“We don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.”
2 Corinthians 4:18 (NLT) If your focus is shortsighted—where you’re only thinking about your current difficulties or pain—then it’s only natural to want to give up. But if you look at things from an eternal perspective, then you’ll be able to keep going, no matter what happens. “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT). This passage gives us four reasons to stay strong emotionally and never give up: We never give up, because “our spirits are being renewed every day.” We wouldn’t dream of going a whole week without food, but some people don’t even open their Bibles for an entire week. That’s depriving our soul of the most essential nourishment it needs! If you want to renew your spirit every day, then get into God’s Word. We never give up, because “our present troubles are small and won’t last very long.” Problems don’t come to stay; they come to pass. Even if we have problems that last our entire lives, they would be miniscule compared to the trillions of years we’re going to have in heaven. We know that problems on earth are temporary and that God has long-range plans for us. We never give up, because we know our problems will “produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” God is using everything in our lives—even the hard stuff—to build our character for eternity. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). We never give up, because we “fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.” When we’re focused on things that last forever, we’re able to finish the race because we have long-term thinking. Our attention is fixed on eternity. So, what are you focused on today? Instead of looking at your problems, look at Jesus. And don’t give up!
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“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NLT) When you’re going through a season of great change and stress, how do you maintain joy? You do it by developing the habit of thanking God for all that’s good, despite all that’s bad. This principle is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (NLT). This means that we should develop an attitude of gratitude in every situation. It doesn’t mean that we have to be thankful for everything that happens to us, especially the bad things like cancer or car accidents. We don’t have to be thankful for all the evil in the world. But every time you take a minute to express gratitude to God about anything—it could be your favorite music, nature spot, or Scripture—it helps refill your empty emotional tank so you can move forward in life. Choosing to be thankful is for your own good; it keeps you from getting bitter and helps you make it to the finish line. Being grateful is easy when your emotional tank is full and things are going great in your life. It’s much harder to find something to be thankful for when you’re facing a crisis or prolonged chronic stress. But that’s when you need to express gratitude the most. The story of Job is a great example of gratitude during hard times. He was a wealthy and successful man, but he lost everything in a single day. He didn’t know why everything happened to him, and he had every reason to be angry and bitter. Despite this, he gratefully worshipped God. Even in his darkest moment, he fell to the ground and worshipped God, saying, “May the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21 NIV). One of the most practical yet powerful habits you can develop is to make a daily gratitude list. Just sit down for five minutes each day and ask yourself, “What am I grateful for?” It’s a habit that will strengthen your soul and keep you going when you feel like giving up. Even in our darkest moments, we can follow Job’s example and gratefully worship God, knowing that his will for us is to give thanks in all circumstances. “We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.”
2 Corinthians 4:9 (TLB) If you’ve ever been at a race, then you’ve heard spectators shout, “Keep going!” to motivate the athletes. That’s also great advice for anyone who feels emotionally, mentally, or spiritually exhausted from running the marathon of life: Keep going! Scripture includes many examples of people who had determination to keep going in the face of opposition, including Jesus and Paul. Jesus faced constant opposition. Religious and political leaders intimidated him. They tried to stop his ministry by telling him that King Herod wanted to kill him. But Jesus said to them, “Go tell that fox that I will keep on casting out demons and healing people today and tomorrow; and the third day I will accomplish my purpose. Yes, today, tomorrow, and the next day I must proceed on my way” (Luke 13:32-33 NLT). Nothing was going to stop Jesus from accomplishing his purposes—not fear, opposition, or criticism. He was resilient and had the endurance to keep on keeping on. Paul also faced obstacles that threatened to slow him down. In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, he said, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going” (TLB). Maybe that sounds familiar, because you feel like troubles are coming at you from many directions. You’re tired and worn out, and you don’t think you’ll make it to the finish line. How do you keep going? You get the power to keep going in the same place Jesus and Paul got it: from God. “We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work” (2 Timothy 1:8-9 MSG). God doesn’t expect you to fulfill your purpose and do his will in your own power. First, he saves you, and then he gives you the power for daily living. He will give you everything you need to keep going and finish what he has called you to do. “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.”
