Devotional “Bits”
BY CAMI TAPLEY
A Personal Take On the Beatitudes
Minute Devotions
Anne & Ruby
Non-Fiction
This millennium’s social-networking generation is a lonely generation; everything for the senses, nothing for the soul.
The human spirit can be broken under abject cruelty, but destroyed beneath relentless generosity. We are more likely to rise above affliction than we are to exhibit a grateful heart.
Leave your life at the cross. Be dead to yourself, and let Christ live His life through you. Be so passionate about being totally His that nothing else appeals to you in comparison.
A disciple doesn’t have a plan of his or her own.
The funny thing about learning is, after we’ve learned a good number of things, we have a responsibility to unlearn most of it if we’re ever going to move forward effectively: it is the path to humility.
Life will not be summed up by vitality and youth. This is an important test for those who find themselves left with nothing of value in this world. God looks at our hearts.
Training a child in the way he should go* is just that: training him or her in the way he or she should go; not the way we think he or she should go. The wisdom of man is foolishness to God. *Proverbs 22:6
No one will listen to a person who lets their temper control them. Behind every temper is a perception that needs to be brought under the dominating control of the Holy Spirit before it can be useful.
If God didn’t spare the dirty details of His chosen ones’ lives in the canonized scriptures, why do we purport to be anything more when we gather together?
It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and not see the long run. Wisdom will show whether or not we are to take risks or to put reins on relationships that come and go, or come and stay, in our lives. The “long run” will either have us smiling or sorrowing, depending on whether or not we listened to wisdom in the moment of choosing.
Temptation can build strength for our spirits in the same way that bodybuilding builds strength for muscles: by resistance.
When David was surrounded by his enemies, he said, “I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety.” (Psalms 4:8) I have often gone to bed feeling that I cannot bear to think about another responsibility or problem one more second. However, when I awaken in the morning after a good night’s sleep—miracle of miracles—I find the ability to go on again, by His “new mercies.”
No matter how black the night, morning comes.
Paul said he had become all things to all men so that some might be saved. It starts with our families and our neighbors; if we can’t be the Lord’s with them, we can only be hypocrites.
Although Abraham and Sarah greatly desired a child for many years, at a certain point they became past caring. But when God desires something, it doesn’t matter what we are “past.”
All we need for a successful Christian life is the Holy Spirit; one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. There is no lasting self-control apart from the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. We can get sick of ourselves and work to break our bad habits, and may succeed for a while, but it will either end in failure when the going gets tough, or, it will take on the form of a different addiction. Invite Him into your life every day—He can tackle any problem in you.
A child is born impoverished, while elsewhere, a man grows rich. While neither deserved their lot more than the other, both face Eternity.
Faith is a gift of God. When we try to interpret for ourselves what we have yet to experience, it usually loses something important in the translation. Faith glorifies God while we wait.
God’s character defines itself. Period.
When God speaks something to us, it isn’t so we can say, “God told me,” it’s to learn more of His character—and this is something often inexplicable, both to ourselves and to others.
There is no doubt that life is full of magic, and only those who keep their eyes open for it ever see it. After all, God created the world by the magic of “Let there be…” and there WAS!
Humdrum exists where everyday miracles are taken for granted.
If we are good students—submissive, teachable and humble—the Lord will fill us with the Holy Spirit for wisdom in making important decisions, big and small.
If you judge your spiritual life by how often you read the Bible or do devotions, you will slip into an emotional pattern. We don’t serve God by our emotions. God gave us His word to confirm His nature, and we can know Him by the circumstances and people He brings into our lives to test us and to shape us; by letting His Holy Spirit have His way with our secret heart of hearts. Never boast to yourself or to others how much you read your Bible, just live by it.
Josiah ruled righteously, without compromise. Yet, even in his splendid obedience, he couldn’t turn the hearts of Israel toward God, all he could do was his best. Sometimes it’s the same way with us:—we can live what is right, yet not see those we care for turn to live right, too. It’s deeply disheartening, but we must leave the results of our obedience to God; we don’t always see the fruit of our lives before our eyes. God cares more than we ever could, and the Holy Spirit WILL bring forth fruits of righteousness in His good time.
There are no “small” ministries. If you live by the Spirit wherever the Lord places you, the darkness will be pierced, causing great damage to Satan’s kingdom.
It is a blessing to do menial tasks that require little concentration, because in them, our minds are free to perform the awesome and powerful ministry of intercession.
The Scripture says, “Shall we accept blessing from the Lord and not calamity?” Thank God that He is here for us in our calamities when He doesn’t have to be! It isn’t His fault we messed things up, invited sin into the world, and are now suffering because of it. Still, He doesn’t say, “You got yourselves into this mess, now get yourselves out”—no, instead: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” He doesn’t take us out of our troubles until He takes us out of this world—yet, while we are here, He promises to be with us in trouble. What a wonderful, faithful Lord He is!
The Lord never sleeps nor slumbers, and sometimes we are “asleep” to something He’s been working on for a long time. When we “wake up” is a matter of His mysterious providence.
We can’t find love; love finds us. If we go looking for it, we will always find the wrong thing.
Without a doubt, our children will be courted by the world to worship creation, not the Creator. We need to take our imaginations and feelings back from worldly thinking, and guide our children never to hand them over. We can do this by feeding in them what is from God: the need to believe more than what we can see.
It’s too easy to fall into a pattern of thinking that has already been defined by others who tell us we should be like them. We are to be like the Lord. The Pharisees criticized Jesus for eating with “publicans and sinners.” Jesus could walk and sit and sup with immoral people because he was internally detached from all Sin. In this, He set the example for how we should be.
“Being made in His image” has to do with our eternal souls. God made us to dwell with Him forever, to think and to reason, to love and to create. We were corrupted in the Fall, but made right by the redemption of Jesus. We are fully restored to our right relationship to God by His faithfulness to us, not by anything we’ve done to deserve it.
Love is like a torch in a dark place, taking us where we would never venture without its light.
Laying down the things most precious to us so we can know how precious we are to God equips us with His nature. There is no other effective plan for living. “Kindle” means, “to start or to ignite.” When we give our dreams, our plans, our hopes and our sorrows to God, His touch kindles meaning in them.