When everything else in life seems unclear, this is about as clear as you can get. Plan for tomorrow but live for today. God will give you everything you need to be obedient in both. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
Matthew 7:3 (NIV) Before you judge someone else, remember that you have blind spots in your own life. Blind spots are attitudes or weaknesses in your life that you cannot see or refuse to see, even though they cause conflict with others. For instance, you may be constantly argumentative and not realize you keep turning simple conversations into debates. Jesus says that when you feel the urge to judge someone because of their blind spots, think of it as an opportunity to uncover your own and to address them. He talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5 NIV). He’s saying, “How dare you? Why are you so concerned about the sin in someone’s else’s life when you haven’t dealt with the even greater sin in your own life? Take care of your blind spots so that you will be able to see clearly to help others.” Have you noticed that you tend to judge in others what you dislike in yourself? If you’re lazy and you know it—and you don’t like that about yourself—then you tend to see it more in others and judge them. If you’re prideful or greedy, you tend to spot that quickly in other people. Whatever you tend to struggle with, you’ll notice in others more easily. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:31, “If we judged ourselves in the right way, God would not judge us” (NCV). Think about what that verse is saying: If we would seriously examine our lives and self-evaluate our own weaknesses, faults, and failures, then God wouldn’t have to judge us. God is for you, not against you. He already knows your blind spots, and he wants to help you address them so that you can mature in your faith. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) If you want to be able to fight the persistent temptations in your life, you need to know what makes you vulnerable to Satan’s efforts. Ephesians 4:27 says, “Do not give the devil a foothold” (NIV). Don’t give Satan a place in your life to start leveraging your weaknesses and get you messed up. What’s the most common foothold you can give Satan that allows him to push all these temptations? It’s any negative emotion. Anytime you have a negative emotion, you’ve just given Satan a foothold in your life, and you’re going to be more vulnerable than at any other time to temptation. That’s why the Bible says in Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (NIV). Your heart sits at the center of your emotions. But to defeat temptation, don’t focus on your behavior and what you’re about to do. Instead, identify the thoughts you’re having and the feelings that come out of those thoughts. That’s how Satan hooks you—not with your behavior but with your thoughts. He plays with your emotions every day of your life. He hooks your feelings. He is a master manipulator of your moods. Satan gets certain emotions stirring by influencing your thoughts and causing you to doubt God’s Word. Once he’s got you emotionally involved, you’re cooked. When your emotions have kicked in, the behavior is going to happen. Satan knows your negative emotions will lead you to sin. You are far more vulnerable to temptation when you’re experiencing negative emotions. Satan knows what they are and will work them for your destruction. Shouldn’t you know what they are, too? The only way you’ll be able to fight any persistent temptation in your life is to identify the emotions that make you vulnerable. Then, refocus your mind on God’s Word so that you can replace those negative emotions with God’s love. “We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows that the great power is from God, not from us.”
2 Corinthians 4:7 (NCV) You’re always going to get discouraged when you try to be a superhero and do more than is humanly possible. You need a more realistic view of yourself: You can’t fix everybody’s problems. You can’t be in more than one place at one time. You can’t do everything you want to do. You can’t spend money you don’t have. You need to learn to relax in your limitations. Anytime you live outside of the limitations of your life, you’re going to get discouraged. It’s easier to fill your schedule than it is to fulfill your schedule. It’s always easier to get in than it is to get out. It’s easier to make a promise than to keep a promise. It’s always easier to get into debt than it is to get out of debt. Often the first signs of overextending show up in your body. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows that the great power is from God, not from us” (NCV). In other words, you need to know your limits. You need to recognize your warning signs when you’re overextended and realize you’re just the vessel and God is the power. Our bodies are like clay jars—we’re all a little cracked because we’ve all been dropped here and there. But God often puts his greatest gifts in the weakest people, and that gives us the opportunity to point back to him and say, “That’s got to be God. That could have only happened through God’s power.” Throughout history, God has used flawed instruments to put his glory on display. Nothing would get done if God only used perfect people, because there aren’t any! You may think it’s best to hide your weaknesses, but God wants to use them in your life. But first, you’ve got to recognize and respect your limitations. Then, you trust in God’s power and not your own to accomplish his purpose for you. “Our message is not about ourselves. It is about Jesus Christ as the Lord. We are your servants for his sake.”
2 Corinthians 4:5 (GW) The more you lead a self-focused life, the more you’re prone to discouragement. Every time you forget that it’s not about you, you’re going to get prideful or fearful or bitter. Those feelings will always lead to discouragement because they keep you focused on yourself. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:5, “Our message is not about ourselves. It is about Jesus Christ as the Lord. We are your servants for his sake” (GW). It’s not about you! God put you on this earth, and he has a message he wants to declare to the world through you. But your life message is not about you. It’s about Jesus Christ. “It’s not about you" carries a message that’s the most countercultural message you could give in today’s world. Nearly everything in society—songs, video games, TV shows, news stories, and advertisements—says you’ve got to think about yourself first. Sometimes we might find ourselves having to repeat the phrase 20 times a day! When someone praises us, criticizes us, misjudges us, or disagrees with us, we have to remind ourselves, “It’s not about me.” Why? Because when I focus on me, I’m going to get discouraged. Instead, as Paul says in today’s verse, we are servants for Jesus’ sake. That means we are motivated to serve others because of what Jesus has done for us. God is always more interested in why you’re doing what you’re doing than he is in what you’re actually doing. He cares about the motivations of your heart. Why you’re doing something always determines how long you’re going to do it. If you’re motivated by selfish ambition, that will never be good enough. You’ll eventually get discouraged and quit. But when you’re motivated to do something because of how it advances the Gospel and glorifies Jesus, you will have the encouragement you need to see it through. “We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God.”
2 Corinthians 4:2 (NLT) Nothing is more discouraging than trying to be something you’re not. If you maintain a façade because you’re afraid other people might find out who you are or God might not love you, then you’re going to miss out on God’s best for your life. God does not bless fakes or phonies. If you want God’s blessing on your life, stop living for the approval of other people and start being who God made you to be. God didn’t create you to be somebody else. When you get to heaven, he isn’t going to ask, “Why weren’t you more like your sister or the popular kid or your successful friend?” He’s going to hold you accountable for how you fulfilled his purposes for your life. The world doesn’t need two of you or anybody else. But the world does need you to do the work God has for you on earth. He shaped you and gifted you in a unique way, and we’re all missing out if you’re determined to be anyone but yourself. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:2, “We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God” (NLT). In other words, we’re not putting on a disguise or a phony mask. We’re not pretending we’re something we’re not. And we don’t twist the Word of God. Instead, we teach the truth plainly, showing everyone who we really are. Nothing is more discouraging than trying to please everybody. Some people will like us, some won't. That’s just life! Even God can’t please everyone. When somebody’s praying for a snow day, someone else is praying for blue skies. If you’re always trying to be something you’re not, you’re always going to be under stress and fear being exposed, and you’re going to be prone to discouragement. To defeat discouragement, just be who God made you to be. You don’t have to be perfect for God to bless you—just be authentic. “It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling his Good News to others, and so we never give up.”
2 Corinthians 4:1 (TLB) Do you know that God loves you? Maybe you’ve heard that truth all your life! But if you know God loves you, do you sense and recognize God’s love? When you stop believing you are loved by God, you can start to get discouraged. Why? Because if you don’t believe God loves you, then you can’t experience his grace and mercy. The best way to defeat discouragement is to remember how much God loves you and to stay focused on that truth. “It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling his Good News to others, and so we never give up” (2 Corinthians 4:1 TLB). What is mercy? Mercy is when God gives you what you need, not what you deserve. Mercy is when God knows every mistake you’ve made and will ever make, and he still gives you every good thing in your life. God’s mercy is what keeps you going when you feel hopeless or worn down or discouraged. A lot of people who have been Christians for a long time don’t sense God’s love because they only think God speaks to them in a critical voice. But if the voice you’re listening to is always negative, it’s not God. God made you to love you. The number one purpose of your life is not for you to do good. The number one purpose of your life is not even for you to love God back. The number one purpose of your life is to let God love you. When you do that and experience his mercy and grace, you’ll be free to pursue all that he has planned for your life. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
Psalm 119:105 (NIV) When you need to make a decision, the first and ideal test is this: “Is my decision in harmony with God’s Word?” You have to decide what’s going to be your ultimate authority in life. It really boils down to this choice: God’s Word or the world. Are you going to base your decisions on what God says or what other people say? If you base your life on popular opinion, you’re always going to be out of date, because it changes every day. What was “in” yesterday will be “out” today, and what’s “in” today will be “out” tomorrow. If you base your life on popular culture or opinion polls, you will struggle because you’re building on a shifting foundation! On the other hand, if you base your life on God’s Word, the truth never changes. Truth is always true. So if God says something was wrong 10,000 years ago, it was also wrong 500 years ago, it’s wrong today, and it will be wrong 1,000 years from today. I don’t care what the culture says or what is popular at the time. If God says it’s wrong, it’s wrong. It always has been, and it always will be. If God says it’s right, it will always be right. That is a solid foundation! God has set up the universe with certain laws—physical, moral, and spiritual. God built the universe around these laws because they’re all for your benefit. When you cooperate with the principles in this universe, you succeed. If you reject, disobey, ignore, and rebel against God’s principles, you’re the one who gets hurt. With all this in mind, you can be confident in your decision. If God says it’s okay, then you do it. If God says no, then you don’t do it. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105 NIV). |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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