If He Wills by Greg Laurie

DESCRIPTIONSometimes the Lord will lead us differently from where we would like to go. But we must come to recognize that the will of God is perfect, and we should never be afraid of it.

You ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that (James 4:15).

The book of Acts tells the story of Philip and how the Lord was blessing him in Samaria as he preached the gospel. Everything was going well. People were coming to faith.

Miracles were taking place.

Then God told him to go to the desert. And not only did God tell him to go to the desert, but He told him to go to Gaza, to a desolate road that was rarely used. And not only did He tell him to go to this rarely used road, but He told him to go at the hottest time of the day. Essentially God said, “Go out to the middle of the desert to a deserted road in the middle of the afternoon, and I will show you what to do next.”

Sometimes the will of God doesn’t make sense. We may plan to do a certain thing, but God may intervene. He might have another plan. The idea is that we should remember God in our plans, and we should also remember He may change our plans.

Often in his writings, the apostle Paul would refer to the will of God for his life. He told the believers at Ephesus he would return to them for renewed ministry if God willed. And he wrote to the Corinthians that he planned to visit them if the Lord willed. That is important for us to factor into our plans as well. We always should remember, “If the Lord wills.”

Sometimes the Lord will lead us differently from where we would like to go. But what we must come to recognize is that the will of God is perfect, and we should never be afraid of it.

Christian workout music - 2

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Getting Fit for God

http://www.beliefnet.com/wellness/health/2004/06/getting-fit-for-god.aspx

Christian workout music part 1

https://youtu.be/RlTsmwCY_Jc

Calm Down by Steve Noble

DESCRIPTIONThe next time you get angry…step away from the situation and make sure you get control of yourself so your anger does not lead you into sin.

Ephesians 4:26-27

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

Anger is something I deal with everyday. Sometimes it’s the good kind like anger over sin or injustice… but more often than not, its anger based on pride or a hard heart. It seems that just about every Christian has to deal with anger on some level, and today’s passage provides us with some great advice.

First of all, Paul tells us not to let our anger control us, regardless of whether it is righteous or not. One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control (Gal 5:22-23) and that is especially needed when you get angry. After all, a fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control (Prv. 29:11). So the next time you get angry… step away from the situation and make sure you get control of yourself so your anger does not lead you into sin.

Secondly, and this is especially important if you are married, don’t go to bed angry! If you are angry with your spouse or your children, don’t leave it until tomorrow! The devil loves it when we leave that door open so close it before you go to sleep! Have the tough conversation. Seek forgiveness or give it as needed. Get the anger taken care of and everybody wins… except for the devil.

Soul on Fireby THIRD DAY

DESCRIPTION God’s fire is all-consuming; it will never go out. And if we sit in His presence, He will rekindle the fire of our faith.

In Exodus 3 we find Moses in a desperate place. He has killed a man and has fled Egypt, and now the former grandson of Pharaoh is living a humble life as an outcast. And as he tends his father-in-law’s flocks, he comes across a most curious sight: a bush filled with a fire that will not go out.

God could have revealed himself to Moses in any number of ways. Yet he presented himself as an unquenchable fire. This fire theme appears time and time again throughout the Scriptures, whether it be a pillar of fire piercing the night sky and leading the Israelites through the desert, or the fiery furnace into which three Hebrew children were cast but came out unscathed. Ezekiel was forever changed by a vision of a fire in the sky. Later, God is described as a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29), inspiring one of Third Day’s earliest songs. 

The God that Moses met in the desert is the same as the God we can know today. At his heart he is an untamable, all-consuming fire. Just like Moses, our early faith experiences can involve a fiery encounter, and we can come away, as John Wesley said, with our heart “strangely warmed”. We are a “soul on fire”.

God used Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt in epic fashion. But later in his life, things got hard again. As he faced all kinds of trials, surely Moses thought back to that original encounter with God at the burning bush and wished he could reignite that passionate fire of faith, returning to a place of simple trust. Similarly, we go through the briars and brambles of life and feel knocked down and defeated. We long for the initial fire of faith we had in our original meeting with God. 

It is easy in times like these to look at ourselves. We must have done something to get that fire of faith to begin with, so it only stands to reason that somewhere along the way we did something wrong. So now we need to do something to get it back. 

God has made it clear that the way to reignite our faith is not through any sort of human striving. Rather, he wants us to encounter him anew. He wants us to spend time sitting still in his presence and basking in the fire of his love. God’s fire is all-consuming, and it will never go out. And if we sit in his presence, he will rekindle the fire of faith. 

Prayer: Lord, let me burn for you again. Let me return to you again.

Written by Mark Lee of THIRD DAY

But Wait, There’s More! by Bryant Wright

DESCRIPTIONJesus explains why God’s standards are higher than man’s standards.

