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September 14

Stop and Smell the Roses

For reading & meditation - Matthew 6:25-34

"... Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ..." (v. 28, RSV)

    Another principle that helps us cope with stress is this: Seek to overcome any rigidity in your personality. You can best understand rigidity by comparing it with its opposite - flexibility. A more formal definition of rigidity is this: "The inability or refusal to change one's actions or attitudes even though objective conditions indicate that a change is desirable." The rigid person clings to certain ways of thinking and acting, even when they are injurious to the personality and burn up their emotional energy. Someone described it as similar to driving a car with the brakes on. Take the housewife who worries herself into a migraine attack because she cannot maintain a scrupulously tidy home while her grandchildren are visiting. Or the businessman who triggers off another gastric ulcer because he falls behind with his schedule when his secretary is away sick. Inflexible goals can be crippling fetters. It's no good saying, "But there are things that have to be done, and if I don't do them, they just won't get done." Perhaps you need to rearrange your priorities, adjust your lifestyle and learn to say Ono." As someone put it, "We must not drive so relentlessly forward that we cannot stop and smell the roses by the wayside." You may be caught up in the midst of one of the busiest weeks of your year, but pause for a moment and ask yourself: am I driving, or am I being driven? Am I in control of my personality, or is it in control of me? Today, decide to take a step away from rigidity by pausing to "smell a rose."

Prayer:

    O God, I am now at grips with the raw material of living; out of it must come a person - Your person. Help me to be rigid only in relation to You, and flexible about everything else. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

    For Further Study

    Gen. 1; 2:1-3; Heb. 4:1-11; Ps. 37:7; Matt. 11:29
    1. What was man's first day?
    2. How can we enter into God's rest?

[nChrist]

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September 15

Don't Push the River!

For reading & meditation - Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven ..." (v. 1)

    Refuse to be obsessed with time. It is right to be concerned about time, but it is not right to be obsessed with it. Do you live life by the clock? Then you are a candidate for stress. When filmmakers want to create tension, they show a clock relentlessly ticking away. Such tactics are pointless when applied to the ordinary issues of everyday life. Nervous glances at a watch will generate tension when you are caught in traffic, but they will not make the traffic move any faster. Fretting will do nothing to alter the situation. So learn to relax, and do not become intimidated by time. Some people live life as if they are on a racing track, and set themselves rigid lap times for the things they want to accomplish during the day. Two motorists were given the task of driving for 1,700 miles. One was asked to drive as fast as he could without breaking any speed limits; the other was told to drive at any comfortable pace. At the end of their journeys, it was found that the faster driver had consumed ten gallons more gas and doubled the wear on his tires; by driving at a speed which, in the end, proved to be only two miles per hour faster than the other driver! A man said to me in a counseling session when I advised him to slow down: "The trouble is that I'm in a hurry - but God isn't!" Learn the wisdom of letting things develop at their own pace, and follow the maxim that says: "Don't push the river - let it flow."

Prayer:

    O Father, save me from being obsessed by time. Help me to see that I have all the time in the world to do what You want me to do. And when I am over concerned, I am overwrought! Help me, dear Father. Amen.

    For Further Study

    Eph. 5:1-21; Col. 4:5; James 4:14
    1. How can we redeem the time?
    2. To what does James relate this?

[nChrist]

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September 16

Keeping Fit for Jesus!

For reading & meditation - 1 Timothy 4:1-12

"... physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things ..." (v. 8 )

    We spend one last day meditating on the ways by which we can overcome stress in our lives. This final principle is: engage in as much physical exercise as is necessary. One laboratory experiment took ten underexercised rats, and subjected them repeatedly to a variety of stresses: shock, pain, shrill noises, and flashing lights. After a month, every one of them had died through the incessant strain. Another group of rats was given a good deal of exercise until they were in peak physical condition. They were then subjected to the same battery of stresses and strains. After a month, not one had died. More and more Christians are waking up to the fact that God has given us bodies that are designed to move, and the more they are exercised, the more effectively they function. Studies on how exercise helps to reduce stress are quite conclusive. Exercise gets rid of harmful chemicals in our bodies, provides a form of abreaction (letting off steam), builds up stamina, counteracts the biochemical effects of stress, and reduces the risk of psychological illness. The Bible rarely mentions the need for physical exercise, because people living at that time usually walked everywhere and therefore needed little admonition on the subject. In our world of advanced technology, however, common sense tells us that our bodies need to be exercised, and we should not neglect it. It may not be a spectacular idea, but often God comes to us along some very dusty and lowly roads. We must not despise His coming just because He comes to us along a lowly road.

