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January 3 - January 4, 2020
We all need help
Anything that reminds us that we are dependent on God and other people is a good thing. Otherwise, we trick ourselves into thinking that we are self-sufficient, and arrogance is sure to follow.
That is how life in the church works.
We feel broken ourselves and fear we will only make things worse for others. We feel unqualified.
Wow. Truth.. Remembering though, that there is no fear in love... bc perfect love casts out all fear. Love that has fear has not yet been perfected. 1 John also remembering that when we are weak, He is strong. Greater is He who is in us than he who is living in this world. Through Christ, we are more than conquerors & nothing is impossible with God. He has even used a donkey to speak for His purposes, surely He can use us even more! He who has started a good work in us has promised not to stop until it is also complete. We press on, for we walk by faith & not by sight. God will surely qualify those whom He calls. We trust in Him.
but God’s way of doing things is not the same as our way.
Isaiah 55:8-9
have been given power and wisdom through the Holy Spirit
you have the right credentials.
Amen. A beautiful & most uplifting encouragement!
Jesus will be in it and over it.
He also came to serve rather than to be served, and he did it side by side.
far as we are able, we do this with one another.
is exposed,
We spend too much time concealing our neediness.
To you, O LORD, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy.
Both poverty and riches leave us vulnerable. Poverty suggests that God is not with us, so we trust in ourselves, and riches suggest that we have what we need, so we trust in our money.
Amen.
These spiritual beings have power to afflict us physically, as we see with Job. But their primary weapons are lies, half-truths, and temptations, tactics that are much more powerful than any physical affliction.
God is over all things and surrounds all our circumstances.
we need him in order to “have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). He is by no means a bystander, off on the side, silently observing our troubles—though we could easily think such things. Instead, he created all things, so he owns all things.
Amen!
Life includes so many influences and hardships, and God is up to something in all of them.
these—our hearts—where
Scripture itself is so interested in our hearts,
Spirit, soul, heart, mind, inner person, and conscience
Scripture does provide images and analogies such as a fountainhead, a well, a tree, and a treasure chest.1
They can yield either fetid water or living water (John 7:38).
A tree has roots that search for a life source (Jer. 17:5–8). Either those roots will find their rest in other people, which Scripture likens to being a withering shrub in the desert, or they will settle for nothing but the Lord alone, in which case they will be sustained through the most difficult times.
Amen. Truth!
first response
Our emotions, it turns out, reveal what is most dear to us (e.g., Pss. 25:17; 45:1). That’s why our emotions identify us. They are us.
When happy, we possess something we love; when anxious, something we love is at risk; when despondent, something we love has been lost; when angry, something we love is being stolen or kept from us.
When we feel shame, we feel as though someone has taken off our human covering and left us naked. It separates us from relationships, and relationships are dear to us. When guilty, we feel like our relationship with God is potentially in jeopardy, and this relationship gets to matters of life and death.
these questions get to the core of our being.
All roads eventually lead to our relationship with God. Do we love what he loves? Is he most dear to us?
If we are trusted, we might hear of fears, hidden pain, and shame—matters that we prefer to keep private.
May the Good Lord both be our help & equip us.
identify what we really believe about God.
strong emotions are a time to ask, “What is my heart really saying?
Sometimes depression is simply physical suffering. It says, “I feel as though I am numb inside.” Either way—and this is important—difficult emotions are always a time to get help and pray for endurance in faith. A depressed person is suffering, and suffering leaves us spiritually vulnerable. It raises questions about God’s goodness and care, and it whispers that we must have done something bad to deserve such suffering. Emotional suffering needs spiritual encouragement.
Very serious truths.
But it points even more obviously to God.
There is good in every human being.
Amen, absolutely!
if we look closely enough.
Since God created us, and created things always bear some quality of their creator, we are able to se...
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we turn to the Lord rather than away from him. The good shines brightest in weakness. This is the essence of faith, and it compels our admiration. Anything we do because of Jesus—love, work, endure, hope—is very good.
Amen.
Our eye for God’s reflected goodness is important in the way we help, and we will come back to it over and over. Help includes seeing what is good in another person.
All,
is not well.
but they can also be very bad. They are both at the same time. Although we prefer to keep this reality under wraps, there is little disagreement about the badness resident in every heart. We all know that we do wrong. We love ourselves more than...
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we are less willing to acknowledge that it is sin. Sin means that our badness is primarily directed against God, and most people are not consciously shaking their fist at God. Instead, we are not thinking about him at all.
need the light that Scripture brings.
Though we live before God, we are not always conscious of God.
the teen just wants to do what he or she wants to do.
but it is personal. The same is true for us. When we sin, it is against God, even if it doesn’t feel that way.
