A hard heart is a rebellious heart…one that allows unbelief to draw it away from the truth of God. That’s why we’re admonished in the Bible to not to harden our hearts when we hear His voice. (Hebrews 4:7 & Psalm 95:7-8) So the antidote to a hard heart, (and what we should be praying for all our unbelieving friends and family) is found in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” A heart of flesh is alive and new…and it’s a place where faith can spring up.
Category: daily devotional blog
Ephesians 5:25 ” Husbands, love your wives, just like Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.”
In a marriage, men are to look to Jesus as the example. For Jesus spoke of the Church as His bride and He the bridegroom. Jesus demonstrated His love for His bride by willingly dying in her place. This type of love is devoted, selfless, and sacrificing. It’s a love that cherishes, values, and treats as precious another person. In modern language, it’s a love that would take a bullet for her.
Ephesians 5:22 ” Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”
This verse has been used out of context many times. But to look at it correctly, we must read the verse before it. In Ephesians 5:21 we are told to submit to one another out of reverence to Christ. When we are subject to one another, we take on the heart of a servant…putting the needs of others first. In that context then, wives are submitting or placing in an orderly fashion the family unit…with all parties acting in the interest of another.
Proverbs 16:16 ” How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver.”
Godly wisdom is pragmatic…for there are very practical and economic benefits to gaining Godly insight and discernment over worldly wisdom. It tells us in Proverbs 3:13-14 that wisdom is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. Worldly wisdom, like worldly riches, are fleeting…here today and gone tomorrow. But Godly wisdom stays with you…ever increasing…and lasting forever.
I Timothy 6:18 ” Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”
Practical Christianity is seeing a need…and filling it. But many will see a need, but do nothing about it…thinking someone better qualified than them should fill it. But when God places a need before you, it’s because He knows you will not only see it, but feel it. And it’s that compassion for the need we see that makes us act.
Ephesians 1:17 ” I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that you may know Him better.”
You’ll find there’s two different and distinct types of wisdom out there today…worldly wisdom, and Godly wisdom. Worldly wisdom is of man’s making. So it’s no surprise that it’s full of ego, arrogance, and selfish ambition…with a motto that reads, “Look what I’ve done!” While Godly wisdom is full of humility, mercy, and peace…and always is seeking God’s perspective and counsel in all matters both big and small. With worldly wisdom we become unteachable, but with wisdom from above, we are continually growing into the person God wants us to be.
Jeremiah 31:31 ” The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
It goes on to say in verses 33 and 34, “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. No longer will a man say to another, Know the Lord…because they will all know Me.” This new covenant is the everlasting and eternal covenant of peace, given to us by the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, if we will but trust in Him. And when we do…we will truly know Him with a individual and personal relationship…not settling for just being told about Jesus, but experiencing Him for ourselves.
Proverbs 14:3 ” A fool’s talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect.”
A verse that goes along with this one is found in Ecclesiastes 10:12, “Words from a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips.” When we speak before thinking, we open ourselves up for imprudent and tactless language to come out…words that can embarrass us, malign our true character, and even ruin our reputation. The old saying, “Loose lips sink ships”, is true…for our own mouth can often be our worst enemy.
Luke 5:16 ” But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
During His ministry here on earth, Jesus often sought out quiet places to pray. But why? It tells us in Mark 1:35, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.” The answer to “why He did this” is in what happened the night before. The town of Capernaum had witnessed Jesus healing someone in the Synagogue…and so later that night the entire town converged at the house where Jesus was staying…bringing in tow every sick and demon-possessed person they could find. And it says Jesus healed them. When we give much, our emotional gas tanks gets low. And the only way to fill them is to find a place of quiet reflection so that God can renew us . Jesus was practicing the discipline of silence in order to replenish, restore, refresh, and revive His soul…and it’s something we could do well to imitate.
I Samuel 28:5-7 ” When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. Saul then said to his attendants, ‘Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”
Saul had rejected the Word of God…so the Lord had rejected him as king over Israel. (I Samuel 15:26) And so when Saul sought help from the Lord…there was only silence. So enter the witch of Endor, a sorceress and medium for the occult that Saul knew was absolutely wrong to consult. When we become impatient with the Lord in what we see as a delay…that’s when we often take matters into our own hands and do things that are completely contrary to God’s Word…simply wanting something to happen…even if it’s wrong.
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