Devotion: Term 4, Week 2
Self-help books sometimes claim you can change your life in five or ten simple steps. It takes a lot more than that to make substantial and lasting changes in your life.
First, change comes by drawing on a power greater than your own—God’s power. Paul writes: ‘I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ (Philippians 4:12-13 NKJV).
Second, change comes from steady and determined hard work and effort. ‘And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart’ (Galatians 6:9 NKJV).
The key is to understand that a bad day does not make you a failure; it doesn’t last, it’s just a bad day. After you have had one, and all of us have, you just start back on track the following day. Don’t give up. Life is a sequence of ups and downs, stops and starts.
Tomorrow is a brand-new day. What’s necessary now is to revive your promise to make changes in your life and start from the place you left off. If you need to, seek God’s forgiveness, forgive yourself, and begin walking forward again. Make your goal your focus, not the fact that you slipped up.
Don’t get caught up blaming others or yourself. Let it go and move on. Realise that the next time you come up against a difficult situation—and you will—in God’s strength, you will handle it better.
SoulFood: Exo 13-15 John 1:43-51 Ps 131 Pro 26:7-9
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2024
One day when Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, was scheduled to preach to three hundred inmates at San Quentin prison, a lockdown was called and most of the prisoners were confined to their cells. To the few who were allowed to attend, Colson decided to go ahead and give the complete message he had prepared.
The Bible says, ‘… the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits’ (Daniel 11:32 NKJV). This Scripture is not a licence to be arrogant and insensitive to the feelings of others, or to have an overinflated opinion of yourself. It means that when you understand God’s Word, God’s ways, and God’s will, you will be confident in who you are and in what God has called you to do.
Sometimes the people who irritate and hurt us do so because they themselves are in pain. They’re dealing with issues we don’t know about.
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