If you are feeling lost today, know that God is looking for you. Searching for the lost is his highest priority.
God will help you now, though you think you don't deserve his help. No one can ever deserve God's help.
It is best to be weak and in need of God. Strength can mislead and distract a person away from God.
Holiness can be a road to arrogance. Weakness can be a road to humility. And humility is what pleases God.
If you worry today, you will have no time to praise God. You need to praise God even when it hurts. This is God's will for you.
Be grateful for a little. And you will have more.
Obedience is from God. Don't try to produce it on your own. God understands your weakness, and will strengthen you in time.
Don't try to manipulate God into blessing you. Don't try to act good. Act normal. And trust in God. He will bless you.
Wait on God. Don't try to solve your problem. Remember that God's solution is way better.
As you are waiting for God's answer, remember every good thing God has done in your life. He will be there for you again.
Are you feeling helpless? Remember that God is the help of helpless. Just ask him to help you. And he will not let you down.
You don't know what to do? Just praise God. Remember his kindness. Keep on doing this, and he will come to your rescue again.
To be confident in God is admirable and desirable. But
even holy confidence can be misleading, and also unappealing to the
neutral observer.
A man's confidence no matter how well-founded is only human. And all things human are fallible.
None of us know who we really are. We can only make guesses. And some guesses are close to the truth.
No matter how hard and unfair life is, believe that there is a God who
cares for you. And he wants to do his best for you. Just believe this
and reach out to him and wait patiently.
Dying is not a solution, if you are struggling in life. If God has given
you another day to live, then live. Don't think of dying as long as you
are living. When death comes naturally, I hope you would have lived
life fully, enjoying the enjoyable parts, and enduring the difficult
ones. Don't give up before that. Don't say, "I can't take this." We all
have to take this with the strength of God.
To make the unremarkable remarkable, to make the unreal
real, to focus on the fragment and not on the whole -- this is the
devil's work, and it is usually irresistible.
There is an endless struggle between right and wrong in
the soul. Often wrong triumphs over right. At least this is the case
until the good matures in you. And the good comes from God, and it will
grow only when God becomes bigger in you. And God becomes bigger only
when you let him speak to you and transform you with his words burning
within you.
Let's not engage in divisive dialogue, but let's speak of those things
that unite us. Let's endeavour to see one another as God sees us. And in
God's eyes, we are all his children. Some of us know that because we
have returned to him, and have received his love and forgiveness. Others
do not know this, and those who know should tell them about our
Heavenly Father, without being divisively and exclusivistically
arrogant.
If you are looking for a God-fearing Christian, you might have to look
for a long time. There are not many who know God. And those who know him
may not fear him. And there are fewer who follow Jesus Christ. Christ
made godliness more difficult than ever before.
Expecting a reward in heaven is not as satisfying as relishing a reward
on earth. Let us savour life right here. Let us do good enjoying the
fruits of it even as we labour. For there is nothing better for a human
being to do.
We should do good more for our sake than for God's sake. There is nothing better to do.
There are more valuable things in life than the size of your triceps. It
is not your muscles that must enlarge. It is your heart.
I've had my share of human praise. And it does get addictive. But these
days I am happy to be in a quiet place, where very few notice me. It is
best to work without being aware of others noticing you. It is best to
work quietly even without reward. For that alone is evidently the work
inspired by God. When God powers you, you go on, even if no man welcomes
you.
Seek the presence of God. Be where God is. Don't aspire to live in the
limelight, basking in human praise. Get up and walk where no one notices
you. Plod and serve like the lowest servant. Work without reward. And
after you finish your work, just lie down in peace, knowing that God
wants nothing more from you.
We are children of God, adopted into his family. We are co-heirs with
Christ. But Christ is God's servant before he is God's Son. He came to
earth to serve humanity. And he showed human beings how to serve. So let
your desire today be to serve. Serve like Christ. Serve everyone. Be
the lowly servant of all. Have a low opinion of yourself. Don't use any
lofty labels before your name. Be content to be known as a servant, a
mere servant of God.
