The Bible teaches us that we are to live to please others rather than ourselves (Romans 15:1-3). Sadly, most people do just the opposite. Here’s an example:

Near Lincoln, Kansas, stands a group of gravestones that boggles the imagination. A farmer named David, a self-made and determined man, managed to amass a considerable fortune, but had few friends and no relatives for whom he cared.

When his wife died, David erected an elaborate statue showing both her and himself sitting at the opposite ends of a loveseat. So pleased was he with this monument that he commissioned the sculptor to create another, this time showing him kneeling at her grave with a wreath in his hand. And that made such a fine impression upon him that he set out to erect still another tombstone depicting his wife kneeling at his future graveside with a wreath. He even put wings on her back as she now resided in another world. So, as time passed and one idea led to another, he eventually spent over a quarter of a million dollars on monuments to his wife and himself.

David had no interest in aiding his fellowmen or benefiting his nearby town. Nor did he become a blessing to the church, for he used all of his resources on shrines to self. He died at the age of 92, a resident of the poorhouse, and his cherished stones are slowly but surely sinking into the Kansas soil, victimized by vandalism and neglect, weathered by time.

Believe it or not, you are not the most important person in the world—stop living as you were!

“When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was” (John 11:6).

In the forefront of this marvelous chapter stands the affirmation, “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus,” as if to teach us that at the very heart and foundation of all God’s dealings with us, however dark and mysterious they may be, we must dare to believe in and assert the infinite, unmerited, and unchanging love of God. Love permits pain. The sisters never doubted that He would speed at all hazards and stay their brother from death, but, “When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.”

What a startling “therefore”! He abstained from going, not because He did not love them, but because He did love them. His love alone kept Him back from hasting at once to the dear and stricken home. Anything less than infinite love must have rushed instantly to the relief of those loved and troubled hearts, to stay their grief and to have the luxury of wiping and stanching their tears and causing sorrow and sighing to flee away. Divine love could alone hold back the impetuosity of the Savior’s tender-heartedness until the Angel of Pain had done her work.

Who can estimate how much we owe to suffering and pain? But for them we should have little scope for many of the chief virtues of the Christian life. Where were faith, without trial to test it; or patience, with nothing to bear; or experience, without tribulation to develop it?  (From Streams in the Desert)

For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee–Deuteronomy 15:6 (also read Romans 4:19-22)

Some days are harder than others, and perhaps this is one of them for you. Life is full of frustrations, and we can grow mighty weary with financial pressures, family problems, church misunderstandings, and workplace conflicts. It sometimes seems like we’re losing our minds.

But God is not losing His! Remember that nothing revokes His faithfulness. His promises to us are irreversible, unalterable, firm, and fixed. There are conditions to be met, of course; but outer circumstances must bend, in His time, to the purposes and promises of God for our lives.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises… leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself.” The Lord your God will bless you just as He has promised in His Word.

His promises are sure, His blessings are great, His grace is sufficient, His presence is near, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. Cheer up!

Let God’s promises shine on your problems.
Corrie ten Boom                                                        (From Turning Point)

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn your statutes.” Psalm 119:71

We may have everything naturally that the carnal heart desires, and only be hardened thereby into worldliness and ungodliness. But to be brought down in body and soul, to be weaned and separated from an ungodly world by affliction sanctified and made spiritually profitable–to be brought to feel our need of Christ, and that without a saving interest in his precious blood our soul must be forever lost–how much better it is really and truly, to be laid on a bed of affliction, with a hope in God’s mercy, than to be left to our own carnality and thoughtlessness.

Affliction of any kind is very hard to bear, and especially so when we begin to murmur and fret under the weight of the cross; but when the Lord afflicts it is in good earnest; he means to make us feel. Strong measures are required to bring us down; and affliction would not be affliction, unless it were full of grief and sorrow. But when affliction makes us seek the Lord with a deep feeling in the soul that none but himself can save or bless, and we are enabled to look up unto him, with sincerity and earnestness, that he would manifest his love and mercy to our heart, he will appear sooner or later.

The Lord, who searches the heart, knows all the real desire of the soul, and can and does listen to a sigh, a desire, a breath of supplication within. He knows our state, both of body and soul, and is not a hard taskmaster to require what we cannot give, or lay upon us more than we can bear. But very often he delays to appear, that he may teach us thereby we have no claim upon him, and that anything granted is of his pure compassion and grace.   (from Daily Portions)

And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings.
Daniel 2:21a

When the terrible acts of September 11, 2001 occurred, the world’s reactions could be summarized under one heading: surprise–or, more accurately, shock. When events happen suddenly we are shocked and surprised. And our reaction illustrates what sets us apart from God: He knows the future and we don’t.

Time is everything to us. We keep small devices attached to our wrists to tell us of every passing minute, and calendars record the passing of weeks, months, and years. But all of our time-keeping and calendar-watching cannot tell us what we would really like to know: the future. No one on earth (besides the perpetrators themselves) saw 9-11 coming, but Someone in heaven did. God even saw it coming before it was planned, because time means nothing to our eternal, all-knowing God. A day to Him is like a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8); He sees everything happening at once.

You may be surprised–even shocked–by something unexpected that happens today. But remember: God saw it coming and sees how it fits in the big picture of your life. You may not have seen it coming, but God did.(From Turning Point)

Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only he can see.(By Corrie ten Boom)