Ephesians 5:16 (NLT) It may feel like the 365 days you’re given each year aren’t enough time to do everything you want to do. In fact, you probably feel like there aren’t enough minutes in this day to accomplish what you think you need to do! But here’s the good news: God doesn’t expect you to do everything. He has given you just enough time to do everything he wants you to do—everything he planned and purposed for you to do. That’s why it’s important for you to set goals. Goals help you focus your life. Paul models this when he says, “I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something — not just the air” (1 Corinthians 9:26 NCV). Paul knew his purpose, and all his plans and goals were focused on it. You need to have that same kind of focus. Too many of us focus our lives on unimportant causes. Trivial Pursuit isn’t just a game; it’s a description of our culture. Most of what’s going on in our world today won’t matter in a week—much less for eternity. Many people can’t tell the difference between “urgent” and “important.” What seems urgent is almost never what is important. We put aside our family time, our time with God, and our time with friends for the urgent matters that rarely matter for long. Goals are how you focus and create the kind of life that chases the important rather than what feels urgent. Goals focus your energy and help bring health and balance to your life. For example, if you made it your goal to get healthy in some specific way this year, then that decision will focus your energy on that task. Anytime you’re tempted to eat junk food or skip a workout for extra sleep, your goal will help you stay on track. It will remind you of what’s important. The Bible says, “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days” (Ephesians 5:16 NLT). Make the most of your life by setting some goals. Don’t waste another year on the urgent rather than the important. “[God] knows what we are made of; he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalm 103:14 (GNT) Your failures don’t surprise God. He expects them. He knows what we’re made of—because he created us! The Bible says, “[God] knows what we are made of; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14 GNT). God won’t stop loving us when we mess up. The central message of the Bible is this: God doesn’t love you because of who you are or what you’ve done but because of who he is and what he has done. God made you. He loves you. It’s settled! You can’t make God love you more. You can’t make him love you less. He loves you just as much on your bad days as he does on your good days. His love is not performance based. This is grace—and it’s absolutely amazing. God looks down on you and says, “I choose to love you. And you can’t make me stop loving you.” Even when we’re ridiculously bad, God won’t stop loving us. It truly is amazing grace. When you understand God’s grace, you can relax about your failures and have the confidence to take more risks. You may have come to God multiple times for forgiveness on the same issue. Maybe you’re not sure you deserve his love and grace. And you’re sure that God has grown tired of your constant efforts at change. But you can relax. God never tires of a conversation with you. He’s never too busy. No matter how many times you come to him for forgiveness, he’ll be waiting with open arms. You may have grown up in a home where conditional love was the norm. Your parents’ affections may have been based on your academic, athletic, or social successes. When you failed in one of those areas, you felt the loss of your family’s love. That’s not how God deals with you. The Bible says, “[God] canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14 NCV). The Christian life isn’t a mistake-free life, but it can be a guilt-free life. God understands your failures, and he loves you anyway. “[God] canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross.”
Colossians 2:14 (NCV) We all mess up from time to time. We all make mistakes! We don’t have to live with guilt, because the Bible says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NIV). But we do have to live with our mistakes. The Bible never hides this truth. It is painfully honest about the failures of its heroes. God saved the world from flood through a man named Noah—who then got drunk and naked and ruined it all. Moses led the children of Israel through the Red Sea and into freedom—yet his anger kept him out of the Promised Land. King David was a man after God’s heart—but he also had an affair and murdered the woman’s husband so he wouldn’t be discovered. God realizes our frailty. If he only used perfect people, the Bible would be a pretty short book! But God does not leave us alone in our sin. He has a solution for our failures: grace. The Bible says, “[God] canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14 NCV). In fact, when you look at all those failures in the Bible, you get a clear picture. We can be amazed at how God used those people to accomplish his purposes in big ways. But what is most encouraging is that he used them in spite of their failures and mistakes. Just like those heroes of the Bible, you and I are trophies of God’s grace. Your primary witness to the world around you is not all the great things you do for God. Your most important witness will be how you handle mistakes you’ve made. Do you mope about your failures, or do you revel in the grace of God? People want to meet a God who turns failures into triumphs. They want to know a God who can transform the lives of broken people. The amazing part of God’s grace isn’t just his power to forgive. It’s also the strength and renewal he gives us when we choose to start over and trust in him to help us keep going. “He did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.”
