Category: Uncategorized

Two-minute read.

Once again, Solomon repeats his fatherly advice to listen and practice his teachings so that life will go well for his child. Solomon wants only the best for his son, hoping his offspring will avoid some of the heartache the king experienced.

As parents, aunts, uncles, or grandparents, we want the children in our lives to have a better life than what we perceive we had. But sometimes, in our efforts to make the next generation’s life easier, we do more harm than good. Teaching children how to live independently of us, relying on God as the only sure foundation, means we must let them go and can’t protect them from the challenges of life.

We moved six months ago into a house with a big backyard. Coming from a small house with only a back deck and a strip of grass, I had anxiety about letting the dogs run in the spacious area where I couldn’t always see them. After months of slowly allowing them to run in larger and larger areas, I am finally letting them out in the big yard regularly. As a non-parent, I can only imagine the difficulties of letting your children go into the crazy world we live in today.

But if we teach them God’s word and lead by example, we don’t have to let them go alone. Instead, we can give them to the Lord and trust Him to do what we can’t, providing them with a firm foundation to turn to when the guaranteed hard things of life happen.

Instill sound biblical teaching in your children’s lives, and rest assured that as they grow and mature, it will grow and mature with them. Hiding God’s word in our hearts gives us a reliable source of strength when needed.

Journal Question:

What teaching did your parents give you that has kept you out of trouble?

What lesson do you want to instill in your children?

How can you share your faith with your children today?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for giving us sound advice for living and helping us plant it in our hearts, keeping it the apple of our eyes. Please help us teach our children wisely and give them the firm foundation they can find only in You.

IJNIP. Amen

Two-minute read.

Referring to adultery, if you play with fire, you will get burned. As appealing as the grass may appear on the other side of the fence, it still needs mowed. What seems like innocent flirtation can quickly lead to third-degree burns.

Anyone can fall into temptation and find themselves in situations they never meant to happen. Thinking, “It won’t happen to me,” fools us into believing a lie. If you place a piece of cake in front of me, I might resist for a minute, but inevitably, I’m going to eat it. My thoughts will convince me one bite won’t hurt, and after I’ve taken the first one, why not eat a second one?

When the serpent convinced Eve to bite into the apple, he lied to her.

“He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 3:1

First, the serpent put a seed of doubt in Eve’s head, then he quickly moved in with the lie:

“You will not surely die. For god knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 4:-5

Death comes from sin, no matter what the enemy whispers in your ear. And, like Eve, we can fall just as quickly as she did. To avoid getting burned, don’t play with fire. God provides a way out for any temptation we face, putting guardrails into place to help us stay on the straight and narrow and not stray into places we shouldn’t go.

Become aware of your vulnerabilities. Place boundaries in your relationships that help you resist temptation. When the devil whispers in your ear, respond with three words: “Not today, Satan.” Stay away from the fire and you won’t get burned.

Journal Question:

When have you played with fire?

What boundaries do you need to set in your relationship to protect it?

How can you resist the devil’s lies?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for giving us eyes to see and ears to hear. Please help us quickly identify our areas of vulnerability and assist us in creating boundaries that will prevent us from falling into the fire.

IJNIP. Amen

Two-minute read.

Reading through the Big Seven, also known as the Seven Deadly Sins, you quickly see what they kill: relationships. Haughty eyes, lying tongues, abusive hands, manipulative hearts, feet looking for trouble, false witnesses, and someone who causes conflict all destroy relationships.

We serve a God of relationships who builds community through His unconditional love and the commandments He gives us to follow. If you think about the Big Ten, the Ten Commandments, you realize they also refer to relationships with the Lord and others. Thinking in those terms, you can quickly understand why our Creator hates the things that destroy our fellowship with His family.

Haughty-eyed people judge others less than themselves. Lying tongues destroy trust and spread gossip. People who shed innocent blood cause unwanted pain and heartache. When someone plots evil that brings harm to others, it harms many people. When you go looking for trouble, you always find it. Creating conflict separates the community and causes division.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:30-31

Pursuing God with all we have will grow us like nothing else. Living counter-culturally, we will lead with grace, not judgment. People will identify us by our love, and not our hate. Creating and maintaining a peaceful community teaches us to seek understanding of others and connect with them on an intimate level, leading to a more fruitful relationship.

