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Started reading
December 24, 2017
nobody draws close to Christ who doesn’t first share in Christ’s sufferings.
our inability to comprehend something doesn’t make it untrue or any less miraculous.
To me, there is one thing that seems to be a common element in those who take extreme positions on divine healing. A lack of humility. On the one hand you have people telling God what He must do, and on the other hand you have people telling God what He can’t do.
even with our limited understanding, with time and with much prayer, the daylight dawns, and we discover what Jeremiah told us so many centuries ago: God’s plans for us really are full of hope and a future. Even when that path leads through pain.
It isn’t the hurts, blows, and bruises that rob us of the freshness of Christ’s beauty in our lives. More likely, it is careless ease, empty pride, earthly preoccupations, and too much prosperity that will put layers of dirty film over our souls.
So many of us settle for second-best things that really cannot and do not satisfy. And here’s the jarring thing: God calls that sin.
The God who created time understands time in all its dimensions.
Mr. Perlman smiled, wiped the sweat from his brow, and said in a soft, reverent tone, “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”
Yes, the Spirit’s role is to convict and convince us of sin, to illuminate and instruct our hearts. But His main work is to make glad our tired hearts, to uplift and confirm the weak, to encourage and raise up the downcast, and to comfort us. And He does this all through Christ.
Every day of our short lives—even every hour—has eternal consequences for good or ill.
A day of ministry in Christ’s kingdom is far better than a thousand days lived in pursuit of self-destructive pleasures.
Will we allow the truth of God’s promises to change the way we see life, with all its challenges and obstacles? To ease our fears and calm our anxieties? To give us hope and confidence when there doesn’t seem to be any earthly reason for either?
God won’t always change our circumstances, but if we ask Him, He will often step in to change our perspective!
What a waste of an illness or injury if we read—or go on talking—day and night about that illness, that injury, and not about the God who allowed it for His own sovereign reasons.
the answer to self-centeredness isn’t endless self-examination, but simply love—a love that reaches outside of itself, and focuses on helping those whose plight is worse than our own.
I used to pray for grace to maximize each day; now I pray for survival.
The good things in this life are only glimpses of what lies ahead for God’s sons and daughters.
The best thing about heaven will not be running or walking, touching or holding. The best thing about heaven will be a pure heart no longer weighed down by sin and selfishness.
we who put our faith in Jesus Christ have something beyond mere optimism, positive thinking, or rose-colored lenses. We have a hope that not only fills our glass halfway, it overflows it. Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
I’m more limited in my activities, but I still show up for work, offering what I have to the Lord for His use, and asking for His help. And I know that I will have that help, because He never gives a task without supplying the need. His command never comes without empowerment.
My calling isn’t only to abandon my future wants, but to trust in God and hand over what I already possess.
