“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has he said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

— Numbers 23:19

Think of a time when someone broke a promise he or she made to you. How did you feel? How did that broken promise affect your relationship?

We live in a world of broken promises. Our courts are clogged with lawsuits because of them. But our Father in Heaven makes thousands of promises in His Word (How many? Approximately eight thousand.), and He keeps each one. When God promises something, we can count on the fact that He will come through for us.

The most important promise God has made is His promise to save us from our sins. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” says the promise. And faith responds: “Lord, I believe in you. I believe that that promise is true.” God changes your life and stamps your passport to Paradise simply because you believe His promise.

When we claim God’s promises, we experience tremendous blessings. A delightful member of our church, who has now gone home to the Lord, witnessed to prison inmates six days a week for more than forty years. This man was quite enthusiastic about the promises of God. He would have the prisoners memorize 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He called this promise “the Christian’s bar of soap,” and he encouraged his inmate friends to bank their lives on it.

But while God yearns to fulfill His promises to us, we often fail to claim them. Think of the blessings you’ve received in your lifetime. Did you not receive those blessings because you claimed certain promises God made to you? In the same way, we miss certain blessings because we never claim God’s promises. God is prepared to fulfill His promises. He has written and signed checks from His account in the Bank of Heaven—He is ready to bless us—but those checks lay on a shelf in a closed Bible, unclaimed, uncashed.

God wants to bless your life. Are you ready to claim His promises?

“What God has promised, you can take to the bank.”
Anonymous

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

— Philippians 4:8

Philippians 4:8 is probably the original proclamation of positive thinking. In this passage lies the secret of a happy life, a positive attitude, a winsome personality, advancement in life, and acceptance by others. Certainly we all desire these things. As we fill our minds and hearts with the true, the noble, the just, the pure, the lovely, and the good, then God will lift us up and grant us peace.

What do you spend time thinking about? Do you meditate on virtuous things?

Keeping our minds and hearts trained on the praiseworthy is difficult. Because of their separation from God, many media producers create material that is the opposite of all these wonderful things. They show us the false, the ignoble, the unjust, the ungodly, the unkind, the crass, and the ghastly. All of this pours out of television sets, movie screens, novels, and magazines of modern times.

Television and movie producers defend their creations by saying, “We’re only reflecting reality.” Well, I want to say back to them, “Yes, but life is more than the gutter, the toilet, and the brothel.” We can’t deny the reality of the gutter. But roses are just as real and much more worthy of our devoted attention.

Today and every day, set your thoughts on things above. Surround yourself with everything praiseworthy. Drink in the true, noble, pure, and lovely, and allow God to grant you His peace as you do so, for He is the source of it all.

“Where there is beauty, there is the Spirit of God.”
R. C. Sproul

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

— Philippians 4:13

We all have tapes playing in our minds, the tapes of parents, teachers, coaches, and others telling us how inadequate we are. You probably have a phrase or two that come to mind—comments someone once made to you, comments devastating and character-forming all at the same time. You could quote them verbatim, right?

“You’re a dunce!” That’s what she said. “You’re a dunce, and I am going to fail you.” And the teacher failed Einstein in mathematics.

“I’m sorry; we don’t want you in our choir. You can’t sing, so don’t come back.” But Jerome Hines became the greatest basso profundo the Metropolitan Opera has ever known.

Many of us have horrible self-images because we believe lies rather than the truth of God. Often we’ve heard from parents or misguided authorities that we have no worth, and we buy it. We believe the lies of our past. Even our own failures mock us: “You can’t do it. Don’t you remember? You tried before, and you blew it. You even tried twice, three times, and you failed. You can’t do it.”

