Wisdom Of Life

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."   (Philippians 4:6) =>  When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age, I shall be the same, and even to your graying years I shall bear you! I have done it, and I shall carry you; and I shall bear you, and I shall deliver you” (Isaiah 46:4). =>  When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “not one of us lives for himself and not one of us dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:7–9). =>  When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promises, “He who began a good...

"I shall walk in freedom, for I have sought your precepts." (Psalm 119:45) An essential element of joy is freedom. None of us would be happy if we were not free from what we hate and free for what we love.  And where do we will find the true freedom are? Psalm 119:45 says that, “?I shall walk in freedom, for I have sought your precepts.”   The Word of God frees us from smallness of mind (1 Kings 4:29) and from threatening confinements (Psalm 18:19).  Also Jesus says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The freedom he has in mind is freedom from the slavery of sin (verse 34). Or, to put it positively, it is freedom for holiness.  The promises of God’s grace provide the power that makes the demands of God’s holiness an experience of freedom rather than fear. Peter described the freeing power of God’s promises like this: “Through [his precious and very great promises] you may become partakers of the divine nature, having esca...

"Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." Matthew 7:17–18  I was adopted at birth and was abused in my past, which, needless to say, left me feelings of rejection, betrayal, shame, guilt, and fear. Obviously, I had accumulated baggage over the years, but when I became a Christian, I had no idea I needed to deal with it. I embraced my new life with passion and enthusiasm, choosing to forget those things that were behind me, and pressing forward to those things that were ahead (see Phil. 3:13). I was not trying to deny my past, rather I sincerely believed that because I was in Christ, I was a new creation—the old had gone and the new had come (see 2 Cor. 5:17). What I did not realize was that this scripture spoke of my new spiritual condition, not about the condition of my soul. The damage and weaknesses that were in my soul realm before I became a Christian ling...

"The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men."   (Psalm 33:13) Perhaps no figure of speech represents God in a more gracious light than when he is spoken of as stooping from his throne, and coming down from heaven to attend to the wants and to behold the woes of mankind. We love him, who, when Sodom and Gomorrah were full of iniquity, would not destroy those cities until he had made a personal visitation of them. We cannot help pouring out our heart in affection for our Lord who inclines his ear from the highest glory, and puts it to the lip of the dying sinner, whose failing heart longs after reconciliation. How can we but love him when we know that he numbers the very hairs of our heads, marks our path, and orders our ways? Specially is this great truth brought near to our heart, when we recollect how attentive he is, not merely to the temporal interests of his creatures, but to their spiritual concerns. Though leagues of distance lie between the fi...

"A tree planted by a river derives its strength and nourishment from the river and produces abundant fruit."  (see Jeremiah 17:7-8) So often we tend to overlook the simple truths of life and forget that the profound is usually revealed in the simple, we can act  out what we are not, an apple can only reproduce apples, because that’s what it is at its core, if we have an issue with anger, then no matter how kind and demure we try to act, eventually a challenging situation will arise and we’ll blow! As long as that anger goes unchecked and unhealed in our souls, we will continue to produce the fruit of anger. The same holds true for fear, jealousy, depression, low self-esteem, and so much more. Many of us miss out on the abundant life that Jesus has for us because we haven’t taken an honest look at our spiritual core and recognized that our souls need some work, and forced to examine the fruit of our own life, realized that we lacked any real deep joy and was only happy w...

"Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  James 1:4 NIV Be patient with God and with yourself, one of life’s frustrations is that God’s timetable is rarely the same as ours. We are often in a hurry, but on the contrary God isn’t. You may feel frustrated with the seemingly slow progress you’re making in life.  Remember that God is never in a hurry, but he is always on time. He will use your entire lifetime to prepare you for your role in eternity.  The Bible is filled with examples of how God uses a long process to develop character, especially in leaders. He took 80 years to prepare Moses, including 40 in the wilderness. For 14,600 days Moses kept waiting and wondering, “Is it time yet?” But God kept saying, “Not yet.”  Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. Be patient with the process. James advised, “Don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work ...

He said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32:46–47) The Word of God is not a trifle; it is a matter of life and death. If you treat the Scriptures as a trifle or as empty words, you forfeit life.  Even our physical life depends on God’s Word, because by his Word we were created (Psalm 33:6; Hebrews 11:3) and “He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).  Our spiritual life begins by the Word of God: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth” (James 1:18). “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).  Not only do we begin to live by God’s Word, but we also go on living by God’s Word: “Man ...