Proverbs 17:22 observes, “A cheerful
heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Modern life
confirms God’s diagnosis; negative attitudes literally kill us---through
anxiety, neuroses, and mental illness. A positive outlook does not change the
circumstances, but it does change our response to the circumstances, setting us
free from anxiety, bitterness, frustration, and neuroses (Charlie Riggs, Learning to Walk with God).
LIVING IN A FAST-MOVING
WORLD
Life which is constantly in the fast
lane takes quite a toll. Our full-throttle lifestyle rapes relationships,
substitutes frenzy for friendship, feeds the ego but starves the inner man.
Whatever happened to summer evenings
when life was slower and you sat for hours on the front porch, and listened to
the swing squeak? Life in the fast-forward mode can keep us from an encounter
with the wonders of God around us. Like the sound of a distant bell comes God’s
call to man. “Be still, and know that Ima God” (Psalm 46:10). It is a call in
our day to beware of the barrenness of too busy a life. God has fabulously
endowed our world with wonders. Let us not go through life so fast that we will
have missed them.
ADVERSITY
“A bad conscience embitters the sweetest comforts; a
good one sweetens the bitter crosses. Because Job was blameless before God, he
could stand tall when the winds of adversity beat savagely on him. So too, in
the day of our testing, it will be our integrity that will enable faith to
withstand the storms.”
Paul says, “So I strive always to keep
my conscience clear before God and man” (Acts 24:16).
WITNESSING
As Vance Havner suggested, there are many Christians
today who spend their time trying to decipher the meaning of the fourth toe on
the right foot of some obscure beast in prophecy, yet never use their own feet
to cross the street and witness to a neighbor (Quoted in Paul W. Powell, Building an Evangelistic Church).
LOVING
PARENTS
Children who are abused grow up to be
abusive parents. Statistics have shown that children who grew up in loving
homes become loving parents. On the other hand, children who grew up in abusive
homes become abusive parents themselves. That is the natural law of sowing and
reaping. Children are a privilege. Nonetheless, they come with parental
responsibility. The training of children requires love, wisdom, dedication, consistency,
the diligent study of the Bible, and the daily bending of the knee in prayer.
GOD’S MERCY
AND GRACE
I recall the story of an ancient rabbi who consented
to take a weary old traveler into his house for a night of rest. In
conversation, the rabbi discovered the visitor was almost 100 years old and a
confirmed atheist. Infuriated, the rabbi arose, opened the door and ordered the
man into the night.
Then, sitting down by his candle and
Old Testament, it seemed he heard a voice, God’s voice. “I have endured that
sinner for almost a century. Could you not endure him for a night?” The rabbi
ran out and overtaking the old man, brought him back to the hospitality of his
home for the night (A. W. Tozer, Renewed Day
by Day).
