“Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?

                         Luke 12:25–28 MSG

– Reflection:

      Allow Your Life To Follow Your Positive Thoughts

Do you realize your life is moving toward what you constantly think about? This can be helpful or harmful. Are you worrying about your future? “I never get good breaks. How will I ever retire?” You’re moving toward defeat, lack, and mediocrity. Try a new approach. “Favor is in my future. Good breaks are chasing me down. The right people are headed my way.” When you think like that, you’re moving toward favor, increase, open doors, and abundance.

Where do we go from here?

Change starts in your thinking. Try this approach, “This condition is not permanent. Chains that have held me back are being broken. I am free. I am whole. I am healthy. I am full of energy, vitality, and strength. My youth is being renewed every day. Get your mind going in the right direction. Your life is going to follow your thoughts.

Our Prayer for Today

Father, thank You for being in control of all the situations in our lives and fighting our battles. We choose to guard our minds from worrisome, anxious thoughts that trap us in negativity and discouragement. We believe that no weapon formed against us will prosper. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 – Scripture:

Next Jesus let fly on the cities where he had worked the hardest but whose people had responded the least, shrugging their shoulders and going their own way. “Doom to you, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had seen half of the powerful miracles you have seen, they would have been on their knees in a minute. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you. And Capernaum! With all your peacock strutting, you are going to end up in the abyss. If the people of Sodom had had your chances, the city would still be around. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you.” Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: “Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that’s the way you like to work.” Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. “The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

                             Matthew 11:20–30 MSG

Key Verse – Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 – Reflection:

              The Unforced Rhythms of Grace

We’re all built by the same creator. And we’re built by him to “come home” every so often. This coming home is meaningful to the lives we’re meant to live. God’s built us to need and receive his loving care. He’s built us to be restored by him. The thing is, many of us men don’t know how to come home. We’re each designed to do it uniquely, so it takes some discovery. Few of us do that. If we do discover how, though, and if we begin to come home regularly, we live in a condition of abundance. We get filled up—and are able to overflow onto others, onto spouses, children, friends, and people in need. We can give, for we’ve first received. We’re able to love and serve as we were meant to. We can be who we were created to be and do the work we were made to do. When we neglect the task of discovery, if we fail to learn how to come home, we operate instead in a condition of depletion. We tend to try to pull what we (think we) need from other people. We tend to try to take from them rather than overflow onto them.

Where do we go from here?

Make a list of a few things, things you truly love doing. Avoid obligations or things you “love” because other people might think you’re cool for doing them. List things that move your heart, calm your heart, or make it beat fast. List things that restore you, excite you, connect you to God, and truly allow you to worship him in the doing. Once you have your list, commit to inserting those things generously into your daily, weekly, monthly calendar.

Our Prayer for Today

Father, thank you for the week of restoration last week. Thank you for keeping us safe and giving us a path to walk. Father, the joy we feel this morning as we get ready for our day, we know is freely given by you. I am happy to come to you with everything I am. Thank you for the grace and mercy you pour out on us each and every day. Amen.

 – Scripture:

I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s. Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.

                              1 John 2:1–6 MSG

Key Verse – Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.

 – Reflection:

                The Only Way To Know We’re In Him

On some nights, as I walk around in the gym I find myself having to change how I walk sometimes my pace slows, other times I have to hurry up so as not to be run over! Many times my route is a bit more quickened to dodge the ambling child in front of me. Other nights, however, I have somewhere else to be (often in my mind, somewhere else more important) I keep my pace, find a clear route and get out of the way as quickly as possible my gait doesn’t change one bit. Being in that gym with those guys watching them pickup what we are pouring into them is amazing. Each face watching and paying attention some are not but each starts to learn in their own way. I bet that was probably how Jesus felt as he looked around at the people he was leading too. I like to think so anyway.

 Where do we go from here?

What would it look like to abide in Christ in such a way that we “walk just as he walked”? How would our pace around the youth or others be changed? Where would you slow down to be present, and where would you be quickened to be by the side of another? How might our most efficient routes be stretched to meet those on the margins in life? Where would our business march be turned into skips of joy?!

 Our Prayer for Today

Father, we praise you for your rhythms of moving in this world. Shake us out of our day to day routine that we may be awakened to your movement among us. And as we join in your way, may we receive the joy of Jesus being alive.

 – Scripture: 

Saul answered David, “You can’t go and fight this Philistine. You’re too young and inexperienced and he’s been at this fighting business since before you were born.”
David said, “I’ve been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I’d go after it, knock it down, and rescue the lamb. If it turned on me, I’d grab it by the throat, wring its neck, and kill it. Lion or bear, it made no difference I killed it. And I’ll do the same to this Philistine pig who is taunting th,e troops of God-Alive. God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine.”

                             1 Samuel 17:33-37 MSG

 – Reflection:

               Allow Your Will To Make A Way

David became the greatest king the world has ever seen even though his father did not believe in him, his brother made fun of him and tried to humiliate him, and King Saul told him that it was ridiculous that he thought he could defeat Goliath. Most people would have been insecure, had low self-esteem, lived offended, and given up. But when the giant Goliath ridiculed him, David proved that he would not let another person determine his value or let threats and insults hold him back. He knew his value came from his Creator and that he was a giant killer.

 Where do we go from here?

Letting people, your past, or what you’re up against determine your image? It takes faith to say, “God, I feel intimidated and afraid. I don’t see how I can do this, but I’m going to get in agreement with what Your Word says about me and believe that I can.” That’s when you’ll discover talent, ability, and courage that you’ve never seen. You won’t be talked out of your dreams. You will defeat your giants.

 Our Prayer for Today

Father, thank You that we are not limited by what the people around us say or think about us. Thank you that you have qualified me to do what you have planned for us to do. We will not allow others to put a limitation on what You have placed in our hearts. With all the grace and mercy you have given us, we can all say. Amen.