The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21)
There is a story of a woman in England who came to her vicar with a troubled conscience. The vicar knew her to be a habitual gossip; she had maligned nearly everyone in the village. “How can I make amends?” the woman pleaded. The vicar said, “If you want to make peace with your conscience, take a bag of goose feathers and drop one on the porch of each one you have slandered.” When she had done so, she came back to the vicar and said, “Is that all?” “No,” said the wise old minister, “you must go now and gather up every feather and bring them all back to me.” After a long time the woman returned without a single feather. “The wind has blown them all away,” she said. “My good woman,” said the vicar, “so it is with gossip. Unkind words are easily dropped, but we can never take them back again.”
There’s not much commentary needed on a story like that! The tongue is a very small thing indeed, but what enormous damage can be done by those we wag it indiscriminately. Gossip isn’t harmless; it is a poisonous form of communication that has shipwrecked countless relationships between family members, friends, co-workers, and our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
So how do we rise above the toxic talk that can come out of our mouths? We must remember this one simple Scripture and keep it before us every time we open our mouths to speak:
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)
If we are going to speak life, we must think before we speak. We need to think about the power of our words and be committed to speaking life through words that build up, rather than tear down. Remember that unkind words, just like goose feathers, are easily dropped, but we can never take them back again. As the wise preacher observed, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing” (Proverbs 12:18). By God’s grace, may we pause and reconsider before we utter reckless words. May words of life be the confession of our lives!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:20)
We all know from personal experience that a promise is only as good as the integrity of the one who makes it. We have all made promises, and we have all broken promises. We have all had promises made to us, and we have all seen promises made to us broken. But there is One who has never broken a promise He has made — not one –and He never will. Read on and be encouraged today!
God is the true Promise Keeper. He is the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, and we can count on every promise in the Word of God. We can take God at His Word. Because the Word of God is true (Proverbs 30:5) and God does not change (Malachi 3:6), we can take every promise God has made straight to the believer’s bank, knowing He will make good on all of them. As the psalmist exulted, “He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9). When you are praying out of the knowledge of His promises in Scripture, you can pray with the confident assurance and expectation that your answer of blessing is on the way.
Remember, God has already fulfilled the greatest promise He ever made. He promised to send a Savior, and 2,000 years ago He did just that. Jesus lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and rose supernaturally from the grave. To all those who, by grace through faith, receive Him as Lord and Savior, eternal life is the promised reward. And if God kept the greatest promise He ever made, He will surely keep the second greatest promise He ever made: sending Jesus back to consummate His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Our God is trustworthy. Our God is faithful. Our God is a Promise Maker and the Promise Keeper. No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” and “Amen” in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You have His Word on that!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name. (Isaiah 25:1)
There are only two reasons to do anything in life: One is for personal gain and the other is for God’s glory. The Scriptures are filled with examples of both, and it is always a good idea to inventory our hearts to see just what our motivations are for the things we are doing.
We can sum it all up this way: Are we using God as a means to attain an end? Or is the end God Himself? The first desire has us pursuing God for personal gain; the second is for God’s glory. Often we may be sailing through life without giving this any thought . . . until the storm winds begin to blow. When they do, we will know the true motive of our heart, because we will either shrink back from the trial or stand firm.
Let’s take a brief look at these two categories of professing Christians. Those who are working for personal gain look to their relationship with Jesus for the great gifts He can give them. They come for hope. They come for happiness. They come for a better home life. Some come to Him thinking that will guarantee them health and wealth. These are just a few of the personal gain reasons which make it painfully clear that they do not regard Jesus as their Messiah, only as the means to their desired ends.
On the other hand, those who are working for God’s glory look to Jesus as the end itself. Jesus is not the vehicle to victory, He is victory Himself. Jesus is not the way to wealth, He is our wealth. He is not the way to happiness, He is our joy.
How would you describe your walk with Jesus right now? Is your relationship with Jesus merely a means to a desired end? Or is Jesus the end Himself? We must always remember that we were created for relationship with Jesus, not for the rewards we get from Him.
