|
7ab4a00
|
God owns everything and gives us all things to enjoy. He is a good shepherd to us, his little flock. Trust him, not stuff. Move from the fear of scarcity to the comfort of provision. Less hoarding, more sharing. "Do good . . . be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share."
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
0a47975
|
God answers the mess of life with one word: grace.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
8df790c
|
Sometimes God takes his time:
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
a33e8cd
|
Love God more than you fear hell. Make major decisions in a cemetery. When no one is watching, live as if someone is. Succeed at home first. Don't spend tomorrow's money today. Pray twice as much as you fret. God has forgiven you; you'd be wise to do the same.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
bec599d
|
Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life" (Prov. 4:23 NCV). Do you want to be happy tomorrow? Then"
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
ee011b9
|
Worry divides the mind. The biblical word for worry (merimnao) is a compound of two Greek words, merizo ("to divide") and nous ("the mind"). Anxiety splits our energy between today's priorities and tomorrow's problems. Part of our mind is on the now; the rest is on the not yet. The result is half-minded living."
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
fe1fa01
|
Heavenly Father, loosen my grip on the things of this world. Lead me in the dance of spontaneous, cheerful giving, and let that generosity remind me always of your grace toward me, which I in no way deserve. In your Son's name I pray, amen.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
38e1a62
|
The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
91aea2a
|
Plunge a sponge into Lake Erie. Did you absorb every drop? Take a deep breath. Did you suck the oxygen out of the atmosphere? Pluck a pine needle from a tree in Yosemite. Did you deplete the forest of foliage? Watch an ocean wave crash against the beach. Will there never be another one? Of course there will. No sooner will one wave crash into the sand than another appears. Then another, then another. This is a picture of God's sufficient gr..
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
a36d8fb
|
The ripple of today's lie is tomorrow's wave and next year's flood.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
8315533
|
The difficulties have taken much away. I get that. But there is one gift your trouble cannot touch: your destiny.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
4f396eb
|
His life is an example. I pray that God will heal Jim's body. But until he does, God is using Jim to inspire people like me. God will do the same with you. He will use your struggle to change others.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
e393b2c
|
Don't you think God can work however he chooses?" "I believe God worked, and the rest is up to us."
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
64346ec
|
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
38365a7
|
If prayer depends on how I pray, I'm sunk. But if the power of prayer depends on the One who hears the prayer, and if the One who hears the prayer is my Daddy, then I have hope.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
cbc0253
|
Just as a happy child cannot mis-hug, the sincere heart cannot mis-pray.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
b8f3d31
|
failures are not fatal. It's not that he loves what you did, but he loves who you are. You are his. The One who has the right to condemn you provided the way to acquit you. You make mistakes. God doesn't. And he made you.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
5b78cbb
|
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God" (Phil. 4:6)."
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
eaf255e
|
Repeat it to yourself over and over until it trumps the voices of fear and angst. "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in your, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over your with singing" (Zeph. 3:17 NIV)"
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
bb8b936
|
Because of Calvary, I'm free to choose. And so I choose. I choose love . . . No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
39f8c73
|
God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
af2372e
|
Give all your worries to him, because he cares about you" (1 Pet. 5:7). (The German word for worry means "to strangle." The Greek word means "to divide the mind." Both are accurate. Worry is a noose on the neck and a distraction of the mind, neither of which is befitting for joy.)"
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
caf5a05
|
Every quarter of a century an angel has touched one candle. Every prayer that was offered over the candle was answered. The Christmas Candle has become legendary.
|
|
christmas-candle
|
Max Lucado |
|
3f59101
|
Yet when God entered time and became a man, he who was boundless became bound. Imprisoned in flesh. Restricted by weary-prone muscles and eyelids. For more than three decades, his once limitless reach would be limited to the stretch of an arm, his speed checked to the pace of human feet. I wonder, was he ever tempted to regain his boundlessness? In the middle of a long trip, did he ever consider transporting himself to the next city? When t..
