Are our memories changing us for the better? Are they making us more humble and penitent? Are we becoming more reverent and grateful? As we reflect on what has happened in our lives, are those reflections turning us into more obedient people?
I want to suggest that being awake while the world is asleep is not necessarily bad. The handful of times when I have had the deepest communion with God and the clearest insight into reality have been in the watches of the night.
Our reaching forward is not to anything in this life. What we are reaching forward to is heaven, and it simply doesn’t matter what tomorrow may bring in this world. The future will come eventually, but today is the day we must prepare for it.
To say no to God’s pardon would mean throwing away everything we were created to enjoy. It would mean losing everything “life” was ever meant to be. And far worse, it would mean losing our Creator Himself — agonizing over what we had lost forever.
God will help us, it but it is still we who will have to die. “No matter how close to yours another’s steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you’ll do alone.” So what will we do when we have to do this thing that no one can do for us?
Jesus would have dealt with the storm when the time was right; meanwhile the disciples should have hung on. So we need to learn the lesson of the tempest: we should let God decide when the situation has grown dangerous enough to warrant His action.
Those who can see only what is happening at the present moment are prone to depression. We must develop our vision to look outside of ourselves and our private discouragements. If we have the eyes to see, there are wonderful things to hope for.
Zaccheus had a disadvantage; we have our own. He overcame his hindrance by the intensity of his interest; so can we. From this “wee little man,” then, we should learn to reach forward to God with a passion that will not be denied.
Anguish is simply an indication of unmet needs. In this world, even as Christians, we will have needs that are achingly unfulfilled. As long as we cry humbly and reverently, it is not wrong to cry honestly and deeply, “How long, O Lord, how long?”
What we call “happiness” is nothing compared to what really deserves that name, and it must surely be “exasperating” to our Father to see us hang on to our happiness so tightly and pay so little attention to treasures that are so much more precious.
Our sinful past will try to pull us back — and sometimes the pull can be very strong. We wouldn’t have been what we used to be if there weren’t ...
The more we learn to love our Father, the more our hearts are going to hurt when we realize we’ve failed Him. The person who rarely sees any sin in ...
“Nominal” Christians are Christians in “name only.” They are the modern embodiment of the mentality God spoke of in Isaiah’s day: “[They] draw near with their mouth and honor me ...
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 ...