VIDEO Medicine for the Soul

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Psalm 100:4

Are you feeling poorly today? Try a dose of gratitude. It’s a nontoxic medication developed in the heavenly pharmaceutical factories and dispensed freely to everyone on earth. It counters the plague of pain, the scourge of the sour spirit, and the disease of despondency. You can self-prescribe it at any time, and it’s impossible to overdose on it. Gratitude comes in several forms:

• A shot in the arm: Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. Psalm 100:4
• A booster shot: In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
• Tablet form: And be thankful. Colossians 3:15
• And infusion: Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

A merry soul is good medicine, so let the Great Physician treat the symptoms of your soul with His prized formula of gratitude and thanksgiving today!

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. Johnson Oatman

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Psalm 100 – A Psalm of Thanksgiving for All Lands

Enduring Hope

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. Revelation 21:4

Doctors diagnosed four-year-old Solomon with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive muscle-degenerating disease. A year later, doctors discussed wheelchairs with the family. But Solomon protested that he didn’t want to have to use one. Family and friends prayed for him and raised funds for a professionally trained service dog to help keep him out of that wheelchair for as long as possible. Tails for Life, the organization that trained my service dog, Callie, is currently preparing Waffles to serve Solomon.

Though Solomon accepts his treatment, often bursting out in song to praise God, some days are harder. On one of those difficult days, Solomon hugged his mom and said, “I’m happy there’s no Duchenne’s in heaven.”

The degenerating effects of sickness affect all people on this side of eternity. Like Solomon, however, we have an enduring hope that can strengthen our resolve on those inevitable tough days. God gives us the promise of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1). Our Creator and Sustainer will “dwell” among us by making His home with us (v. 3). He will “wipe every tear” from our eyes. “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (v. 4). When the wait feels “too hard” or “too long,” we can experience peace because God’s promise will be fulfilled.

By:  Xochitl Dixon

Reflect & Pray

How has acknowledging God’s promise for a new heaven and a new earth comforted you? How can you encourage a hurting friend with the enduring hope of God’s promises?

Loving God, thank You for strengthening my resolve with the surety of my enduring hope.

For further study, read Prophetic Priorities: Wrestling with the End Times.

Uncertainty in Intercession

When we don’t know how to pray for someone, the prayers recorded in the Bible are a good place to start. Philippians 1:9-11

Sometimes we don’t know how to pray. That can happen when others ask us to pray for them but they feel uncomfortable sharing personal details. Or maybe we’ve lost touch with a person on our prayer list, so we aren’t sure about the best way to intercede on his or her behalf. We can also be confused about our own requests, especially when circumstances are complicated. 

Whenever we’re unsure, we can seek God’s guidance from the prayers recorded in Scripture. Although we often tend to focus on practical concerns involving our circumstances, the Lord’s priority is spiritual health. That’s what we see in Paul’s petition for the Christians at Philippi. He prayed that their love for each other would increasingly overflow and that they’d “keep on growing in knowledge and understanding”; his prayer was also that they would grasp what really mattered in order to “live pure and blameless lives” (Phil. 1:9-10 NLT). 

These are good guidelines for requests because they deal with emotions and judgments, both of which can lead us astray unless guided by godly discernment and wisdom. We all need the Lord’s help in these areas, so let’s not hesitate to ask Him for it

Abide

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)

As recorded in John 14 to 16, many of Christ’s last words to His disciples as He was about to leave them regarded abiding. The word meno occurs 18 times in this discourse and is translated not only “abide” but also “remain,” “dwell,” “continue,” and “be present.” Let us look at what He told them about abiding while He was “yet present” (14:25) with them.

First, “the Father…dwelleth in me” (14:10), “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (v. 11). That is, they are one and the same, inseparably abiding together, giving great power to those believing on Him (v. 12).

Furthermore, the very Spirit of God, the “Comforter,” will “abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive…but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (vv. 16-17). “I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (v. 20).

