Category: Strength for Today

1 Peter 2:1-2
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”

Every Christian should desire to grow as a Christian. The purpose of the Word of God is to help the Christian to become “thoroughly furnished” so that they can continue growing. God addressed five things in the verses above that every Christian needs to lay aside so they can continue to grow. That means if they must lay them aside to grow, having these things in ones life will keep them from growing or will stunt their growth. You will never become the Christian you are supposed to be until you lay these things aside.

Malice is the first thing you must lay aside so you can grow. Malice is an intention or desire to get even. In other words, carrying a grudge against others and looking for a way to get even will keep you from growing as a Christian. That is why forgiveness must be a common tool the Christian uses. You are going to be wronged, but you cannot carry malice in your heart towards anyone if you want to continue to grow as a Christian.

Guile is the second thing you must lay aside so you can grow. Guile is having ulterior motives with everything you do. In other words, it is not being transparent as to why you do something. There is always something hidden that will benefit you. There is no place for this in the Christian life. The Christian should live a transparent life and should never do something for others or ask others to do something with an ulterior motive behind that action. Whatever you do or whatever you ask others to do, be honest with them as to why you are doing or asking them to do it.

Hypocrisy is the third thing you must lay aside so you can grow. This is simply living a double life. This is telling others to do something that you are not going to do yourself. You will never grow when you live a double life. What you are at church is who you are supposed to be at home and abroad. A hypocritical life will keep you from growing.

Envy is the fourth thing you must lay aside so you can grow. Do you look at what others have with envy? Are you jealous of what others have? Do you think you deserve what another person has? This will keep you from growing. You are to be content with whatever God has given you. Contentment will keep you growing and will cause you to be happy when God blesses others.

Evil speakings is the fifth thing you must lay aside so you can grow. Talking bad about others is wrong and will stunt your Christian growth. Simply put, gossip is a growth killer. If you have nothing good to say about another, don’t say anything at all. Don’t become part of conversations that tear other Christians down. If you wouldn’t say something about a person in their presence then evil speaking is saying those words or thoughts in their absence. Only speak words about others that you would say if they were in your presence.

Let me ask you, are there some things in your life that are stunting your Christian growth? God commands us to lay these things aside so we can grow. I encourage you to be careful in your daily walk that you don’t let any of these things stunt your growth for that day.

James 1:8
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

Do you remember when you were a child going to the ice cream shop and having to decide which flavor of ice cream to get? It seemed to be such a difficult decision. In front of you were over fifty flavors of ice cream, and they all looked good. Finally, your parents would say to you, “Hurry up and make up your mind.” Making the final choice was hard because you wanted more than one flavor, but you seemed to have difficulty surrendering to the fact that the flavor you chose was the best flavor.

Life is very much the same way. There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to make up your mind. God says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Double mindedness will create instability in every area of your life. When you don’t make up your mind, your instability will be felt by everyone around you. There comes a time when you just need to make up your mind as to what you are going to do. Wavering between two decisions affects your marriage, home, personal and spiritual life. The question then comes, “How do we come to the point to make up our mind?”

First, you need to ask God for His wisdom. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” You will never solve the instability in your life without getting the wisdom of God. God’s wisdom will give you the confidence that you made the right decision. One of the reasons we never have the wisdom to make the right decisions is because we don’t ask God for His wisdom. God promised that He would give you His wisdom if you simply ask Him. Stop wavering and start asking.

Second, go to the source where you find God’s wisdom. That source is the Word of God. One of the reasons you need to study the Word of God daily is so that you can find God’s wisdom in those times of indecision. Friend, you can ask God for wisdom, but He oftentimes gives His wisdom when you read His Word. You will never find the wisdom of God if you don’t spend time reading the very words of wisdom that God gave us in His Word. Stop running to all the Christian counsellors, instead spend time in the Word of God searching for the wisdom that God has to give to you.

Third, have faith in God that He will protect you from making the wrong decision. If your heart is tender towards the LORD and you have spent time in prayer and His Word searching for His mind, you have to trust God that He will help you make the right decision. If you have truly set your feelings aside and honestly tried to find the mind of Christ, by faith you need to follow what God’s Word teaches.

Fourth, make a decision! Stop vacillating between two decisions and make up your mind. Your double mindedness is creating instability all around you. You will find that once you make a decision, everyone else around you will begin to calm down because now they have clarity as to what they are going to do. It certainly isn’t easy making a decision, but when you do the instability in your life will stop. It’s time to stop wavering with your decisions and by faith trust God to help you to make them. Making decisions isn’t easy, but it will give you and those around you the stability in life you need.

