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The Great Winner

June 7, 2013

Step back for a moment. Way back, so that you’re no longer focusing just on your own life and the lives of those you touch. In the grand historical scheme of things—from the garden where Adam first set us men off on our course of struggle with masculinity, to the distant future long after we’ve fulfilled our legacy of being forgotten—God is working to bring His perfect plan to completion. And we know from the book of Revelation that Christ will be the conqueror on a white horse, heaven will come to earth, and all things will be made right…forever.

God is the great Winner, and so it is only appropriate that we live our lives to magnify His glory, as John Piper reminded us in the last chapter. And it only makes sense that we subject our own limited [ … ]

Our Heavenly Father

June 6, 2013

Children grow up believing that whatever version of love they receive from their parents reveals how God will love them. A demanding father teaches you that God will love you based on what you do. A controlling father will teach you that God’s love is for those who follow the rules and don’t make mistakes. A passive father will leave you convinced God’s love is distant and intangible.

In reality, God’s love is unlike anything we know. It’s not the love we have for french fries or football or even our spouses. Rather, God’s love is perfect love that can only come from a perfect Father. The Bible doesn’t just say God loves—although He does—but it clearly states that God is love.

Excerpted from God Distorted by John Bishop

Daily Reflection: This Father’s Day, how will you [ … ]

By the Grace of God

June 5, 2013

“Grace is active.

And because it is, you and I are able to live productive lives which have eternal significance. Often we think of grace as merely doctrine that explains our salvation, something which occurred in the past. But grace is power in action. Oh, if we could only get this truth into our heads and then into our daily lives, what passion it would bring to our service to Him and for Him!”

Excerpted from Lord, I Need Grace to Make it Today by Kay Arthur

Daily Reflection: How can you passionately serve the Lord in your life today?

Loving Our Kids

June 4, 2013

God is our perfect model for parenting. If we imitate God’s love as detailed in 1 Corinthians 13, we will see our kids. We’ll initiate relationship by entering their world and walking toward the miracle and the mess, even when our kids don’t appreciate it.

At times parenting will require great sacrifice. We’ll have to give up some of our freedom, endure losses, and sometimes grieve, but we must never give up trying to break down barriers that separate our kids from love. What God does for us is what love looks like in action. This is our perfect model for our job as parents. As we grow toward the ideal secure love style, our love will become a clearer picture of God’s. By the time our kids leave home, relating to God will feel a lot like relating [ … ]

Relax in His Grip

June 3, 2013

God cares about the prayers of a pregnant mom. He cares about the prayers of a panic-stricken teen. He cares about the prayers of a king facing a battle. And He cares about the battles you are facing—even, and especially perhaps, the ones that illuminate your weaknesses. He’s strong enough to take care of all your needs if you’ll just stay in His grip.

Simply be still. No wriggling, no wrestling. While you’re resting there, be thankful for your weakness, because it’s the very place His strength will manifest.

Excerpted from Get Lost by Dannah Gresh

Daily Reflection: What can you do to relax in His grip today?

Relentlessly Pursued

June 3, 2013

“Not fully embracing the idea that God really cares about you personally is the spiritual equivalent of running away from home.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, because God does care about you. The Bible
says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7).

And God is adamant that we get this message. That’s why He has given us the Bible, and the book’s plot is actually very simple. In fact, the plot would make a great subtitle: “Loving Father Relentlessly Pursues a Relationship with His Children.”

Your heavenly Father will never desert you, never abuse you, never fail to forgive you, never hold back His grace, and never condition His love on your performance. He’s determined. He is in relentless pursuit of you, and He will not [ … ]

Good Things Come in Small Packages

May 30, 2013

“The truth is, feeling small may not be so bad if in recognizing our smallness we come to realize the wonder of God—a God who is beyond our ability to fully describe or imagine, yet someone we are privileged to know, love, and embrace. Looking up from our tiny estate we are faced with the supremacy of a God who not only is fully capable of running the entire cosmos today—a task that doesn’t tax Him in the slightest—but of sustaining the affairs of our lives as well.”

Excerpted from I Am Not But I Know I Am by Louie Giglio

Daily Reflection: How can you be thankful for all He has created and given you today?

Femininity

May 29, 2013

We’ve come of age in revolutionary times when women are making more decisions than ever before. Unlike our mothers and grandmothers, we’re buying houses on our own, heading up corporations, and working on cures for cancer. We’re fixing dinner, soothing a crying baby, and teleconferencing a board meeting all at the same time. We’re wearing hard hats and work gloves so often that hardware companies are designing tools specifically for women. In many ways, this is a fabulous time to be female. But it’s also a complicated time. In fact, without God’s guidance, it can get downright confusing.
I was reminded of that a few years ago when I read the book Love Has a Price Tag by Elisabeth Elliot. In it, she shared how she once gave her college students the unusual assignment of defining femininity in [ … ]

Dream a Little

May 28, 2013

Sometimes we forget to dream. One of the greatest losses to come from worry and stress is the way it can strip our hearts of the ability to imagine anything better around the corner… Perhaps you’ve stepped away from wondering what you want to do, see, become. Can I just encourage you? As long as you have breath, you can dream. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what you’ve walked through, what might be going on right now. Dreaming of the future can bring new life to the present.

Excerpted from 99 Ways to Fight Worry and Stress by Elsa Kok Colopy

Daily Reflection: Do you have a dream that’s recently fizzled due to worry and stress?

Hearing God in What People Say to You

May 27, 2013

“Hearing clearly often requires waiting patiently.

Another temptation is to wait for God to write all of the answers on our wall one night while we are asleep. Which often keeps us from listening to things being said by the people God uses to say such things. Which is what really happens most of the time.

As often as not, someone else does the talking when God has some new thing for us to hear. It is one of God’s better tricks, if you ask me. This is true whether people are aware of it or not or are willing to admit it or not. Sometimes people hesitate to give God any credit for being able to work through the ordinary of our lives, through the very sentences we hear and say.”

Excerpted from The Echo Within: Finding [ … ]