Guidelines For Living Devotional

Here Are The 3 Possible Answers To Prayer

Yes, No, and Wait!  Those are the three possible answers to your prayers, so says conventional wisdom.  I have thought a lot about the three-compartment answer‑‑ yes, no, and wait.  At the introduction of today's Guidelines, I freely acknowledge that God does not answer all of my prayers the way I would like.  Sometimes, in fact, He flatly denies what I have asked for.  And I, for one, am quite glad that God does turn down some of my ardent requests, because as I later look back on some of the things I once asked for, I now realize that if God had given me just what I asked for I would have been most unhappy later on.

Is God Responsible For Everything That Happens?

"There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will," wrote William Shakespeare some 450 plus years ago.  The Bard of Avon was not new in his contention that God has a will in the affairs of men and women—which puts to rest the idea that things happen by chance or by fate.

Why Our Tendency To Label People Is Wrong

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." John 8:7
Philip Yancey tells how he once visited a prison, and observed that the men who were incarcerated there were caged like animals behind doors of steel, but what left the lasting impression on him was that over each door was a sign stamped in large black letters which read: Murderer, Rapist, Armed Robber, Child beater, and on and on.  The strange thing about human nature is that we all try to package and label people, and in so doing, we trap them inside a box as certainly as though we slammed the steel door shut, pinning the sign overhead.  Was that not the same rationale when a sign was affixed to the cross in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew reading, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews"?

Is There Such A Thing As Fate?

Is there such a thing as fate, or is fate simply the whipping-boy of human experience, a catch-all for what we cannot explain?  The Mirriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines fate as "that which remains destined to happen."  Our English word comes from the Latin fatum which meant something ordained from the gods.  It grew out of a story from Greek mythology which involves three goddesses.  The first, Clotho, or the Spinner, was supposed to weave the thread of life while the second, Lachesis, or the Disposer of Lots, determined the length of the thread.  It was the third in the trilogy, Atrophos, or the Inflexible One, who allegedly cut the thread of life causing fate to strike its sinister blow. 

Why You Should Cultivate Excellence In Your Life

The greatest accomplishments in life--believe it or not--are made not by the smartest people in the world but by those who didn't know enough to quit.  They were the ones who kept plodding, who kept practicing, who kept investigating until they stumbled onto success.  That fact was driven home to me when I was studying in the university.  There were two men in my classes who were geniuses.  Their IQs were way up there.  At the end of a class, they slapped their books shut and didn't open them.  They were smart.

God Gives Strength In The Broken Places

Ernest Hemingway, wrote, "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places."[1] In this, Hemmingway was right. Ours is an imperfect, broken world. You discover your spouse has been unfaithful to you for years. A doctor breaks the news that you have inoperable cancer and will lose your leg.  Your son is arrested for drunk driving.  Or, the promotion that you deserved went to someone less qualified.
 
[1] Hemmingway, Ernest. "A Quote from A Farewell to Arms." Web. 29 Oct. 2020.
 

The 5 Critical Questions You Need Answers To

When a youth lost his way and ended up having squandered the inheritance he had received from his father, he came to his senses and said, "I'm starving here; I'm going home to my father."  Jesus told the story.  We call it the parable or the story of the lost son.

Finding Gratitude After Loss

John Wesley was all of six years old when fire broke out in the frame house where he and his large family lived. It was one of the most vivid memories of his life. John was trapped on the second floor, unable to get out.  He stood there at the window terrified, afraid to jump.

3 Things Everyone Can Be Thankful For

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus," wrote a man who had known more than his fair share of difficulties.  His name? We know him as Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ. In one sentence Paul gives us the key to unlocking the door to a relationship of blessedness and gratitude.  He is saying in simple terms that thanksgiving is not a holiday to be celebrated but an attitude of your heart to be daily observed because no matter how difficult the circumstances of your life—whether you are in a hospital bed or enjoying health, wealth, and happiness—God is in control.

Don’t Forget To Give Thanks For This

Do you ever say, "Thank you, God!" for what could have happened to you but did not?  The human tendency is to say, "Thank you!" for the wonderful things that happen like when you get a raise at work, or when someone gives you a well-deserved compliment, or your child's team wins; but what about giving thanks for what could have happened, but did not?