After Jesus Christ desperately cried out "My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?" he also confidently said, "Father into
thy hands I commend my spirit." Even after the apparent abandonment by
God, Jesus still trusted in God enough to commit entirely to the
Almighty. This is the ultimate test in faith and Jesus passed it.
I feared that God would fail me today. But He came through at the last moment. "Thank you God. You really did save me today."
Counter every negative thought with a positive one. Let no negative thought survive.
How much of it is in God's hands? I think there's plenty in our hands and we need to do what we have to do and then God will do what only he can do.
Don't make an impression. That's the only impression that you need to make.
Don't despair. God is with you.
Lord, I don't understand. But I will try to appreciate.
Fasting is not staying away from food. Fasting is staying away from yourself.
It's difficult to pray for friends. It's unthinkable to pray for enemies. But just do the difficult thing. It's what Jesus wants.
Pray for those who promise to help you and then disappear.
After many prayers and many apparent rejections by God, say "thank you."
When God embarrasses you say "thank you".
Don't anticipate an action. Be willing to be surprised. Life is best when surprised.
I thought that God would save me from my weakness. But my weakness still remains in me. However God also stays near my weakness. He must loom larger than my weakness. This is my wish.
Try not to quarrel with God. You may have plenty of reasons to do that. But let every wound and doubt be gathered under the umbrella of trust. Trust in God's goodness even when you see the opposite of it. There is much that we will never know, so a lot of trust is going to be involved in an ongoing relationship with God. But even if you quarrel with God he will understand. No one who is truly God's can be snatched away from his hand.
Be grateful for the little. Be absolutely grateful for the paltry little that you have.
God is good. People are not. So it is in God that you must trust. It is God that you must turn to when you need help. And God may help through a human. But it is God who helps and not the human.
It is a blessing to have at least one person who supports a work that seems largely ignored.
If only one person cares enough to support your ministry then thank God for that one person and postpone your lamentations indefinitely.
This is the day that you did not want. This is the trouble that you wished to avoid. But still give thanks to God, whose goodness to you will never fail.
Today I ask God for a grateful heart and a positive memory. I want to remember every good thing that God has done in my life and I want to thank him for it. I want to do this sincerely even as I wait on God to provide my present needs.
We don't have to be perfect to receive a gift from God. God gave us the great gift of life when we were not perfect. God gave us the greatest gift of salvation when we were nowhere near perfect. So let us not try to be good to earn a gift from God. We cannot earn God's gift.
When God sent me his great gifts I never prayed all that much. Sometimes I didn't pray and I still received. Now when I'm greatly in need, why am I trying so hard to pray? There is a place for persistent prayer. But there is also a place for simple, believing prayer. Above all there is a place for grace in the absolute lack of prayer.
To know about the goodness of God is one thing. To believe in the goodness of God is another thing. But to know the goodness of God in the worst of times is the ultimate thing.
The proper response to crisis is not to worry but to trust in God. Give your care to God and trust in Him to work out a solution. And wait for that solution patiently.
If you want to rejoice in anything, rejoice in God's goodness and faithfulness. Your joy will last when it comes from God.
There's not a day in our lives when we can go without the blessing of God. May His grace be richly given to His expectant children today.
For a bitter Marah the remedy is always near. So do not lose heart. For your God is still capable of supplying your needs.
"And the Lord shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory." Keep believing and saying that even as the expected supply is delayed.
This praying and receiving business is not a straightforward one at all. Some requests are certainly granted. But sometimes one prays for years and doesn't get anything. Sometimes one doesn't pray even once and still gets something that one wants. It's crazy.
I want it one way. But God does it another way. Sometimes God doesn't do it at all. I must learn to live with God.
There must be certain things impossible even for God. Not all human beings can be led to the point of accepting God. There are some who will never accept God or bow down to him in this life time. If God has indeed granted free will to humans, he has certainly driven human decisions beyond his own control. This has to be so. God cannot let human beings make their own decisions and still control them effectively. Whatever control God exercises in the human heart takes place only as human beings allow God to influence them. Thus several constraints are placed on God's intervention in human affairs, and as a result this human world seems to be outside the effective control of God.
