Day One, First Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up…; Even the most devout person can loose sight of the fact that they aren’t the only one in need of an encouraging word. A psychologist friend tells me that when he has a counselee who is discouraged, he often assigns him the task of finding someone else who is discouraged and building that person up. This, he says, does two things. First, it helps his counselee change the negative focus from his problems to finding creative and positive ways to help the other person. Second, it brings the counselee back in touch with what it means to be truly alive—giving of ourselves to help others.
Day Two, Psalm 37:7; While today’s text specifically refers to situations where we get upset because of other people’s conduct, the first part of the verse provides a general principle that is applicable to dealing with the everyday ups and downs of life. The value of learning to relax has been proven by medical research. Our text advises us to practice relaxation, we are to be still. That means to simple sit quietly momentarily emptying our minds of our frustrations, concerns and plans. But this text prescribes that the child of God take relaxing the mind a step further. We are to “be still before the Lord”. In other words, fill your mind with visions of God’s wonderful creation, thoughts about his goodness and blessings. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him.
Day Three, Exodus 33:14 My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest;
We all have dual identities because we are known by many different titles--father, mother, grandfather, business person, pastor, teacher, carpenter, shop worker, husband, wife, friend, acquaintance, the list is endless. This dual identity that we all live with means that at different times of the day we have a different level of consciousness. For example, when a businessman enters his office, his consciousness of his role as a father or deacon recedes into the background as his consciousness of his business and its affairs takes center-stage in his mind. If the telephone rings during a busy day and one of his grandchildren is on the line, for a few minutes his consciousness of being a grandfather emerges as business recedes. Each of us switch from level of consciousness to another many times during the day. But there is one level of consciousness that we need to cultivate and make sure we never allow it to recede so far back in our minds that we are ever without it hovering in the background. That is our consciousness that when we are spiritually attuned, God is with us and is willing to lead and guide us in all our decisions and affairs. When we take the time to raise our spiritual consciousness as we go through our busy day, we find it is less stressful and tiring.
Day Four, Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you; We all face times in our lives when it seems that the waters of trouble are about to overwhelm us and the flames of adversity lick at our very being. Some question why God would allow his children to face troubles and adversities. The difficulties of life come from various sources; sometimes God wants to show us a better way, at other times God lets us taste the consequences of our bad decisions before acting on our behalf, and then there are the times God allows us to face misfortunes because it can strengthen our faith and resolve as our minds work our way through them. Regardless of the source of life’s difficult days, we have this assurance God will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
Day Five, Psalm 44:7,8 You have saved us from our foes…In God we have boasted continually…; How often do we take God’s goodness and actions on our behalf for granted? Have we not often simply considered ourselves lucky when a bad situation turned out right? Aren’t we all guilty at times of patting ourselves on the back when we emerge from some major crisis unscathed? In a sense, we all tend to disconnect our faith from our good fortune. Maybe it would do us all good to take more time to see the hand of God in the coincidences of life and learn to follow the Psalmist lead and boast in God continually.
Day Six, Romans 14:17, 18,For the kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. The word "serves" means we have a part to play, a job to do. Therefore we are to strive (work hard) to live right, not be ruled by our emotions, and be joyous individuals. When we do this, we not only have God’s approval, but people will be drawn to us because we exhibit the character traits that build trust and create goodwill.
Day Seven, Joshua 1:9 Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.; How we should approach life? We should approach it full of faith. When we approach life with a bedrock faith in God, in our God given abilities and in the rightness of what we are attempting to do then we have an inner strength of resolve that gives us courage and overcomes fear and disappointment as we climb our mountains or walk through our valleys.
Monday, January 25, 2010
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