Daily Wisdom

“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” Heb 2:15

Like a small root that grows into a great tree, bitterness can spring up in our hearts fostering jealousy and dissension.  

Bitterness Breeds…. It’s poison to one’s soul and those around them, and arises through unmet expectations (Gen 27:34).

The antidote is: 1.) Learn to be content (Phl 4:11) and 2.) Learn to forgive (Lk 17:1-4)

What a person eats is not nearly as important as what’s eating at him.

HSAY... Todd

Daily Wisdom

“... I (Saul) forced myself therefore and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee:” 1 Sam 13:12-13

Patience is the ability to see past your emotions.  In 1 Sam 13 Saul had given up on waiting on Samuel in Gilgal as ordered by the Lord, and after seven days in a unscriptural manner performed a sacrificial offering on his own “foolishly” (vs 12).  This started a emotional rather than an obedient worship in Saul towards God. In ch. 14 we quickly see again Saul gave up on the priest seeking God’s direction (1 Sam 14:19)  and acted in his emotions to seek after his enemy, and demanding his army not to eat for a full day in order to pursue them. This entrapped his son Jonathan to break the oath of not eating and prompter Saul to try and kill him. Pro 29:11 tells us a fool gives to his anger (emotions) and the wise man keeps himself under control. When you fall to your emotions over truth you’re prone to mistake God’s patience with his absence, often resulting in foolish acts like Saul.  We have to understand that our patience in God determines his ability to use us (Deut 31:6).  Paul answers such a challenge in Phl 4:6 “Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer…”  The danger of emotional living is that is fueled by happiness, which is not scriptural verses joy and peace which is.  The more you engage in emotional behaviour the greater your desire for it will become, it’s addicting because it’s achievement only exist in positive happenings. Whereas the peace of God is beyond our understanding and comes by God and from God, and keeps (meaning to mount guard over in the Greek) our heart and mind through Jesus. (Phl 4:7)  

Don’t get blinded by just what you want in God, and miss what he wants in you!

HSAY… Todd

Daily Wisdom

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Heb 13:5

It’s said “You get what you get and don’t pitch a fit!” I remember a friend showing me a new car he had recently purchased, to which he stated it was the car he had always dreamed of.  Interesting enough I ran into him less than a year later and you guessed it; he was driving a new car again.  Is that not life today, I got to have it until I find something better!  Lack of contentment in one’s life fuels impulsive, emotional and temporal thinking.  It is said, contentment is a natural and healthy wealth; luxury is artificial poverty. Contentment does not mean or require one to be without prayers, but it does mean that one’s joy and peace is not based one’s prayers being answered.  God often may answer NO! It’s then one will be able to determine their own level of contentment in their soul.  Many claims are made concerning the lives one would live and the deeds they would do, if only they were better circumstances.  Moses was called to deliver and birth a nation with only a rod and he opened parted a sea with it.  David had only five pebbles and yet with God brought down Goliath. The widowed woman was able to pay all her debts with just a minuscule amount of oil and God. The most glorious and powerful deeds don’t require the wealth of men, but only the abundance God.  Where is your “Contentment”, is it found in the resources of this world or in the promises and strength of the Lord?  “…The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear”; “…for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” (Heb 13:6; Phil 4:11)

You’ll never know what enough is until you know what’s more than enough.

HSAY…Todd

Daily Wisdom

“Lord, make me know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.” Psa 39: 4; 7

David clearly expresses life is short no matter how long life is, making what we choose to invest our time/life in of great importance. You can choose to invest your life in any manner you want, but you can only invest it once. David understood the mortality of life; he was not searching God for a date of his end. But, rather a desire to be more understanding and less focused on the external happiness around him and more focused on the eternal promises before him. By focusing on the eternality of God David acknowledges that, the help of man is altogether vanity as well; riches and honour are fading, perishing things.  It’s the promised glory of heaven, and the enjoyment of the Lord himself, both in this life and that which is promised, that causes him to proclaim “what wait I for? my hope is in thee” and making God the object of his hope and his investments of great importance. You can’t go back on life and start over, but you can start now and make a new ending.

You’ll never know who and what you are, until you know who and what Christ is.

HSAY…Todd   

Daily Wisdom

“Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”  Psa 37:4

Problem a lot of people face is waiting all week for Friday, all year for summer and all life for happiness. The problem with that is not the problem; the problem is their attitude towards their problem. Often one never finds their happiness in the Lord because they are unwilling to let go of the life they have planned, so as to have the life He has waiting for them. Stop worrying about what might be lost and start looking at what is to be gained. If life has you focused on when your next escape from life will occur, maybe you need to set up a life in Christ that you don’t need an escape from?

Create a life of happiness with He who is on the inside, not with that which is on the outside.

HSAY…Todd