A man wavers in faith only because he doesn't know God very well. Anyone who knows that God is faithful and able will not waver in his faith. For God to deny a man's prayer as it is lacking in faith is not reflective of the understanding and compassion that we associate with God, who has made the ultimate allowance for human imperfections. God may well not use the quality of faith as a measure to approve or deny a prayer request. He may even grant the secret wish of a person who neither knows nor prays to God, because that may well be the only way God can reach him.
A God who understands the frailty of human beings should make allowances for a frail human faith. Jesus did say that all that is required to move God in one's favour is a little bit of faith. But at other places in the Bible one learns that more than a little faith is required in the most unadulterated form, i.e. without any doubts or wavering. Such faith may indeed be rare among humans, and it may well be unrealistic to demand such a degree of conviction, given the distorted and sinful make-up of the human heart. A God who accepts an imperfect man must also be willing to accept the imperfect faith of that man.
It is easy to simulate faith and unfaith. But it is never easy to live by your convictions especially when they make you look like a fool.
To believe in God one should consider disbelieving in him. To trust in God one should consider distrusting him. Otherwise belief and trust can only be wispy things that cannot stand the test of time and conflict. And belief and trust can never be theoretical constructs. They must be empirical truths in experience. One should dare to believe in God. One should risk trusting in him. And though it will not be easy it is the road to a secure faith.
If God fails to help me this time, it will not change the essential way in which I regard him. What I have learned from him has enhanced me decidedly. From God I have learned to distinguish between black and white. I have seen my original darkness and his intrusive brightness. I long for all the gifts that God will give me and will wait for them even if it takes ages for me to receive them. I cannot turn from my faith in him. If I turn away, to whom will I turn? There is no worthy alternative that I can see.
We learn to love by hating. We grow up hating and despising others. We grow up hating ourselves. But after a while we learn to see the meaninglessness of our own hatred. We see our littleness and our inadequate understanding of the world. We realize our incapacity to fathom the overwhelming complexities in the workings of this world. We learn to value life after spurning it. We learn to save lives after destroying them. Could this be why the Bible progresses from hateful exclusiveness to loving inclusiveness? Even God, who is portrayed by feeble human beings, who can never totally know him, progresses from maniacal wrath to tender love, from severe judgmentalism to scandalous graciousness, from an insistence on xenophobic exclusiveness to universal inclusiveness. Has God himself learned to love just like us? It is more likely that we have learned to love just like him.
Every essential truth regarding God is in the Bible. Without the Bible one cannot even start to understand the heart of God. No one who desires to know God can afford to ignore the biblical declarations concerning God's nature. However to know God experientially one must move beyond the Bible and observe the world. The world is the greatest testament to God's essential nature. The universe speaks a message more eloquent than what men have accomplished in their God-breathed, scriptural presentations of God. To know the incomprehensible breadth of God's artistry and the unfathomable depth of God's love one must observe the world and the life forms that we see around us. How can such beauty exist with such ugliness? How can such morality be found in the overwhelming presence of such depravity? How can such meaningfulness be compressed into a small planet against the daunting background of such immeasurable meaninglessness? This alone should inspire a human to find God.
The God who is portrayed in the Bible may not be likeable. Yet we must love him. We must love him because he first loved us. And he loved us so much that he found a way to spare us from eternal death. And that way is Jesus, whose death spared us from the terrible judgement reserved for sin. We were all sinners before Christ and we are all still sinners after Christ. Our propensity to sin has not diminished despite what Christ achieved on the cross. We are as morally bankrupt as we ever were, and not even Christ has visibly changed the moral fabric of humanity. But there is change at a deeper level. The awareness of human sinfulness is Christ's great gift to human beings. And it is this awareness and the recognition of Christ's atonement for sins that make his disciples stand out in this immoral world, despite their own failings.
Does the Bible do justice to the portrayal of God as love? If it does it does so painfully. The severe, judgemental attitude of God looms large in the background even as he is projected as one whose love endures forever and whose grace scandalizes those who desire his inflexible commitment to condemn every wrongdoer of every wrong. Eventually God disturbingly emerges as one who will forgive the worst criminal as long as he is repentant, while he will not spare the lesser criminal who is not repentant. Also God does finally manage a smile through Jesus, but it is the frowning Father that lingers in memory. Also the Jesus who appears in the Revelation to John is more severe than the man Jesus we see in the gospels.
