The Battle Between Faith and Worry

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Phil.4:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Do you ever worry? Don’t look around and point your finger at someone else. Do you ever worry—even the least little bit? And yet the Bible so clearly tells us not to worry about anything but to pray about everything.

There are really only two classes of things for which we ought not to worry: those things we cannot do anything about and the things we can do something about. The best thing you can say about worry is that it is useless. The worst thing you can say about it is that it dishonors God.

ACTION POINT:
Worry is the opposite of faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”


LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

What Do You Make Time For?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.” Acts 22:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What is more important in your life today? Seeing your daytime soap opera or asking an unsaved neighbor over for a chance to love them to Jesus? Joining your buddies for a round of golf, or visiting your unsaved father? Going shopping with your friends, or taking the time to read the Bible to a lost person in a nursing home? Someone wisely observed, “We managed to make time during the day for what’s really important to us.”

Friend, the time is running out. We will not be witnessing in heaven. This is our earthly duty and privilege now. None of us knows how many hours we have left. We must seize the golden opportunities that God gives us daily to witness.

ACTION POINT:

A line from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” is our challenge: “Oh, be swift, my soul to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Why Is a Question We Cannot Answer—Yet

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.” Isaiah 50:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

We can endure almost anything if we know why it is happening. Wouldn’t you agree? But we don’t always get the luxury of knowing why things happen.

You can’t be a pastor as long as I have without having heartbroken questions asked of you. “Why did my baby die?” “Why did I lose my business?” “Why am I so sick?”

Job felt this way. He said, “I deserve an answer why this is happening to me! The bottom has fallen out of my life. And I don’t know why.”

ACTION POINT:

Have you ever been plunged into darkness? Don’t get the idea that if you’re right with God, you’ll have all the answers. Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Reconciliation Leads to Revival!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Do you know what God wants from you today? Reconciliation. That’s far more important than singing in the choir, preaching a sermon, serving in the nursery, or giving an offering. When we learn this, God is going to bring great revival to our churches.

Revival always begins when people begin to confess their faults to one another, pray for one another, and forgive one another. Revival isn’t raising the roof with a lot of emotion. It is getting the walls down. It is not just saying, “I am going to get right with God.” It is saying, “I want to get right with my brothers and sisters.” 

ACTION POINT:

When we are reconciled, revival will come. And rejoicing will surely follow. And not any kind of rejoicing, there will be Holy Spirit joy when you know there is nothing between your soul and the Savior and nothing between your soul and a brother! Joy unspeakable!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Wholehearted or Halfhearted?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“The light of the body is the eye: Therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.” Luke 11:34

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Joshua chapter fourteen tells us something very interesting about a man named Caleb. Three times the Holy Spirit says Caleb “wholly followed the Lord God” (vv. 8, 9, 14). Every ounce of Caleb was given to the Lord.

This is the kind of heart you and I should have if we call ourselves Christians. The devil is going to intimidate a fainthearted man. And there’s only one way to stand against the devil. That is to give everything to Jesus Christ. Indeed, God does not accept half-hearted religion. 

It would be better for you to say that there is no God than for you to say that He doesn’t mean that much to you, He doesn’t make a difference in your life, He doesn’t stir your heart to love Him.

ACTION POINT:

God is looking for wholeheartedness. “With my whole heart I have sought Thee.” (Psalm 119:10) Can you say this to the Lord today?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Redeem the Time!

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Procrastination. Just seeing the word makes me want to put off saying anything else. Are you under conviction in that area? One fellow said, “I started to procrastinate, then decided to put it off.”

Procrastination is a form of disobedience. When God tells us to do something and we don’t do it, we can label our actions with all kinds of fancy words, but the bottom line is, it’s sin. The days are passing and time cannot be stopped. You can’t call a “time out” in life. And time can’t be stored like money in the bank. Really, the only thing you can do with time is use it or lose it.

ACTION POINT:
Someone has said, “Lost: One golden hour, studded with sixty diamond minutes. No reward offered, for it is lost forever." Redeem the time.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Weight of the World on Your Shoulders

Hear the words of the Lord!!!

Sovereign God:

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  - Isaiah 41:10

For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I am the one who helps you."  - Isaiah 41:13

Is it just in our genetic makeup to think we are in control?

Are we so deceived by sin that we fool ourselves into this belief ?

God did indeed give us the ability to think and make decisions but does that mean we are in control?

We have indeed been given free will and are accountable for all that goes along with it, good and bad!!

God's design for man was for him to be in an intimate relationship with Him. 

We make decisions as we humbly seek counsel from His word and are mindful of the ramifications of our actions. 

Worry:

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? - Matthew 6:27

Wisdom:

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.  - Psalm 90:12

God alone sustains man:

13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-

14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. - James 4:13-17