VIDEO Confident Living, 3 Steps to Stop Wasting Your Life

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.  Proverbs 3:5-6

There’s something very calming about repeating the words of Scripture aloud. Those who know Proverbs 3:5-6 know the power of saying to themselves, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

When you can’t understand the crisis or solve the problem, you can say, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” When you can’t bear the pain or withstand the pressure, you can remind yourself to “Trust in Him with all your heart.” When the devil is relentless in attacking, you can calm your nerves by repeating Proverbs 3:5-6.

What does it mean to not lean on your own understanding? Well, sometimes we can’t figure things out on our own. At certain moments in life, we have no answers. But we can acknowledge Jesus as Lord of all the accidents and incidents of life. He can open doors, solve issues, resolve problems, and guide us step by step. He can direct our paths.

Trust in Him with all your heart!

It is just as important to trust God as it is to obey Him. When we disobey God, we defy His authority and despise His holiness. But when we fail to trust God we doubt His sovereignty and question His goodness. Jerry Bridges

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3 Steps to Stop Wasting Your Life – John Piper [Proverbs 3:5 – 6]

Another Reason to Sing

He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  Psalm 121:4

For a man who lives by a code, so to speak, it felt like a major failure. What’d I do? Well, I fell asleep. Our kids have a curfew to meet when they’re out for the evening. They’re good kids, but my practice is to wait up until I hear their hands turn the front doorknob. I want to know they’re home safe. I don’t have to do this: I choose to. But one night I awoke to my daughter saying through a smile, “Dad, I’m safe. You should go to bed.” Despite our best intentions, sometimes fathers fall asleep at their posts. It was very humbling, and also very human.

But that never happens with God. Psalm 121 is a reassuring song about Him as guardian and protector of His children. The psalmist declares that God who watches over us “will not slumber” (v. 3). And for emphasis, he repeats that truth in verse 4: He “will neither slumber nor sleep.”

Can you even imagine? God never falls asleep at His post. He is always keeping watch over us—the sons and daughters and aunts and uncles and mothers, and even fathers. It’s not so much that He has to do this, but rather that, out of His great love, He chooses to. That promise is definitely something to sing about.

By:  John Blase

Reflect & Pray

In what ways do you sense God’s presence? When you don’t, what truths can you depend upon?

Father, thank You for Your constant care over our lives. We know that doesn’t mean a life absent of trouble, but rather a life held close by Your love and presence. Help us to confidently rest in the assurance that You’re always at Your post.

The Influence of Faith

1 Kings 18:36-40

In today’s Christian culture, faith is often seen as a possession that affects just its owner. Because of our love for independence and self-sufficiency, we’ve in many ways lost the sense of community and outreach that the church is meant to embody. We live like little islands in our own “personal relationship with Christ,” but God wants our faith to influence others, both within and outside the church.

Elijah’s faith influenced the entire nation of Israel. By believing and delivering God’s message, he was an example to them in word and deed. When he asked the Lord to reveal Himself as almighty God, fire fell from heaven and the people believed.

The prophet’s motive in the showdown at Mount Carmel was to draw the people back to the Lord. We usually think of “sharing our faith” with those who don’t know Christ, but our confidence in God can also encourage weak or wayward believers. Likewise, those strong in faith can strengthen us when we are struggling with doubt.

The church is described as a body whose parts are all interconnected. (See 1 Cor. 12:12.) God never intended that we be autonomous, living in our own personal faith. We are not like a bag of marbles; rather, we’re to be like a bunch of grapes whose juices blend in times of pressure.

Guard against living an isolated Christian life. Share your confidence in God’s faithfulness. Your testimony could help others’ faith to grow. If you’re troubled by doubt or fear, let go of any pride or shame, and seek help from a strong believer. Mutual blessing awaits when we reach out to one another.

Whosoever Will May Come In

“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.” (Joel 2:32)

“God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34). Yet in the above “whosoever” passage of the Old Testament, it is clear that those who “call on the name of the LORD” were the same as “the remnant whom the LORD shall call.” Those who call on the Lord have first been called by the Lord. He accepts all those who call on Him from every nation, but no doubt their geographical location to a large extent determines whether they will even hear of Him, and “how then shall they call on him . . . of whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14).

Theologians of great intellect have wrestled with these questions for centuries without resolving them, at least to the satisfaction of those of different mental persuasion. On the practical level, however, the Holy Spirit led Peter to quote this passage in his great sermon on the Day of Pentecost: “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

Peter was speaking only to Jews, but they had assembled at Jerusalem “out of every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). Then Paul made it forever plain that “whosoever” applied to everyone when he also quoted Joel. “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:12-13). The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, on the very last page of Scripture, says: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). So, whosoever will may come! One can contemplate later, with deep thanksgiving, the mysteries of the divine call, but first he must come, and if he so wills, he may! HMM

Trusting His Lifeboat

And [he] brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

—Acts 16:30-31

No man has any hope for eternal salvation apart from trusting completely in Jesus Christ and His atonement for men. Simply stated, our Lord Jesus is the lifeboat and we must fully and truly be committed to trusting the lifeboat.

Again, our Lord and Savior is the rope by which it is possible to escape from the burning building. There is no doubt about it—either we trust that rope or we perish.

He is the wonder drug or medication that heals all ills and sicknesses—and if we refuse it, we die.

He is the bridge from hell to heaven—and we take the bridge and cross over by His grace or we stay in hell.

These are simple illustrations, but they get to the point of the necessity of complete trust in Jesus Christ—absolute trust in Him!   WPJ063-064

Lord, help me to make this clear as I share the gospel. So many seem to persist in wanting to trust Christ plus their own efforts. Thank You for this free gift of salvation. Amen.

 

Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven

Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.—Matthew 6:20, 21.

 

Since I am coming to that holy room Where with the choir of saints forevermore I shall be made Thy music, as I come I tune the instrument here at the door, And, what I must do then, think here before.

John Donne.

 

To lay up treasure in heaven is to do acts which promote, or belong to, the kingdom of God; and what our Lord assures us of is that any act of our hands, any thought of our heart, any word of our lips, which promotes the divine kingdom by the ordering whether of our own life or of the world outside—all such activity, though it may seem for the moment to be lost, is really stored up in the divine treasure-house; and when the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, shall at last appear, that honest effort of ours, which seemed so ineffectual, shall be found to be a brick built into that eternal and celestial fabric.

Charles Gore.

 

We cannot remove the conditions under which our work is to be done, but we can transform them. They are the elements out of which we must build the temples wherein we serve.

Brooke Foss Westcott.

 

Choice Ones

“I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” Isa. 48:10

This has long been the motto fixed before our eye upon the wall of our bedroom, and in many ways it has also been written on our heart. It is no mean thing to be chosen of God. God’s choice makes chosen men choice men. Better to be the elect of God than the elect of a whole nation. So eminent is this privilege, that whatever drawback may be joined to it we very joyfully accept it, even as the Jew ate the bitter herbs for the sake of the Paschal Lamb. We choose the furnace, since God chooses us in it.

We are chosen as an afflicted people, and not as a prosperous people, chosen not in the palace, but in the furnace. In the furnace beauty is marred, fashion is destroyed, strength is melted, glory is consumed, and yet here eternal love reveals its secrets, and declares its choice. So has it been in our case. In times of severest trial God has made to us our calling and election plain, and we have made it sure: then have we chosen the Lord to be our God, and He has shown that we are assuredly His chosen. Therefore, if today the furnace be heated seven times hotter, we will not dread it, for the glorious Son of God will walk with us amid the glowing coals.