When God is quiet I too must be quiet.
When trouble comes we appreciate God even more.
It is better to love God than to fear him. But you can never love him till you grow out of your fear of him.
All my life I've been a wretch, still God has helped me. Today I need God's help again. So I'm in no hurry to be a saint.
God is love. But what are we?
Do not fear. God is near. And God will be God.
The preoccupation with sin is the sickness of religion. If only religion is preoccupied with loving and accepting others just as they are!
Loving people is the only way to loving God.
What you do in your bedroom privately is not as important as what you do with people publicly.
Don't worry about your sins. But worry about your lack of love for others.
And the Lord shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory. Believe this. And declare this.
Let's appreciate the people in our life before we lose the opportunity to do so.
We do ourselves a disservice if we encourage our prejudices against others. Disagreeable people may be instructive. Agreeable people may be misleading. Knowledge must be detached from the person who displays it and be acknowledged on its own merits. The tragedy of being disagreeable in the exposition of knowledge is this: the person who speaks is not heard and the listener is not benefited. But to fight this both the speaker and the listener must be willing to accommodate each other.
Is there an age limit for those who give advice? Can young people advise old people? You should not have a problem with taking advice from a person who is younger than you. But some of us have a problem with it. They think that the younger a person is the less he knows. This is a misunderstanding because not all young people are likely to know less. There are some young people who are likely to know more. There are some young people who have insights that even older people are not capable of having. Age should not be a barrier to accepting knowledge. Wherever knowledge is found, wherever wisdom is found, even if it is found in someone younger than we are, let us be brave and open-minded enough to accept advice from younger people.
People are different. This is a fact that we must face. Those who refuse to face this fact refuse to be enlightened, and refuse to pave the way for peace and harmony. People who insist on a certain way of life or force others to follow a way of life are not working toward unity. They are certainly not doing something that will bring the world together. We must accept the world as we find it, as God accepts us just as we are without stipulating the conditions for our eligibility. If God accepts us just as we are, why can’t we do the same? Why can’t we accept people just as they are? Why can’t we tolerate differences if we cannot appreciate them?
It is better to speak the truth which no one applauds than speak the untruth that people wildly applaud.
If what you want to say is important but will marginalize you, then say it and be marginalized.
The proper reaction to anything is "Thank you Lord." Let the first words on my lips every day be "Thank you Lord." Let the last words on lips every day be "Thank you Lord."
I'm glad and grateful that God uses even me.
God, when you work in expected ways, it is beautiful. It is also beautiful when you work in unexpected ways. Let me appreciate the beauty of that as well.
Never give up your hope in God. I’m glad that I didn’t. God saved me. And even today, as I find myself in other problems, I remember what God has done in my life. I will not forget the many blessings that I have received. I will not forget the many benefits of God. And I will say to myself, “The Lord who saved you so many times will save you again.” I say the same thing to you. The Lord will save you. He has saved you before. And he will save you now if you believe in him. Believe in him and wait on him. He will not disappoint you."
God has saved me on many occasions. Today I can say with confidence, “There is a God who cares. There is a God who listens to prayers. There is a God who steps in when you need him to step in. There is a God who arrives on time to save you from dangers.” And my God has saved me many times. My God saved me recently. My God is there for me. Jehovah Shammah: the Lord is there. The Lord is there for me. He is present in my life. He is also present in your life. Just believe that he will come. Just believe that he will save you. Never give up your hope in him.
I’m grateful to God today for what he has done. What he has done is provide for my needs. God made a provision for me. God supplied my needs. The Bible says, “God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory.” This is what happened in my life. God supplied my needs. And because of that I can smile today. I can sigh in relief today because God came just in time to save me. And that’s what he has done for a very long time.
Let's analyse but let's not over-analyse. Let's judge but let's not condemn. Let's read God's word to understand ourselves but let's not read it to denounce others. Let's see a loving God who is willing to forgive all our sins, but let's not see a vengeful God who is waiting to roast us in hell for all our sins.