You have heard that the ancients were told, "You shall not commit murder," and "Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court." But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, "You good-for-nothing!" shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, "You fool!" shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell (Matthew 5:21–22).

When reading the Ten Commandments, God seems to be quite clear. For example, He tells us that we shouldn’t murder. Most of us breathe a sigh of relief on this one, knowing we’ve never actually killed anyone. However, Jesus has raised the bar. He explains how God’s standards are even higher than man’s. In fact, not only is murder a sin, but thinking about it is also!

Jesus tells us that God weighs whether or not our hearts and our thoughts are in line. If we lose our cool with our families, friends, or coworkers and start calling them names, we’re in danger of hell because we have broken this commandment on murder! That may seem unfair, but Jesus is clear. God doesn’t just judge us by our actions, but by our thoughts and hearts’ desires.

Now who among us can pass that test? None of us. Fortunately, Jesus has paid your penalty. Once you turn your life over to Him, He gives you His priceless gift of forgiveness. Jesus’ teaching on the Ten Commandments reminds us that we all are in need of a Savior.

Trusting God Gets You Where You Want to Be by Jud Wilhite

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DESCRIPTIONTrusting yourself got you where you are. Trusting God gets you where you want to be.

Romans 7:18-20, NLT: I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

The author, Paul, writes about a struggle going on in his heart. He wants to be better. He wants to do what is right and healthy. He doesn’t want to do what’s wrong and unhealthy. But time after time after time, he chooses not good over good. He chooses the opposite of what he knows is best. And he asks, “Why is that?” The answer is sin. Sin is a word that comes with a lot of baggage. People hear the word and it’s like you’ve just tossed a thick blanket of guilt over them. Others hear the word sin and get defensive. “How dare you say I sin!” Others think, “Oh great, here we go. Time for some fire and brimstone preaching to scare people into acting a certain way.” But I think most people have a view of sin that’s just too small.

Sin isn’t simply something bad we do, it’s something bad that affects everything we do. Sin is a force in the world and in our hearts that keeps us from wanting God’s best. It’s the part of us that rebels against not only our maker, but also the good things we want for ourselves. We fail at loving those we care about and say we have a work problem or a temper problem, but really, we have a sin problem. We fail at getting our finances under control and say we have a spending problem or an income problem, but really we have a sin problem. Sin infects every choice we make and every good thing we try to do, and there’s nothing we can do about it. It makes us throw up our hands and say, “I don’t know why I do the things I do!” But thankfully, God knows our situation, and he has done everything about it. He gives us the power to overcome sin, and we access that power by trusting him. That’s why the Bible gives us this rich verse from the book of Proverbs.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5, NLT).

We trust him to forgive the sin of our past. We trust him to deal with the sin in our hearts. And we trust him to guide us toward his best in the future. Trusting yourself got you where you are. Trusting God gets you where you want to be.

Who is the real Habit Breaker?

The wonderful truth is that God gives us power to conquer our addiction and issues. He is the ultimate Habit Breaker. 1 John 5:4-5 in The Message says, “Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.”

Even if your family life was a disaster or you have since had major trauma, there is HOPE for you. You are not defined by your mistakes or your mishaps or how well you did at school. You are not just what your medical prescription or diagnosis says you are. If Christ is in you then you are an infinite number of hopeful and wonderful possibilities, all headed towards healing and joy!

What does the Bible say?

Psalm 34:17 tells us that, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.”

He may not do it the way we hope, or think we need. And He rarely, if ever, does it in the time frame we pray for. But God is always, always doing us good. He will use our problems to do us good. He will use our hardships to do us good. He will use our addictions to do us good. He will use our grief to do us good. He doesn’t need goodness to do us good. He is a God who can make beauty from ashes and joy from heaviness.

In our reading today from Revelation 3, we see in verse 21 that for the one who conquers, God will grant him the honor to sit with Him on His throne. What a promise that is for each of us! Not just communion with God but also closeness and companionship too.

This is the promise to all of us, to those enslaved by addiction and to those fully free: we belong to God and we are loved by Him.

PRAYER:

Lord you have searched me and you know me. You know all my thoughts from afar. Please teach me how to trust in Your timing for my life, and your power for my healing. Amen.

What healthy habits can we build into our lives?

Thomas a Kempis wrote, “Habit is overcome by habit.” In my own journey, I have found this to be both helpful and true.

In our reading today we see that we must clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord to move (verse 3). In our walk towards freedom, we must be deliberate about making “straight paths”.

But more than this, if our lives are to be a beautiful garden, it is not enough to simply clear a patch of earth and hope for the best. Why? Because weeds like nothing more than empty space! No. If I want a stunning garden, I must deliberately sow a number of new plants in the patch. Then I should cover the ground with some kind of mulch to stop old weeds coming back. The most effective weed treatment isn’t to kill the weeds when they arrive, or wait until they become unmanageable before tackling them, but to stop them having room to grow in the first place.