Living for the Lord causes us to view people through His lens, not ours. Jesus died for all, and He expects us to love all. Learning how to do that will take you away from the Big Seven and teach you how to live like Christ.

Journal Question:

How would you characterize the Big Seven?

In what ways have one or more of these sins impacted your relationships?

How has trying to love God and others changed your life?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for teaching us how to have healthy relationships that flourish and produce good fruit. Please help us identify areas in our lives that we need to fine-tune, becoming more like Christ.

IJNIP. Amen

Two-minute read.

Solomon’s referring to debt in this passage. When we put up security for a neighbor or make a pledge to a stranger, we enslave ourselves to them. The author wants us to free ourselves from the obligation as quickly as possible, forgoing rest until we do.

If you’ve ever watched a gazelle run, they reach speeds of 60 mph when running from a predator. Although cheetahs can run faster, the antelope’s endurance and agility allow them to escape. Living in herds, a gazelle becomes most vulnerable when separated from the pack.

Like a gazelle escaping a cheetah, Solomon instructs us to move quickly in erasing our debts, not sleeping until we do. Financial Peace University teaches the same principle: get out of debt first and foremost. Their average graduate is debt-free in two years or less.[1] Living without the hindrance of debt allows people to create the future they want, not one determined by outside influences.

In my early thirties, I completed Dave Ramsey’s nine-week course and became debt-free. No longer did I toss and turn at night, wondering how I would pay my credit card debt. When I married Ron, I did so without adding financial burden to our relationship. We continue to follow the principles I learned in Financial Peace University.

Move like a gazelle chased by a cheetah to pay off debts. Don’t make pledges that will enslave you to the lender. Instead, apply Biblical principles to your finances and discover the freedom that comes from them.

Journal Question:

What debts do you have?

What Biblical principle would help you most in eliminating debt?

What things can you do today to help you become debt-free?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for teaching us how to handle money and rid ourselves of debt. Please outline the steps we need to take to eliminate our pledges. Give us the tools we need to find victory over our finances.

IJNIP. Amen

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[1] https://www.ramseysolutions.com/money/financial-peace?srsltid=AfmBOopHzpE2boLYIaAMWUX-fqH18cWTsHj16lV_JwN89lOtJQfXuWXk

Two-minute read.

Ron and I just returned from an eleven-mile bike ride exploring the country around our home. Narrow country roads with quick drop-offs led us through the lush green pastures, some with crops ready for harvesting, others already harvested, waiting for winter prep. Discovering new trails, created by the Lord, exhilarates the soul.

God sees the paths we take and the roads we travel. When we don’t include Him in our plans, we often end up in places He never meant for us to go. But allowing the Lord to plan our itinerary takes us into lush pastures and green meadows where we find rest for our souls.

The Lord also understands that the paths we take speak volumes about who we follow. Following the rabbit hole of sin leads us to pain and misery, God watching us as we go, knowing that we have chosen to disobey Him. We don’t conceal anything from the Creator, from little white lies to blatant rebellion; He sees it all. And His heart grieves when we choose anything but Him.

As the giver of life, our Maker has a divine plan for us. He wants to bestow blessings upon us that we can’t even imagine, but when we choose a different path, we miss out on them. We choose each day who we will follow and what path we will take. Wise people let the Lord lead, dying to self and following the Savior wherever He wants to take them.

To live in God’s favor, we must let Him lead and trust that He does have our best interest at heart and will bless our efforts.

Journal Question:

What path have you taken that you wish you hadn’t?

Write about a time you followed the Lord’s leading.

Knowing God ponders the path you take, how would He feel about your current path?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for loving us enough to care about what path we take. As we choose which way to go today, help us make good decisions. Please illuminate the road You want us to follow.

IJNIP. Amen

Two-minute read.

