Bible League: Living His Word Be happy because of the hope you have. Be patient when you have troubles. Pray all the time.At the end of the 12th Chapter of the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul lists a number of qualities that mark what it means to be a true Christian and he exhorts the church at Rome to embody these qualities. His exhortation applies to all Christians at all times. Our verse for today includes three of these qualities. First, we should be happy because of the hope we have. Although not everything in our lives may be a cause for happiness, we have at least one thing that should make us happy. Hope. We have the great hope of our salvation through Jesus Christ. Whatever may happen in this life, we know that the next life will be glorious. So significant is this hope, there should be an underlying happiness deep within us that cannot be touched or diminished by whatever trouble there may be on the surface of our lives. Second, we should be patient when we have trouble. If we allow ourselves to be happy because of the great hope we have in Christ, then we will be more inclined to be patient in our trouble. To be patient in trouble means more than simply going through or enduring trouble. The manner in which we endure is all-important. If trouble can overwhelm our patience, then we are still immature in the faith. Indeed, James tells us that we should be joyful in our troubles, because they make us "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:2-4). Instead of trouble overwhelming our patience and our happiness, our happiness and our patience should overwhelm our trouble. Finally, we should pray all the time. If we refuse to allow our trouble to overwhelm our patience and happiness, then we will be in a position to pray about it. The person who has lost patience and lost happiness has been captured by trouble and tends to forget prayer. The very thing that is needed most is then not put to use. Further, just as happiness and patience can support our prayer life, so likewise our prayer life can support our patience and happiness. This is because when we pray about our trouble we can also pray that God will maintain and sustain our patience and our happiness through it all. Today, be sure to package happiness, patience, and prayer together, for they are mutually reinforcing qualities of the Christian life. Bible in a Year Old Testament Reading2 Chronicles 1, 2, 3 2 Chronicles 1 -- Solomon's Prayer for Wisdom at Gibeon NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 2 Chronicles 2 -- Solomon Prepares to Build a Temple and Palace NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 2 Chronicles 3 -- Solomon Builds the Temple in Jerusalem NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading John 12:1-19 John 12 -- Jesus Anointed at Bethany; Enters Jerusalem; Sought by Greeks; Foretells His Death NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. Insight Jesus began his sermon with words that seem to contradict each other. But God's way of living usually contradicts the world's. Challenge If you want to live for God, you must be ready to say and do what seems strange to the world. You must be willing to give when others take, to love when others hate, to help when others abuse. By giving up your own rights in order to serve others, you will one day receive everything God has in store for you. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Psalm 103:3 Who healeth all thy diseases.Humbling as is the statement, yet the fact is certain, that we are all more or less suffering under the disease of sin. What a comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! Let us think of him awhile tonight. His cures are very speedy--there is life in a look at him; his cures are radical--he strikes at the centre of the disease; and hence, his cures are sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ heals; no fear that his patients should be merely patched up for a season, he makes new men of them: a new heart also does he give them, and a right spirit does he put within them. He is well skilled in all diseases. Physicians generally have some speciality. Although they may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, there is usually one disease which they have studied above all others; but Jesus Christ is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of human nature. He is as much at home with one sinner as with another, and never yet did he meet with an out-of-the-way case that was difficult to him. He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal with, but he has known exactly with one glance of his eye how to treat the patient. He is the only universal doctor; and the medicine he gives is the only true catholicon, healing in every instance. Whatever our spiritual malady may be, we should apply at once to this Divine Physician. There is no brokenness of heart which Jesus cannot bind up. "His blood cleanseth from all sin." We have but to think of the myriads who have been delivered from all sorts of diseases through the power and virtue of his touch, and we shall joyfully put ourselves in his hands. We trust him, and sin dies; we love him, and grace lives; we wait for him and grace is strengthened; we see him as he is, and grace is perfected forever. Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 John 2:28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.James 1:6-8 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. • For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, • being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Galatians 1:6-8 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; • which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. • But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! Galatians 5:4,7 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. • You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? John 15:4,7 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. • "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 2 Corinthians 1:20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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