This is what I want to say. This is what I want to convey to the world. Let us give thanks to God for what we have. We may not have much. Some of us actually have little. But there is one thing we will always have, and that is God. Though some of us feel that we have little, though some of us feel that we don’t have as much as someone else has, let us be thankful for what we have. Today I’m thankful for one working ear, one perfectly working ear. I’m thankful for the many years in which I enjoyed perfect hearing in both ears. I’m thankful for the health that I enjoyed all my life. And I just have this to say to God, “Thank you for giving me life. Thank you for letting me live. Today I will not count what is missing in my life. But I will count my blessings."
Let’s stay with God. His promises endure forever. His words will outlast everything. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Let's put our faith in God, difficult as it is. Sometimes we do realize that it is best to place our faith in God. Sometimes we actually experience the rewards of waiting on God. It may not happen always, but sometimes they do happen. Sometimes I have not understood God very well. I have not understood what he is doing in my life. Sometimes I am not able to appreciate what God is doing in my life. But let me trust God with this. Let me trust his judgment. Let's trust God and his judgment and his way and his plan, no matter how incomprehensible those things may be. Let's trust in God.
We desire one thing and receive another. We want one thing but the opposite arrives. What do we do in that situation? We trust in God even we realize that our trust has not been rewarded. We wait on God even when we realize that He hasn’t shown up. There are certain people who would immediately consider giving up on God. There are certain people who will be quick to leave the path of belief. Will we join such people? Or will we stick with God no matter what? What will we do? Let us who believe in God stay with God no matter what happens, no matter how confusing life becomes, no matter how contradictory our faith experience is. Let's stick with God.
Let's cheer up. Life is not always what we want it to be. Life gets tough. Life gets confusing. Life defies expectations. Life doesn’t go the way we want it to go. But we must be aware of the eternal truth that God is the same. Those who believe in God, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, should be aware of his constant nature. God is constant. He is a constant presence. He is a constant friend. His love is constant. His love endures forever. Our experience doesn’t endure forever. Our feelings don’t endure forever. Our joy doesn’t endure forever. Our love doesn’t endure forever. But God’s love endures forever. God’s mercy lasts forever. This is what we must place our trust in, especially when life moves in a way in which we cannot appreciate or understand.
We are all sinners. And we will remain sinners until we die. What God wants most from us is that we honestly acknowledge our sins and seek Him who alone can save us from our sins. Let us therefore be honest today and confess our sins to God. That alone will please Him more than anything else.
The proper response to forgiveness is repentance. And the only way to repent is to seek God above everything else.
Grace comes out of a terrible humbling.
Our terrible weaknesses make us desperately seek God. How then can they be misplaced in us? Our weaknesses may be our great blessings.
It is good to do unto others what you would want them to do unto you. It is better to do unto others even what they refuse to do unto you. It is best to do good unto others without any expectation of reciprocation because those who are by nature good need no motivation to be good other than the desire to be like God who inspires us to be good.
Trust in Jesus. Give Him your pain. And believe that He will do what is best for you.
There is a God who cares. This I know again. I struggled in life. I cried out to Him for help. And He sent help once more when it mattered most. God has done this many times. He has saved me many times. I should not doubt his faithfulness again. I should trust him with all my problems.
Many of us are focused on our own suffering. If only we would focus on God's suffering, we will find our own suffering inconsequential. God suffered and still suffers on account of us. He suffers because we still do not care to know Him in spite of His ultimate sacrifice and His unbearable pain. Yes, His pain exceeds all our pain put together. Let us know God today. Let us focus on His suffering.
What God does only God knows. We know that God does what we don't know. And that will do.
We all seem to be plagued with the problem of rage, which I believe is an expression of our inward fear and insecurity. We are children of God and heirs to His manifold riches. Why then are we so insecure and threatened in this world? I think we should joyfully consider our positions and gratefully forgive every sin against us. However it is not easy, but it should be less bothersome, as we fail and learn many a time. Paul is indeed right, when he declares that if God be for us no one can be against us. In this assertion lies supreme confidence, and with this confidence comes the grace to forgive the wrongs that people unfailingly commit against us time and again.