But those are lies. As the old maxim puts it, “God don’t make no junk.” Inspirational speaker and writer Zig Ziglar reminds us that we should learn from what he calls the “successful failures.” Walt Disney went broke seven times before he succeeded. Thomas Edison made fourteen thousand experiments that failed before he developed the incandescent light. Babe Ruth recorded the most strikeouts in the history of baseball, yet he became one of the greatest hitters of all time. Nobody remembers these men’s failures, but everybody remembers their successes. Ziglar says that a big shot is just a little shot that kept on shooting—when people or past experiences told that person that he or she couldn’t hit the mark, that person kept on shooting.

“I can do all things through Christ.” Who made that claim? Paul the Apostle—with his thorn in the flesh and his weak eyes, who was “contemptuous in his speech” and “contemptible in his talk.” The same Paul who turned the world upside down for Christ.

When you have doubts about your abilities to accomplish something, ask God to tell you the truth about who you are, about Whose you are. Then invite Him to do a great work in you and through you. Make this your motto: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

“What a man accomplishes depends on what he believes.”
Bankers Bulletin

“. . . for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica . . .”

— 2 Timothy 4:10

Do you have the courage and stamina to fight the good fight to the end? When faced with seemingly overwhelming obstacles, will you give up, or will you stand firm?

Mark and Demas, colleagues of the apostle Paul, clearly illustrate the startling contrast between faithful and faithless soldiers in God’s army. In the beginning, Demas seemed a better soldier for Christ than Mark. Demas had served as Paul’s right-hand man, traveling with him on all four missionary journeys and experiencing shipwrecks, trials, and beatings. Mark, on the other hand, had “chickened out” on Paul’s first trip. Mark had quit and gone home, and when Mark felt ready to serve again, Paul refused to let Mark travel with him.

But years later, in his prison cell awaiting death, Paul realized which man was the real soldier for Christ. Demas had now forsaken him, “having loved this present world,” and Paul eagerly awaited Mark’s arrival. By this time, Mark had matured, having had Barnabas as a mentor, and Paul considered him “profitable” in the ministry. In fact, Mark authored the gospel of Mark.

This story of Mark reminds me of three young men who joined the British army and became lieutenants. When World War I broke out, one of the young lieutenants, who was rich and spoiled, panicked at the thought of fighting and managed to get a discharge. The others sent him two white feathers, signifying that they viewed him as a coward. When his fiancée discovered that he had quit, she broke their engagement and gave him a white feather from her hat.

Ashamed, this young man enlisted as a private under an assumed name. He fought on the front lines, and there he rescued both of his buddies. Afterward, he returned their feathers to them. When wounded, this young man found his fiancée, who had become an army nurse, and returned her feather, too. At that point, she knew her quitter had tried again; her coward had become a hero.

When the struggles come, will you be a hero? Commit today to enter the discipline of a soldier, preparing yourself by God’s power to endure and win any battles you may face.

“Finish what you start.”
Anonymous

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.”

— Proverbs 3:7–8

When did you last hear a health news update about another food to avoid or another theory on exercise? We live in such a health-conscious society, and we seem to constantly hear ways to promote our health through proper diet, exercise, and annual checkups. No doubt these precautions are of value. But underlying our physical health is our spiritual health. In reality, God controls every germ, every virus, and every bacterium. He’s ultimately in control of our health, just as He controls life and death.

If you would have “health to your flesh, and strength to your bones,” then fear the Lord and depart from evil. If we want true health, we need to pursue good. We need to reject the idea that we can find happiness or fulfillment by compromising with the world and engaging in sinful amusements. After all, many sinful and evil practices, such as substance abuse and promiscuity, result in bad health. Instead, we need to find our joy by following God.

As long as we live in this fallen world, we’ll experience sickness and sorrow. Many godly people live with pain every minute of their lives, and good health is no measure of spirituality. Only in Heaven will we be totally free from sickness and pain. And yet, generally speaking, we’ll gain life and health if we follow God’s ways. Recent studies have shown the link between being spiritually committed and having good health. One recent article documented the link between mental and physical health and being a committed Christian; it was appropriately entitled “For good health, go to church.”

How can you walk in God’s ways today to gain “health to your flesh, and strength to your bones”?