There may be no better book in all the Bible to for displaying this truth lived out than the account of Job. God allowed His servant Job to suffer unimaginable losses: his health, his wealth, and all ten of his children. Job’s own wife harshly ridiculed him for staying committed to God. Job lost every reason to stay in a right relationship with God . . . except God Himself. And it is so gloriously obvious that Job loved God more than all the good gifts God had given him. Yes, Job loved his wealth, health, and children. But He loved God more! For Job, God was not a means to a desired end, God was the end Himself. Mere moments after he had learned of all the catastrophic losses that had befallen him in a single day, Job fell to the ground and worshiped:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. (Job 1:21-22).
May this be the confession of our lives! Let us build our relationship with God solely upon the goal of His glory and not our gain, because ultimately His glory IS our greatest gain!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites our of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)
After Moses had spent forty years tending sheep on the back side of the desert, God was ready to use him to deliver His people out of bondage in Egypt. Moses started out well; when God called to him, Moses readily replied, “Here I am.” But as soon as God declared His plan to make Moses the divine deliverer of God’s people, Moses began to hastily back away from the opportunity to be a servant for God’s use, offering up excuse after excuse. Let’s take a look, and I promise you will be as comforted as you are challenged to answer whatever call God has placed in your life today.
When Moses said, “Who am I . . . ?” he was speaking the truth; he was not qualified for God’s call in his life to do anything, at least from his human perspective. Forty years earlier, when Moses was in the court of Pharaoh, he killed an Egyptian slave master who was beating a Hebrew slave. When Moses’ crime became known, he fled Egypt and spent the next forty years as a shepherd in Midian.
God knew who Moses was. God knew that Moses had tried, in his way and his timing, to free his countrymen from their bondage in Egypt, but he went about it the wrong way – in his own strength, rather than in the strength of the Almighty. Yet now God was calling Moses into His service to deliver His people out of slavery. Truly, this is one of the greatest comforts we find in all of sacred Scripture: God sees past our past, and He looks all the way to our current potential as an instrument of usefulness in His mighty right hand. This was the case with Moses, and the same is true for you and me.
Have you ever wondered why God chooses to use such messed up people in His service? It’s because that’s all He has to work with! We are all messed up. We are all sinners with a past that would crush us under the weight of shame if those closest to us knew what God knows about us. Yet God, in His magnificent mercy, raises us out of the pit of our sinful past and brings us into His promised plan and purpose for our lives.
That is why God refused to accept Moses’ excuse that he wasn’t good enough to answer God’s call. It is true that Moses was not good enough in his own strength, but in the strength of the Almighty he was more than good enough; he was God’s ordained instrument of usefulness. Moses threw up several more excuses, and God simply took Moses from excuse to use, and that is exactly what God wants to do in each of our lives.
Have you answered God’s call on your life today? Remember, God knows everything about your past, yet He still wants to use you in the present for two simple reasons: His glory and your ultimate good. So when you sense God’s call, your answer should not be “Who am I?” but rather, “Here am I! Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9).
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
We all feel weak from time to time. When we do, we must remember the promise we have in Christ. Read on and be encouraged today, especially if this message finds you in a season of weariness and weakness, because weakness is strength for those who are in the Lord.
Christians know about the incomparable, supernatural strength of Almighty God. Our God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. He spoke everything into existence, and if He withdrew His hand at any moment in time, everything would cease to exist. But do you know when God’s strength is demonstrated most vividly and effectively in our personal lives? That happens when His strength intersects with our weakness.
Our human frailty has been a fact of life from the moment sin entered into our humanity when Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. Because of their sin, we all receive the wages of sin – death – and we are all dying at the rate of sixty minutes an hour. Sometimes our weakness presents itself in our distress and difficulties; at other times it appears in our struggles and sorrows; at still others our weakness rears its malignant head in our insecurities and iniquity. However, regardless of the challenges we are facing, we have the Source of supernatural strength to rely on and rest in. When we are weak, He is strong.
Here is a very important point to remember: The promise of His strength in our weakness does not mean God will remove the source of our struggle. Jesus promised that we will have trials, troubles, and tribulation in this world. But He also promised that He has overcome this world, which means we have a power at work within us that is greater than any power that can come against us. Often, rather than removing the storm, Jesus strengthens us in the middle of it. That way, when we emerge on the other side of of the trial, we are more conformed to His image than we were before.
Are you facing any storm winds today? How would you describe the witness of your weakness? Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with praying for God to remove the storm. Paul prayed three times that God would remove his “thorn.” But when God does not remove our difficulty, we can trust that the storm has been delivered to help us decrease and for Jesus to increase. This is the process of sanctification – where God is bringing us to the end of ourselves and making us more and more like Jesus as we continue through this life.
