Are You Sharing What You Have?

PRAY OVER THIS

“And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Acts 4:36-37

 

PONDER THIS

In this time, revival had broken out and many people wanted to know what was happening as they poured into the city of Jerusalem. Many of them became Christians and decided to stay to learn more and grow in their faith. They had no home to sleep in. They were not wealthy people but ordinary people. So many of these people had no place to go and nothing to eat. There was a great need for resources to meet immediate needs.

Barnabas had property, and instead of looking for how it could make him the most profit, he said, “I’ve got a piece of land. It’s a valuable piece of land. I can sell it easily to help with the needs around me.” He saw a need and moved in to meet that need. He saw a load and decided to lift it. But you don’t have to have property to lift a load. If we pay attention, there are needs to meet and opportunities to help in many ways. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be in a church full of people looking to lift one another’s load and bear each other’s burdens? That’s what this man Barnabas did. He gave what he had for the benefit of many.

How has someone helped you in a time of need?

Who is in need around you? How can you bear their burdens with them?

PRACTICE THIS

Help someone in need in your community.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Is Following Jesus Hard?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

 

PONDER THIS

What does it mean when Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you?” It is the picture of two oxen pulling together. The yoke is on both, and they are pulling the load. Jesus Christ is saying, “I want you to take My yoke upon you.” It is no longer only you, but it is you and Jesus. Whenever the yoke is on two oxen, one ox is the lead ox; in this case, it’s Jesus. Jesus leads and says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. . . . For my yoke is easy.”

When He says my yoke is easy, it means it fits right. Following Jesus is not something that you have to do; it’s something you get to do. I hear people say it’s hard to be a Christian but that’s a lie. The Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. Jesus said His yoke is easy. That doesn’t mean there’s no work to do.

He also said we’re to take His yoke and learn from Him. God will not force you to take this yoke. You are going to have to make the decision to take the yoke of Jesus Christ. But Jesus invites us to take His yoke.

What is the difference between viewing following Christ as something you have to do versus something you get to do?

What would look like for you to take Jesus’s yoke? What would change in your life? What would stay the same?

PRACTICE THIS

Commit to sharing the yoke of following Christ not as something you have to do but something you get to do with Him. Pray and ask Him to lead and guide you as you do.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Five Rewards for Generosity

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. (Romans 12:13)

What are the rewards if we trust God’s promises, give lavishly, and open our homes to each other and the needy?

The suffering of the saints will be relieved or at least diminished. That is what this verse means when it says, “Contribute to the needs of the saints.” We lift a burden. We relieve stress. We give hope. And that’s a reward!

The glory of God is displayed. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Lavish giving and open homes display the glory and the goodness and the worth of God in your life. The reason God gives us money and homes is so that by the way we use them people can see they are not our God. But God is our God. And our treasure.

More thanksgiving to God is unleashed. “The ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God” (2 Corinthians 9:12). God has given us money and homes not just to make us thankful, but by our generosity and hospitality to make many people thankful to God.

Our love for God and his love in us is confirmed. “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). In other words, when we give generously and open our homes, the love of God is confirmed in our lives. We are real. We are not phony Christians.

Finally, we lay up treasure in heaven. “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail. . . . For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:33–34).

Lavish giving and open homes are close to the center of life in Christ. The reasons we don’t open our moneybags — our checkbooks — and homes as often as we should are rooted in the bondage of fear and greed. The remedy is the pleasure of Christ’s presence and the certainty of Christ’s promise: “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Our reward is the display of God’s glory, the good of others, and the joy of treasuring Christ together forever. Therefore I exhort you, “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

John Piper 

God Regards the Lowly

“The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:27)

You may be going through things right now that are painfully preparing you for some precious service to Jesus and to his people. When a person strikes rock bottom with a sense of nothingness or helplessness, he may find that he has struck the Rock of Ages.

I remember a delicious sentence from Psalm 138:6 that our family read at our breakfast devotions: “Though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly.”

You cannot sink so low in despairing of your own resources that God does not see and care. In fact, he is at the bottom waiting to catch you. As Moses says, “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27).

Yes, he sees you trembling and slipping. He could (and often did) grab you before you hit bottom. But this time he has some new lessons to teach.

The psalmist said in Psalm 119:71, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” He does not say it was easy or fun or pleasant. In retrospect, he simply says, “It was good for me.”

Last week I was reading a book by a Scottish minister named James Stewart. He said, “In love’s service, only the wounded soldiers can serve.” That’s why I believe some of you are being prepared right now for some precious service of love. Because you are being wounded.

Do not think that your wound has come to you apart from God’s gracious design. Remember his word: “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me . . . I wound and I heal” (Deuteronomy 32:39).

May God grant a special grace to you who are groaning under some burden. Look eagerly for the new tenderness of love that God is imparting to you even now.

John Piper 

God Wants Your Burdens

PRAY OVER THIS

“Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.”