Prayer:

    Lord, help me not to despise this call of Yours to exercise my body. Forgive me that I am such a poor tenant of Your property. From today I determine to do better. For Your own Name's sake. Amen.

    For Further Study

    1 Kings 19; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19
    1. What caused stress in Elijah's life?
    2. How did God help him?

[nChrist]

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September 17

Transformed!

For reading & meditation - Psalm 32:1-11

"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." (v. 1)

    We come now to speak of all those who have been broken, or are on the verge of being broken, by the memory of some deeply grievous sin. I am not thinking so much of those who have committed sin and have not come to Christ for forgiveness, but of those who, though they have been forgiven by God, are unable to forgive themselves. A man came to me recently at the end of a meeting at which I had spoken, and told me the details of a particularly horrendous sin in which he had been involved. He said, "I know God has forgiven me, but the memory of what I have done is constantly with me. It is quietly driving me insane." This brought to mind a story I heard many years ago of a father who taught his son to drive a nail into a board every time he did something wrong, and then to pull out the nail after he had confessed the wrong and had been forgiven. Every time this happened, the boy would say triumphantly, "Hurray! The nails are gone!" "Yes," his father would say, "but always remember that the marks made by the nails are still in the wood." The message I want you to get hold of and build into your life is this: the Carpenter of Nazareth can not only pull out the nails, but can also varnish and beautify the wood so that the marks become, not a contradiction, but a contribution.

Prayer:

    Lord Jesus Christ, You who once were known as a carpenter's son, take the stains and blemishes of my past and work through them so that they contribute, rather than contradict. For Your own dear Name's sake. Amen.

    For Further Study

    1 John 1; Ps. 103:3; Acts 5:31; Eph. 1:7
    1. How can we know full forgiveness?
    2. Why not ask for it today?

[nChrist]

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September 18

Grace - Greater Than All Our Sin!

For reading & meditation - Romans 5:12-21

"... where sin abounded, grace did much more abound ..." (v. 20, KJV)

    We are meditating on how to recover from the brokenness caused by the memory of some deeply grievous sin. By that we mean a sin which God has forgiven but which, for some reason, still burns in our memories. The first principle is this: realize that God can do more with sin than just forgive it. I heard an elderly minister make that statement many years ago, when I was a young Christian, and at first I resisted it. I said to myself: "How can God use sin? Surely it is His one intolerance?" Then, after pondering for a while, I saw what he meant. God uses our sin to motivate our will toward greater spiritual achievement, to quicken our compassion toward sinners and to show God's tender heart for the fallen. We must be careful, of course, that we do not fall into the error which Paul refers to in Romans 6:1-2: "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid" (KJV). If we sin in order that God may use it, then our motives are all wrong and we fall foul of the eternal purposes. If, however, we commit sin, but then take it to God in confession - really take it to Him - then He will not only forgive it, but make something of it. Is this too difficult for you to conceive? Then I point you to the cross. The cross was the foulest deed mankind ever committed, yet God used it to become the fulcrum of His redemption. It was our lowest point - but it was God's zenith. Hallelujah.

Prayer:

    O Father, I am so relieved to know that You take even my sins and make them contribute to Your purposes. Grace turns all my bad into good, all my good into better and all my better into the best. Hallelujah!

    For Further Study

    Heb. 10:1-22; Isa. 43:25; 44:22; 55:7
    1. What will God not remember any more?
    2. What is the "full assurance" we can have?

[nChrist]

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September 19

Why Do I Do These Things?

For reading & meditation - 1 John 1:1-10

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (v. 9)

    We continue meditating on the principles that enable us to recover from the brokenness caused by the memory of some grievous sin. A second principle is this: Understand the major reason why you tend to brood on the past. People who brood on the past, and keep the memory of their sin alive, do so for several reasons. Let's take them one by one: (1) They are not sure that God has forgiven them. If you have this kind of doubt, it is really a denial. It is taking a verse, like the one before us today, and flinging it back into God's face, saying "I don't believe it." If you don't accept God's forgiveness, you will try to make your own atonement in feelings of guilt. Once you confess your sin, then, as far as God is concerned, that's the end of it. Believe that - and act upon it. It's the gospel truth! (2) They are in the grip of spiritual pride. You should be asking yourself, at some deep level of your mental and emotional life: How could I have ever done a thing like that? What this really amounts to is that you have too high an opinion of yourself. And that's about as bad as too low an opinion of yourself. (3) They have not forgiven themselves. It might help to stand in front of a mirror with your Bible open at the verse at the top of this page, reassure yourself that God has forgiven you, and say to yourself, by name: "---------, God has forgiven you - now I forgive you too!"

Prayer:

    Gracious Father, although I understand many things, I fail so often to understand myself. Teach me more of what goes on deep inside me, so that, being more self-aware, I may become more God-aware. For Your own dear Name's sake. Amen.

    For Further Study
    Ps. 51:1-19; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13; Mark 12:33
    1. Why can we forgive ourselves?
    2. Forgive yourself today.

[nChrist]

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September 20

Remembering to Forget

For reading & meditation - Philippians 3:1-14

"... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal ..." (vv. 13-14, RSV)

    One more principle in relation to recovering from the brokenness caused by the memory of some dark sin: Forget it by reversing the process of remembering. Puzzled? Let me explain. Memory works like this: one revives an image of some past event, holds it in the mind for a certain length of time, and then this process is repeated until it is locked into the memory for good. Now begin to reverse that process. The matter has been forgiven by God, so don't let your mind focus on it. When it rises to the surface by itself, as it will, turn the mind away from it immediately. Have in your mind a few interesting themes "on call." Think of another and more profitable theme. I know a Christian man, involved in one of the deepest sins imaginable, who has learned to blot out unwanted memories the moment they rise to the surface by focusing his thoughts on the cross. It does not matter what the substitute image is so long as it is wholesome and can thrust the unwanted memory from your attention. Another thing you can do when the memory of your sin returns - even if it is only for a moment - is to turn your mind to prayer. Don't pray about the sin itself - that will keep it in the memory - but pray that God will build into you love, forgiveness, peace, and poise. Images that are consciously rejected will rise less and less in your mind. When they do occur, they will occur only as fact; the emotions will no longer register a sense of burning shame.

Prayer:

    O my Father, how can I cease thanking You for the answers You give - they are so right. Everything within me says so. Now help me to put the things I am learning into practice. Amen.

    For Further Study

    2 Sam. 12:1-14; Mark 2:5; Col. 2:13; Heb. 8:12
    1. What was Nathan's message to David?
    2. What does God do besides forgive?

[nChrist]

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September 21

The End of the Beginning

For reading & meditation - 2 Corinthians 2:12-3:11

"... thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ ..." (2:14)

    Although this is the end of the theme of "Strong at the broken places," I pray that, for many of you, it will be the beginning of a new approach to handling your weaknesses. How thankful I am that, in the early years of my Christian life, God impressed into my spirit the truth that my weaknesses could be turned into strengths. With just a few years of Christian experience behind me, I stumbled and fell. The temptation was to wallow in self-pity. But by God's grace, I got up, brushed myself off, and said, "Devil, you won that round, but I'll work on that problem until it is no longer a weakness, but a strength." I did work on it, and today I can testify that the weakness which caused me to stumble has indeed become a strength. I say that humbly, recognizing that the strength I have is not my own, but His. Today is a new day. How will you face it? Are you ready to face your weaknesses in the assurance that, no matter how life breaks you, you can draw out from each experience a lesson that will live on inside you and help you to find victory in a future situation? Just as a broken bone, when it is healed, becomes stronger at that place than it was before it was broken, so you can become stronger by your very weaknesses. Thus when you stumble, you stumble forward; when you fall, you fall on your knees and get up a stronger person. When we are Christians, everything is "grist to our mill."