Abiding in Him, as we see in our text and in verse 7 (as opposed to the tragic end of those who “abide not” [v. 6]), brings forth much fruit, and that fruit shall “remain” (v. 16).

There is one requirement—that we keep His commandments (14:23 and 15:10), and if we do so, we will “continue” and “abide” in His love (15:9-10). “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (v. 11). Not only are we to abide while in this world but throughout eternity. “In my Father’s house are many mansions [same root word, meaning abiding places]….I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (14:2-3). JDM

Tough Questions

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. —Ephesians 5:8

Before a [person] can be filled with the Spirit he must be sure he wants to be…. Let us imagine that we are talking to an inquirer, some eager young Christian, let us say, who has sought us out to learn about the Spirit-filled life.

As gently as possible, considering the pointed nature of the questions, we would probe his soul somewhat as follows: “Are you sure you want to be filled with a Spirit who, though He is like Jesus in His gentleness and love, will nevertheless demand to be Lord of your life? Are you willing to let your personality be taken over by another, even if that other be the Spirit of God Himself?”

If the Spirit takes charge of your life He will expect unquestioning obedience in everything. He will not tolerate in you the self-sins even though they are permitted and excused by most Christians. By the self-sins I mean self-love, self-pity, self-seeking, self-confidence, self-righteousness, self-aggrandizement, self-defense. POM131-132

Self-denial consists in the voluntary renunciation of every thing which is inconsistent with the glory of God and highest good of our fellow men. DTC139

The Devil’s Cleft Foot

You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…. From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways.—Ezekiel 28:12, 15

New Christians often ask: just who is the Devil, and where did he come from? The seventeenth century poet John Donne wrote that there were two things he could not fathom: “Where all the past years are, and who cleft the Devil’s foot.” The origin, existence, and activities of the Devil have always been among man’s most puzzling problems. The books of Isaiah and Ezekiel give us a very clear picture, however, of what someone has called “The Rise and Fall of the Satanic Empire.”

Jesus said one day to His disciples: “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a lightning flash” (Lk 10:18). Before he was known as the Devil, Satan was called Lucifer and was created as a perfect angelic being. The passages before us today show him to have been a beautiful and morally perfect being. “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…. From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways” (Ezk 28:12, 15).

Upright, beautiful, brilliant, and with an enormous capacity for achievement, the angel Lucifer was entrusted by God with the highest of all the offices in the interstellar universe: “You were an anointed guardian cherub … You were on the holy mountain of God” (Ezk 28:14). In his heart, however, arose a rebellious thought: “I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa 14:14). Five times that phrase “I will” is used in this passage. Those two little words—”I will”—reveal what lies behind the awful blight of sin—a created will coming into conflict with the will of the Creator.

Prayer

O Father, now that I see the real issue that lies behind sin—a created will colliding with the will of the Creator—help me constantly to align my will with Your will. In Jesus’ name I ask it. Amen.

Further Study

Pr 3:7; 16:1-18; 26:12

What comes before a fall?

What attitude should we guard against?

Quenching the Spirit

Don’t stifle the Spirit.—1 Thessalonians 5:19

We cannot prevent God from accomplishing His work in the world around us, but we can quench His Spirit in our lives. God has given us the freedom to withstand the Holy Spirit’s activity in our lives. When we ignore, disobey, or reject what the Spirit is telling us, we quench His activity in us. The prophet Isaiah described the result: “Hearing you will hear and not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them” (Isa. 6:9; Matt. 13:14–15).

When you sin, the Holy Spirit will convict you of your need for repentance. If you habitually ignore Him and do not repent, your heart will grow hardened to God’s Word. If the Spirit speaks to you about God’s will for you, and if you refuse to take action, a time will come when the Spirit’s voice will be muted in your life. If you continually reject the Spirit’s promptings, a day will come when you no longer hear a word from God. If you repeatedly stifle God’s word to you so that you are no longer sensitive to His voice, He will not give you a fresh word. Be wary of resisting the voice of the Spirit in your life. You may not always be comfortable with what the Spirit is saying to you, but His words will guide you to abundant life.