“God helps the sick in two ways, through the science of medicine
and surgery and through the science of faith and prayer.”
Norman Vincent Peale

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

— Proverbs 3:5-6

You’re at the beginning of a new year. What plans do you have for yourself in the year to come? And how do you choose your goals for each new year?

As we stand at the beginning of another year, Proverbs 3:5-6 offers us direction and guidance. You and I desperately need God’s direction in our lives. How do we receive it? By trusting in the Lord with all of our hearts and not leaning on our own understanding. God doesn’t ask us to stop using our brains, but He does want us to avoid relying on our own self-confidence, despite the world’s affirmation of that trait. Often what the world affirms, the Lord abhors. God wants us to rely on Him and Him alone. So as you choose goals for the year, trust God to guide you. Don’t use your own reasoning to back up your plans; ask God to guide you, then listen for His answer.

The Proverbs passage promises us that if we acknowledge God, He’ll direct our paths. So how do we acknowledge God? We acknowledge our Lord by seeing Him in every aspect of our lives, by having a vision of Him and His providential workings in and through us. We acknowledge Him by seeking Him first in all we do and by obeying His commandments. What has God done in your life recently? And how can you remain obedient to His call on your life?

As we acknowledge God’s rightful place in our lives, He’ll direct us along the pathways of our lives. He does this in three main ways. First, God directs us through His Word. As long as we follow Scripture, we can be certain we’re traveling the right path. Second, God directs us through circumstances in our lives. Sometimes He guides us by opening doors, sometimes by closing them. Sometimes He makes our paths smooth; sometimes He allows us to fall flat on our faces. Sometimes He removes obstacles; sometimes He throws them in our way. Third, God guides us through His Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit’s “still small voice” pulls us back from a venture we’ve planned, and only much later we discover that He has spared us from disaster.

Although we may not always see God’s hand immediately, He does guide us when we trust Him. Often we only see His guidance in retrospect. But we can rely on His promise to provide direction if we trust Him in every aspect of our lives—in our home lives, at work, at school, as we drive our car, as we eat our meals, as we conduct business. As you ponder your goals for the year, invite God to guide you. As you acknowledge Him, He’ll direct you down the right path for your life.

“Jesus, Savior, pilot me, over life’s tempestuous sea.”
Edward Hopper

“. . . one thing I do . . .”

— Philippians 3:13

Have you ever watched interviews of athletes who have won come-from-behind victories? What do these people almost invariably credit for their ability to win games? Focus. Concentration. Fixing their eyes on the goal, then playing their best to achieve it.

As Christians, we, too, need to focus our attention on our goal—to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The apostle Paul knew his goal. He pressed toward the mark, keeping “one thing” in mind, just as Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem. Paul was not distracted by past failures. Instead, he persistently reached forward, toward things ahead. He wanted to share the Gospel with as many Gentiles as he could. Though beaten, imprisoned, and shipwrecked, he never gave up; he pressed on with the “one thing” he had to do.

Think of the impact we could make if we imitated Paul just as he imitated Christ.

Unfortunately, we often lack this kind of concentration. We begin something but get sidetracked and go on to something else. Then something new further distracts us, and off we go in that direction. In this way we hop from one distraction to another.

Does this sound familiar?

For those of us who feel this scenario hits a little too close to home, I believe we need to pursue the same thing pursued by athletes, the apostle Paul, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: self-discipline. How? By engaging in three actions that will contribute to our success. First, we need to carefully select definite and clear-cut goals, both long-range and shortrange, that lead to our ultimate goal—to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We must choose these goals with the intention of glorifying God and advancing His kingdom. Second, we need to stay focused. We must maintain a burning desire to reach our goals. If something distracts us, we need to return our focus to our ultimate goal. And third, we need to create workable plans. We cannot reach a goal without charting a course to meet it. I agree with the maxim “People do not plan to fail; they just fail to plan.”

