Let us not trifle with our responsibilities, but let us also not forget the manifold goodnesses of God that have made us want to accept those responsibilities. When the final tally is made, our labor will matter little if it was not a labor of love.
Honesty about our yearnings and our guilt is not easy. But the good news is that it leads to an appreciation of grace in which God can save us. Hope can only be ours when we admit that our hearts will never be completely healed in this world.
The very worst disadvantage of the cluttered life is that being at peace and growing in our relationship with God become almost impossible. Perhaps there are a few who could manage such a juggling act, but not many of us can do so.
Both the ability to look backward and to look forward have the potential for great harm if they are not managed wisely. We can only do with the present moment what God would want us to do if we hold to a productive view of the past and the future.
For every human being there is at least someone whose acceptance it is important for that person to have. And the difficult question is this: what if doing God’s will does not result in that someone’s acceptance and approval? Will we obey anyway?
If our relationship with God is based upon love, we can ill afford to let self-centered (though we would simply call them “practical”) motives enter in. Our enjoyment of God cannot depend on whether some desired payoff is being received from Him.
How much risk are we willing to take in order to obey God, particularly in situations where Hiss instructions go against our instincts or our preferences? Real trust requires that we cling to God alone and let go of any other safety or security.
The surest way to grow in our love for God is to meditate on the depth of His love for us. If we have even the smallest fraction of the love for our Lord that He has shown toward us, we will not love Him with anything less than all of our hearts.
Our minds are tugged this way and that by multiple concerns. Consistent devotion to God is a habit that must be acquired, a skill that must be learned. Like most other good things, godliness takes training, discipline, and regular practice over time.
If God is real, then His reality must be allowed to cut down into the very quick of our conscience. We must be transformed. We must pay more than lip service to the truth that God’s word is “living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.”
God will help us and discipline us (Hebrews 12:5-11). But having been disciplined by God, we will have to discipline ourselves. We will have to exert ourselves to go uphill ...
When we start following our own will in the “secular” parts of life, we tell ourselves that we won’t let these “other things” get out of hand. But we are ...
Wonder of all wonders, God is willing to forgive us of our treason against His rightful rule over us. But His grace requires that we begin doing what we have ...
Very people few are willing to “seek first the kingdom of God,” even among professed believers. Especially in the modern culture of so-called “Christian nations,” very few do more than ...
Confession of sin comes from “a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17), and it hurts. But the joy of forgiveness is on the other side of this sorrow, and the ...
Are we willing to accept God in general matters like love and faith, but when it comes to His instructions in the Scriptures about how these principles are to be ...
As creatures living in a world broken by sin, we have never experienced what it is to be a human being — not fully and perfectly. But God does not ...
It is only in Christ that we can be refreshing in the ways that people most seriously need refreshment. We should see being a Christian not only in terms of ...
It’s a huge step in our return to God when we acknowledge that our sins against Him have been deliberate. If all we can say is, “What I did was ...
Christ’s kingdom can’t be measured by any of the criteria the world uses to judge how powerful something is. And because it is spiritual, Christ’s kingdom is not vulnerable to ...
If we have not accepted the lordship of Christ before the day of judgment, it will be too late for an acknowledgement at that time to save us. In reality, ...
It was not merely by being humble that Jesus procured our salvation — it was “by becoming obedient” (Philippians 2:8). We have learned nothing of Jesus Christ and His gospel ...