A great act of service to God is to do what we said that we would do.
When the water is bitter, do not forget the miracle that happened a few days ago.
I feared that God would fail me today. But He came through at the last moment. "Thank you God. You really did save me today."
Counter every negative thought with a positive one. Let no negative thought survive.
How much of it is in God's hands? I think there's plenty in our hands and we need to do what we have to do and then God will do what only he can do.
Don't make an impression. That's the only impression that you need to make.
Don't despair. God is with you.
Lord, I don't understand. But I will try to appreciate.
Fasting is not staying away from food. Fasting is staying away from yourself.
It's difficult to pray for friends. It's unthinkable to pray for enemies. But just do the difficult thing. It's what Jesus wants.
Pray for those who promise to help you and then disappear.
After many prayers and many apparent rejections by God, say "thank you."
When God embarrasses you say "thank you".
Don't anticipate an action. Be willing to be surprised. Life is best when surprised.
I thought that God would save me from my weakness. But my weakness still remains in me. However God also stays near my weakness. He must loom larger than my weakness. This is my wish.
Try not to quarrel with God. You may have plenty of reasons to do that. But let every wound and doubt be gathered under the umbrella of trust. Trust in God's goodness even when you see the opposite of it. There is much that we will never know, so a lot of trust is going to be involved in an ongoing relationship with God. But even if you quarrel with God he will understand. No one who is truly God's can be snatched away from his hand.
Be grateful for the little. Be absolutely grateful for the paltry little that you have.
God is good. People are not. So it is in God that you must trust. It is God that you must turn to when you need help. And God may help through a human. But it is God who helps and not the human.
It is a blessing to have at least one person who supports a work that seems largely ignored.
If only one person cares enough to support your ministry then thank God for that one person and postpone your lamentations indefinitely.
This is the day that you did not want. This is the trouble that you wished to avoid. But still give thanks to God, whose goodness to you will never fail.
Today I ask God for a grateful heart and a positive memory. I want to remember every good thing that God has done in my life and I want to thank him for it. I want to do this sincerely even as I wait on God to provide my present needs.
We don't have to be perfect to receive a gift from God. God gave us the great gift of life when we were not perfect. God gave us the greatest gift of salvation when we were nowhere near perfect. So let us not try to be good to earn a gift from God. We cannot earn God's gift.
When God sent me his great gifts I never prayed all that much. Sometimes I didn't pray and I still received. Now when I'm greatly in need, why am I trying so hard to pray? There is a place for persistent prayer. But there is also a place for simple, believing prayer. Above all there is a place for grace in the absolute lack of prayer.
To know about the goodness of God is one thing. To believe in the goodness of God is another thing. But to know the goodness of God in the worst of times is the ultimate thing.
The proper response to crisis is not to worry but to trust in God. Give your care to God and trust in Him to work out a solution. And wait for that solution patiently.
If you want to rejoice in anything, rejoice in God's goodness and faithfulness. Your joy will last when it comes from God.
There's not a day in our lives when we can go without the blessing of God. May His grace be richly given to His expectant children today.
For a bitter Marah the remedy is always near. So do not lose heart. For your God is still capable of supplying your needs.
"And the Lord shall supply all my needs according to his riches in glory." Keep believing and saying that even as the expected supply is delayed.
This praying and receiving business is not a straightforward one at all. Some requests are certainly granted. But sometimes one prays for years and doesn't get anything. Sometimes one doesn't pray even once and still gets something that one wants. It's crazy.
I want it one way. But God does it another way. Sometimes God doesn't do it at all. I must learn to live with God.
There must be certain things impossible even for God. Not all human beings can be led to the point of accepting God. There are some who will never accept God or bow down to him in this life time. If God has indeed granted free will to humans, he has certainly driven human decisions beyond his own control. This has to be so. God cannot let human beings make their own decisions and still control them effectively. Whatever control God exercises in the human heart takes place only as human beings allow God to influence them. Thus several constraints are placed on God's intervention in human affairs, and as a result this human world seems to be outside the effective control of God.
