It’s Not Too Hard

It’s Not Too Hard

An Everyday Christian devotional 

Posted by: Brenda J. Wood (Heartfelt Devotionals)

Deuteronomy 30:11-14: Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”  Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. (NIV)

God is saying, “Hey, whatever it is I have asked you to do, it is not too hard!” This verse startled me when I read it.

I began to make a list of a few of the things God has asked me to do in the years since I came to know Him personally. Some I had instantly obeyed.  Others were accompanied with a chorus of  “It’s too hard.”  I am sure that you, too, know the words to this song.

“It’s too hard for me, Lord, why don’t you ask her, it’s not fair to me, Lord; it isn’t my fault, why must I be the one to forgive?”

What a waste. Eventually, I gave in and obeyed anyway. It would have been far easier to just do it when God asked. What will we do with today’s list?

Prayer: Lord, You are right. To obey is not too hard and it is worth it. Thanks for reminding us. In Jesus’ name. Amen  

An Exchanged Life

An Exchanged Life


By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page

"The Christian life is an exchanged life. Jesus' life for your life. When Christ takes control, your life takes on dimensions you would never have known apart from Him.

When you are weak, then Christ demonstrates His strength in your life
(2 Cor. 12:9-10).

When you face situations that are beyond your comprehension, you have only to ask, and the infinite wisdom of God is available to you (James 1:5).

When you are faced with humanly impossible situations, God does the impossible (Luke 18:27).

When you encounter people whom you find difficult to love, God expresses His unconditional love through you (1 John 4:7).

When you are at a loss as to what you should pray for someone, the Spirit will guide you in your prayer life (Rom. 8:16).

When Christ takes up residence in the life of a believer, "all the fullness of God" is available to that person (Eph. 3:19).

It is marvelously freeing to know that God controls your life and knows what it can become. Rather than constantly worrying about what you will face, your great challenge is to continually release every area of your life to God's control. The temptation will be to try to do by yourself what only God can do. Our assignment is to "abide in the vine" and to allow God to do in and through us what only He can do (John 15:5). Only God can be God. Allow Him to live out His divine life through you. He is the only One who can."

By: Henry & Richard Blackaby 
 

Making a Difference

Making a Difference

By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page


But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies. DANIEL 1:8

"Would you dare to believe that God, who called you to Himself and equipped you with His Spirit, could work mightily through you? Have you made the connection between the time and place in which you live and God's call upon you? World events never catch God by surprise. He placed you precisely where you are for a purpose.

Daniel did not let the temptations of his day interfere with his relationship to the Lord. He knew that to make his life useful to God he must be obedient in all things. Regardless of what the most powerful king in the world commanded, Daniel refused to compromise what he knew God required of him.

History is replete with examples of Christian men and women who believed that God would work through them to make a significant difference for His kingdom. God placed Esther strategically in the king's court at a crucial time when she could save the lives of God's people (Esther 4:14). God placed Joseph strategically to become the most powerful adviser to the pharaoh in Egypt and to save Jacob and his family from a devastating drought (Gen. 41:39-40).

Are you allowing your surroundings to determine how you invest your life? Or are you letting God use you to make a difference in your generation? Ask God to reveal His purposes for you and His will for your life today."

By: Henry & Richard Blackaby

Trouble

Trouble

By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page

Does it surprise you that trouble is a part of life? Probably not. We all know trouble close-up and personal—bad health, empty bank account, blighted love, grief, loss of job, and the list goes on.

It shouldn’t surprise us, therefore, that God permits the added trials of being ridiculed and hated because we follow Christ (1 Peter 4:12). But trouble, whether it is common to man or unique to Christians, can reveal to us the moral fiber of our soul.

I have never seen a golf course without hazards. They are part of the game. Golfers speak of the courses with the most hazards as the most challenging, and they will travel a long way to test their skill against the most demanding 18 holes.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I wouldn’t pass it around. I wouldn’t be doing anyone a favor. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it . . . . Meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it and you had better be on speaking terms with it.”

Let’s not think it strange when trouble comes, for God is using it to test the stamina of our souls. The best way to handle trouble is to commit our “souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (v.19).