|
|
jesus-christ
|
Max Lucado |
|
35b19b8
|
Just when the womb gets too old for babies, Sarai gets pregnant. Just when the failure is too great for grace, David is pardoned. And just when the road is too dark for Mary and Mary, the angel glows and the Savior shows and the two women will never be the same. The lesson? Three words. Don't give up.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
3c67264
|
But God will use your mess for good. We see a perfect mess; God sees a perfect chance to train, test, and teach the future prime minister. We see a prison; God sees a kiln. We see famine; God sees the relocation of his chosen lineage. We call it Egypt; God calls it protective custody, where the sons of Jacob can escape barbaric Canaan and multiply abundantly in peace. We see Satan's tricks and ploys. God sees Satan tripped and foiled.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
4970915
|
6Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks. 7And God's peace, which is so great we cannot understand it, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
e4d064d
|
No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor. 2:9)."
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
de824e6
|
To be saved by grace is to be saved by him--not by an idea, doctrine, creed, or church membership, but by Jesus himself, who will sweep into heaven anyone who so much as gives him the nod.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
a8cfd2e
|
It is foolish to harbor a grudge" (Eccles. 7:9 TEV). An eye for an eye becomes a neck for a neck and a job for a job and a reputation for a reputation. When does it stop? It stops when one person imitates David's God-dominated mind."
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
c9ae017
|
Contrary to what we'd hope, good people aren't exempt from violence. Murderers don't give the godly a pass. Rapists don't vet victims according to spiritual resumes. The bloodthirsty and wicked don't skip over the heavenbound. We aren't insulated. But neither are we intimidated. Jesus has a word or two about this brutal world: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul" (Matt. 10:28)."
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
8789577
|
Do heroes know when they are heroic? Rarely. Are historic moments acknowledged when they happen? You know the answer to that one. (If not, a visit to the manger will remind you.) We seldom see history in the making, and we seldom recognize heroes. Which is just as well, for if we knew either, we might mess up both. But we'd do well to keep our eyes open. Tomorrow's Spurgeon might be mowing your lawn. And the hero who inspires him might be n..
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
5c85603
|
Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:5-10 NLT)
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
ca0b92b
|
Christ-followers contract malaria, bury children, and battle addictions, and, as a result, face fears. It's not the absence of storms that sets us apart. It's whom we discover in the storm: an unstirred Christ.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
cf7280e
|
Each star, numbered. Each star, named! Like every grain of sand. Every hair on his head. Every trouble that filled his day. Created. Numbered. Known.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
85e962f
|
Personally? I think there's more going on around us than we realize. I think God uses even the bad and ugly things in this world to lead us to a good place.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
ffec7e4
|
God wants to be as close to us as a branch is to a vine. One is an extension of the other. It's impossible to tell where one starts and the other ends. The branch isn't connected only at the moment of bearing fruit. The gardener doesn't keep the branches in a box and then, on the day he wants grapes, glue them to the vine. No, the branch constantly draws nutrition from the vine. Separation means certain death.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
c622b4b
|
Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. ROMANS 12:2 NLT
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
25f60ba
|
This verse is a call, not to a feeling, but to a decision and a deeply rooted confidence that God exists, that he is in control, and that he is good.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
65e94e3
|
PRECIOUS AS IT IS TO PROCLAIM, "CHRIST DIED FOR THE WORLD," EVEN SWEETER IT IS TO WHISPER, "CHRIST DIED FOR ME."
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
bfdc1ad
|
You don't have to live with a dehydrated heart. Receive Christ's work on the Cross, the energy of his Spirit, his lordship over your life, his unending, unfailing love. Drink deeply and often. And out of you will flow rivers of living water. from Come Thirsty
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
97356b7
|
That's why the most stressed-out people are control freaks. They fail at the quest they most pursue. The more they try to control the world, the more they realize they cannot. Life becomes a cycle of anxiety, failure; anxiety, failure; anxiety, failure. We can't take control, because control is not ours to take.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
ad635fa
|
If you see your troubles as nothing more than isolated hassles and hurts, you'll grow bitter and angry. Yet if you see your troubles as tests used by God for his glory and your maturity, then even the smallest incidents take on significance.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |
|
2a82155
|
Life is a gift, albeit unassembled. It comes in pieces, and sometimes it falls to pieces.
|
|
|
Max Lucado |