Are you part of something bigger than yourself?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God gave women an instinctive desire to nurture and to men He gave the task of dressing and maintaining the garden. He gave men a hard exterior to be providers and protectors. With that natural gift, it follows that men want to be admired by women. I want to be admired by my wife. I’m blessed when she admires me and says, “You are wonderful,” and she’s blessed when I’m romantic, loving, and tender toward her.

1 Peter 3:7 says, “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with [your wives] according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”

“Honor” here is the same word used in 1:19 for “precious”—referring to the “precious blood of Christ.” Your wife is to be precious to you, given honor akin to your respect for the blood of Christ. 

Notice it says “weaker vessel.” Weaker than you, which means you’re also weak, right? That’s part of the problem in marriage. Two weak people get married. Elton Trueblood said, “A successful marriage is not one where two beautifully matched people find each other and get along happily ever after. Instead, it’s a system where two persons, sinful and contentious, are so caught up in a dream bigger than themselves that they work throughout the years, in spite of repeated disappointments, to make the dream come true.” That’s well said. Two weak persons, together giving their weakness to Jesus Christ.

ACTION POINT:

How can you show your wife a little tender, loving care today? Now that you’ve thought of something, go do it! 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We Wait, He Works

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

Only a few things have gripped me with greater joy than the truth that God loves to show his God-ness by working for me, and that his working for me is always before and under and in any working I do for him.

At first it may sound arrogant of us, and belittling to God, to say that he works for us. But that’s only because of the connotation that I am an employer and God needs a job. That’s not the connotation when the Bible talks about God’s working for us. That’s not at all in Isaiah’s mind when he says, God “works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

The proper connotation of saying God works for me is that I am bankrupt and need a bailout. I am weak and need someone strong. I am endangered and need a protector. I am foolish and need someone wise. I am lost and need a Rescuer.

God works for me means I can’t do the work. I am utterly in need of help.

And this glorifies God not me. The Giver gets the glory. The Powerful One gets the praise.

Listen to the way the Bible talks about God working for you, and be freed from the burden of bearing your own load. Let him do that work.

“No eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).

“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you. . . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:12, 15).

“To your old age . . . I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).

“I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

“Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified” (1 Peter 4:11).

“Work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work” (Philippians 2:12–13).

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

John Piper 

Every woman’s struggle

BIBLE MEDITATION:

. . . even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Peter 3:4b

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Are you a woman struggling with the way you look? Women want to be beautiful, but it’s tempting to think beauty is found at a cosmetics counter, on a dress rack, or in a jewelry box. Those things are corruptible, and what’s in vogue today is out of fashion when next year’s supermodels hit the runway.

If you depend on outward beauty, you’re fighting a losing battle. In spite of all you can do, you have two parents—Mother Nature and Father Time—seeing to it you don’t remain outwardly beautiful. No matter how beautiful you are, every year beauty is fading.

Peter tells you how to be perpetually beautiful—in fact, increasingly beautiful: it’s the adornment of a “meek and quiet spirit.” That doesn’t mean you’re a mousy Wanda Wallflower. The word “quiet” here doesn’t mean silent. It means serene. Inward serenity. When a person is beautiful on the inside, they tend to even be more beautiful on the outside.

Maybe God gave you a naturally vivacious, bubbly, or even fiery temperament. Fine. Don’t try to make yourself something you’re not. A “quiet spirit” means you have a teachable spirit; you’ve got peace on the inside. You’re serene.

The ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit is worth far more than the most expensive jewel you can wear.

ACTION POINT:

Stand in front of the mirror today. Imagine Jesus by your side, and ask Him to create in you a gentle and quiet spirit of love. The only thing that will make you more beautiful, day after day, is what you nurture within yourself—serenity. 

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Free To Love

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

20 To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head."

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. - Romans 12:19-21

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. - Romans 12:9-18

Do not say, "I will repay evil"; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.  - Proverbs 20:22

But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. - Matthew 5:39

For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." - Hebrews 10:30

that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. - 1 Thessalonians 4:6

8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, - 1 Thessalonians 4:8-9

Sovereign God Judges

10 But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. 

11 Thus shall you say to them: "The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens."

12 It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. 

13 When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. 

14 Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. 

15 They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.  - Jeremiah 10:10-15

Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.  - Psalm 31:5

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?  - Psalm 42:2

17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.

18 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.

19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.

20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. - Ecclesiastes 3:17-20

The Happy God

Sound doctrine [is] in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed [that is, happy] God. (1 Timothy 1:10–11)

A great part of God’s glory is his happiness.

It was inconceivable to the apostle Paul that God could be denied infinite joy and still be all-glorious. To be infinitely glorious was to be infinitely happy. He used the phrase, “the glory of the happy God,” because it is a glorious thing for God to be as happy as he is — infinitely happy.

God’s glory consists much in the fact that he is happy beyond our wildest imagination.

This is the gospel: “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.” That’s a quote from the Bible! It is good news that God is gloriously happy.

No one would want to spend eternity with an unhappy God. If God is unhappy, then the goal of the gospel is not a happy goal, and that means it would be no gospel at all.

But, in fact, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God when he says, “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). Jesus lived and died that his joy — God’s joy — might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11; 17:13). Therefore, the gospel is “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.”

The happiness of God is first and foremost a happiness in his Son. Thus when we share in the happiness of God, we share in the very pleasure that the Father has in the Son.

This is why Jesus made the Father known to us. At the end of his great prayer in John 17, he said to his Father, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). He made God known so that God’s pleasure in his Son might be in us and become our pleasure in him.

John Piper

Will you give God time to work?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:3-4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The trying of your faith is going to develop patience in you. The Amplified Bible says, “Let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed in your faith, lacking in nothing.”

When was the last time you asked God to make you perfect? You should have asked for patience as well, because it’s only through patient, abiding faith and trust in the Lord that we become “perfect.”

Most people confuse this word “perfect” with “sinless.” The Greek word for “perfect” in James 1:4 is “teleios”—it refers to “maturing growth.” Not sinless, but fully matured. For example, an oak tree is the “teleios” of an acorn. It is the “perfection” of an acorn, which has now come to maturity.

So when you are discouraged and feeling a little blue, 

Take a look at a mighty oak and see what a nut can do.

We say, “O God, get me out of this test,” when God wants to keep you right in it until you grow more, until you’re more mature, until you're strong. God doesn't want you to live weakly, then die feebly. He wants you to grow and be “teleios”— perfectly mature.

ACTION POINT:

Take a walk this week, enjoying the beauty of God’s creation, and ask Him to give you the patience and faith that can turn a little acorn into a mighty oak.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers