CATEGORY ARCHIVES: Devotions

Don’t Give Up!

Posted by anthologycreative

When Joni Eareckson Tada was 17, she suffered a diving accident that left her a quadriplegic and wheelchair-bound. Despite obvious obstacles, Joni refused to give up. She spent two years in rehabilitation, learning how to live without the use of her arms and legs. She even learned how to hold a paintbrush between her teeth to create fine art pieces. In 2010, after 44 years of quadriplegia, she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She underwent surgery and took four rounds of chemotherapy. Now in remission, Joni never gave up when her life got difficult. Instead, she chose to focus on the fact that God was in control and she decided to see her difficulties as opportunities. “Trials are not just assaults to be withstood. No, trials are opportunities to be seized,” she said in a speech at a National Day of Prayer Observance in Washington, D.C., in 2011. “Life becomes inspiring, not in spite of the problems and the hard hits, but because of them.”

Source:  http://www.christianpost.com/news/joni-eareckson-tada-encourages-optimism-in-face-of-trials-50126/

THINK ABOUT JONI’S STORY as your read Jeremiah 20:3-6.

What do these two stories have in common?

Jeremiah had been jailed for the things he had prophesied. Yet he went right back to proclaiming the Lord’s Word when he was released. Why?

Would you have given up if you’d been Jeremiah? Explain.
TAKE ACTION
What are the discouraging situations or relationships in your life, the ones in which you’ve tried to proclaim Jesus’ message of hope, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference? Identify them and pray over them today.

 
Memorize Galatians 6:9. When you feel discouraged or exhausted by situations or people who don’t seem to care about Christ, recite it. Don’t give up!


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Suffering

Posted by anthologycreative

“Suffering in the path of Christian obedience, with joy-because the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life (Psalm 63:3)-is the clearest display of the worth of God in our lives.
-John Piper

JOURNAL
Think about that quote as you read 2 Timothy 1:8-12. Don’t miss verse 8! Read over it a couple of times. In your journal, write your response to these verses. You may want to write a prayer asking God to help you find joy in a specific discouraging situation you are facing.


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This Should Be Easy

Posted by anthologycreative

If you’ve gone to class, done the homework, and studied for the test, you’d expect it to be fairly easy, right?

LIST SOME THINGS that should be easy if you’ve done the prep work. (We’ve started the list for you.)

        Cooking a meal

        Playing a tough sports team

        Writing a paper
Did living the Christian life make your list? Why or why not?
THINK ABOUT THAT as you read Jeremiah 19:14–20:2. Check out verse 14. Why was Jeremiah prophesying to the people?

What did he tell the people of Jerusalem? Explain it in your own words.

If you’d heard Jeremiah’s prophecy, how would you have responded? Why?

Jeremiah did what God told him to do. What happened to him? (See v. 2.)

Have you ever faced difficult circumstances because you’ve been obedient to God’s call on your life? What happened? What did you learn?


THE POINT
The truth is, following God and living according to His purpose doesn’t guarantee that your life will be easy. In fact, sometimes it means that you will face difficulty and discouragement.
TAKE ACTION
List any difficult situations you’re facing right now because of your commitment to follow Christ. Pray about them, asking God to remind you of His presence and power in them.

 
WHO IN YOUR LIFE is facing a difficult situation or dealing with discouragement because he or she chose to be faithful to God? List their names and a couple of ways you’ll encourage them this week.


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Be A Hero

Posted by anthologycreative

Corrie Ten Boom. Florence Nightingale. Frederick Douglass. Mother Teresa. Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission. Martin Luther King. Bono.

History is littered with the names of people who have made a difference against poverty and injustice. Most fittingly, some of these names belong to people who follow Christ.

YOUR TURN
Who are your personal heroes? List a few names and explain what makes them heroes in your eyes.

THINK ABOUT IT
Read Mark 6:38-44 in your Bible. If you’re familiar with this story, then it is easy to take for granted the enormity of what happened in that wilderness. So, close your eyes and imagine those five loaves and two fishes. Then, picture the big, hungry crowd gathered around Jesus and the disciples. See those fish and loaves multiply as Jesus handed them out. Take some time to sketch or write down some phrases that describe what being in that crowd must have been like.

THE POINT
With Jesus’ power, you have all the resources you need to minister to the needs of people, to be a hero. If you are willing, Christ can do amazing things through you. He did it with the fish and loaves. What more can He do with and through you?

TAKE ACTION 
Glance over the devotions from this past week. How has God used His Word to change your attitude about the world and people around you?

Is there a specific need you think God is calling you to meet or someone specific whom you need to reach out to? Commit to follow Him wherever He leads you today.


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Not My Problem!

Posted by anthologycreative

YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE. Create a top 10 list of the 10 biggest problems in the world right now.

Are you part of the solution to any of those problems? Or do you think that because they don’t directly affect you, they’re just not your problem?

 
READ MARK 6: 34-37. Ask yourself:

 What was the seemingly impossible situation the disciples brought to Jesus’ attention?

 What was Jesus’ equally impossible solution to the problem?

 How did the disciples respond to Jesus?

 How would you have responded to Jesus if you’d been in the disciples’ shoes?

 
THE POINT
When faced with a hungry crowd of people who needed food, the disciples chose the easiest solution: to let the people take care of themselves. It wasn’t the disciples’ problem in the first place. But Jesus’ response was to instruct the disciples to do something. He’s still telling us to do the same thing.

TAKE ACTION 
Take a good look around you. Who are the hungry people in your family, school, community, and world? Think about more than physical hunger. Who is spiritually hungry? In need of a friend? Ignored or overlooked?

 
What steps will you take this week to reach out to one “hungry” person in your life? List three below.

 
Pray with persistence for the “hungry” people in your life and world. Ask God to soften your heart toward them and show you how He wants to use you to meet their needs.


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Compassion

Posted by anthologycreative

Milton and Fred Ochieng, brothers from a poor, remote village in Africa, dreamed of becoming doctors one day. Their father’s dream was even bigger than that. He wanted to build a clinic that would provide health care for their desperate, struggling community.

First, Milton won a scholarship to Dartmouth College. By selling chickens and cattle, his family members and neighbors in Lwala were able to scrape together enough money to buy his plane ticket to the United States. A year later, Fred received a scholarship to Dartmouth and joined his older brother there. Even though the brothers were far away from Africa in the United States, they couldn’t forget the village they’d left behind. They knew they had to do something to help their neighbors in Africa. So, the brothers began educating people about the suffering in their hometown in hopes of raising money to build that clinic of their father’s dreams. That dream became even more important when both of their parents died from AIDS.

Today, the Lwala Community Hospital serves 15,000 patients each year. In addition, they provide small-scale micro-enterprise, public health outreach, water, sanitation, and education programming to Lwala and beyond.

 
THINK ABOUT THAT STORY as you read Matthew 9:35-38.

 What do the two stories have in common?

 What are some of the things Jesus did for the people?

 According to the passage, what made Jesus respond the way He did?

 Have you ever done something for someone without gain? How did that make you feel?

THE POINT
Maybe you aren’t called to build a hospital. But God wants to use you to do His work on earth. When Jesus saw the hurting people, He was moved with compassion, and He took action to help them. What about you?

 
TAKE ACTION
Think of one person you can serve. Pray for an opportunity to reach out this week. Plan—then act on it.

“I choose kindness . . . I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.” – Max Lucado


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Wrecked. Broken. Destroyed.

Posted by anthologycreative

When was the last time you used one of those words to describe the way you felt about something? What was it? Why were you so heartbroken about it?

READ ABOUT IT
Jeremiah felt that way, too. When God revealed what was going to happen to Judah because of their sinfulness, Jeremiah was heartbroken. Read Jeremiah 8:18–9:1 in your Bible. Underline all the words and phrases that express Jeremiah’s grief over what was going to happen. Then, ask yourself:

God was broken and heartsick over the peoples’ sinfulness. When you look at the sin in the world, what’s your response?

What’s your response to sin in your life?


TAKE ACTION
What sinfulness in your own life has God broken your heart over? Confess it and seek His forgiveness today.

 
What sinfulness or circumstances in the world has God broken your heart over?

 
What steps will you take to make a difference—big or small!—in those areas this week?


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No Hope

Posted by anthologycreative

1 LET’S RECAP…
Over and over, Jeremiah had made God’s point clear: judgment for sin was coming. He had pointed to their disobedience and railed against their hard hearts, but the people still remained unrepentant. Now, Jeremiah told the people that they were going to get to face the consequences of their sin: invasion by the Babylonians.

2 READ Jeremiah 8:14-17 to get the peoples’ reaction to Jeremiah’s prophesy. Focus on verse 15.

 How would you describe their reaction to the coming invasion?

 Why do you think they reacted that way? Explain.

 What would your reaction have been? Why?

 The people seem rather hopeless here. Why do you think sinfulness often leads to such a feeling of despair and hopelessness?

3 THE POINT
When we allow sin to separate us from God, we will feel hopeless and alone. When you are mired in your sin and facing the consequences of sinful choices, it is never too late to turn to God with absolute repentance. Don’t wait!

4 JOURNAL
Think back to a time when you really messed up, yet hesitated to ask God for help. What happened? What did you learn? When you finally did repent, how did it affect your relationship with God? Your perspective? What consequences did you face. Jot down your thoughts and your thankfulness that God has provided a way for you to be reconciled to Him through Jesus as a prayer in your journal.


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Real Change

Posted by Karah

“Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” —T.S. Eliot

Read Jeremiah 8:8-12.  Write down the things in the passage that roused God’s anger.
“How can you claim, ‘We are wise; the law of the Lord is with us’? In fact, the lying pen of scribes has produced falsehood. The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and snared. They have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom do they really have? Therefore, I will give their wives to other men, their fields to new occupants, for from the least to the greatest, everyone is making profit dishonestly. From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have treated superficially the brokenness of My dear people, claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they acted so abhorrently? They weren’t at all ashamed. They can no longer feel humiliation. Therefore, they will fall among the fallen. When I punish them, they will collapse,” says the Lord.” —Jeremiah 8:8–12

Now, read verse 11 again in your Bible. How would you write that verse in your own words? What do you think it means? Jot down your ideas.

THE POINT
Reality can be ugly, but no real change can happen until you acknowledge the way things really are. You can’t ignore sin, treat it like it’s not important, or control it. For God to make a difference in your life and the lives of those around you, you have to acknowledge your sin.

JOURNAL
Get real with God today. In your journal, write your no-holds-barred, no secrets response to today’s passage. If the Holy Spirit brings to mind unconfessed sin, confess it. Ask God to help you hate the sin in your life the same way He does.


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Perspective

Posted by Karah

Read Isaiah 55:8-9 in your Bible. As you read, consider what these verses tell you about how God’s thinking process is different from your own. Think about how His thoughts are different from ours.

Perspective.God’s perspective on life and the universe is much greater than ours, which is one very important reason why He doesn’t act like we do.

JOURNAL

Evaluate your life and the things you’re dealing with right now in light of these verses. Then, record your thoughts in your journal. Ask yourself: How can I see things from God’s perspective? Can I see His purpose? How could what I’m facing today be a part of God’s plan for my future?

TAKE ACTION

The certain thing about God’s words is that they are productive. Take some time to meditate upon them or memorize them today. What steps will you take this week to make Scripture a vital part of each day of your life?


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