Cisterns contain water, which refreshes the weary soul. On a mission trip to El Salvador, we visited a family home that had a cistern sitting in the courtyard area, filled with rainwater. Before drinking from it, they boiled the water to cleanse it. By doing so, they knew what the water contained and could use it as necessary.

When we drink from cisterns not our own, we have no idea what they contain and can open ourselves up to misery. Today’s verse, the cistern represents a man’s wife, the woman he delights in and satisfies his desires. Drinking from your own cistern means staying at home and enjoying life with the family instead of seeking pleasure in other ways.

According to statistics, infidelity occurs in half of marriages, men more likely to stray than women. As one pastor described it, when people drink from other cisterns, they destroy trust and cause a car crash. Adultery not only damages their relationship but also impacts everyone in their circle: children, friends, and extended family.

Marriage takes work. If we don’t boil the water in our own cistern and take the necessary steps to make it safe, we won’t experience the joy that comes from it. Straying to other cisterns doesn’t bring clean water; it just makes life more difficult and causes heartbreak.

Take the time to boil the water and create clean drinking water. Healthy marriages come from two partners willing to do whatever it takes to maintain a healthy relationship that produces good fruit. Fix the issues, and they go away. Ignore them, and they fester and eventually decay the marriage.

Joy comes from diligently nurturing your cistern and making it a desirable place to draw water. Experience the blessings of a well-tended water reservoir, and stay faithful to it.

Journal Question:

How does your spouse refresh you?

What does it mean to boil the water in your cistern?

What do you love most about your cistern?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for Your provision of a spouse. Please help us do the necessary work to have a thriving marriage. Show us the way, direct our steps, and help us remain loyal to our cistern.

IJNIP. Amen

Two-minute read.

Do you know who had crappy friends? Job. Found in the Old Testament, the book of Job tells the story of a faithful servant of the Lord who lost everything —children, wealth, and health —but refused to turn away from God. When the tragedies occur, three of his friends show up to support him. For the first seven days, they remain silent, but then they start giving Job their theories on why this misery has befallen him.

Eliphaz theorized that Job’s misfortune came from his sin. Bildad believed his misery came from wickedness, and Zophar thought Job had unconfessed sin, which caused his troubles. Job had to guard his heart from their well-meaning words, because none of them got it right.

Keeping our hearts with all vigilance means paying attention to the seeds that people and circumstances try to plant in them. If Job had listened to his friends, his heart would have started producing the wrong kind of fruit, based on lies. But Job protected his spirit by focusing on God’s goodness and sovereignty, which can do whatever He wants when He wants to do it. As a loyal servant of the Creator, Job never wavered in his faith.

Stay alert to the influencers around you and the message they try to plant in your heart. Well-meaning friends can lead you down unwanted paths. The same applies to things we watch, read, or experience. If we allow our thoughts to stray from the Savior, we can quickly find ourselves entangled in worldly pursuits that lead to devastation.

Keeping the Son in your eyes helps you stay vigilant, watch over your heart, guarding it from the temptations of the world. God’s Spirit within us will help us discern what we let into our being and protect us from it. God blessed Job’s faithfulness, restoring his life and doubly blessing him.

Guard your heart, keeping your eyes on Jesus, and experience the abundant life He intends you to live.

Journal Question:

When have well-meaning friends led you astray?

What circumstance do you have a hard time understanding from God’s perspective?

How can you keep a vigilant eye on your heart today?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for Your Holy Spirit, which guards our hearts and helps us keep our garden weeded. Please help us stay vigilant and aware of well-meaning individuals who attempt to sow discord. Let us honor and serve You in all we do.

IJNIP. Amen

Two-minute read.

Hiking in the woods of West Virginia last summer, we traversed our way around mountains on foot paths that required us to walk single file. We had to keep our eyes on the trail ahead of us because rocks jutted out randomly, tree roots appeared periodically, and ferns blanketed the terrain, making it hard to see either of them.

“I hate not being able to look at the trees,” my friend said.

The woods hampered our steps, not allowing us to walk freely, but with focused intention. We definitely could not run.