The troubles that we face each day
Reveal how much we need the Lord;
They test our faith and strength of will
And help us then to trust God’s Word. —D. De Haan

Great triumphs are born out of great troubles.

By: Dennis J. De Haan
From: Our Daily Bread

Beware of the Amalekites

Beware of the Amalekites

By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page

"For he said, "Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." EXODUS 17:16

"The Amalekites were the persistent and relentless enemies of the Israelites. When the Israelites sought to enter the Promised Land, the Amalekites stood in their way (Exod. 17:8-16). Once the Israelites were in the Promised Land and seeking to enjoy what God had given them, the Amalekites joined the Midianites to torment the Hebrews in the days of Gideon (Judg. 6:3). It was an Amalekite that caused the downfall of King Saul (I Sam. 15:9, 28). The Amalekites continually sought to hinder the progress of God's people and to rob them of God's blessing. Thus God swore His enmity against them for eternity.

As you move forward in your pilgrimage with the Lord, there will be "Amalekites" that will seek to distract and defeat you. God is determined to remove anything that keeps you from experiencing Him to the fullest. If your commitment to your job is keeping you from obedience to Him, God will declare war against it. If a relationship, materialism, or a destructive activity is keeping you from obeying God's will, He will wage relentless war against it. There is nothing so precious to you that God will not be its avowed enemy if it keeps you from His will for your life. King Saul mistakenly thought he could associate with Amalekites and still fulfill the will of the Lord (1 Sam. 15:8-9). You may also be hesitant to rid yourself of that which causes you to compromise your obedience to God. Don't make the same mistake as King Saul. He did not take the Amalekites seriously enough, and it cost him dearly."

By: Henry & Richard Blackaby 

Choose to Flee Temptation

Choose to Flee Temptation

By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page

1 Timothy 6:9, 11—But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.


One Monday morning my secretary burst into my office with a worried look on her face and said, “Pastor, there is call you’d better take.”
When I placed the receiver to my ear, a woman screamed, “Help me! Pastor, he’s going to kill himself!”

It was a gracious lady of the church who was referring to her husband who seemed to have everything: houses, lands, sports cars, condos, beautiful children and a lovely wife. He was now locked in the bathroom and she believed he was attempting suicide.

I bolted from my office and sped across San Antonio in my station wagon, as if the Interstate was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
At the pleas of the wife, I went upstairs to the locked bathroom door, and as I was in no mood to administer the Harvard Temperament Test through a locked door, I applied a technique more often employed by a blitzing middle linebacker and ripped the door off its hinges.

The husband, lying on the floor, his face pale from loss of blood from slashes on his right wrist, told me, “I’m tired of living. I don’t want to live anymore and he pleaded for me to let him die.

I picked him up and carried him down to the car and rushed him to the emergency room. After surgery and blood transfusions, when he realized he was going to live and have to face the realities of life, he wept, “Where did I go wrong, Pastor?”

“Happiness begins with a choice,” I told him. “You’re in this hospital as a result of poor choices. You chose to break the laws of God and now you’re suffering the consequences. You can be happy the day you choose to obey the divine principles of truth recorded in the Word of God.”

The man had tried to kill himself, it came out, because his mistress was pregnant and was about to file a massive lawsuit exposing his private life. As a high-profile executive with a major company, the adverse publicity created by such a suit would doubtless cost him his job with all its perks and prestige, the respect of his children and his church and might very well cost him his marriage.

There is a high price to be paid for low living!

Source: Being Happy in an Unhappy World
John Hagee Ministries

Why We Need to Forgive

Why We Need to Forgive

By www.jesus-is-lord-the-way-the-truth-the-life.com's FaceBook page

Recognize that forgiveness is an act of your will not your emotions. If you wait until you feel like forgiving, you will live with bitterness in your heart and that bitterness will destroy you.

Recognize that forgiveness heals you! Forgiveness is not necessarily for the person who hurt you-it sets you free. You're not submitting to their brutality, condoning their injustice toward you, or white washing the words or deeds of your offender. You are forgiving to bring cleansing to you! Forgive your enemies; it's the only way to liberate your mind and emotions from the toxic poison of that painful memory.