Prayer:

    O Father, I sense today that this is not the end, but the end of the beginning. From now on, I shall face the future knowing that, however life breaks me, in You I can become strong at the broken places. All honor and glory to Your peerless and precious Name. Amen.

    For Further Study

    Eph. 3; 2 Cor. 12:9; Isa. 40:31; 41:10
    1. What was Paul's testimony?
    2. What is your testimony?

[nChrist]

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September 22

Coming Back from Doubt

For reading & meditation - John 20:19-31

""Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'"" (v. 28 )

    We consider another important place where some Christians are broken - the area of deep and disturbing doubts. Some men and women have received Christ as their Savior and Lord, but yet are afflicted with paralyzing doubts. Some of these people go through deep agony of soul as they wrestle inwardly with doubt, ending up spiritually exhausted. Someone like this told me that she was a scientist and had serious doubts about certain parts of the Scriptures. ""I'm afraid that one day I will wake up,"" she said, ""and discover that science has disproved large chunks of Scripture."" I could sympathize with her problem, but really her doubts were quite unfounded. Real science will never disprove Scripture, only confirm it. Half-baked science may appear to discredit the truth of God's Word, but real science can only validate it. I suppose the classic example of doubt is found in the disciple Thomas. We call him ""doubting Thomas"" - an unfair label if ever there was one. It's sad how we pick out a negative in a person and label him for that one thing. Thomas had his moment of doubt, but he came back from that place of weakness to become strong at the broken place. How strong? Let history judge. A well-authenticated tradition has it that Thomas went to India and founded a church there. Even today there are Christians in India who call themselves by his name - the St. Thomas Christians. They are some of the finest Christians I have ever met. Thomas had his doubts allayed in one glorious moment of illumination - and then he went places. So can you!

Prayer:

    O my Father, just as You took Thomas and changed him from a doubter to a man of amazing faith and achievement - do the same for me. For Your own dear Name's sake I ask it. Amen.

    For Further Study

    Ps. 37:1-40; Isa. 12:2; Luke 12:29
    1. List seven steps of trusting given in verses 1-9 of this psalm.
    2. What are five results of trusting?

[nChrist]

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September 23

Turning tests into testimonies

For reading & meditation - Luke 21:1-13

"It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony." (v. 13, NASB)

    We look now at the third step in the process of dealing with unmerited suffering: don't spend too much time trying to understand the reason for suffering - focus rather on how you can deal with it. Notice, Jesus spent very little time trying to explain human suffering, much less explain it away. Had He undertaken to explain it, then His gospel would have become a philosophy - in which case it would not have been a gospel. A philosophy undertakes to explain everything, and then leaves everything as it was. Jesus undertook to explain little, but He changed everything He touched. He did not come to bring a philosophy, but a fact. What was that fact? The fact was His own method of meeting suffering and transforming it into something higher. Out of this fact, we put together our philosophy - a system of principles and procedures by which we live out our life in this world. Notice that fact comes first, and then the philosophy about the fact. The good news is not merely "good news"; it is the fact of sin and suffering being met and overcome, and a way of life blazed out through them. The fourth step is this: remind yourself that in God's universe, He allows only what He can use. In the passage before us today, Jesus gives the nine sources from which suffering comes upon us: confused religionists (false Christs), wars and conflicts in society, calamities in nature, and so on. Then He says this: "It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony." In other words, you are not to escape trouble, nor merely bear it as the will of God - you are to use it.

Prayer:

    Blessed Lord Jesus, You who used Your suffering to beautify everything You did, teach me the art of turning every test into a testimony and every tragedy into a triumph. For Your own dear Name's sake. Amen.

    For Further Study

    John 17:1-26; 16:33; Rom. 5:3-4
    1. What did Jesus promise?
    2. What did Jesus pray?

