The Only Enduring Happiness

You have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:22)

“No one will take your joy from you” because your joy comes from being with Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus means that you will never die; you will never be cut off from him.

So two things have to be true if your joy is never to be taken from you. One is that the source of your joy lasts forever and the other is that you last forever. If either you or the source of your joy is mortal, your joy will be taken from you.

And oh, how many people have settled for just that! Eat, drink, and be merry they say, for tomorrow we die, and that’s that (Luke 12:19). Food doesn’t last forever, and I don’t last forever. So let’s make the most of it while we can. What a tragedy!

If you are tempted to think that way, please consider as seriously as you possibly can that if your joy comes from being with Jesus, “No one will take your joy from you” — not in this life, nor in the life to come.

Not life or death, or angels or principalities, or things present or things to come, or powers or height or depth, or anything else in all creation will be able to take our joy from us in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 8:38–39).

Joy in being with Jesus is an unbroken line from now to eternity. It will not be cut off — not by his death or ours.

John Piper 

Jesus has given you His promise ring…

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. Revelation 19:7

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When I was in college, I took my childhood sweetheart to jewelry stores all over the city, looking for the perfect engagement ring. When we found it, I made payments until I could present it to her. I still remember opening and closing that box time after time as I waited to give it to her one Christmas Eve.

When you and I were saved, we became espoused to Christ, and an espousal is stronger than an engagement. An engagement is a promise to marry, but an espousal is a promise that you belong to this person even though the marriage has not yet been consummated.

Jesus gives us something better than an engagement ring. He gives us the Holy Spirit as His promise that we already belong to Him. The Holy Spirit is His guarantee of our future inheritance in Him.

Christ loves the church and gave Himself for it “that He might sanctify and cleanse it, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle” (Ephesians 5:26-27). As believers, we are to prepare for that blessed day, the marriage of the Lamb.

ACTION POINT:

Read Revelation chapter19, then spend a few moments worshiping and thanking Him. For “He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love” (Song of Solomon 2:4).

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God Will Supply All Your Needs

My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

In Philippians 4:6, Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” And then in Philippians 4:19 (just 13 verses later), he gives the liberating promise of future grace: “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

If we live by faith in this promise of future grace, it will be very hard for anxiety to survive. God’s “riches in glory” are inexhaustible. He really means for us not to worry about our future.

We should follow this pattern that Paul lays out for us. We should battle the unbelief of anxiety with the promises of future grace.

When I am anxious about some risky new venture or meeting, I regularly battle unbelief with one of my most often-used promises, Isaiah 41:10.

The day I left America for three years in Germany my father called me long distance and gave me this promise on the telephone. For three years I must have quoted it to myself five hundred times to get me through periods of tremendous stress. “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.”

I have fought anxiety with this promise so many times that when the motor of my mind is in neutral, the hum of the gears is the sound of Isaiah 41:10.

John Piper 

Jesus warned us about this….

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. Matthew 24:21

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

General Omar Bradley said this about our generation:

• We know more about war than about peace. 

• We know more about killing than about living. 

• This is our 20th Century’s claim to progress – knowledge of science outstrips capacity for control. 

• We have too many men of science, too few men of God. 

• The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. 

• We are a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.

I think he said a mouthful. Jesus said there’s coming a time like never before seen in history – the Great Tribulation. You think of all of the war, all of the famines, heartaches, sickness, the atrocities that had taken place from Adam to Jesus, but Jesus said there's coming a time like none that’s ever been in history. And there will never be a time afterward like it in all of history. That will be a time when all our progresses and advances will come down to one thing – Jesus Christ.

ACTION POINT:

Ask yourself: Where will you be on the day of Tribulation? Where do you want to be?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

7 Reasons Not to Worry, Part 3

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:31–34)

We have seen in the last two days that Matthew 6:25–34 contains at least seven promises designed by Jesus to help us fight the good fight against unbelief and be free from anxiety. Today we look at the final three promises.

Promise #5: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” (Matthew 6:31–32)

Do not think that God is ignorant of your needs. He knows all of them. And he is “your heavenly Father.” He does not look on, indifferently, from a distance. He cares. He will act to supply your need when the time is best.

Promise #6: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

If you will give yourself to his cause in the world, rather than fretting about your private material needs, he will make sure that you have all you need to do his will and give him glory. This is how I understand “All these things will be added to you.” All the food and drink and clothing — and everything else — that you need to do his will and glorify him. Which might mean his purpose is for you to die for him, but he will supply everything you need to do it for his glory.

This is similar to the promise of Romans 8:32, “Will [God] not also with [Christ] graciously give us all things?” Which is followed by, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors” (Romans 8:35–37). Famine and nakedness may come. But we will have everything we need to be more than a conqueror.

Promise #7: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34)

God will see to it that you are not tested in any given day more than you can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). He will work for you, so that “as [your] days, so shall [your] strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25, KJV).

Every day has its appointed trouble. But never more than you can bear by his grace. Every day will have mercies that are new every morning — mercies sufficient for that day’s trouble (Lamentations 3:22–23). He will not expect any good deed from you for which he does not supply all the grace you need (2 Corinthians 9:8).

John Piper 

Is this word in the Bible?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A time of great trouble is coming upon the world. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus called it “great tribulation.” This terrible period will last seven years and comes just before Jesus’s return to earth to reign. It will be a time of tyranny and persecution. All nature will be out of joint, demon spirits will infest the world, and the Anti-Christ will rule.

But before the Tribulation, the Church will be raptured out. What about that word, “rapture”?

Did you know the word “rapture” isn’t in the English translation of the Bible? But the word “caught up” is, and that’s what “rapture” means. Rapio or rapturo are Latin words describing the “catching away” of the Church on earth just before the Tribulation. The Greek word is harpazo (“to snatch or take away”). It’s used other places in the Bible. For example, Luke used it to describe how the Spirit caught up Philip and took him to Caesarea (Acts 8:30). Paul used it to describe being “caught up” into the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2-4).

Paul says we who are alive at the time will be “caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). It’s clear he means actual “catching up” or removing people from earth to Heaven.

ACTION POINT:

Do you look for His coming? Long for His coming? Do your loved ones know what “the rapture” means? Why not ask them what they think this next week and open the door for a candid discussion about the future?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

7 Reasons Not to Worry, Part 2

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:27–30)

Matthew 6:25–34 contains at least seven promises designed by Jesus to help us fight the fight for faith and be free from anxiety. Yesterday we saw Promises 1 and 2; today we look at 3 and 4.

Promise #3: “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matthew 6:27)

This is a promise of sorts — the simple promise of reality that you can discover from experience: Being anxious will simply not do you any good. That’s a promise. This is not the main argument, but sometimes we just have to get tough with ourselves and say, “Soul, this fretting is absolutely useless. It promises nothing. You are not only messing up your own day, but a lot of other people’s as well. Renounce it. Leave it with God. And get on with your work.”

Anxiety accomplishes nothing worthwhile. That’s a promise. Believe it. Act on it.

Promise #4: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28–30)

Compared to the flowers of the field you are a much higher priority for God, because you will live forever, and can thus bring him eternal praise as his loved children.

Nevertheless, God has such an overflow of creative energy and care, he lavishes it on flowers that last only a matter of days. So he will certainly take that same energy and creative skill and use it to care for his children who will live forever. The question is: Will we believe this promise, and put away anxiety?

John Piper