You Can Find God's Will

BIBLE MEDITATION

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us" 1 John 5:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

Do you know why our prayers sometimes are not answered? We’re saying, “Not Thy will, but mine be done.” Let me tell you something: prayer is not some exercise where you talk God into doing what He doesn’t want to do. You’ll never do that. Prayer is not bending God’s will to fit your will. Prayer is finding the will of God and getting in on it. Do you know where man got into trouble? In the Garden of Eden when the first Adam said, “Not Thy will, but mine be done.”

ACTION POINT

Thank God for the second Adam, the Lord Jesus, who prayed in another garden, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Ask yourself, “Am I submitted to the will of God? Is there something I’m holding back? Show me, Lord, what I need to surrender.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Fifteen Tactics for Joy

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

In this life of sin and pain, joy is embattled. Just like faith. And Paul says to Timothy, “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). So it is with joy. We must work for it and fight for it. Paul said to the Corinthians, “We work with you for your joy” (2 Corinthians 1:24).

How then shall we fight for joy? Here are 15 pointers.

Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift.

Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly. And don’t be put off by the paradox of these first two pointers!

Resolve to attack all known sin in your life, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Learn the secret of gutsy guilt — how to fight like a justified sinner.

Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see — to see God for who he is.

Meditate on the word of God day and night.

Pray earnestly and continually for open heart-eyes and an inclination for God.

Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.

Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight.

Be patient in the night of God’s seeming absence.

Get the rest, exercise, and proper diet that your body was designed by God to have.

Make a proper use of God’s revelation in nature — take a walk in the woods.

Read great books about God and biographies of great saints.

Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others (your verbal witness and deeds of mercy).

Get a global vision for the cause of Christ, and pour yourself out for the unreached.

John Piper 

Bible Study

For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. - Matthew 7:14

For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.  - Psalm 21:6

8 They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. 

9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light. 

10 Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart!  - Psalm 36:8-10

6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." - John 14:6-7

Release Your Bitterness

BIBLE MEDITATION

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice”

(Ephesians 4:30-31)

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

Bitterness creates a climate for the devil. Did you know the devil is bitter? In Revelation 12:17, you find the devil, pictured as a dragon, pursuing the nation Israel. The devil has bitterness, a vendetta against God’s holy people, and he is pursuing. He’s trying any way he can to hurt them.

I’ve seen some Christians with bitterness in their hearts. I don’t know where they got it. Evidently someone hurt them. But the real problem is, there’s a root of bitterness down in their heart. In this, they’re like the devil.

ACTION POINT

Are you bitter? If so, in that regard, you are like the devil. If you’re not careful, before long you’re going to be full of the devil. Don’t let another day go by without bringing that bitterness to God and asking Him to help you release it.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Day Is at Hand

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. (Romans 13:12)

This is a word of hope to suffering Christians. It’s a word of hope to Christians who hate their own sin and long to be done with sinning. It’s a word of hope to Christians who long for the last enemy Death to be overcome and thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).

How is it a word of hope for all these?

“The night” stands for this age of darkness and all its sin and misery and death. And what does Paul say about it? “The night is far gone.” The age of sin and misery and death is almost spent. The day of righteousness and peace and total joy is dawning.

You might say, “2,000 years seems like a long dawn.” From one standpoint it is. And we cry, How long, O Lord, how long will you let it go on? But the biblical way to think goes beyond this lament of “How long!” It looks at world history differently.

The key difference is that the “day” — the new age of the Messiah — has really dawned in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the end of this fallen age. That is, the end of this fallen age has, as it were, broken in to this world. Jesus defeated sin and pain and death and Satan when he died and rose again. The decisive battle of the ages is over. The kingdom has come. Eternal life has come.

And when dawn happens — as it did in the coming of Jesus — no one should doubt the coming of day. Not even if the dawn draws out 2,000 years. As Peter says in 2 Peter 3:8, “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The dawn has come. The day has arrived. Nothing can stop the rising of the sun to full day.

John Piper 

Bible Study

4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

6 And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. - Revelation 21:4-7

36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him." - Luke 20:36-38

25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

27 For "God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "all things are put in subjection," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.

28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. - 1 Corinthians 15:25-28

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. - Revelation 20:11-15

We Need Revival

BIBLE MEDITATION

“Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” Psalm 85:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

What we need is a sweeping revival. Decline occurs in nine cycles. People go from:

Bondage to spiritual faith

Spiritual faith to courage

Courage to liberty

Liberty to abundance

Abundance to selfishness

Selfishness to complacency

Complacency to apathy

Apathy to dependence

Dependence back again to bondage

ACTION POINT

This cycle is being revealed today in our nation’s current status. But I'm telling you, it’s time some of us took our place and prayed for God to send a mighty revival. Pray for repentance across our nation. Pray for our nation to return to Him. It’s not too late with God!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers