Oh, the Thinks You Can Think

By Elaine James –

“Lord heal my knee in the powerful name of Jesus, thank you Lord,” boldly I prayed.

I woke up with this constant pain in my knee that made walking difficult. “Last week I did a long bike ride and other activities and I was fine,” I said to myself. “Why all this pain today?”

I caught myself rationalizing, reasoning, imagining and being emotional. The book, Oh, The Thinks You Can Think, by Dr. Seuss comes to mind.  It is about the many amazing ‘thinks’ one can think and the endless possibilities and dreams that our imaginations can create.

Talking to myself again, I asked “What’s the point of all this thinking and wasted time?”  God has been teaching me for years about the mind and how much time I waste on my thoughts. I have come so far with my thought life and this was just a test. God has trained my brain with discipline. I gladly accepted the discipline years ago when I found myself exhausted at the end of a day and realized I had not even exerted any physical energy. Back then it would have been days before I stopped worrying about aches, pains and thoughts like “something must be seriously wrong with me.”

At some point we need to go further with God and understand just how important what we think affects our walk with God. One day a whisper came: “Read Hebrews 12.” For weeks I read it over and over again. It’s the chapter on God loving us so much he disciplines us. Reading it helped me realize that God the Father loves me so much that he does not want me to stay where I am at. In order for me to move, he needed to correct my thought patterns and emotions. I often think of Paul being disciplined by God and how humble he became. Throughout history and even still today, Paul’s changed life helps others to grow closer to God.

Listening and learning from God has helped me to captivate my thoughts and build my life of obedience into maturity. Quite often, our aches and pains get our attention and stop us from thinking about things that are more important in life. Watch out! Oh, the thinks you can think!

AUTHOR QUOTE:  Think about what you are thinking, you may be thinking too much!

BIBLE VERSE:  “Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ‘Make level paths for your feet,’ so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed” (Hebrews 12:12-13 NIV).

Devo Family Topics

Hope After ‘I Do’ – Art Fulks

A little girl recounted the story of Snow White to her mother. After telling how Prince Charming kissed Snow White, bringing her back to life, she asked, “Do you know what happened next?“ 

Her mom answered, “Sure, they lived happily ever after.”

The girl frowned, “No, they got married.”

Getting married and living happily ever after are not always synonymous. God created marriage to be happy, but sin disrupted it. Hope in Christ makes it possible again. 1 Peter was written to persecuted believers who faced great financial and cultural pressure. Yet he says there is hope in following God’s prescription for marriage.

Peter encourages wives to focus on their own actions, even if their spouse is unreasonable. By not preaching or nagging, God uses you to reach the heart of your husband. Ruth Graham once said, “My job is to love Billy. It’s God’s job to make him good.”

He also encourages wives to not merely focus on their appearance, but on character and attitudes. Physical beauty is quickly overshadowed by harshness or a quick temper. God places high value on spiritual fruit like gentleness and self-control. And healthy reverence for the husband’s God-given role allows His blessing and intervention even in difficulty.

Peter writes one very challenging verse directly to husbands, calling us to not simply coexist with our wives, but to do life with them. We often compete to have our needs met, but God calls and enables us to be completers of each other, to become a vivid picture of Christ.

He challenges men to intentionally work at knowing the intimate part of their wife’s heart, which takes a lifetime. Chuck Swindoll says, “Most wives who are walking with God won’t fight you for it, but they will long for it…some die longing for it.” Your pursuit of knowing her will make your wife long to be in your presence.

Finally, Peter prescribes granting wives a place of honor. She may not think like you, but she is an heir of God and He has honored you with the privilege of being her husband. No more tearing her down publicly or privately.

Taking God’s prescription is not always easy and cannot be applied only as a contingent to your spouse’s response. But you can trust God’s plan. Remember, God’s timing is not ours and He is at work.

There is hope after ‘I do’!

“You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7 NASB).

Recovering Couch Potato

By Elaine James –

As I plopped on the couch, my mind raced with the disappointments of the day. I asked myself, “What do I do now? I feel like giving up!”

Have you ever felt like that? Maybe you have asked yourself this same question: “What’s the point of going on?”

It took me a moment, but I stopped. I prayed, “God teach me what to do with this disappointment.”

My next thought was, “You have been reading through the Bible. Continue right where you left off.”

I got my Bible and returned to the couch, opening to the book of Job. My heart almost stopped when I read how Job suffered, yet he said these words, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. After my skin is destroyed, this I know that in my flesh, I shall see God” (Job 17:25-26 NKJV).

I leapt off the couch to jot down the glorious anthem, that was then playing in my head:
My Redeemer lives, He lives!
I spoke with Him this morning
And He lives
The tomb is empty.

I need to remember Job’s words when I feel sick, afraid, frustrated, disappointed and numb. Those words helped Job put things back into perspective, and they can do the same for me. My priority is to remember who God is, what He did for me on the cross and that He still lives for me today. This was my gentle reminder of why I am here and how life’s circumstances can either take me away from God or bring me closer to Him.

Give God a chance. He is here for you. Don’t plop down on a couch and give up! Maybe today you need to be reassured. Job’s skin was being destroyed. Have you ever felt that way? What seems to be destroying you? Maybe you heard news about a friend making bad decisions, you were turned down for a job, or even worse.

I am here to reassure you that you can become worry/anxiety-free by trusting God and waiting as He, step by step, leads you. If you believe in Jesus, you will see Him face to face one day.

PRAYER:  Lord, I lift up ______________ (Tell God specifically what is going on in your life.) I give this to you.  I am reassured that I shall see you. Knowing this gives me peace. Thank you, thank you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV).

Excess

By Cynthia Ruchti –

“Whatever you don’t need, just leave it here.” That’s what I told him.

My husband was leaving for a fishing trip early in the morning. He knew better than to wake me, just so we could have one more kiss.

Leaving before dawn meant he had to go to bed the night before way earlier than my night-owl self could imagine. With my husband contentedly snoozing and dreaming of smallmouth bass and walleyes, I closed up the house for the night and made him the lunch I knew he’d need for the trip. But how large a lunch? Did he plan to stop on the way? How long was it going to take him to get to his destination? I should have asked before he fell asleep.

To make sure he had enough, I made him an abundant sack lunch and left a note. In addition to, “I love you. Have a great time,” the note also said, “Oh, the lunch? Whatever you don’t need, just leave here.”

When I got up the next morning, I saw the note with his own scribbled “Thanks! Love you, too!” added to the bottom. Several of the elements of the lunch I’d prepared rested in the fridge, waiting for someone else to need them.

Hmm. Made me think. I wonder if that isn’t a message the Lord communicates to His children. “I’ve prepared more than enough for you, given more than enough. Whatever you don’t need, just leave here for someone else.”

I think the Lord also says, “You’re carrying a load of things that aren’t helping. They’re weighing you down and making the trip more cumbersome than it has to be. If you don’t need them—and trust Me, you don’t—leave them here. With Me”

Who would argue? “But, Lord, I need that worry, that anxiety, that stress. I need that remorse, this extra bag of guilt for things You’ve already forgiven. Don’t I?”

A popular praise song reminds us that none of us has time for the upkeep of maintaining or hauling around cares and regrets that the Lord has already covered with His Love.

PRAYER: Father God, it’s the weight of a deadline that’s creating unnecessary baggage today. Thinking about it is making it worse than it actually is. I don’t need to haul that around when I’m trying to be nimble. Lord, help me leave it with You. And tomorrow’s care? I’ll need Your help with that, too.

“Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for You” (1 Peter 5:7 KJV).

 

Faith

By Peter Lundell –

God chooses to connect with us. Great! Who wouldn’t want to connect with God? But there’s a catch: He is the Supreme Creator and Master of the Universe.

God is loving and forgiving. But if we fully connect with Him, He wants it on His terms. That may seem like a bummer at first, but it’s like when we were kids and mom or dad made us brush our teeth. Those of us who still have teeth are thankful we brushed. In the same way, we eventually find that God has good reasons for why and how He does things.

He gives us tons of evidence to verify His existence. Sift through ancient documents or dig in Israel’s dirt or look through a telescope or a microscope and you’ll find good reasons for faith. That’s good, but agreeing with doctrines or being nice to the Supreme Being won’t make Him say, “Hey, let’s spend eternity together.”

I’ve noticed that God refuses to relate to anyone except on the basis of faith. He’s adamant about this, and no one’s ever been able to change His mind. In the past I tried to relate to God as one intellectual to another—debate our ideas, see what I could get away with. Guess how far that got? As far as the thick line of faith that God demanded I cross.

Faith, by definition, steps beyond rationality. Whether we call that step a “leap of faith” or a logical progression beyond reason into relationship, faith steps past the mind and into childlike trust. God insists and will have it no other way.

If you think about it, it makes sense. God is not negotiating business deals or debating in academic symposiums. He wants our lives. And in return, He gives us His.

PRAYER: Lord, Master of the Universe, You have given me countless reasons to believe, and I thank You for all You’ve shown me. I also affirm my pure and simple faith that goes beyond all the good reasons and into trusting you for who you are and how you love me.

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 NIV).

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