Hebrews 8:12
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”

There is no better example of how to build a relationship with sinners than Jesus Christ. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, continually builds relationships with sinners. He is the One Who died for the sins of mankind, yet He still finds it within Himself to build a relationship with us. How does He do it? The verse above shows us that He is merciful and willing to move on and not remember what we have done. This is a great example of building relationships with sinful people!

Life is filled with relationships. From the day you were born to the present, you continually enter some type of a relationship with people. You started life by building a relationship with your parents. From that first relationship, you start building relationships with friends, teachers, spiritual leaders, employers, employees and daily acquaintances. You have been and are still building relationships in life.

How you get along in these relationships will have a great part in determining the amount of joy you have in life. I have watched people destroy nearly every relationship only to be lonely when they get old. I have watched others build relationships and have many friends when they get older. The key is to follow Christ’s example in the verse above.

First, you must realize that every person is a sinner. You are going to have to expect people to do wrong. You cannot enter a relationship expecting others to be sinless. Jesus knew when He entered into a relationship with mankind that we were sinners, but He was willing to be merciful to us in spite of our sin. A person who won’t give people a break when they do wrong will be a person who destroys relationships. You have to give people a chance to do wrong without severing the relationship.

Second, don’t make your relationships about you. Jesus certainly didn’t make the relationship about Himself; instead, He died for us so that we had a way to restore our fellowship with Him. You will never build relationships if you make every relationship about you. Relationships are a two-way street. Don’t make your relationships about what you get out of them. If you are going to build lasting relationships with others, you are going to have to build them by having some give and take.

Third, be willing to be merciful to others when they do you wrong. Jesus was merciful to us even though our sins killed Him. Every person will hurt you at some time, but you must be willing to be merciful if you want your relationship to last. In other words, you are going to have to forgive others if you want to build lasting relationships. Forgiveness is the key ingredient in building lasting relationships.

Fourth, you must be willing to move on from the past if you are going to build a lifelong relationship. Jesus remembered our sins “no more.” This is His choice to forget. You are going to have to choose not to hold the past against people if you want to build lasting relationships. Don’t ever bring up the past when dealing with a present wrong. You must choose not to bring up the past if you want to build lifelong relationships.

Life is built around relationships. You can make the most of them by following these four steps to building lifelong relationships.

Hebrews 1:9
“Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”

Happiness is not a destination, but the result of an action. We oftentimes think that we would be happy at a place, but once we get there we discover that the place didn’t bring us happiness. You can think that if you attended another church or moved to another place that you will be happy, but if you are not happy now you won’t be happy when you move.

Likewise, happiness is not a possession, but you will possess happiness as a result of doing right. Many people think they would be happy if they had more money, but they find out that more money doesn’t give happiness. Getting a new house, new car, fancier clothes, better shoes or having the newest technological gadget won’t make you happy because happiness is not found in a possession. You can think all day long that if you just had something that you would be happy, but happiness cannot be purchased.

God says, “… therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” We can be happier than everyone else around us. Whenever God uses the word “therefore,” you must look before the “therefore” to find out the result of “therefore.” Before you can be glad “above thy fellows,” there are two things you must do. You will never be happy without performing these two actions.

First, you must love righteousness. Righteousness can be defined as doing righteous acts. In other words, you will never be happy until you start loving right. Far too many Christians complain about doing right, but God says that if you want to be happy you must love doing right. Not just love right, but love the act of doing right. Doing right needs to be a love of your life.

For instance, I love helping people. When I get the privilege of helping others do right it makes me happy. A while back, my daughter overheard a conversation that I had with someone about how to witness to people from a certain religion. She asked me about it when I got off the phone, and I explained to her how to do it. It wasn’t but a few weeks later that she came home from soul winning and told me that she was able to use my advice to see someone saved. That not only made me happy, but it made her happy. Loving righteous acts is the first step to happiness.

The second step to happiness is to hate iniquity. If you love something, you must hate that which will destroy or hurt what you love. I know there are many people who are all about love, but you can’t love without hating that which would destroy what you love. If you love righteousness, you are going to hate what stops righteous acts. If you love truth, you will hate lying. If you love decency, you will hate indecency. The whole reason there are established rules is because we are trying to guard what we love.

Friend, I’m not against you being all about love, but you must have established rules if you are going to protect what you love. You will find that those who establish standards of holiness and are serving the LORD will be the happiest people. Happiness is never found in worldly lifestyles, but it is the result of loving righteousness and hating iniquity.

Song of Solomon 5:6
“I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.”