If I am to be free of bad habits, I must not only clear them from my life, but fill the space left behind with healthy, life-giving practices. Maybe you feel swamped by addictions and poor habits in your life. Perhaps you have even given up promising yourself any attempt at change, because you are fed up with the lack of genuine, lasting progress you make? Maybe you don’t want to try anymore because you can’t handle the disappointment of staying the same, or getting worse.

But ultimately this kind of attitude is the burglar of joy. Growth and change are ESSENTIAL if we are to become more like Jesus. Because of Him we ARE capable of massive, outlandish, audacious, crazy, miraculous, hard-won, disciplined, self-controlled and glorious change! In my book The Habit Breaker, I list and explore 5 healthy habits I think we need to cultivate to get and stay free. These are:

Intimacy with God – knowing who He isSelf-knowledge – knowing who you areSelf-control – knowing how to be disciplinedBalance – knowing how to tackle extremesStaying power – sticking with recovery when things are hardPRAYER:

Father, please show me the healthy habits I need, so that I create less room for addictive tendencies to thrive. Help me believe in your power to change me. Amen.

Who is helping us break our habits?

Before we become Christians, the Bible tells us that we are all slaves to sin (see Romans 6:20). And until we are set free by Jesus we will remain enslaved. But our salvation gives us more than the joy of heaven. It gives us freedom and power on earth! It is this enabling resurrection power that helps us to say “yes” to Christ and “no” to the things that lead to our disquiet and our dismay. Crucially, saying “yes” to Jesus also means we gain family members, Christian brothers and sisters who can help us move from our old life to our new one.

In our reading in James today we read these words: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5:16 NIV)

Let me ask you a pertinent question:

When was the last time you did this?

When was the last time you sat with someone you love and trust and told them about some of the areas where you find yourself slipping up? When did you last openly acknowledge your wrongdoing?

The Bible teaches us that healing from any addictive tendency isn’t just found in the presence of Jesus but in the people He has called to Himself.

We need others to help us change and grow. The minute that I decided to be part of a recovery group was the minute that God broke a chain of pride in me. Sharing my sorrows with others has utterly restored me. It has brought freedom and release.

Proverbs 15:22 tells us that, “Without counsel plans fail.”

If we try things on our own, we will fall. This verse goes on to declare that “with many advisers” our plans succeed.

Could it be that you keep treading old ground, asking God to help you with your habits, but that you have never sought the wise counsel of Christian friends? Remember the Bible teaches us that “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17) I need others to help me to stay on the path. So do you.

PRAYER:

Lord, reveal to me today who I need to invest my life in. Show me those who are key to my recovery and my freedom. Help me to choose to be vulnerable with the right people in my life. Amen.

How do we see our habits?

I have learnt that my habits are not who I am. Just because I struggle with something doesn’t mean I have become it. I have had terrible problems over the years with food. But this is not who I am. I am not a walking eating disorder! And nor, my friend, are you. We mustn’t stand in judgment over ourselves and reject someone who God accepts. But we need to understand that beating our habits is not as easy as “just saying no” either. Saying no requires us understanding the roots of our problems.

This is because not all recovery is forward-looking. We may need to face our past and deal with why we began the habits we can’t now break.

Years ago I began over-eating as a way of handling some of the issues I was facing after abuse. But it wasn’t until years later that I understood the causes of that more fully. Many of the things that happen to us aren’t our fault, BUT, what we choose to DO about our problems now IS our responsibility.

When we come to know Jesus, we no longer have to live lives characterized by disgrace, fear or shame. We become free from the ugliness and slavery of sin and death. Our passage today in Romans 8 reminds us that there is no condemnation for us – not even a little bit! It speaks to us of our forgiveness and that we are made righteous in God’s sight. (v10)

I know some people who have been damaged in the past who choose to continue to carry that bitterness and rage around with them. You meet them: you meet their anger. You chat to them and you hear some of the ways in which they are still hurting, habit-bound and enraged.

This is not the inheritance of those who are filled with the Spirit of Jesus. Romans 8: 17 tells us we are “heirs of God’s glory.”

An heir is someone who inherits all that came before, all that was owned and won. In Christ we own freedom! It is our right and our God-given legacy.

PRAYER:

Thank you loving Father for showing us the negative ways we can see ourselves. Thank you for the truth that we are your heirs and children. Show us what that looks like more fully today. Amen.

What triggers our habits?

Our reading today shows us the longings of a desperate man. Here, David is aware of his own sin with Bathsheba and is crying out to God for mercy, forgiveness and help.

We all need to feel reconnection with God and with people after we have done something wrong or been through a difficult circumstance. But if we don’t find that bond, we will try and comfort ourselves with something else – anything else – to numb the pain. Our addictions are normally a way of diverting and soothing ourselves. Bad habits can form when we are seeking deep connection but somehow, don’t find it.