A man wavers in faith only because he doesn't know God very well. Anyone who knows that God is faithful and able will not waver in his faith. For God to deny a man's prayer as it is lacking in faith is not reflective of the understanding and compassion that we associate with God, who has made the ultimate allowance for human imperfections. God may well not use the quality of faith as a measure to approve or deny a prayer request. He may even grant the secret wish of a person who neither knows nor prays to God, because that may well be the only way God can reach him.
A God who understands the frailty of human beings should make allowances for a frail human faith. Jesus did say that all that is required to move God in one's favour is a little bit of faith. But at other places in the Bible one learns that more than a little faith is required in the most unadulterated form, i.e. without any doubts or wavering. Such faith may indeed be rare among humans, and it may well be unrealistic to demand such a degree of conviction, given the distorted and sinful make-up of the human heart. A God who accepts an imperfect man must also be willing to accept the imperfect faith of that man.
It is easy to simulate faith and unfaith. But it is never easy to live by your convictions especially when they make you look like a fool.
To believe in God one should consider disbelieving in him. To trust in God one should consider distrusting him. Otherwise belief and trust can only be wispy things that cannot stand the test of time and conflict. And belief and trust can never be theoretical constructs. They must be empirical truths in experience. One should dare to believe in God. One should risk trusting in him. And though it will not be easy it is the road to a secure faith.
If God fails to help me this time, it will not change the essential way in which I regard him. What I have learned from him has enhanced me decidedly. From God I have learned to distinguish between black and white. I have seen my original darkness and his intrusive brightness. I long for all the gifts that God will give me and will wait for them even if it takes ages for me to receive them. I cannot turn from my faith in him. If I turn away, to whom will I turn? There is no worthy alternative that I can see.
We learn to love by hating. We grow up hating and despising others. We grow up hating ourselves. But after a while we learn to see the meaninglessness of our own hatred. We see our littleness and our inadequate understanding of the world. We realize our incapacity to fathom the overwhelming complexities in the workings of this world. We learn to value life after spurning it. We learn to save lives after destroying them. Could this be why the Bible progresses from hateful exclusiveness to loving inclusiveness? Even God, who is portrayed by feeble human beings, who can never totally know him, progresses from maniacal wrath to tender love, from severe judgmentalism to scandalous graciousness, from an insistence on xenophobic exclusiveness to universal inclusiveness. Has God himself learned to love just like us? It is more likely that we have learned to love just like him.
Every essential truth regarding God is in the Bible. Without the Bible one cannot even start to understand the heart of God. No one who desires to know God can afford to ignore the biblical declarations concerning God's nature. However to know God experientially one must move beyond the Bible and observe the world. The world is the greatest testament to God's essential nature. The universe speaks a message more eloquent than what men have accomplished in their God-breathed, scriptural presentations of God. To know the incomprehensible breadth of God's artistry and the unfathomable depth of God's love one must observe the world and the life forms that we see around us. How can such beauty exist with such ugliness? How can such morality be found in the overwhelming presence of such depravity? How can such meaningfulness be compressed into a small planet against the daunting background of such immeasurable meaninglessness? This alone should inspire a human to find God.
The God who is portrayed in the Bible may not be likeable. Yet we must love him. We must love him because he first loved us. And he loved us so much that he found a way to spare us from eternal death. And that way is Jesus, whose death spared us from the terrible judgement reserved for sin. We were all sinners before Christ and we are all still sinners after Christ. Our propensity to sin has not diminished despite what Christ achieved on the cross. We are as morally bankrupt as we ever were, and not even Christ has visibly changed the moral fabric of humanity. But there is change at a deeper level. The awareness of human sinfulness is Christ's great gift to human beings. And it is this awareness and the recognition of Christ's atonement for sins that make his disciples stand out in this immoral world, despite their own failings.
Does the Bible do justice to the portrayal of God as love? If it does it does so painfully. The severe, judgemental attitude of God looms large in the background even as he is projected as one whose love endures forever and whose grace scandalizes those who desire his inflexible commitment to condemn every wrongdoer of every wrong. Eventually God disturbingly emerges as one who will forgive the worst criminal as long as he is repentant, while he will not spare the lesser criminal who is not repentant. Also God does finally manage a smile through Jesus, but it is the frowning Father that lingers in memory. Also the Jesus who appears in the Revelation to John is more severe than the man Jesus we see in the gospels.