Keeping someone’s attention is the key to making sure that they get all of the required information that you wanted them to hear. One of the commands I use to train my dogs is “look”. I train them to look because I want their attention. If I have their attention, I know that we are engaged with each other. Likewise, if you have your spouse’s attention, you then can engage in a good conversation.

The verse above is a result of a husband in verse 1 who tired to get his bride’s attention, but she was too interested in other things. One day she wanted his attention, but it was too late because she had trained him to ignore her. I don’t know what caused this disconnect in the communication of this couple, but there was a definite disconnect that led to a couple not having each other’s attention.

We must be careful in our marriages that we don’t become preoccupied with other things when our spouse wants our attention. If we don’t respond, one day we will try to give them our attention but it may be too late as we have trained them to ignore us. There are some things you can do to be sure you have your spouse’s attention when you talk.

First, stop what you are doing when your spouse is talking to you. Lay down your cell phone and look away from the television or computer while your spouse is talking. There is nothing worse than talking to the wall. If you want your spouse’s attention when you are talking to them, then you need to give your full attention when they are talking.

Second, be interested in what they are saying. A spouse can read your body language. Body language is sometimes the loudest language spoken. Your body language is a revelation of your attention; you can’t hide it. If you want your body language to show that you are interested, truly be interested in what they are saying.

Third, don’t belabor the conversation. In other words, get to the point. There are some who say the same thing over and over again only to lose the attention of their spouse. You have to understand that if you don’t give your spouse a chance to engage in the conversation, you will lose their attention. Conversations are a two-way street, not a one-sided giving of information. If you want to keep your spouse’s attention in a conversation, allow them to talk and tell you their interests. When they are talking about their interests, be as interested in what they are saying as you want them to be interested in what you are saying.

Fourth, be understanding when they are in the middle of a project. You are not going to get your spouse’s attention when they are deeply involved in a project. If you see they are engrossed in a project, you might want to wait until they are done so that you can have a quality conversation.

Keeping each other’s attention is not that difficult, but it is an important part of having good conversation in your marriage. Be careful that you don’t train your spouse to ignore you by ignoring them when they talk. Keep your eyes focused on them, listen and interact at the appropriate time. This is one of the keys to having a happy marriage.

Esther 1:19
“If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.”

If all you had to look at to view the result of Vashti’s life was the verse above, you would think that she lost in her battle for purity. I’m sure that Vashti didn’t think that her throne would be taken from her when she told her husband that she would not flaunt herself in front of a bunch of drunken men. I wouldn’t be surprised that she thought that doing right would cause God to defend her, but that didn’t happen. If you look at the result of her action without looking at history, then you would say that she was the biggest loser, but she wasn’t.

There are going to be times in life when it seems that you have lost the battle. In those times, you will feel that there is a need to defend yourself so that truth will get out. The Devil will tempt you to attack the ones who seemingly won the battle, but just because you lost doesn’t mean that you are a loser. Just like Vashti, you have to understand that just because you lost it doesn’t mean that you are a loser. In times like these, there are some things you need to remember.

First, losing doesn’t make right wrong. In times when you lose when fighting the battle for truth and right, always remember that your loss doesn’t change what was right and what is true. You can’t let the loss discourage you or allow the Devil to convince you that maybe you were wrong because you lost. There are many times in the Scriptures when God’s people seemingly lost, but that didn’t change that what they were standing for was right. Truth and right are true and right even if they don’t seem to prevail.

Second, there are time when a loss is a win. Vashti will always be remembered as the lady who wouldn’t sacrifice her purity for the sake of position or pressure. I would say she actually won even though she lost the throne. There are times when your loss makes you a winner in the long run. Look at how many people in history have gone down as great defenders of truth in the midst of a lost. There are going to be times when losing the battle is winning the war. The other side may have won the initial battle, but they will lose the war in the minds of decent people and the annals of history.

Third, your loss is a revelation of your character. Vashti’s great character was revealed in this loss. Character is mostly revealed in the midst of a loss. Several years ago my daughter had to take a stand for right in her class. What the teacher taught was in direct contradiction to the Scriptures. When she saw what he taught on the test, she answered according to what the Scriptures taught and not according to what the teacher taught. Yes, she got the answers wrong, but her character was revealed when she wouldn’t change the answer of what Scriptures taught to get a better grade. What you do with truth and right when you know you’re going to lose truly reveals your character. You must always remember that you may lose, but if you did right you have not lost your character.

You may be facing a battle today that you know you are going to lose if you do right. Let me encourage you do what is right. You may lose the battle, but time will reveal that you won the war if you will continue to do right.

Nehemiah 7:2
“That I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.”

