Saturday In The Psalms—Do The “Dos”

…because of evildoer… (Psalm 37)

Not one person on earth can escape from having an evildoer cross their path. The question is not IF we’ll have to deal with them, but HOW we should deal with them. For the one who follows God, here is what David writes to us.

Don’t

  • Fret over evildoers
  • Be envious of them
  • Get angry because of them
  • Do evil things back to them

Do

  • Trust God to handle them
  • Do good to them
  • Find your delight in God’s goodness
  • Commit your lifestyle to God
  • Rest in God’s grace
  • Be patient with evildoers
  • Be content with where God has you
  • Extend mercy to evildoers
  • Keep on following God’s way of doing things

The bottom line for those doing the “Dos”—And the Lord shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in Him.

When evildoers cross your path, don’t just avoid the “Don’ts” … do the “Dos”!

15 More Quotes From “Run Today’s Race”

Oswald Chambers’ book Run Today’s Race was originally published as a thought-a-day calendar. Here are a few more short, thought-provoking quotes.

“When we say ‘Thy will be done,’ do we say it with a sigh? If so, we have never realized that the character of God is holy love; nothing can ever happen outside His purposeful will.”

“‘Why does God bring thunderclouds and disasters when we want to green pastures and still waters?’ Bit by bit we find, behind the clouds, the Father’s feet; behind the lightning, an abiding day that has no night; behind the thunder, ‘a still small voice’ that comforts with a comfort that is unspeakable.”

“Beware of interpreting Scripture in order to make it suit a pre-arranged doctrine of your own.”

“The New Testament view of a Christian is that he is one in whom the Son of God has been revealed, and prayer deals with the nourishment of that life.”

“In order to be able to wield the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, we must obey, and it takes a courageous heart to obey.”

“The Bible talks plentifully about joy, but it nowhere talks about a ‘happy Christian.’ Happiness depends on what happens; joy does not. Remember, Jesus Christ had joy, and He prays ‘that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.’”

“If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; if He has made it better, drink it in communion with Him.”

“We must distinguish between the burden-bearing that is right and the burden-bearing that is wrong. We ought never to bear the burden of sin or doubt, but there our burdens placed on us by God which He does not intend to lift off. He wants us to roll them back on Him.”

“The reason we know so little about God’s wisdom is that we will only trust Him as far as we can work things out according to our own reasonable common sense.”

“Take time, strangle some other interests and make time to realize that the center of power in your life is the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement.”

“The essence of Christianity is that we give the Son of God a chance to live and move and have His being in us.”

“God rarely rebukes us for our impulsive plans because those plans work their own distress.”

“God will never begin to teach me His will in other matters until I do what I know.”

“‘Ye are the light of the world.’ We have the idea that we are going to shine in heaven, but we are to shine down here ‘in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation’ (Philippians 2:15). We are to shine as lights in the world in the squalid places, and it cannot be done by putting on a brazen smile, the light must be there all the time.”

“Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in? The devil? No, the cares of this world. It is the little worries always. … All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.”

Please check out my full book review of Run Today’s Race by clicking here, and the first set of quotes I posted from this book is here.

Poetry Saturday—Overheard In An Orchard

dsc_0023Said the Robin to the Sparrow:
     “I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
     Rush about and worry so.”

Said the Sparrow to the Robin:
     “Friend, I think that it must be
They have no Heavenly Father
     Such as cares for you and me.”
—Elizabeth Cheney

Poetry Saturday—Don’t Hurry, Don’t Worry

Charles DeemsThe world is wide
In time and tide,
And God is guide,
   Then—do not hurry.
That man is blest
Who does his best
And leaves the rest,
   Then—do not worry. Charles F. Deems, Epigram

Links & Quotes

link quote

“Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.” —John Piper

Couples, check this out: 7 Lies The Enemy Tries To Sell You About Marriage.

Parents & teachers should check out what Dr. Tim Elmore says about our kids’ overloaded lives in his post The Case For Margins In A Student’s Life.

John Piper is in the midst of an excellent series in his video teaching series called Look At The Book. This series is about Christ’s teaching on anxiety. It will be a 9-part series, so here is a good recap of the first few lessons.

[VIDEO] Did it only take Adam and Eve to see the entire earth?

Links & Quotes

link quote

Are you subscribed to The Overview Bible Project’s summary of each book of the Bible? Check out this summary of Genesis and then subscribe.

“On this planet, there are about 7,000 living languages. 1,860 of them do not have a single word of Scripture. 4,500 languages do not have a full Bible. That’s more than 1 billion Bibleless people.” Read more in There Is No Good Bible For Over A Billion People.

My friend Jeff Bonzelaar has a thoughtful post called To Drink Or Not To Drink.