Christian, let your heart be filled with hope, regardless of the storms you are facing, because you can rest in the promise of God: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in [your] weakness.” Thank you, Lord!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
The testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:3)
One of the most important character traits for the people of God is perseverance under pressure, because pressure produces, and in that production, pressure returns blessings multiplied. Read on, and be greatly encouraged today!
The Bible is filled with examples of those who persevered under pressure. Joseph was sold into slavery by his resentful brothers. He certainly persevered under pressure; years later, he rose to the position of second-in-command in Egypt. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego persevered under pressure, accepting the flames of the fiery furnace rather than bowing down to the giant statue King Nebuchadnezzar ordered to be made of gold. Like Joseph, these three faith-filled young men were promoted to positions of prominence by the pagan king. Esther persevered under pressure when she chose to approach the king uninvited, which could have resulted in the penalty of death; her faith and courage saved the people of Israel. Stephen persevered under pressure, preaching the truths of the Gospel to the religious leaders, literally with his very last breath, even as the religious leaders were stoning him to death. The Lord Jesus stood to receive him.
Of course, there is no greater example of persevering under pressure than the one we see in our Lord Jesus Christ. From his infancy, Jesus was pressured on every side. King Herod sought to kill the newborn King and sentenced all the male children in Bethlehem aged two and under to death. An angel warned Joseph, and he took Mary and the baby Jesus down into Egypt. Throughout His entire ministry, Jesus was plagued and pressured by the religious leaders, who plotted to kill Him time and time again. And in His hour of greatest need in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was sweating drops of blood as He prayed about what would happen the following day, His pressure produced perhaps the greatest word of inspired instruction in the history of the world: “Father, if you are willing; take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).
God’s grace is most magnified when we are navigating in the storms of life. It all comes down to trusting God even when we cannot trace His hand. The positive production of pressure cannot be overstated. It is God’s ordained way of conforming us to the image and likeness of Jesus. Our lives are hammered out on the anvil of pressure. Remember, when you squeeze a grapefruit, you get grapefruit juice. Squeeze an orange, and you get orange juice. The question is, What do those around you get when you are squeezed by the pressures of life?
The pressures you face in life are the passageway that produces a deeper intimacy with the One who died to make you His.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. (Ephesians 5:8)
How are we to “live in the light” in such a dark world? I pray the answer to this question will be a source of eternal encouragement to you today!
First, let’s take a look at the meaning of light from a biblical perspective. Psalm 119:105 tells us that the Word of God is a lamp and a light, directing our attention to the intellectual wisdom and truth found in the Word of God. In Romans 13:12-14, we see that light refers to moral deeds. Therefore, we can conclude that living in the light means living according to the wisdom, truth, and morality of God’s Word. But the question still remains: How do we do it?
The answer is that we are to live out practically what we already are positionally because we are in Christ. Go back over Ephesians 5:8, our verse for today, and you will see how this fleshes itself out. We were once darkness; that was our nature. But no more! We are a new creation in Christ, and our nature has been changed from darkness to light. Notice that we were not “in” darkness; we were darkness. This is the nature of every person before Jesus shows up. But when we are raised from death to life, we become children of light because we have been changed from the inside out. Now, for the very first time, we have the ability to live the life God has called us to live.
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness” (John 8:12). He was telling us to walk in His footsteps, to stay on His path, to follow His plan and purpose for our lives. The closer we follow our Lord, the better we will produce the fruit of the light, which Paul described as “Goodness, righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9).
Have you been living in the light lately? Have you been walking in the footsteps of your Lord? What changes do you need to make to better shine His light onto all those you come in contact with in this dark world?
Living in the light is living for the Light, and when we are operating at that level of living, our lives have meaning, significance, and eternal value, and our deeds live on long after we are gone.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
When was the last time you ran into someone you knew and asked, “How’s it going?” To which they responded, “Same stuff . . . different day.” That is a response that a child of God ought never give. It comes from someone who sees life from inside of a rut – which, by the way, is nothing more than a grave with both ends knocked out. But this is not for you! In our passage for today, we have been given a word of eternal encouragement, regardless of where this message finds you.