When God is quiet I too must be quiet.
When trouble comes we appreciate God even more.
It is better to love God than to fear him. But you can never love him till you grow out of your fear of him.
All my life I've been a wretch, still God has helped me. Today I need God's help again. So I'm in no hurry to be a saint.
God is love. But what are we?
Do not fear. God is near. And God will be God.
The preoccupation with sin is the sickness of religion. If only religion is preoccupied with loving and accepting others just as they are!
Loving people is the only way to loving God.
What you do in your bedroom privately is not as important as what you do with people publicly.
Don't worry about your sins. But worry about your lack of love for others.
And the Lord shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory. Believe this. And declare this.
Let's appreciate the people in our life before we lose the opportunity to do so.
We do ourselves a disservice if we encourage our prejudices against others. Disagreeable people may be instructive. Agreeable people may be misleading. Knowledge must be detached from the person who displays it and be acknowledged on its own merits. The tragedy of being disagreeable in the exposition of knowledge is this: the person who speaks is not heard and the listener is not benefited. But to fight this both the speaker and the listener must be willing to accommodate each other.
Is there an age limit for those who give advice? Can young people advise old people? You should not have a problem with taking advice from a person who is younger than you. But some of us have a problem with it. They think that the younger a person is the less he knows. This is a misunderstanding because not all young people are likely to know less. There are some young people who are likely to know more. There are some young people who have insights that even older people are not capable of having. Age should not be a barrier to accepting knowledge. Wherever knowledge is found, wherever wisdom is found, even if it is found in someone younger than we are, let us be brave and open-minded enough to accept advice from younger people.
People are different. This is a fact that we must face. Those who refuse to face this fact refuse to be enlightened, and refuse to pave the way for peace and harmony. People who insist on a certain way of life or force others to follow a way of life are not working toward unity. They are certainly not doing something that will bring the world together. We must accept the world as we find it, as God accepts us just as we are without stipulating the conditions for our eligibility. If God accepts us just as we are, why can’t we do the same? Why can’t we accept people just as they are? Why can’t we tolerate differences if we cannot appreciate them?
It is better to speak the truth which no one applauds than speak the untruth that people wildly applaud.
If what you want to say is important but will marginalize you, then say it and be marginalized.
The proper reaction to anything is "Thank you Lord." Let the first words on my lips every day be "Thank you Lord." Let the last words on lips every day be "Thank you Lord."
I'm glad and grateful that God uses even me.
God, when you work in expected ways, it is beautiful. It is also beautiful when you work in unexpected ways. Let me appreciate the beauty of that as well.
Never give up your hope in God. I’m glad that I didn’t. God saved me. And even today, as I find myself in other problems, I remember what God has done in my life. I will not forget the many blessings that I have received. I will not forget the many benefits of God. And I will say to myself, “The Lord who saved you so many times will save you again.” I say the same thing to you. The Lord will save you. He has saved you before. And he will save you now if you believe in him. Believe in him and wait on him. He will not disappoint you."
God has saved me on many occasions. Today I can say with confidence, “There is a God who cares. There is a God who listens to prayers. There is a God who steps in when you need him to step in. There is a God who arrives on time to save you from dangers.” And my God has saved me many times. My God saved me recently. My God is there for me. Jehovah Shammah: the Lord is there. The Lord is there for me. He is present in my life. He is also present in your life. Just believe that he will come. Just believe that he will save you. Never give up your hope in him.
I’m grateful to God today for what he has done. What he has done is provide for my needs. God made a provision for me. God supplied my needs. The Bible says, “God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory.” This is what happened in my life. God supplied my needs. And because of that I can smile today. I can sigh in relief today because God came just in time to save me. And that’s what he has done for a very long time.
Let's analyse but let's not over-analyse. Let's judge but let's not condemn. Let's read God's word to understand ourselves but let's not read it to denounce others. Let's see a loving God who is willing to forgive all our sins, but let's not see a vengeful God who is waiting to roast us in hell for all our sins.
