Four Passages to Live By
Here are four passages of Scripture which have meant verymuch to me. There are many others, but these stand out. Each has a promiseattached. The promises are in bold.
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie themas symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to yourchildren, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along theroad, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes ofyour houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of yourchildren may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers,as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth” (Deuteronomy11:18-21).
“Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for aman to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and forlying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable tothe LORD? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains ofinjustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and breakevery yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide thepoor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not toturn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forthlike the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousnesswill go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then youwill call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say:‘Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointingfinger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungryand satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in thedarkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide youalways; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthenyour frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose watersnever fail’” (Isaiah 58:5-11).
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, whatyou will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life moreimportant than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at thebirds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet yourheavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who ofyou by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry aboutclothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet Itell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one ofthese. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here todayand tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O youof little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shallwe drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things,and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first hiskingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you aswell. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry aboutitself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:25-34).
“For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord,and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let lightshine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the lightof the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have thistreasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God andnot from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed,but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but notdestroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:5-9).
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