[nChrist]

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September 24

Gold and Silver...

For reading & meditation - Mark 1:14-28

"After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God." (v.14)

    Yesterday we looked at the final answer to dealing with unmerited suffering: reminding ourselves that in God's universe, He only allows what He can use. Look again at the words of our text for today: "After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God." After the finest and truest of prophets had been put in prison and his preaching silenced by a wicked and unjust king, Jesus came preaching the good news about God. How could there be good news about the God who had allowed such a thing to happen? But that is exactly what Jesus did proclaim - and proclaimed unashamedly. And why? Because Jesus knew that everything God allowed, He would use. By His action, He rejected the idea that a man like John should be exempt from suffering, and that God isn't good when He permits such things to happen. Can you see now why God allows us to go through suffering? He does it so that, in the fires of affliction, we learn the secret of an alchemy which transmutes the base metal of injustice, and consequent suffering into the gold of character and the silver of God's purposes. In one place in the New Testament, Jesus refers to being "perfected" by His death on the cross (Luke 13:32, AV). Just think of it: the worst thing that can happen to a man - crucifixion - turns out to be the best that can happen to Him - perfection. This is the attitude we must cultivate if we are not only to face, but use suffering.

Prayer:

    O my Father, how can I ever sufficiently thank You for showing me this way of life? Nothing stops it - permanently. When men and circumstances concentrate on doing their worst - You bring out of it Your best. I see, I follow, and I am unafraid. Amen.

    For Further Study

    Psa.121:1-8; 50:15; Isa.43:2
    1. What was David's declaration?
    2. What is your declaration today?

[nChrist]

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September 25

Never Soar as High Again?

For reading & meditation - 1 Peter 1:3-9

"These have come so that your faith ... may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (v. 7)

    We turn now to examine some of the ways in which our lives become fractured, and what we can do to become ""strong at the broken places."" We begin by looking at the brokenness which comes about through failure. Probably someone reading these words is caught up in a vortex of gloom due to a failure. You may be feeling like the man who said to me: ""I am stunned by my failure. My life is shattered into smithereens. I read somewhere that 'the bird with the broken wing will never soar as high again.' Does that mean I can never rise to the heights in God which once I knew?"" I reminded him of Simon Peter - a man with one of the worst track records in the New Testament. He was prejudiced, bigoted, stubborn, and spiritually insensitive. Again and again he got his wires crossed, such as the time when he attempted to divert Christ from going to His death in Jerusalem (Matt. 16:22), or his insistence that they should stay on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:4). Then, on the eve of Christ's crucifixion, he denied and even cursed his Lord. I can imagine Satan whispering in his ear: ""Now you're finished. Burned out. A failure. You'll be forgotten ... replaced."" But by God's grace, Peter rose from failure to success. He became ""strong at the broken places."" Because he refused to live in the shadow of his bad track record, his two letters are enshrined forever in the Scriptures. Failures, you see, are only temporary tests to prepare us for more permanent triumphs.

Prayer:

    O Father, I see so clearly that no failure is a failure if it succeeds in driving me to Your side. All things serve me - when I serve You. Amen.

    For Further Study

    Exod. 2; 3
    1. How did Moses fail God?
    2. How did God deal with him?

[nChrist]

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September 27

Are Christians Exempt?

For reading & meditation - Matthew 5:38-48

""... He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."" (v. 45)

    We are meditating on the theme, ""Strong at the broken places,"" and we are discovering that although life deals blows to us all, those who meet life with the right responses and the right inner attitudes are those who turn their weaknesses into strengths. I know some Christians who believe that they ought to be exempt from the cruel blows of life. A young man who was stunned after failing his examination said, ""I cannot understand. I prayed very hard before the examination, and I lived an exemplary life for the Lord. Why, oh why, should He fail me at this important moment?"" Later he confessed to a friend, ""As a result of God letting me down, my faith in Him has been shattered."" I can sympathize with the young man's feelings, of course, but I cannot agree with his conclusions. Suppose prayer alone could enable us to pass examinations - what would happen? Prior to examination time, classrooms would be deserted, and everyone would flock to the churches for prayer and meditation. Not a bad situation, you might think. But what would happen to the minds of young people if prayer alone brought success? They would become blunted by lack of study. I suspect the young man I have just referred to was depending more on prayer than on diligent and painstaking study. Now prayer and study make a good combination, but prayer without study never helped anyone pass an examination. Christians are not exempt from the natural laws that govern the universe. We may through prayer be able to overcome them, but we are not able to avoid them.