Don't try to get someone to do the work, when you can do it. Even if a
servant is around, don't fail to serve. Serve along with the servants.
Think of yourself as a lowly servant, and serve God, who is always above
all. You will never be anything more than a servant in his eyes, though
he may call you a friend, out of the sheer generosity of his heart.
Don't be eager to receive from the world. The world and its joys are
temporary. Much of what passes for joy in this world is sheer misery. Be
content to lag behind the achievement-oriented. Live every day
gratefully, even if you have to sit somewhere and do nothing worthwhile.
Know that you are strong. And declare it even when you feel weak. God is
your strength. And he is in you. And he will not leave you ever.
If
you have submitted your addiction to God, don't lose heart if it still
has power over you. Let God handle your addiction in his own way and in
his own time. Be aware of your need of God, and depend on him whenever
you are weak. Remember that it is when you are weak and painfully aware
of your weakness that God strengthens you most. Some habits don't
disappear overnight. Some addictions die very
slowly. But if God is working in you, and if you let him grow in
strength, you will find your heart and mind being recast gradually by
the working of his Spirit. All your worldly addictions will one day bow
down to the mastery of God in you. Let God be your king, and your
addictions will finally bend their knees when his power gradually
overwhelms them. It may not happen quickly. But it will happen
eventually. You cannot lose sight of that ever.
Observe the world with an admiring eye and an eager ear. Listen to its
best speakers. Read its best writers. Surround yourself with good
language. And you will come out of this highly influenced by all that
surrounded you.
Wild sexual desires are best managed by God. If an oversexed person lets
God into his life, in time, his sexual attractions will be tamed by
God, if he would only let God do that. We should let God do what he
wants when he wants to do it. But if we hold on to our desires, and long
to experience them, God will just let us do it until we get tired of
them.
God is not in the same league as the devil, when it comes to
attractiveness. The attractions of God are imperceptible to many. On the
contrary, the attractions of the devil are clearly perceptible and
desirable to many. This is why one is more likely to be attracted to
evil than good in a world like this. Mere words won't do. Action is
required. The required action is to reveal God's attractiveness. And God
is best revealed by his people. Let the people of God show what an
attractive life they lead because of God, and then maybe the porn
addicts will pay attention.
If Christ is in you, let him live through you. With Christ, all things are possible. With him you can love what you hate.
See the bad guys as children of God. And love them as such. Then they too will see God in you.
Time flies. So let's make it count before it slips away. Let's do some good. Let's make someone smile today.
God is good to us all, though sometimes we cannot understand or even
accept his goodness. A few times he seems anything but good. But we need
to go on. Blessed are the ones who don't have an earthly father, for
God himself will be their father, and guide them in the homeward way.
Jeremiah was a mere boy when God called him. Samuel was also a child
when God first spoke to him. Age is no barrier to being a servant of
God.
Remember this. Your doubts about you are less important than God's confidence in you. And God says you can.
You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. If God gives
you an opportunity to glorify him, just do it believing that he will be
there right behind you.
Be led by God. And he will help you lead others. Don't be hampered by
what you think you are. But be encouraged by what God knows you are.
It
is traditional and maybe even superficial thinking to conclude that all
who refuse to bow to God will eventually be destroyed. Does God work
like that? Does he have a heart that desires destruction? Does not the
Bible say that God does not want anyone to perish? Yet the same book
enjoins us to believe in the love of God, which saves us graciously from
the destruction that our self-imposed rebellion
brings upon us. In all this formulaic drama that the Bible presents,
there is a possibility of great surprise. Those who bowed down to God in
this lifetime may find themselves the enemies of God in another
lifetime. There is the possibility of Jesus saying, "Go away. I don't
know you" to many who claim to know him now. Conversely, those who
consider themselves unknown to Jesus now, may find themselves in his
embrace in a later time. It is best not to reduce divine happenings to
simple, child-like formulae.