Today take some time to evaluate your ability to maintain your focus. If you think you’ve fallen short, read through the three actions that lead to self-discipline, and prayerfully commit to one way you can cultivate focus in your life. Then put it into action, and wait for God to show you the results of focusing on that “one thing” in your life.

“Plan your work, and work your plan.”
Unknown

“The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years . . . it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

— Psalm 90:10

Each morning we receive one brand-new, shiny, golden day, set with twenty-four jeweled hours. Every one of us receives precisely the same amount of time each day. Today some of us will use our twenty-four hours to God’s glory and the betterment of humankind, others will waste them, and still others will use them for evil. Each of us has the same amount, and what we do with this day will have eternal consequences.

How will you invest this day?

Time is an irreplaceable asset. Once it’s gone, we can never get it back. Scripture tells us that one day time will cease and eternity will begin. When that happens, we will have to account for how we spent the time God gave us. So we must choose wisely the ways we invest it.

When we speak of investing, we usually speak of investing money. People invest money because they realize that they must prepare for their future, for later years in this life. As believers in God, we must realize that we have an eternal future to prepare for and that we need to invest our time wisely that we might have dividends, not only in this life, but forever.

So what are wise investments of our time? We invest our time wisely when we concern ourselves with the things that concern God—when our hearts break with the sorrows that break God’s heart. And what breaks God’s heart more than lost people? Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He gave His life looking for us. He died to redeem us. This was His joy. Christ finished the work God gave Him, and He sends us into the world to do the same.

So today, invest yourself in people as much as possible. As you invest your time in people and the great work of Christ’s kingdom, you invest in eternity.

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked with a
mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are
mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is
immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and
exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”
C. S. Lewis

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me . . .”

— Psalm 23:6

Do you have bright hopes and ambitious plans for the year ahead? I think we should purpose to make this year a great one for God’s glory. But how can we do that? We lay our plans and make our resolutions, and yet, sometimes what we deemed the year of great prospects turns out to be a year of disaster. One recent study found that seventy percent of people couldn’t keep their new year resolutions even through the month of January, much less the whole year.

So how can you and I make this new year great? Let me offer a prescription of five elements that can contribute to an excellent year . . . even to a successful life. You can find these elements in Proverbs 3:1-10, wherein God promises that if we obey His commands, we will experience “long life and peace.” As you read through the passage, you’ll find these themes:

1. Keep God’s commands for a long and happy life.
2. Live by mercy and truth for popularity and a good reputation.
3. Trust in and acknowledge the Lord for direction and guidance.
4. Fear the Lord, and forsake evil for good health.
5. Honor and give to the Lord your possessions for financial well-being.

Generally speaking, if you follow each command, you’ll receive each corresponding reward. But keep in mind that these are general principles, not guarantees. Many people who live good and godly lives do not experience all five consequences.

Neither are these “five easy steps” to Paradise. We don’t achieve admittance to Heaven by following any set of rules or living a good life. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that we receive salvation by God’s grace only; never by human works. But if we love Jesus, we want to show Him that love by obeying His Word.

This year ask God to show you what goals He has for you. Then ask Him how you can achieve those goals. Submit yourself to Him and purpose to love Him in all you do, and you’ll most definitely have a happy and spiritually prosperous year.

“A year of self-surrender will bring larger blessings
than fourscore years of selfishness.”
Anonymous

The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from now and for evermore.

— Psalm 121:8

As we come to the close of another year, we see that the Lord has been with us. He has watched over and protected us. Yes, there has been trouble and pain, but He has been with us every step of the way.

The Lord is the One who helps us through it all. As the psalmist said, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2).

In all the hurry and hustle and bustle of modern life, we need to give God time to heal us and cure us, to build us up and strengthen us in Him. We need to trust in Christ and find that place of quiet rest. As one poet put it:

Slow me down Lord.
Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory…
Let me look upward to the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.

Question to ponder:
How have you grown in the Lord this year?