When we summon the courage and love for God to do the small thing that is within our reach, the devil is discouraged! So whatever else may happen today, let’s do some small thing out of love for God. If we did even that much, that would be progress.
Today, if there’s some unpleasant little duty that could easily be procrastinated, do it just because you don’t want to. Put the flesh in its place! Teach and train your body to take orders from your spirit. Someday, you’ll be mighty glad you did.
Holiness is a higher priority than happiness. It should rank higher in our scale of values than happiness, and maintaining its presence in our lives should be a matter of more pressing concern. The pursuit of holiness should be what we’re known for.
Through the gospel of Christ, we can have all that the word “life” was ever meant to convey. And the amazing thing is, the life that is available to us right now in Christ is, at its very best, only a foretaste of the fuller life that awaits us.
We say we’re reaching forward, but the pull of nostalgia can tug at our hearts so strongly that we catch ourselves trying to make the world like it used to be rather than the way it ought to be, as if “used to be” and “ought to be” were the same.
Is it really God we’re reaching forward to or are we preoccupied with lesser things? These questions aren’t just important; they are urgent as well. If we’re not busy about the Father’s business, our conduct is not going anywhere — it’s aimless.
We can take it for granted that God’s way will always work — it will always accomplish the purpose that He had in mind, whether that purpose is clear to us or not. So the question is not what will happen, but what our principles should be.
We are a “reaching people” who strain forward, eager to connect with something that can fill our needs. Foolishly, however, we reach for the wrong things, things that can’t satisfy us. But if we grasp the wrong things, we doom ourselves to death.
Satan loves to discourage us. He takes perverse delight in keeping us from taking even one step toward God. But he need not have the last word. We can determine that, God being our helper, we will summon the courage, self-respect, and energy to act!
In the end, the dividing line won’t be between those who had it easy and those who didn’t; it will be between those who decided to go to heaven and those who didn’t. When “every wind of doctrine” is gusting, it’s the set of our sails that matters.
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Christ’s glory is closely related to the glory of His people. These people — broken and fallible, but forgiven and growing in holiness as they learn from their mistakes — ...
If we’re thinking rightly, we will drink in every bit of truth that God has shared with us about Himself, eagerly wanting not only to know it but to act ...
The godly sorrow that leads to repentance is critically important. It requires humility, certainly. But if we’re willing to bow before God in the honest recognition of our sins’ seriousness, ...
Although the apostles are no longer preaching in person, the foundation has been laid and the record stands firm. The gospel, as preached and confirmed by the apostles, is just ...
Here is the truth: we haven’t really been liberated or “saved” if, for all practical purposes, we continue to live in “Egypt.” God requires that we leave our chains behind, ...
Theoretically, a person might change his ways for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with God. Repentance, however, is the reformation of one’s self because of godly ...
When mankind rebelled against Him, God subjected the world to “futility” (Romans 8:20,21), preventing us from controlling everything we want to control. He lets us learn from the humbling experience ...
The fact is, we have to be taught what our greatest needs are. We think we know what these are, but our priorities can become dangerously disordered. We have to ...
Often our words serve the purpose of saying what we WANT to be true. Yet we need to be careful. Surrounded by other religious people, it’s easy to say nice ...
Converted to Christ, we set Him apart as our Lord. But living consistently under that lordship takes time. We must yield our hearts completely to His direction. At our baptism, ...
Jesus urged us to “count the cost” of discipleship (Luke 14:25-33). If we won’t throw the doors open and give God access to EVERY room in our hearts (even the ...