Prayer:

    Father, thank You for reminding me that even though I am a Christian, I am still governed by natural laws that apply equally to everyone. I cannot be exempt, but through You I can overcome. I am so grateful. Amen.

    For Further Study

    James 2:14-26; 1 Tim. 4:9-16; 2 Tim. 2:15
    1. What is James teaching us?
    2. How does Paul apply this to Timothy?

[nChrist]

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September 28

The "Inner-Stances"

For reading & meditation - 2 Corinthians 4:1-15

""We are handicapped on all sides ... we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out!"" (vv. 8-9, J. B. Phillips)

    Why is it that while the same things can happen to us all, they may not have the same effect upon us all? The same thing happening to two different people may have entirely different effects. Why should this be so? It depends not so much on the circumstances, but on the ""inner-stances"" - or, in other words, our inner attitudes. As someone has said, ""What life does to us in the long run depends on what life finds in us."" Life's blows can make some people querulous and bitter, others they sweeten and refine; the same events, but with opposite effects. The Gospels tell us that there were three crosses set up on Calvary on the first Good Friday. The same event happened to three different people, but look at the different results. One thief complained and blamed Jesus for not saving Himself and them; the other thief recognized his own unworthiness, repented of it and found an open door to Paradise. Jesus, of course, saw it as the climax of His earthly achievements and made it the fulcrum on which He moved the world. What counts, therefore, is not so much what happens to us, but what we do with it. The same sunshine falling on two different plants can cause one to wither and die, while the other will blossom and flourish. And why? It all depends on the response the plants make. Although, of course, they both need water, one plant is more suited to hot sunshine than the other, and therefore responds with more life and growth, while the other shrivels up and dies.

Prayer:

    Gracious heavenly Father, write this precept upon my heart so that I shall never forget it: it's not so much what happens to me, but what I do with it that is important. Thank You, Father. Amen

    For Further Study

    2 Cor. 11:21-29; 2 Tim. 4:7; Ps. 37:28; Prov. 2:8
    1. What was Paul's testimony?
    2. How did he sum up his life?

[nChrist]

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January 29

Two Men - Different Reactions

For reading & meditation - 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

""... 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'"" (v. 9)

    We must spend another day examining this very important issue of why it is that some non-Christians seem to respond better to life's problems than many Christians. Just recently I heard of two different people whose business ventures collapsed. One was a Christian and the other an agnostic. The agnostic responded to the situation by saying, ""I cannot determine what happens to me, but I can determine what it will do to me. It will make me better and more useful."" He struck out in another direction, and his new venture prospered to such a degree that he won an award. The Christian responded to the collapse of his business by saying, ""Life is unjust. What's the point of trying? I shall withdraw from the cutthroat world of business and concentrate on my garden."" He had to undergo some in-depth counseling before he was on his feet again, and after six months he felt strong enough to rebuild a new and now prosperous business. What can explain the different reactions of these two men? We could explain it in terms of temperament, upbringing, and so on, but there is one thing that must not be overlooked - the Christian had access to the grace of God which, if utilized, should have enabled him to view the situation even more positively than the non-Christian. As a counselor, I understand why people respond wrongly to life's situations. However, my understanding of it does not prevent me from recognizing that the true biblical response to life's problems is to take full advantage of the grace of God and turn every setback into a springboard.

Prayer:

    Gracious Father, help me to respond to everything in the way a Christian should. Help me to see that not only do You lift the standard high, but You also supply the strength for me to attain it. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

    For Further Study

    James 1:1-15; Eph. 3:16; Isa. 41:10
    1. What does James teach us about trials?
    2. What was Paul's prayer for the Ephesians?