Jeremiah 24:7

 

PONDER THIS

I read about a man who had a very fine dog. He’d trained the dog quite well, and the dog loved to play in the water. The dog was out in the lake, and the man wanted to go, so he called the dog, but the dog wouldn’t come. He called him several times. He still wouldn’t come. So, the man said, “I know what I’ll do,” and he got a stick, and threw it out in the water. When the dog saw it, he swam over, got the stick, came back, and laid it at his master’s feet.

It may be that God has given you a burden because He can’t get your attention. It may be that God has given you a burden so that you might come and lay it at your Master’s feet, “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). If you are a broken brother, there’s hope for you; a fallen sister, there’s hope. And if you are a spiritual person, there’s a responsibility for you. If your heart is aching and breaking, there’s a Savior who loves you. Cast your burden upon the Lord. He’ll sustain you when you need it most.

When has a burden brought you back to remembering your need for God?

Who do you need to share this hope with?

PRACTICE THIS

Write down some of the difficulties you have struggled with and describe how God has worked in those situations.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

What are you prepared to give up?

BIBLE MEDITATION

“Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, et us lay aside every weight…”

Hebrews 12:1a

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

If you’re going to run a race, how do you prepare? First, you lay the weights aside. Notice athletes. They run in very light clothing. The less weight, the better. One thing you’ll never see is someone in the Olympics running in an overcoat. It’s not going to happen. They get as light as they possibly can. You have to lay aside every weight.

The Greek word weight doesn’t mean something sinful. It just means something that burdens you…that holds you down. There are some things that are not bad in themselves. There’s nothing wrong with an overcoat. You just don’t wear an overcoat when you’re running a race. Paul said: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Friend, it may be some recreational habit you have. It may be some cottage in the woods. It may be some acquaintance, some hobby, too much television or sleep. Paul is saying, “Some things may be lawful for me, but if it’s not expedient, if it doesn’t speed me on my course, then I need to lay it aside and leave it alone.”

ACTION POINT

Ask yourself, “Is there something in my life that’s hindering my walk with Christ? Something holding me back, excess baggage keeping me from being all I ought to be for the Lord Jesus Christ? Whatever it is, if you want to win the race, lay it aside. Good things become bad things when they keep you from the best things.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Will Give You Rest

BIBLE MEDITATION

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” Matthew 11:28-30 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

I’ve heard it said so many times that it’s hard to be a Christian. Where did you get that? You didn’t get it out of the Word of God. It’s not hard to be a Christian.

Listen, the Bible says that “the way of the transgressor is hard” (Proverbs 13:15), but it’s not hard to be a Christian. I’m having a wonderful time serving the Lord Jesus.

You say, “You mean there’s no suffering?” There’s suffering in this world whether you’re saved or lost. You’re not going to get out unbent, unbloodied, or unbowed. But I want to tell you, there is joy in the Lord Jesus Christ; and Jesus is the One who makes the sufferings of this life worth it all.

ACTION POINT

If you are struggling and straining today to “lead the Christian life,” then something is out of whack. Jesus said, “I will give you rest.” Come to Him right now in humility and lay down the heavy burden.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Wants Your Burdens

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward”... (Job 5:7)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

It starts almost the day we’re born. We come in crying, and from there it just goes on. We have burdens. If you don’t have burdens, you’re probably not a thinking person. But I want to tell you today what to do with your burdens.

David wrote, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).

David was a king. He was wealthy and powerful. What do we learn from this? That burdens come to the high as well as to the low. They come to saints as well as sinners. They come to the old as well as the young. What do we do with our burdens? We have to cast them upon the Lord.

ACTION POINT:

Do you have a broken heart? Has one of your children ripped your heart out? Is there a husband who has forsaken you? A physical malady gnawing away at your body? Is there a problem perplexing you? Cast your burden on the Lord. He will sustain you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are you ready to set those weights down?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us…. Hebrews 12:1

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If you’re going to run a race, how do you prepare yourself? First, you’ve got to lay the weights aside. Athletes run in very light clothing. The less weight, the better. One thing you’ll never see is someone in the Olympics, running in an overcoat. It’s not going to happen. They get as light as they possibly can. You have to lay aside every weight.

The Greek word weight does not mean something that’s sinful. It just means something that burdens you, that holds you down. There are some things that are not bad in themselves. Nothing wrong with an overcoat. You just don’t wear an overcoat when you’re running a race. Paul said: “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Friend, it may be some recreational habit you have. It may be some cottage in the woods. It may be some acquaintance, some hobby, too much television, too much sleep. Paul is saying, “Something may be lawful for me, but if it’s not expedient, if it doesn’t speed me on my course, then I need to leave it alone.”

ACTION POINT:

Ask yourself, “Is there something in my life that’s hindering my walk with Christ? Something holding me back? Something that’s excess baggage? Keeping me from being all I ought to be for the Lord Jesus Christ? Whatever it is, if you want to win the race, lay it aside. Good things become bad things when they keep you from the best things.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers