Category: Strength for Today

Ecclesiastes 7:3
“Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.”

People oftentimes bemoan the valley and wish that they could live on the mountaintops. On the other hand, God says that “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” Without sadness, the heart could not be made better. God goes further in the next verse and says, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” In other words, it is in the valley where you will find the wisdom to make life better.

While some may choose the mountaintop, I choose the valley for many reasons. Flowers grow in the valley. You don’t see the beauty of the flower on the mountaintop, but you see it in the valley. It is in the valley where you will find the calming streams. It is in the valley where you see the green grass grow and hear the birds chirping amongst the flowers. It is in the valley where you can fish in the lakes, streams and rivers. It is in the valley where the soul is restored. Yes, the mountaintop allows you to step out of reality for a short time and look at life from a different perspective, but it is in the valley where you will find the presence of God. Psalm 23:4 says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…” Yes, it’s in the valley where you find God walking by your side.

Christian, it is time you stop bemoaning the valleys that God sends you through and realize that the valleys are where you grow. There are many times in the valley that God reveals to me something that I never knew about myself, something that I didn’t like about myself that needed to be changed. I would have never learned this without the valley. Instead of bemoaning your valley, you need to learn what God is trying to teach you there.

Moreover, enjoy the presence of God while you are in the valley. Certainly, God is with us when we are on the mountaintops, but He specifically reminds us that He is with us in the valley. If you would stop complaining about your valley, you might see that God’s presence is right beside you. Even though the psalmist was walking through the valley, he realized that God’s presence was there to help him face what his valley brought. If you look back at every trial you have ever faced, you will always see the presence of God was always there. That same presence is with you today in whatever valley you face.

Furthermore, it is in the valley where you will find joy and growth. The verse above says, “…for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” You would never have times of laughter and joy without going through the valley. The peak of one’s joy shows me the depth of the valley they have endured. The most joyful people of life are the people who have suffered the most. So you are walking through a valley today, and your valley seems to be the deepest valley that a person has ever walked through; let me encourage you to realize that God is trying to increase your joy if you will stop running from your valley. You can choose to live in the valley and grow, or you can miss the blessings of the valley by complaining. It is your choice. What are you going to do?

Ecclesiastes 4:13
“Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.”

In the verse above, Solomon was trying to teach his son the importance of taking admonishment. He wanted his son to understand that it would be better to be a poor person who lived in the poor section of town than to sit on a throne and never allow anyone to tell him what to do. Solomon knew that his son would be destroyed if he ever got to the point where people could not tell him he was wrong.

Ahab hated Prophet Micaiah because the prophet never told him what he wanted to hear. Ahab wanted the prophet to be a “Yes” person, but the prophet would not lower himself to that status. When a man of God told Asa that he was wrong, he had the man of God thrown in prison. These men wanted to surround themselves with “Yes” people, and if anyone told them differently they had them removed. This destroyed them. These men needed these men of God to tell them when they were wrong. These kings should have heeded the admonitions of these prophets, but they didn’t to their own destruction.

The beginning of anyone’s destruction is when they surround themselves with people who are “Yes” people. Everyone needs admonishment. Just because you may have been a “king” in your world or are a “king” in your world doesn’t exempt you from needing people to admonish you. Just because you are older or have many accomplishments to talk about on your resume doesn’t mean that you should never be told what to do. Everyone, no matter their status or accomplishments need to be admonished when they have do wrong. You should never feel that you are exempt from admonishment because of some self-perceived status.

Leaders, be careful about surrounding yourself with “Yes” people. If you are so insecure that you always need people to tell you “Yes” to everything you want to do, you don’t need to hold a leadership position. Insecurity and pride are the only reasons you would want to be surrounded by “Yes” people. Every leader needs to give their followers the freedom to tell them “No” when asking about ideas of what to do. There is safety and wisdom in a person telling you “No” to something that you may want to do if it is not the best thing or right thing to do.

Moreover, every person needs to listen to the admonishment of those who are willing to tell you when you are wrong. If you blow up and lose your temper every time someone tells you “No” or corrects you, you are going to create an atmosphere where nobody will ever admonish you or warn you when you are headed down a dangerous path. When you look for counsel, don’t look for a “Yes” person who will tell you what you want to hear, but look for a counselor who will tell you what is right even if it is not what you want to hear.

“Yes” people are more hurtful to you and your future even though they make you feel good. If you want to avoid making dangerous decisions or avoid starting hurtful projects, you need to be able to take admonishment. If you will always keep a good attitude when people admonish you, you will avoid many hurtful and destructive decisions. There is safety in admonishment; learn to take admonishment with a right attitude.

Job 38:1-2
“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?”

Job made the same mistake that many people make who have experienced some sort of success in life. That mistake was that he became a legend in his own mind and forgot who really helped him to make it to the level of success he enjoyed. After Job’s friends wasted his time by foolishly accusing him of things of which he was not guilty, God stepped in and helped bring him back to reality.

A person loses reality when they forget their humanity and begin to think that they are infallible. I know, nobody will truly say this, but actions oftentimes prove different from what we say. Many people have lifted themselves so high in their own minds that God had to bring them back to reality. The only way we can be brought back to reality is by answering the questions God asked Job. We all need a daily reality check, and there are some questions we need to ask ourselves in order to do this.

First, who do you think you are without God? We are not self-existent. Without God we would not even be born. Yet, we must be reminded that we would never become anything without God. Throughout this chapter God asked Job, “Who?” God was trying to help him realize that he was nothing without God. Every person needs to take themselves off their pedestal, forget their titles and realize they are nothing without God. You must never get to the point where you start believing the titles and accolades that people say about you.

Second, where do you think you would be without God? Several times throughout this chapter God asked Job, “Where?” Have you ever stopped to realize where you would be if it were not for God? Friend, you may have arrived at a blessed location, but you had nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with God. If you are going to live in reality, you are going to have to remind yourself where you would be if it were not for God.

Third, what do you really think you could do without God? Several times throughout this chapter God asked Job, “Canst thou?” or “Hast thou?” God was trying to bring Job back to reality to realize that he could not have experienced his successes without God. You must never get to the point in your life where you think you could do it all by yourself. God has a way of bringing any of us back to reality to show us we cannot do it without Him. One of my common statements I say to people is, “It still takes God.” Don’t ever forget that! Many a person like Samson has said, “I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself…” (Judges 16:20), but after God dealt with them they came to the same reality that Samson and Job did and that was that it still takes God. Don’t ever get to the point where you think you could do what you have done without God. When you get to that point, God will do what He has to do to bring you back to reality.

We must never allow our pride to move us out of the world of reality. Friend, the best way to keep God from having to bring you back to reality is to daily bring yourself to reality by asking these three questions. It is when you honestly answer these questions and come back to reality that God can begin to bless you.

Psalm 18:37
“I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.”

God intends for the Christian to be victorious in all that they do. God is not a God of defeat, but He is a God of victory. The psalmist clearly understood that he could secure victory through God. In verse 31, he understood that “It is God” Who gives the victory. You can try obtaining victory through anyone else, but only through God can the Christian be guaranteed the victory. When you decide to trust in God, there are several things He will enable you to do to secure victory.

First, in verse 32, God gives you the strength to be complete. It says that God “maketh my way perfect.” In other words, God completes you as you walk through the ways of life. You will never be a victorious Christian by being unbalanced, but you secure victory through being a well-balanced Christian that is able to face every circumstance that life throws at you.

Second, verse 33 shows that God gives you the wherewithal to climb to new heights. One of the things that you will enjoy about putting your trust in God is that He keeps life from becoming mundane, and allows you to embark to new heights or challenges in life. God gives you climbing feet to meet the new challenges that will enable you to obtain new heights in the Christian life. You must trust Him to help you obtain those new heights.

Third, verse 34 shows that God gives you the knowledge to face every battle in life. The Christian life is filled with battles, and there are going to be times when you don’t know what to do, but God does. You need God’s help to give you the knowledge of what to do in every battle that you face.

Fourth, verse 35 shows that when you trust Him that He will protect you from harm. Whenever you try to secure victory, you are going to face enemies who will try to harm you. It is in these times when God will give you the “shield of thy salvation” to protect you from the weapons that others will try to use against you. During these times, keep doing what you are supposed to do and trust God to protect you from the harm that the enemy would love to inflict upon you.

Fifth, verse 36 shows that God will keep you from slipping along the way of life. This verse says, “Thou hast enlarged my steps under me…” In other words, it is like God gives you bigger feet to keep from slipping and falling in the slippery places of life. When you trust God to help you through life, you will find that God will keep those things from you that will cause you to spiritually hurt yourself. So many times in my life God has providentially protected me from those things that would have hurt me had I chosen to go down those paths. God kept those things from me. That is what it means when He enlarges your steps. When your heart desires to please God, He makes sure that He protects you from those things that will keep you from pleasing Him.

These five things are why the psalmist was able to overtake his enemies. Friend, you can secure victory throughout your Christian life, but it all comes down to understanding that it is God who makes these things happen. Stop trusting in everything else to give you the victory and understand that God will give you these five things if you will trust Him.

Job 16:21
“O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!”

Job’s longed for someone to plead for him. During the lowest time of his life, his friends condemned him instead of praying for him. He was not as concerned with someone making his poor condition known to others as much as he desired for someone to plead his case before God. All Job wanted was someone who would plead his case in hopes that God would change his situation.

The word “plead” means to argue as in a lawyer defending their client and arguing their case before a judge. It means to reason or convince the one to whom you are pleading that their cause is worthy. Job’s desire was for someone to take his case and argue it in the courts of prayer.

We often hear the importance of having a prayer life. Many times our prayers are petitions that we bring to God about our own personal needs. There is nothing wrong with this, but your prayer life should include pleading the case of others. In other words, be as passionate about praying for others as you are about praying for your own needs. Take someone else’s case and pray for them with the same passion that you would pray for your own prayer. Let me give you some suggestions on how to argue the case of others in the courts of prayer.

First, you must get among people if you are going to learn their case. One of the reasons we don’t know the seriousness of the conditions of others is because we are not among them. It says about Jesus in Mark 9:36, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them…” How did Jesus learn the condition of the people? He learned it by being with them. You will never have a passion to pray for others until you see them in their time of need.

Second, set time aside to pray for others. It would be good to have a time when you specifically pray for others. Don’t use that time to pray for yourself, but use that time to pray for others. While you are praying for them, stop and think about their condition as you present it to God. Present it with the same fervor that you would want someone to have if they were praying for you.

Third, pray for others at the moment they ask you to pray for them. Oftentimes I will have people ask me to pray for their needs. Though I take their requests and pray for them later, I stop at that moment and pray with them. There is something about people taking the time to pray for a person at the moment they ask that helps them. Stop what you are doing and ask them if you can pray for them.

Fourth, when God brings someone to mind, take that as God’s reminder to pray for them. I have always thought that God reminds me of people because they need someone to pray for them. It always amazes me how God brings someone to mind at a time when I shouldn’t even be thinking about them, and I find out later that they were going through a tough time at that moment. Let God’s reminder cause you to pray for them. You may not know what their need is, but God certainly knows and can meet that need.

One of the greatest blessings you will experience in the Christian life is getting a prayer answered for others. Let me encourage you to be one who pleads for a man with God. This is what true Christianity is all about.

Job 1:22
“In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”

The verse above is quite the statement about a man coming from the mouth of God. This statement didn’t come from someone trying to impress others of their spirituality. This statement didn’t come from someone who was bragging about an admired person. This statement came from a God Who knows everything about everyone.

There is something else about this statement that makes it so powerful. This statement came after Job experienced four great tests that the average person would have failed had they faced only one of the tests. After facing all four of these tests of life, God still held Job in high regards. In fact, God said about Job, “And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.” (Job 2:3) Your desire should be that God would say the same thing about you if you faced these same tests. Everyone will face at least one of these four tests, and you should desire to come through them with the same attitude that Job had.

The first test is how you respond when others take what is rightfully yours. When the Sabeans came and took Job’s oxen, he still would not say anything foolish about God. Do you get upset when you see others take a position from you that you felt you’ve earned? There are going to be many times in life when you will be hurt by others, but in those times you must continue to do right and keep your Christian testimony.

The second test is how you respond when tragedy hits and takes your possessions. In verse 16, tragedy struck and took Job’s sheep and servants, yet he did not let that sway his Christian testimony. Many Christians have become bitter when tragedy hit and took everything they had. You must watch your spirit during times of tragedy so you don’t say or do things that you will later regret.

The third test is how you respond when others attack you. In verse 17, the Chaldeans came with the sword and took Job’s camels and remaining servants, yet he still retained his integrity. If you serve God for any length of time, you are going to be attacked. In those times, you must never let the sword of the enemy change your approach to serving the LORD. It will be hard to respond right when others attack, but you cannot let their actions influence your actions. You must act right in spite of their attacks and criticisms.

The fourth test is how you respond when death unexpectedly takes a loved one. Job lost all ten of his children, yet he did not allow grief to mar his testimony. This is a tough one to go through, but you must hold onto the grace of God and allow the Holy Spirit to comfort you and keep you from getting bitter at God. In times like these, you may not understand what God is doing, but you must trust His providence.

The truest test to your Christianity is if you can respond as Job did in verse 21. This is why God had such a high estimation of him because “In all this…” Job didn’t sin or accuse God of being unfair. Friend, be careful in the tragedies of life that you don’t say or do things that you will regret later. Trust God’s providence and do right, and you will pass God’s test of life.

Ezekiel 19:5
“Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.”

God uses a parable about a lion to show what was going to happen to Israel. He said that the lioness had two whelps which she nourished. One grew up and became a lion that learned to catch prey and eat men. The men of Egypt saw what this lion did, so they came and captured this young lion and brought him in chains back to Egypt.

What I love about this lioness is that she did not give up. She realized she still had one more whelp that she could invest her efforts into. She was not going to give up. She once again began to train the young lion to catch prey and to eat men, and it became a great lion just like the previous. Though this lion eventually was captured, I love the determination of the lioness who didn’t give up after one failure.

There is a great lesson that everyone can learn from this lioness and that is that there will always be another to invest your energies into and train. You may experience failure, and you will experience failure, but that doesn’t mean you have failed. You always need to understand that there is another who needs you to keep on going. There is another who can be trained if you don’t allow your failure to stop you.

So, you have failed. That failure doesn’t have to make you a failure. Failure is the excuse of the quitter but the motivation of the successful. Failure is the obstacle of the quitter but the opportunity of the successful. It all comes down to perspective and determination. You can let your failures defeat you, or you can take them and use them as a motivation to do better the next time. When you invest in people, you are going to fail, but you must not let your failure cause you to give up.

Moreover, there is always another person you can help if you will get back up. Samuel felt like he failed when Saul went wayward, but there was a David to help him when he got back up. Paul could have felt like a failure when John Mark quit, but he kept going and invested his energies in Silas and Timothy. You always have to remember that there is another person who is waiting for someone to invest in them. Don’t let what seems like a failure with one person keep you from continually trying to help others.

I point this out because in the ministry you are going to have those who mess up after you’ve invested a lot of time and energy into them. When this happens, you must not let this stop you from helping another. Remember that people have a choice to follow what you taught them, and just because they chose to quit or go a different direction doesn’t mean that you are the failure. The Devil would love to discourage you to the point where you stop investing in others. Don’t let him win the war because you lost a battle. Keep on helping others and you will eventually find some trophies of grace.

Let me also encourage every parent not to allow the seeming failure in one child to cause you to feel that you are a total failure. If you have other children, you need to keep doing your best to help them do right. Even if a child chooses the wrong path, remember that it was their choice and not your training. My encouragement to all is to simply get back up and keep investing in others. If you keep investing in others, you will find your rewards will be people following your example and investing in others as well.

Ezekiel 3:17
“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.”

When God called Ezekiel to be a prophet to Israel, one of the greatest responsibilities God gave him was to be a watchman. The watchman was the person who stood in the tower on the wall and watched for the enemy. It was the responsibility of the watchman to warn those within the city of any dangers that could hurt the inhabitants. God was careful to warn Ezekiel of the grave responsibility of being a watchman.

We often refer to the watchman as the pastor of a church. We often say that the pastor is to warn the congregation of dangers that could harm them as Christians. While this is true, I believe we are too narrow in defining the watchmen. Every parent is to be a watchman of their child. Every parent, especially the father, should stand on the walls of their home and look for dangers that could harm their children. There are four duties that every parent must fulfill as the watchman.

The first duty of the watchman is to stay on the wall. You will never be the watchman of your home if you are absent from your responsibilities. Parents must stay on their watch all the time. This is not to say that you cannot have times of enjoyment, but as a parent you are to constantly watch for any dangers that the Devil may use to hurt or influence your children. Parenting is not easy and it can get wearisome, but for the sake of your children you must constantly watch for dangers. All it takes for the enemy to infiltrate and influence your children for wrong is to miss your duty as a parent one time. Don’t be AWOL in your duties.

Second, the watchman can’t be worried about being liked. There are going to be times as a parent when you are going to have to tell your children that they can’t do something. If you are concerned with being liked, you will fail in your parental duties. Parents who warn are oftentimes disliked, but if you love your children you will warn them in spite of being disliked. Stop being concerned with your children liking you and be the watchman you are supposed to be.

Third, the watchman must watch. I know this sounds obvious, but you have to constantly be alert. There is never a time when a parent can let down their guard. There are going to be times as a parent when you think your children are doing well and that is when the enemy attacks. Parents, you must stay alert all of the time. Know where your children are and what they are doing all of the time. An older gentleman gave me advice years ago that applies to this point. He said, “Never trust your children.” This may sound restrictive, but you must understand that your children are too young to know all the dangers out there. You are going to have to watch for them, and at times it will seem to your children that you are overbearing, but you are a watchman for their soul.

Fourth, the watchman must close the gate when needed. There are times when a parent will have to say, “NO!” It is amazing how hard a two letter word can be, but it can be the most protective word a parent can say. When you see friends, activities or influences that may cause your children not to serve the LORD, you are going to have to close the gate to those influences. It isn’t easy being the watchman to your children, but you will be thankful you did when they are serving the LORD as adults.