The past is paralyzing for many of us, which is why I often say that we must Learn from the past, but don’t live there! When we cannot forget the former things and rise above them, we are unable to focus on the new things God intends to do in our lives. We allow ourselves to be trapped in a painful past that is marked by unforgiveness, bitterness, betrayal, guilt, and regret.
Today’s passage provides us with the key that unlocks the door that opens to a new thing : focusing on the faithful One who has promised to do a new thing in our lives. Open your Bible to the book of Isaiah and see what God says next in the same verse: “I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). The “wilderness” is a metaphor for any desolate and lonely place we have visited in the past – mentally, emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Eventually we all find ourselves wandering through such a place. But God tells us something that is designed to change our perspective and ultimately our predicament: “I am doing a new thing!” God is healing our past wounds . . . breaking down strongholds . . . shining light in our darkness.
In all my years as a pastor, perhaps the greatest “new thing” I have seen that God is committed to doing in our lives is giving us a renewed, living hope even when things seem utterly hopeless. That is a wonderful picture of “rivers in the desert.” God is in the business of doing what is impossible with man.
What “new thing” do you need in your life right now? Personally? Professionally? Relationally? Look up and see the heavens open right before your eyes, because your God is about to do a new thing in your life today. You have His Word on it!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
His mercies never fail. They are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
The morning meal is designed to break the fast from the night before, and it is important to begin each day with whatever healthy “break-fast” works for us. But in addition to what you put into your stomach, you also need to be putting God’s Word into your soul.
In our passage for today, we see our faithful God offering us a cup of fresh-brewed mercy every morning. How glorious! No matter how things went the day before – from storms to sin – God sets a meal of new mercies before us each and every morning. This truth is as certain as the sun rising every morning, even on those days when we cannot see actually see the sun because of the clouds that may be obscuring it.
The prophet who gave us our verse for today also gave us these words: “Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17). You see, God is infinitely bigger than any battle we are facing, greater than any giant that is taunting us, and mightier than any mess we find ourselves in. And remember this: God’s divine power, which is available to each one of us moment by moment (Ephesians 1:19), is made perfect in our weakness. Don’t take my word for it; hear the Word of the Lord: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). That is why we need to break the fast each new morning with the Word of God. “He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:4).
Remember, whether the day before was bright and beautiful, a bit burdensome, or marred by bitter brokenness, today is a new day, and God has new mercies waiting for you in His Word. Experience has taught me that when we break the fast each day with time in God’s Word, we are restored, renewed, recharged, and repurposed to engage with whatever the day has to offer.
Christian, a cup of His fresh-brewed mercy awaits you this day; drink up!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. (Mark 10:51)
Passing through Jericho, the popular resort city which had been rebuilt by Herod the Great, Jesus and His disciples encountered a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. It was not uncommon in the ancient world to encounter beggars; much of the work in that day was of a physical nature, so any kind of physical limitation would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for a disabled person to find employment. Bartimaeus suffered from blindness, a condition which was widely believed to be a curse from God because of some sin committed by the blind person or his family. John’s gospel recorded that Jesus made it clear this was not the case when His disciples asked that very question about a man who had been born blind (John 9:2-7).
When Bartimaeus called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” the phrase “son of David” identified Jesus as the promised Messiah. Bartimaeus asked in faith and Jesus answered. But notice the response from Jesus in our verse for today: “What do you want me to do for you?” It would seem obvious that the blind man wanted to be able to see, but our Lord was asking a clarifying question. What kind of mercy did the man desire? Did he want to be given money or food? Was he merely looking for another handout? In asking the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus was moving Bartimaeus beyond his broken condition toward his blessed cure.
“Rabbi, I want to see,” Bartimaeus replied (Mark 10:51).
It’s important to understand what had happened just before this encounter with the blind man. Jesus had put the very same question to two of His disciples, James and John, and their response was to request positions of honor in heaven. I picture Jesus shaking His head sorrowfully. “You don’t know what you are asking,” He said to His self-absorbed disciples (Mark 10:38). You see, James and John were also afflicted with a broken condition evidenced by their desire for positions of honor. They too needed a healing from Jesus, although they didn’t realize it, and that is exactly what His clarifying question was designed to do–to bring realization and reptentance.
Regardless of where this message finds you today, how will you answer Jesus when He asks you, “What do you want me to do for you?” Remember, His answer requires only asking, but as it was with James and John, who were truly “blind” and asking for the wrong blessing, Jesus will always answer with what you need, not necessarily what you want.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 