In this Psalm, David is asking for God to stay close to him in his crisis. This is wise! Verse 10 says, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” This is a powerful prayer.

Many of our addictions are birthed in a time of lonely trauma. We humans go to great lengths to avoid pain, and will try lots of different things to anaesthetize ourselves from it. Overspending, misusing alcohol or food, entertainment, prescription pills, sex, and all manner of things are readily available to us as ways to evade hurt or hide from our problems.

When ordeals we go through are not dealt with at source they can leave behind a toxic mixture of unprocessed emotional baggage. These feelings won’t sit silently, but start to try and work their way out of us. Our emotions are always “in motion”. They move us! But when we don’t allow them to be brought into the open and healed, they will express themselves as “symptoms”. They might move us to start some negative habits.

If we are honest, most of us have got deep-rooted discomfort that easily triggers and brings our addictive patterns to the surface. I believe that if we can recognize this and treat it (with the help of God) we can learn to see those patterns coming and stop them from taking control.

Ask the Holy Spirit now about your own habits.

How long have they bothered me?When did I first notice them?What could I pray about connected to them today?PRAYER:

Pray in your own way, asking God for His help and transformation in the things that trigger or prolong your habits today.

Why do we get addicted?

Scientists, theologians and psychologists agree that as humans we were wired to seek PLEASURE.

God created us to crave relationship with Him, to need it and benefit from it. For example Psalm 42:2 (AMP) says:

"My soul (my life, my inner self) thirsts for God, for the living God.”

Countless times we will read verses in the Bible that show us that a close relationship with God is good for our health, our well-being, our minds, our bodies, our relationships … in fact, good for every area of life.

Other things will give us pleasure, of course, but it won’t be of the lasting, eternal kind and may have some pretty nasty side effects. God wants to give us joy that has no negative backlash and no “hang over”.

Read this scripture from Psalm 16:7-11 (GNT)

“I praise the Lord, because he guides me, and in the night my conscience warns me. I am always aware of the Lord's presence; he is near, and nothing can shake me. And so I am thankful and glad, and I feel completely secure, because you protect me from the power of death. I have served you faithfully, and you will not abandon me to the world of the dead. You will show me the path that leads to life; your presence fills me with joy and brings me pleasure forever.”

The last line of this scripture blew me away! Did you miss it? Maybe read it again. It says that only His presence can bring us pleasure forever. If we please Him, we, in turn will be pleased. Pleasing God makes us truly, lastingly happy.

Our trouble is that we look for the satisfaction and pleasure found in God in all the wrong places. Rather than pleasing Him we look for ways to please ourselves. We try to manufacture pleasure in other ways. This is where our bad habits and addictions can take over. But all of those things have something in common: they are temporary.

It is so comforting for us to remember that Psalm 63:7 says:

“For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.”

PRAYER:

Lord, forgive me for allowing temporary pleasures to take Your place. Show me how to give You more access and room in my life today. Amen.

What is a bad habit?

None of us wantto live a life weighed down by bad habits. This new devotional is an opportunity to leave some of the past behind, as we examine our patterns of thinking and set fresh goals for ourselves.

The word “habit” comes from the Latin “habitus” meaning “condition or appearance”. Our secret habits demonstrate a great deal about the real condition or state of us as people. They often show us something of what is actually going on in our hearts and minds. They also give us an idea of what we fear or worry about.

A bad habit is a regular tendency or practice that has become almost involuntary. (In other words, when we say, “I don’t like it, but I can’t help it!”)

For the purposes of The Habit Breaker book I define a negative habit as a behavior that is detrimental to our physical or mental health – and something that robs us of peace.

A bad habit isn’t always the same as an addiction – although it can definitely be a gateway to one.

The Bible identifies many things that lead us into unhelpful patterns, such as: complaining, over-eating, indulging, poor spending, gossip, malicious talk, gambling, wasting money, criticizing others, over-work, self-gratification and laziness. How many poor habits can you spot in our passage for today?

We are encouraged in Ephesians 4:22 to “throw off” our old sinful nature. The Message version of this verse says that “everything connected with that old way of life has to go.”

I recognize that this is going to be hard. We get attached to our habits, don’t we? But it is so worth letting the Holy Spirit renew our thoughts and attitudes and allowing Him to help us, as we put on a new nature.

Whatever your habits today and whatever you are struggling with, know that God understands and has given you all you need to find your freedom.

Write down:In what ways do your habits rob you of peace?Which habit you would like to be free from this year?What three benefits would you experience if you were set free from that habit?PRAYER:

Father, thank you that you know my heart and the habits I battle with. Please teach me practical and positive things I need to do to break free of my dependencies. Amen.