2 Corinthians 1:10 (NLT) Sometimes the fears in your life can be loud, demanding your attention. But you can trust that God is with you and for you and is more powerful than whatever you’re afraid of. When the apostle Paul was in a frightening situation, he chose to trust God instead of giving in to his fear. When he did, here’s what he found to be true about God: “He did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us” (2 Corinthians 1:10 NLT). You have a choice just like Paul did. Choose to believe God is watching over you. Choose to trust him. And choose not to give in to your fears. God promises believers that, no matter what happens to us, he is working for our good—if we love him and follow him: “Now we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 TLV). If you’re a believer, God promises all things are working together for good—not that all things are good but that they are working together for good. That means you can stop listening to your fears because there is no difficulty, dilemma, defeat, or disaster in the life of a believer that God can’t ultimately get some good out of. There is no need to fear the future. Your fears reveal where you do not trust God. So, today, make a list of your fears and ask God to help you identify the reason you have them. Then ask him to help you replace your fears with trust. Now, this is important: Expect God to start helping you learn to trust him with each fear. Then, watch to see how he does help you. “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”
Romans 15:7 (NIV) What God does for you, he wants you to do for other people. God accepts you unconditionally. That doesn’t mean he approves of everything you do, but he accepts you, no matter what you’ve done. And God says he wants you to act similarly toward everybody in your life. One of the ways you demonstrate acceptance to someone else is to look at them and listen to them. When you look someone in the eye, you’re declaring that they matter to you. The highest form of love is focused attention. Love looks, and love listens. What about you—do you look and listen? When someone at work drops something off at your desk, do you say anything to them? When somebody serves you at a restaurant or a clerk helps you in a grocery store, do you look them in the eye and say, “Thank you”? It may seem like a small thing. But when you give someone your attention, even for just a moment, you affirm their value as a person and show that you accept them. The Bible says in Romans 15:1, “We must bear the ‘burden’ of being considerate of the doubts and fears of others” (TLB). We all have fears and doubts. Acceptance means you listen to others’ fears and doubts. When people have doubts about God, you need to first listen and show that it doesn’t change your love or acceptance. Why? Because this is how God loves us. When we doubt, God’s love does not change. When we are fearful and unwilling to trust, God still accepts us. This is how he wants us to love other people. Loving like Jesus means you accept other people the way Jesus accepts you. And when his love flows through you, it’s possible for you to love others unconditionally. “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
1 Corinthians 13:1 (NIV) We were put here on Earth to learn to love God and others. Love is our greatest aim in life. In the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 13, the Bible makes it clear why love is the most important value: Without love, all that you say is ineffective. “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1 NIV). Words without love are just noise. People resent and reject unloving words. But they will listen and respond to words spoken in love. Without love, all that you know is incomplete. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge . . . but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2 NIV). The world is exploding with information and knowledge, yet many of our most basic problems are not being solved. That’s because the world really is not looking for more knowledge; the world is looking for love. Without love, all that you believe is insufficient. “If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2 NIV). Many people have the misconception that being a Christian is just about believing certain truths and doctrines. But do you love Jesus? Do you realize he loves you? Christianity is about experiencing the love Jesus has for you and learning how to love like him. Without love, all that you give is insignificant. “If I give all I possess to the poor . . . but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3 NIV). There are all kinds of motivations for giving, including obligation or prestige or guilt. Just because you give doesn’t mean you’re doing it in love. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Without love, all that you accomplish is inadequate. “If I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn’t love others, it would be of no value whatever” (1 Corinthians 13:3 TLB). You can have all kinds of great accomplishments. You can even sacrifice your life for the greatest cause in the world—the Kingdom of God—but without love, it’s wasted effort. You can have the eloquence of an orator, the knowledge of a genius, the faith of a miracle worker, the generosity of a philanthropist, and the dedication of a martyr. But if you don’t love, it doesn’t count. The good news is that you can love others because God first loved you. As you live within his love, Jesus says he will help you to love others. When you draw closer to him, your ability to love will increase—he makes it possible for you to live out the calling to love others. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:35 (NIV) The sign of a Christian is love. How many people know you’re a Christian because of your loving lifestyle? We sing about love, talk about love, pray about love, and study love. But do we show it? To develop love as your life principle and make it your greatest aim, you need to take action as soon as you finish reading this devotional—because love acts! Here’s what you need to do to develop a loving lifestyle. First, start acting lovingly in your relationships. Have you acted unlovingly toward someone? It’s time to seek reconciliation. Make things right with your kids, your spouse, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your parents, or someone at school or work. Then, start increasing the number of relationships you have. If the most important aim in life is to love, then we need to build as many relationships as possible. Why? Because the world will know about God’s love by the way Christians love each other—and by how Christians love other people around the world. You cannot live a loving lifestyle as a hermit. You spell love T-I-M-E. It takes time to love other people. If you love your friends, you’ve got to spend time with them. If you love your kids, you spend time with them. If you love Jesus, you have to spend time with him too. Love always costs time and energy. But it’s always worth it. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone in the church loved like this—if we all committed ourselves to acting in love and giving our time unselfishly so that people could get a taste of how much God loves them? It would change the world. It would grow God’s Kingdom. It would make God so happy. People are attracted to Christ more than they are persuaded to him. They’re attracted by the love of God shown through the people who claim to follow him. And they won’t care what we know until they first know that we care. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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