You are free in Jesus Christ. The freedom that Christ offers you is an internal one. And it exists despite external noise.
Reaching the goals that I have set for myself are less important than
reaching the goals that God has set for me. In order to reach godly
goals, I need to stir from my sleep today, and make myself available to
God's workings in me.
When we are children we believe that there is a right answer to every
question. But as we grow older, we realize that there is no right answer
to any question. We realize our inadequacy of knowledge, and even
consider the possibility of many right answers to a question. This leads
us to tolerate differing opinions and ideologies. And the more we
tolerate the better we are able to live with one another.
Don't run away from your desire. Face it and know the emptiness of it. Then you will walk away without turning back.
"He
who has seen me has seen the Father" is the most conclusive statement
of Jesus regarding his divinity. Isaiah called him the Everlasting
Father and the Mighty God centuries before he appeared. St. Paul said
that the fullness of God resides in Jesus. For those who need biblical
support for the deification of Jesus Christ, these citations should
serve the purpose. For me, I know that Jesus is God,
simply by the statement of Thomas, the most prominent doubter among the
characters of the Bible, who required visual confirmation, which was
granted by Jesus himself. When Thomas uttered, "My Lord and my God" he
ended the debate about who Jesus Christ really is. Those who wish to
enquire into the matter further, must travel another route, which may
not lead them anywhere. It is better to believe in Christ, than to
disbelieve in him, and search for another Christ. In the middle of life,
I have decided to cling to my old rugged cross, for nothing else in
this world truly keeps me secure.
God's love is not based on your performance. He loves you no matter you
do. He will love you today, even if you sin. Know his love, receive it,
and be transformed by it. His love will bring you to a perfect harmony
with him.
Let us go where the star leads us. The star led three men to Bethlehem,
to the house where Jesus Christ was. They honoured him as the King of
Israel. Today, let the star lead us to Jesus, the King of our hearts and
minds. And he is even more than that. He is the King of the whole
universe. He is God.
We Christians know that Jesus Christ is more than the son of Joseph and
Mary. He is the Son of God. He is the King of the entire universe. Did
those three wise men know that? They may not have known how great a King
he was. But they certainly knew that he was a king. And they respected
and honoured him as they would respect and honour a king. Those three
wise men honoured Jesus Christ as the King of Israel. But we know
better. Let us honour him as the King of the universe. Let us also
honour him as our King, the King of our hearts and minds. Shall we do
that today? Shall we bear our gifts to the Lord Jesus Christ today?
Jesus surely was the King. But was he just the King of the Israelites?
Was he not the King of the universe? This is something that became clear
only later. Only after Jesus Christ laid down his life for the whole
world, only after he rose from the dead, only after he ascended into
heaven was it clear that Jesus Christ was not just the King of Israel,
but was really God, the King of the entire universe. Let us remember
this moment when three extraordinary men were guided by a wonderful star
to the place of the birth of Jesus Christ. And these men knew that
Jesus was not an ordinary baby. He was not merely the son of a
carpenter. They realized that he was much more than that.
Three
men were guided by a star many years ago. And they were guided to a
place called Bethlehem. They were on a search for a remarkable person.
They believed that the star signalled to them that a very important
person was going to be born. Were they right? They went to Bethlehem and
found a little baby. Was this little baby the King that they thought he
was? Was he the King of Israel? Then, how could
the King of Israel be born to a carpenter? Was the King a poor man’s
son? They certainly thought so. They gave him very precious gifts. They
honoured him. This is a special moment in the life of Jesus Christ.
Three men from the east — three men who were not Jews came to pay him
honour. Three non-Israelites honoured him. Three outsiders knew who he
was. Many insiders didn’t know, though some insiders were told about
Jesus Christ. But I think these wise men knew a little bit more. They
knew that Jesus was a very special King.