Solomon describes a different kind of walk. Gaining wisdom allows us to step surefootedly, not stumbling, knowing precisely what to do and where to go. Divine knowledge helps us not only walk, but run with confidence, knowing the Lord leads the way.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105

God’s word teaches us wisdom, which guides our path and provides direction for our lives. Following Jesus takes some of the guesswork out of daily dilemmas. The Savior instructs us to love God and others, and then sets the example of how to accomplish our mission. With Him, we will walk unhampered and run with joy.

Seek divine wisdom and allow it to guide you. Let God’s word illuminate your life, faithfully walking with the Lord, one day at a time.

Journal Question:

How have you sought wisdom in the Bible?

In what way does God’s word illuminate your life?

What would it feel like to walk with unhampered steps in your life?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for Your word which illuminates our path and helps us confidently face the day ahead. Please help us seek Your wisdom above all else, following the guidance You give us to accomplish our purpose on Earth.

IJNIP. Amen

Two-minute read.

Speaking about wisdom, Solomon refers to it as “her.” Seeking sound advice and living by it will save and guard you from trouble. We always have something new to learn, and even though we may possess wisdom in one area, it doesn’t mean we know everything.

For instance, the 40-year-old house we bought has many issues. Since we’ve moved into our new home, we’ve had electricians, A/C technicians, and multiple other experts in their field in our house, helping us fix the problems we have found. By using a qualified person to address the concern, we can have confidence in the work. However, if we relied on people without the proper knowledge, we would only compound the problems.

Similarly, when we turn to scripture for wisdom on life, we will find it. Reading the words written so long ago by faithful followers of the Lord, we will discover the riches of knowledge that will help us make good decisions and not take us down the wrong path. Applying God’s word to our lives keeps us safe and guards us from the common pitfalls in life.

We have a choice of how we live our lives. Choosing to live for the Lord gives us access to His vast wisdom, which no one can fully comprehend. But when we choose to live for self, we eliminate God’s library of knowledge and find ourselves in situations we never wanted to experience. More often than not, our choices lead us into misery.

Seek divine wisdom in all situations. Allow the Lord’s guidance to guard your heart and keep you from falling into the devil’s trap. Live fully in Christ and experience the freedom He gives you.

Journal Question:

How has God’s wisdom guarded your heart?

In what ways can you seek wisdom today?

What area of your life do you need God’s wisdom?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for giving us a manual for life in Your word. Please help us seek Your wisdom and apply it to our lives, allowing it to guard us, but also transform us into new creations. Let us live fully for You today.

IJNIP. Amen

Two-minute read.

“See a need, meet a need,” a common phrase in church circles, aptly sums up today’s verse. When we can do something for someone, we should. Many times in life, when people go through difficult circumstances, we can’t do anything physically, but at the very least, we can pray.

Doing good things for other people happens in many different ways. From opening the door for someone to cooking a meal for a family in need, it typically doesn’t take much effort on our part, but it has a significant impact on the receiver of the deed.

My latest book, “Random Acts of Kindness:  40-Day Challenge,” focuses on doing good deeds. In addition to the book, I created a companion jar filled with scrolls containing random acts of kindness ideas for 40 days, designed to help people spread good in the world.

At my last book signing, I met an aunt who lost her niece a year ago in a tragic car accident. As the first anniversary approaches, the young girl’s mom wants to commemorate the day by doing random acts of kindness. Although I can do nothing to bring her niece back, I gave her aunt my book and the companion jar to help them honor her life the way her mom wants to do.

We never know who the Lord will put before us, or what good we can do for them. However, we can always find a way to do something uplifting and encouraging for them, whether it’s buying them lunch or giving them a book. Seeking God’s will for our lives starts with loving Him and others. When we obey His commandment, we’ll find our purpose. And when we see a need, we will meet it.

Journal Question:

How have people done good for you?

In what ways have you lived out today’s verse?

How can you apply “See a need, meet a need” to your life?

Prayer:

Lord, thank You for meeting our needs and giving us blessings we can share with others. As we go about our days, please help us see the needs of others and meet them to the best of our ability. As we receive Your blessings, let them flow freely from us to others.

IJNIP. Amen