“Worry is anti-trust. If you’re worried, you don’t trust something: your kids, their friends, strangers, the church, even God. Can He take care of your children? Certainly. Jesus says, ‘I tell you, stop being anxious and worried about your life.’ Pretty blunt. Stop it! Easier said than done, huh? Worry tests your trust, so hand your children to God and let Him babysit your babies when you’re not around. He’s pretty good at it!” —Max Lucado

Planned Parenthood continues to disgust me. Read 5 Little Known Facts About Planned Parenthood and tell me why we taxpayers are helping subsidize their operations.

DON’T SEE THIS MOVIE! Why Fifty Shades Of Grey sends the wrong message.

“Hell is at stake here, not just the loss of a few extra rewards. … So we warn each other: Don’t drift away. Don’t love the world. Don’t start thinking nothing huge is at stake. Fear the terrible prospect of not cherishing the promises of God above the promises of sin. But mainly we must focus on the preciousness of the promises and help each other value above all things how great the reward is that Christ has purchased for us.” —John Piper

[VIDEO] President Obama is finally making Pastor Saeed Abedini’s captivity in Iran more of a public issue. Check out this video, and go here to sign this petition.

Thursdays With Oswald—Contemptible Unbelief

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Oswald Chambers

Contemptible Unbelief 

     “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). All power is given—unto whom? To the Being who lived a humble, obscure life in Nazareth; the One who says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” If all power is given to Jesus Christ, what right have I to insult Him by worrying? If we will let these words of Jesus come into our heart, we shall soon see how contemptible our unbelief is. 

     … Will I say skeptically, “What does Jesus Christ know about my circumstances? Is His power and understanding sufficient to manage things for me?” To talk like that is the way to realize the size of our unbelief, and to see why Jesus Christ was so stern in condemning it.

From Bringing Sons Unto Glory 

I love the phrase from the old hymn—

Oh, what peace we often forfeit
Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer! 

When I think how All-powerful and All-loving He is, I begin to see how utterly contemptible is my unbelief and my unwillingness to take everything to Him. If all power is given to Jesus Christ, what right have I to insult Him by worrying?

God, Flowers & You

God & Flowers & You

And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you.

Matthew 6:28-30

I’m Not In Control

I am reminded again that my stressful feelings come because things are not going according to my plans. This can only mean one thing: Somehow I have let myself believe that I am in control of all my circumstances!

But I am not in control.

God alone is in control. He tells me not to be anxious, not to worry about tomorrow, but to come to Him to find rest.

Why, oh why, don’t I do this?!?

Enough! It’s time to once and for all give my concerns to the only One who can handle them.

“‘Come unto Me,’ says Jesus, ‘and I will give you rest.’ Do Jesus Christ’s words apply to me? Does He really know my circumstances? Fretting is sinful if you are a child of God. Get back to God and tell Him with shame that you have been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for Him. Ask Him to forgive you and say, ‘Lord, I take Thee into my calculation as the biggest factor now!’” —Oswald Chambers

Your Spiritual Patellar Reflex

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on AppleSpotify, or Audible.

If you’ve ever been to a doctor’s office, you have probably experienced the patellar reflex test. It might be better known as the “knee-jerk reaction.” This is when the doctor taps your knee just below the kneecap to test your body’s involuntary response. How you respond (or don’t respond) tells the doctor a lot about your nervous system’s health.

Did you know that we have a spiritual patellar reflex too?

Consider this verse—

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)

How you respond spiritually to stressful things says a lot about your spiritual knee-jerk reflex.

We see this spiritual knee-jerk reflex in the well-known story of Daniel in the lion’s den. Some of the guys who were jealous of Daniel trick the king into passing a law that forbids everyone from praying to anyone other than the king. Look at Daniel’s spiritual knee-jerk reflex:

Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. (Daniel 6:10)

Daniel’s knee-jerk reaction was to hit his knees in prayer!

This is because hitting his knees in prayer was a spiritual habit for Daniel. Check out this key phrase: he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. The verb tense here is one that means unbroken continuity. In other words, Daniel always prayed, so when anxious times came his spiritual knee-jerk reflex was to do what he always did: Pray, giving thanks to God.

It’s this lifestyle that prompted me to coin the word givingthanksgiving. Giving thanks shouldn’t just be on Thanksgiving Day. It should be a regular activity. And if it is, hitting our knees in prayer will become our spiritual knee-jerk reflex as well.

I want to do better at living this way. I want to pass the spiritual knee-jerk reflex test just like Daniel did. How about you?

Check out the other message in this two-part series series here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials, like this exclusive video in which I take my supporters behind the scenes of my thought process in designing my confrontation flowchart. ◀︎◀︎