This is what I want to say. This is what I want to convey to the world. Let us give thanks to God for what we have. We may not have much. Some of us actually have little. But there is one thing we will always have, and that is God. Though some of us feel that we have little, though some of us feel that we don’t have as much as someone else has, let us be thankful for what we have. Today I’m thankful for one working ear, one perfectly working ear. I’m thankful for the many years in which I enjoyed perfect hearing in both ears. I’m thankful for the health that I enjoyed all my life. And I just have this to say to God, “Thank you for giving me life. Thank you for letting me live. Today I will not count what is missing in my life. But I will count my blessings."
Let’s stay with God. His promises endure forever. His words will outlast everything. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Let's put our faith in God, difficult as it is. Sometimes we do realize that it is best to place our faith in God. Sometimes we actually experience the rewards of waiting on God. It may not happen always, but sometimes they do happen. Sometimes I have not understood God very well. I have not understood what he is doing in my life. Sometimes I am not able to appreciate what God is doing in my life. But let me trust God with this. Let me trust his judgment. Let's trust God and his judgment and his way and his plan, no matter how incomprehensible those things may be. Let's trust in God.
We desire one thing and receive another. We want one thing but the opposite arrives. What do we do in that situation? We trust in God even we realize that our trust has not been rewarded. We wait on God even when we realize that He hasn’t shown up. There are certain people who would immediately consider giving up on God. There are certain people who will be quick to leave the path of belief. Will we join such people? Or will we stick with God no matter what? What will we do? Let us who believe in God stay with God no matter what happens, no matter how confusing life becomes, no matter how contradictory our faith experience is. Let's stick with God.
Let's cheer up. Life is not always what we want it to be. Life gets tough. Life gets confusing. Life defies expectations. Life doesn’t go the way we want it to go. But we must be aware of the eternal truth that God is the same. Those who believe in God, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, should be aware of his constant nature. God is constant. He is a constant presence. He is a constant friend. His love is constant. His love endures forever. Our experience doesn’t endure forever. Our feelings don’t endure forever. Our joy doesn’t endure forever. Our love doesn’t endure forever. But God’s love endures forever. God’s mercy lasts forever. This is what we must place our trust in, especially when life moves in a way in which we cannot appreciate or understand.
We are all sinners. And we will remain sinners until we die. What God wants most from us is that we honestly acknowledge our sins and seek Him who alone can save us from our sins. Let us therefore be honest today and confess our sins to God. That alone will please Him more than anything else.
The proper response to forgiveness is repentance. And the only way to repent is to seek God above everything else.
Grace comes out of a terrible humbling.
Our terrible weaknesses make us desperately seek God. How then can they be misplaced in us? Our weaknesses may be our great blessings.
It is good to do unto others what you would want them to do unto you. It is better to do unto others even what they refuse to do unto you. It is best to do good unto others without any expectation of reciprocation because those who are by nature good need no motivation to be good other than the desire to be like God who inspires us to be good.
Trust in Jesus. Give Him your pain. And believe that He will do what is best for you.
There is a God who cares. This I know again. I struggled in life. I cried out to Him for help. And He sent help once more when it mattered most. God has done this many times. He has saved me many times. I should not doubt his faithfulness again. I should trust him with all my problems.
Many of us are focused on our own suffering. If only we would focus on God's suffering, we will find our own suffering inconsequential. God suffered and still suffers on account of us. He suffers because we still do not care to know Him in spite of His ultimate sacrifice and His unbearable pain. Yes, His pain exceeds all our pain put together. Let us know God today. Let us focus on His suffering.
What God does only God knows. We know that God does what we don't know. And that will do.
We all seem to be plagued with the problem of rage, which I believe is an expression of our inward fear and insecurity. We are children of God and heirs to His manifold riches. Why then are we so insecure and threatened in this world? I think we should joyfully consider our positions and gratefully forgive every sin against us. However it is not easy, but it should be less bothersome, as we fail and learn many a time. Paul is indeed right, when he declares that if God be for us no one can be against us. In this assertion lies supreme confidence, and with this confidence comes the grace to forgive the wrongs that people unfailingly commit against us time and again.
A great act of service to God is to do what we said that we would do.
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