When it came time for Nehemiah to go back to the palace, he had to find some people to put in leadership positions who would continue the work that they had started. It says in the verse above that he placed Hanani and Hananiah in charge of the palace and over the city of Jerusalem. Both places were very important as they were the center for all Israel. Those places were the places Israel looked to for direction. When you look at the qualities of these men, you find their qualities are needed in every leader.

The first quality they had that every leader needs is faithfulness. If a person cannot be faithful to what they are supposed to do before they have position, then they won’t be faithful to what they are supposed to do after they have position. Position doesn’t make someone faithful, but character is what causes a person to be faithful. Leadership should never be given to someone who cannot be faithful before they have position. If a person can’t be faithful in that which is little, then how are they going to be faithful when they are given greater responsibility.

Moreover, you shouldn’t get upset that you haven’t been given a position when you are not faithful to what has already been given to you. Leadership positions should be earned, and if you can’t be trusted with what you have right now then why should those in authority trust you with greater responsibility? If you want a greater role in leadership, then be faithful in whatever role you currently have.

The second quality these men had that every leader needs is a fear of God. If a person doesn’t have a fear of God, then they are going to abuse the power of their position. The fear of God is what keeps those in authority in check. When you lose the fear of God, you begin to abuse the powers of your position. Again, you don’t give position to someone in hopes that they will start doing right, but they need to be doing right before they are given position. A fear of God causes people to obey God’s Word. It is the fear of God that carries a fear of what God could do to them if they don’t do right. When leadership has a fear of God, you will never have to worry about them abusing their powers.

The third quality these men had that every leader needs is responsibility. These men were given the responsibility to be sure the gates of Jerusalem were closed before the sun set. If a person doesn’t have the character to do their responsibility without being told, then they should never be given position. A responsible person will get their obligations done on time no matter what obstacles they may face. If a person always has excuses as to why they didn’t get something done, then they cannot be trusted with a leadership role. Leadership roles should only be reserved for those who do what they are supposed to do, when they are supposed to do it, without being told. This is called responsibility!

These three qualities are necessary qualities for quality leadership. When looking for someone to fill a leadership role, be sure they have these qualities so that you won’t be disappointed at a later time. If you want more leadership responsibilities, then be sure you have these qualities in you. These qualities will set you apart and will be the thing that grabs the attention of those looking to fill a leadership role.

Nehemiah 6:3
“And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”

Any time you do a work for God, you will always have critics who will criticize everything you do. Nehemiah found this out when he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Sanballat and Geshem did everything they could to get him to come down from the wall, but he understood that the work that he was doing wouldn’t allow him to come down. He completely understood that their attempts to get him to come down were only an attempt to get him to stop building the wall, so he resolved that no matter what they said, threatened or offered that he would not come down from the wall.

One of the unpleasant parts of having a ministry that is somewhat national is that there are critics who are closely watching every move you make and listening to every word you say, not to learn what to do or to praise what the LORD is doing through you, but to find something for which to criticize you. After reading the story of Nehemiah several years ago, I determined that I would not come down from the wall to address critics. I learned from Nehemiah that there are several reasons as to why you should not come down from the wall to address your critics.

First, God’s work is greater than their pettiness. You must always understand that you will never please your critics. They are being critical because they are critics and want nothing to do with doing right. You can try to address their concerns and even show them the truth, but a critic is not interested in truth; they are only interested in being critical of what the LORD is doing through you.

Second, you cannot come down because the urgency of the work is greater than addressing their empty criticisms. Nehemiah understood that the wall needed to be finished more than he needed to address their criticisms. When you are doing a work for the LORD, your work involves lives and the souls of mankind. Helping people through their problems and reaching the lost is of greater importance than addressing the criticisms of the critics.

Third, you cannot come down because God has given you orders to build the wall. God didn’t tell Nehemiah to correspond with the critics, but He told him to build the wall. Until God changes your orders, you need to stay on the wall and keep doing what God has commanded you to do. If God gave you orders to address those who criticize then address it from the wall, but stay on the wall and keep following the last orders given by God to build the wall.

Fourth, you cannot come down and cease the work to entertain empty accusations and play their foolish games. You need to understand that criticism is a game to your critics. There is a great work to do and addressing foolishness is only causing you to enter into the world of the fool who criticizes.

If you are doing a work for God, you will unfortunately have to deal with criticism. Let me remind you that building your wall is of greater importance than anything else. I encourage you not to come down from the wall, for if you do the work will cease. Stay on the wall and keep doing what God has commanded you to do and He will deal with the critics in due time.

Zechariah 13:3
“And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.”

