How Spiritually Healthy Are You?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97

 

PONDER THIS

My wife gives me brewer's yeast every morning for the vitamins in it. And then on top of that, bee pollen. Then a fist full of vitamins and then two-percent milk. At first, these habits were foreign, and I did not have a taste for them, but over time my appetite has changed and I've learned to like it.

If you get on a regimen of eating right, it’ll change you. And if you get on a regimen of getting into the Word of God and feeding your soul, the change may not be immediate and dramatic, but it will change you for eternity. We need to have quality quiet time.

This is how I prepare my heart for the presence of God. First, take a deep breath. Focus your thoughts on the Lord, then look up and lift your hands to Him. When you lift your hands in praise say, “Lord, I praise You and only You.” Then, lift your hands again and say, “Lord, I surrender! I am under Your control.” And then lift your hands a third time and say, “Lord, I receive,” as you’re expecting to receive something. Over time, I hope this will tune your heart to think about the presence of God.

Do you spend dedicated time in the Word regularly? Why or why not?

How can you include time with the Lord as a part of your everyday life?

PRACTICE THIS

If you don’t already have this, add time with the Lord in the Word as a part of your rhythm this week.

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

Psalm 119:113

Samekh

    [113] I hate the double-minded,

        but I love your law.

Psalm 119:163

    [163] I hate and abhor falsehood,

        but I love your law.

Psalm 119:165

    [165] Great peace have those who love your law;

        nothing can make them stumble.

Psalm 1:2

    [2] but his delight is in the law of the LORD,

        and on his law he meditates day and night.

How Do You Show Jesus to Others?

PRAY OVER THIS

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

 

PONDER THIS

I asked someone recently, “What caused you to come to our church?” He said, “You won’t believe this, but I was working on a house across the street from yours, and I saw you out in the yard. I heard you talking to a man who was doing yard work for you, and I listened to the way you talked to that man. And the Spirit of God spoke to me listening to you talk to a man doing yard work for you, and God brought me under conviction. That’s how I got saved and started coming to this church.” Now, I had no idea there was a man listening to me talking to that person working in my yard. I don’t remember anything about that. But what is that? That is simply the life of Jesus being manifested in me.

God’s life needs to be manifested in your life, as He inhabits your humanity, and He expresses His deity and His glory.

I must be filled with the Holy Spirit. Not only must the Holy Spirit of God be in me as resident, but He needs to be in me as president. I need to yield my human spirit—my body, my mind, my will—to the Holy Spirit so He can express the life of God through me.

Who in your life lives in a way that shows Jesus to others?

What evidence does your life give of the work of God in you?

PRACTICE THIS

Serve someone in a Christ-like way today.

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

Romans 6:6-7

[6] We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. [7] For one who has died has been set free from sin.

John 17:23-24

[23] I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. [24] Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Romans 8:37-39

[37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Galatians 1:4

[4] who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

Purposed to Be Like Jesus

PRAY OVER THIS

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30

 

PONDER THIS

God has a Son He loves so much. He said, “I’m going to make a lot more like Him. I’m going to make a family in His image, and I have determined they’re going to be like Jesus.” This is the purpose of every Christ follower. When you are saved, your life changes. Now you have a new purpose: to be like Jesus.

And Paul spoke of these things in the past tense. Verse 30 says, “Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Now wait a minute. I thought you said the glory that will be revealed. Yes, but God says, “It’s as good as done. In my mind, in my heart, I don’t speak of it as something that’s going to happen. It is done. It is finished.” God has predestined it. And what has been decreed in Heaven cannot be annulled by Hell: it is done.

God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, to be your sin-bearer, and Jesus has taken your sin to the cross. He’s your substitute. Your sin debt has been paid by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. When you believe this, your life is changed, and you have a new purpose: to be more like Him and to lead others to do the same.

Where has your life started to look more like Jesus as you’ve followed Him?

What are some things that make it challenging to become more like Jesus?

PRACTICE THIS

Encourage another believer in the ways you have seen him or her look more like Jesus.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers