Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
Read Isaiah 29:13–16
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Read Genesis 50
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:20)
After a lengthy bout with despair, severe depression, and suicide attempts, writer and poet William Cowper (1731–1800) discovered comfort in God’s providence, which led him to write “Shining out of Darkness”:
God moves in a mysterious way,His wonders to perform;He plants his footsteps in the seaAnd rides upon the storm.
Read Galatians 6:1–10
Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.
Read 2 Samuel 1:25–27
How the mighty have fallen in battle! Jonathan lies slain on your heights. I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women. How the mighty have fallen! The weapons of war have perished! (2 Samuel 1:25–27)
Read Genesis 6
The longer we walk with the Lord, the more we realize that we really don’t know what each new day may bring. A phone call can come in the middle of the night shattering our joy. Suddenly everything changes. It’s amazing what a knock at the door can bring or what the opening of a letter can do.
I don’t say these things to conjure up fear in our hearts, but simply to remind us that God alone knows our future. And there’s no safer, no better, no more rewarding place to be than in the nucleus of His will, regardless of where that may be.
Read Romans 7
Some years ago, I was given a book of Puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision. I have worn out one copy and had to purchase another. I recommend this volume to you. Read the following prayer from the Puritan’s pen slowly (preferably aloud).
Read Psalm 40:1–2
God’s Word is filled with examples of those who believed God and “commenced prayer.” David certainly did. “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm” (Psalm 40:1–2).
Read Luke 10:30–37
A commitment to excellence is neither popular nor easy. But it is essential. Excellence in integrity and morality as well as ethics and scholarship. Excellence in physical fitness and spiritual fervour just as much as excellence in relationships and craftsmanship.
This negative mindset leads to incredible feelings of anxiety. Surround most people with enough negatives and I can guarantee the result: fear, resentment, and anger. Negative information plus hostile thinking equals anxiety.
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