A very important principle is being taught in this verse that will keep us from compromise. God tells the children of Israel about a day when all idols will be cut off. A day when even the names of these idols will no more be remembered. God says in that day when a person gets up to prophesy the untruths of these idols and false religions that even the parents of this person will stand against them and call them a liar and will have them killed. For a parent to stand against their child is a very strong statement and a strong stand for truth.

This is an important principle for Christians to learn. The principle of being more loyal to truth and right than to personalities and institutions. People tend to be loyal to a personality or an institution when God wants us to be loyal to truth and right. It doesn’t matter who the person is and what they have done, when a person begins to teach and preach things that are not right, we are not to continue to follow them, but we are to stay loyal to truth and right. Truth is to be more important than our loyalty to a person or an institution. There are a few of thoughts we need to consider.

First, your primary loyalty must be to truth. Many people get their loyalties mixed up. There is nothing wrong with being loyal to authorities or institutions as long as those authorities and institutions are loyal to truth; however, you are to stop being loyal to those authorities and institutions at the very moment they leave truth. You must be careful that you don’t love a person or an institution so much that you will close a blind eye when they leave truth.

Moreover, the true test of your love for truth is revealed when the person standing against truth is someone you dearly love. I have heard people say that they stand for truth only to see them compromise when their children choose to compromise. There is going to come a day in your life when your love of truth will be tested. It happens to everyone. It is easy to stand for truth when there is no face to compromise, but when you stand for truth when compromise has the face of someone you love shows your true love for truth. You must determine now that whether it is your child, a beloved preacher or an institution to which you have ties that leaves truth that you are going to stand with truth and against them. It is going to happen, and we will find out the depth of your Christianity when that day happens.

Furthermore, you need to have a tender and willing spirit to listen to rebuke when you are called the liar. Let me ask you, how well do you take rebuke? Friend, don’t let your pride come in the way when someone comes and points out what they perceive as a departure from truth. Many people have swelled up in pride when someone approached them about their error. Though it is not easy, you must have a tender enough spirit to consider that you could be wrong. Here is the test. If you love yourself, you will turn against the person who points out your departure from truth. If you love truth, you will take the admonition of another who points out your departure from truth and correct it. I pray that you will be the person who loves truth.

Zechariah 4:10

“For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”

For several years I have owned Rottweilers. We got each of these dogs when they were puppies. When you look at them as puppies, you can’t imagine how big they will get, but trust me, they do get big. What used to be a little puppy that everyone thought was so cute has now grown up into a big beautiful dog. We had to keep in mind when we got the dogs that they were not always going to be small.

God asks, “For who hath despised the day of small things?…” This was asked because when the temple foundation was laid in the Book of Ezra, the priests, Levites and ancient men who had seen the previous temple began to weep. They wept because it was of no comparison to the size and beauty of the first. In the verse above, God reminded these men that though what they saw seemed small would one day be the very foundation where Jesus Christ would set up His kingdom. Though it was small in comparison, it wouldn’t always be small. God wanted these men to give this temple a chance to grow instead of condemning what they perceived as irrelevant.

What I love about this verse is that God is reminding us that He is God of the small as well as the big. What is small now will grow if we give it a chance. God is just as concerned with the small things as He is with the big things. He is concerned with the “small” preacher just as He is the with “big name” preacher. God is concerned with the “small” person just as much as He is with the “big” person. God is not impressed with the bigness of a person or church because they are all of the same value to Him.

Friend, don’t take for granted what seems to be small. What you don’t understand is that small ministries can grow into large ministries, but they will do so over time. The temple foundation that God was talking about in the verse above has yet to see its big day, but it will when He sets up His kingdom. Many pastors and churches have become discouraged because they want to see great growth immediately, but growth happens over time. Don’t despise what you have right now just because it seems small.

Moreover, be careful about condemning the younger preacher. Young preachers will one day grow up. They may not have the depth of the seasoned man of God, but God will give them greater truths if they continue preaching truth. Don’t destroy them while they are small. Realize that God can do something great through them if they are encouraged.

Furthermore, be careful about despising the smaller ministry. They may not seem to be making a great impact, but if they will stay faithful they will find that God will bless them. Many people have given up on a great ministry in its infancy because it didn’t seem to have immediate growth only to regret leaving the ministry after its growth came several years after their departure.

Let me encourage those struggling with “small” ministries not to give up. It will grow if you will stay faithful. To those who are a bit critical of the small things, let God’s words be an admonishment when He asks, “…who hath despised the day of small things?” Instead of despising the small things, be the encouragement they need until their day of God’s blessings.