Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
As difficult as it may be for you to believe this today, the Master knows what He’s doing. Your Saviour knows your breaking point. The bruising and crushing and melting process is designed to reshape you, not ruin you. Your value is increasing the longer He lingers over you.
Take one of those many things that keeps dragging you under and search for a creative way to solve the problem. And don’t quit until it’s done...and that smile of relief returns to your face.
It takes guts to innovate, because it requires creative thinking. Thinking is hard enough, but creative thinking—ah, that’s work!
I have tried and I cannot find, either in Scripture or history, a strong-willed individual whom God used greatly until He allowed him to be hurt deeply.
With a well-worn leather sling and a smooth stone, and unbending confidence in his mighty God, David introduced Goliath and all the Philistine hordes to the Lord of hosts, whose name they had blasphemed long enough.
Some 10 miles away, a handsome, muscular teenager—the runt in a family of eight boys—was sent on an errand by his father. That innocent errand proved to be an epochal event in Jewish history.
Enough about me—you’ve got the next season stretching out in front of you. Think of these weeks as a time framework for your own investment. Choose an objective carefully, state it clearly in writing, then, with the persistence of an athlete training for the next Olympiad, go for the goal!
The One who began will continue right up to the end. Being the original finisher, He will persist. I’m comforted to know He won’t be talked out of a plan that has to do with developing me. I need help! Don’t you?
Read Proverbs 29:7
Before closing off our study of intolerance, two more sayings are worth our attention:
The generous man will be prosperous,And he who waters will himself be watered. (Proverbs 11:25)
The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor,The wicked does not understand such concern. (Proverbs 29:7)
Read Proverbs 30:11–14
This is an excellent time to bring out into the open even the slightest intolerance lurking in your life and place it before the Lord. The book of Proverbs offers a compelling reason to do so by painting a picture of someone we do not want to become.
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