STOP LYING NOW…
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. Deuteronomy 5:20
If we twist the truth, there will always be warning bells and whistles going off in our minds, and that sick feeling in our stomachs. We weren’t created to lie. The ninth commandment makes it clear: don’t give false testimony. In other words, don’t lie.
So the only reasonable choice for any of us is to stop lying. Now. Completely. If we have even the slightest tendency to distort the truth – and who among us doesn’t? – we need to say, “From this day forward I purpose in my heart, with the help of God, to speak only the truth, always and in every situation, for the rest of my life.” Such a commitment will inevitably improve our relationship with God and with everyone else. But we must be willing to draw a line in the sand and say, “Enough. No more half-truths. No more exaggeration. No more verbal twisting of reality. No more lies!” God will honor a faith-building decision like that one.
APPLY: Whether lying is a big problem or just a temptation in your life, make a commitment to absolute truth. Notice what happens to your relationship with God and others as you live out this commitment.
– From Courageous Faith through the Year by Bill Hybels.
DON’T TAMPER WITH GOD’S PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE…
Cease meddling with God’s plans and will. You touch anything of His, and you mar the work. You may move the hands of a clock to suit you, but you do not change the time; so you may hurry the unfolding of God’s will, but you harm and do not help the work. You can open a rosebud but you spoil the flower. Leave all to Him. Hands down. Thy will, not mine.
─Stephen Merritt
BOLDNESS OF FAITH…
One of the special marks of the Holy Ghost in the Apostolic Church was the spirit of boldness. One of the most essential qualities of the faith that is to attempt, great things for God, and expect great things from God, is holy audacity. Where we are dealing with a supernatural Being, and taking from Him things that are humanly impossible, it is easier to take much than little; it is easier to stand in a place of audacious trust than in a place of cautious, timid clinging to the shore.
Likewise seamen in the life of faith, let us launch out into the deep, and find that all things are possible with God, and all things are possible unto him that believeth.
Let us, today, attempt great things for God; take His faith and believe for them and His strength to accomplish them.
— Days of Heaven upon Earth.
LIFE HERE AS A PREPARATION…
Life on earth is just the dress rehearsal before the real production. You will spend far more time on the other side of death—in eternity—than you will here. Earth is the staging area, the preschool, the tryout for your life in eternity. It is the practice workout before the actual game; the warm-up lap before the race begins. This life is preparation for the next.
– Rick Warren
Compiled by Pastor Tunde Amosun
