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by
Max Lucado
Read between
January 1 - January 2, 2024
Minimize it.
Bury it.
Punish it.
Avoid the mention of it.
Redirect it.
Adam and Eve hid behind fig leaves, bushes, and lies. Not much has changed.
When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. (Ps. 32:3–4 NLT)
Guilt sucks the life out of our souls. Grace restores it.
Guilt sucks the life out of our souls. Grace restores it.
In exchange for self-salvation, God gave Paul righteousness. “Now I am right with God, not because I followed the law, but because I believed in Christ” (Phil. 3:9 NCV).
Paul gave his guilt to Jesus. Period. He didn’t numb it, hide it, deny it, offset it, or punish it. He simply surrendered it to Jesus. As a result, he would write, “I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us” (Phil. 3:13–14 TLB).
happy saint is one who is at the same time aware of the severity of sin and the immensity of grace. Sin is not diminished, nor is God’s ability to forgive it. The saint dwells in grace, not guilt. This is the tranquil soul.
Don’t indulge it. Don’t drown in the bilge of your own condemnation.
Your future matters more than your past. God’s grace is greater than your sin. What you did was not good. But your God is good. And he will forgive you.
“Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which Go...
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Yet, according to Scripture, Jesus came to “take away the sins of the world” (John 1:29 PHILLIPS). On the day when I appear before the judgment seat of God, I will point to Christ. When my list of sins is produced, I will gesture toward him and say, “He took it.”
is a reason the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror. Your future matters more than your past.
God uses everything to accomplish his will.
Your amygdalae operate like an alarm system. If an intruder breaks a window or pries open a lock to your house, your home security system warns you. Bells, alarms, horns, lights! Get up, get out, and get safe! The system alerts you before you have time to think about it.
Amygdalae do the same. We don’t consciously think, A car is coming. I’m in its way. The car is big; I am small. The car is fast; I am slow. I better move. Amygdalae prompt a reaction before we know one is needed. And when the amygdalae command, the rest of the body reacts. Our pupils dilate, improving our vision. We breathe faster, pumping more oxygen into the lungs. Our pulse rate increases, infusing more blood into the system. Adrenaline turns us into Hercules. We are faster, stronger, better able to escape danger or fight through it. Surface-level blood vessels constrict, reducing
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Perpetual anxiety is the mental alarm system that never quite turns off. Perpetual anxiety is amygdalae with an itchy trigger finger. Limited anxiety is helpful. We need to be alerted to danger. What we don’t need is to live in a state of high alert.
Here is why. God created our brains to replenish themselves with natural mood elevators and tranquilizers like dopamine and serotonin. These restore joy and peace. But if the amygdalae never stop, the natural tranquilizers never have an opportunity to do their work. The brain never resets. We become edgy, unsettled, and restless. That is the bad news. The good news is this: God can calm our amygdalae! And he may very well use the words of the apostle Paul to do so.
To Abram, God said, “Do not be afraid…. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Gen. 15:1).
After Moses’ death God told Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1:9 NIV).
Then again, did they not have equal reason to feel at peace? By this point in their experience with Jesus, they had seen him heal leprosy (Matt. 8:3), heal the centurion’s servant without going to the servant’s bedside (Matt. 8:13), heal Peter’s mother-in-law (Matt. 8:15), calm a violent sea (Matt. 8:26), heal a paralytic (Matt. 9:6–7), heal a woman who had been sick for twelve years (Matt. 9:22), raise a girl from the dead (Matt. 9:25), drive out an evil spirit (Mark 1:25), heal a demon-possessed man in a cemetery (Mark 5:15), change water into wine (John 2:9), and heal a man who had been an
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As you sense anxiety welling up inside you, cast it in the direction of Christ. Do so specifically and immediately.
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said, “Put the Lord in remembrance [of His promises], keep not silence” (Isa. 62:6 AMPC). God told Isaiah, “Put Me in remembrance; let us contend together” (Isa. 43:26). God invites you—yes, commands you—to remind him of his promises. Populate your prayer with “You said…” “You said you would walk me through the waters” (Isa. 43:2, author’s paraphrase). “You said you would lead me through the valley” (Ps. 23:4, author’s paraphrase).
Not exactly, opined the apostle Paul. The good life begins, not when circumstances change, but when our attitude toward them does. Look again at his antidote for anxiety. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6–7).
Gratitude is a mindful awareness of the benefits of life.
Grateful people tend to be more empathetic and forgiving of others. People who keep a gratitude journal are more likely to have a positive outlook on life. Grateful individuals demonstrate less envy, materialism, and self-centeredness. Gratitude improves self-esteem and enhances relationships, quality of sleep, and longevity.
have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Phil. 4:11–13 NIV)
Does your happiness depend on what you drive? Wear? Deposit? Spray on? If so, you have entered the rat race called materialism.
Define yourself by stuff, and you’ll feel good when you have a lot, and you’ll feel bad when you don’t. The cycle is predictable. You assume, If I get a car, I’ll be happy. You get the car, but the car wears out. You look for joy elsewhere. If I get married, I’ll be happy. So you get married, but your spouse cannot deliver. If we can have a baby… If I get the new job… If I can retire… In each case joy comes, then diminishes. By the time you reach old age, you have ridden a roller coaster of hope and disappointment. Life has repeatedly let you down, and you are suspicious that it will let you
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what you have in Christ is greater than anything you don’t have in life.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (Isa. 43:2 NIV). You may be facing the perfect storm, but Jesus offers the perfect peace.
Your problem is not your problem but the way you see it.
There are many things in life over which you have no choice. But the greatest activity of life is well within your dominion. You can choose what you think about. You can be the air traffic controller of your mental airport. You occupy the control tower and can direct the mental traffic of your world.
that reason the wise man urges, “Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life” (Prov. 4:23 NCV).
Healing from anxiety requires healthy thinking. Your challenge is not your challenge. Your challenge is the way you think about your challenge. Your problem is not your problem; it is the way you look at it. Satan knows this. The devil is
always messing with our minds.
Turns out that our most valuable weapon against anxiety weighs less than three pounds and sits between our ears.
How do we disarm anxiety? Stockpile our minds with God thoughts. Draw the logical implication: if birds and flowers fall under the category of God’s care, won’t he care for us as well? Saturate your heart with the goodness of God. “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2).
Christians battle anxiety. Jesus battled anxiety, for heaven’s sake! In the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed three times that he wouldn’t have to drink of the cup (Matt. 26:36–44).
Do not meditate on the mess.
God said, “Call on me in the day of trouble” (Ps. 50:15 NIV). Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). There is no uncertainty in that promise.
The Bible’s most common word for worry is the Greek term merimnate. The origin is merimnaō. This is a compound of a verb and a noun. The verb is divide. The noun is mind. To be anxious, then, is to divide the mind.1 Worry takes a meat cleaver to our thoughts, energy, and focus. Anxiety chops up our attention. It sends our awareness in a dozen directions.
We worry about the past—what we said or did. We worry about the future—tomorrow’s assignments or the next decade’s developments. Anxiety takes our attention from the right now and directs it “back then” or “out there.”
Meditate on good things. “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Phil. 4:8). Don’t let anxious, negative thoughts take over your mind. You cannot control the circumstances, but you can always control what you think of them.
Life gives lemons to good people, bad people, old people, all people. Life comes with lemons. But we don’t have to suck on them.
