Steadfast Service
How do we react to tragic events? When upsetting experiences come into our personal lives and create an atmosphere of darkness and gloom, how do we respond? We may tend to panic or lose heart. A man named Abraham Davenport can teach us a lesson in steadfastness.
Limitation Or Advantage?
We've been taught that when we ask God for something through prayer, His answer may be yes, no, or wait. We're told that even no is an answer, though obviously not the one we may want. It certainly wasn't the answer Paul wanted when he begged God three times to remove his "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7-8).
Always For Us
Naomi, her husband, and their two sons left Israel and moved to Moab because of a famine (Ruth 1:1-2). One son married Ruth, the other married Orpah. Eventually Naomi's husband and sons died (vv.3,5), so she decided to return to Israel. But she felt that her daughters-in-law would be better off staying in Moab (vv.6-13). She tried to dissuade them from going with her by saying, "No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!" (v.13).
Unanswered Prayer
Have you or a friend been afflicted with an illness for which there is no medical cure? Has God denied your repeated requests for healing? Has His refusal to say yes caused you to question His purpose?
Pain's Purpose
Affliction, when we accept it with patience and humility, can lead us to a deeper, fuller life. "Before I was afflicted I went astray," David wrote, "but now I keep Your Word" (Psalm 119:67). And again, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes" (v.71).
Our Place Of Refuge
It is believed that David wrote Psalm 57 while fleeing from King Saul, who had hatred in his heart for the former shepherd boy. David ducked into a cave and barely escaped his pursuer. He was safe temporarily, but the threat was still there.
A Life-And-Death Issue
By altering the gene that controls aging, scientists believe they can extend the average human lifespan to 100 by the end of this century. This would be well beyond the proverbial 70 years mentioned in Psalm 90:10. But even if people do live longer, life's final chapter will still read, "It is soon cut off" (v.10).
Reasons To Rejoice
The New Testament gives us many reasons to rejoice. For example, Jesus said, "Rejoice because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). The apostle Peter spoke of the reasons believers can "rejoice with joy inexpressible" (1 Peter 1:8). We're not asked to pretend that problems don't exist but to rejoice even in the midst of them.
Tested And True
A young nurse was assisting a surgeon for the first time. As he was completing the operation, she told him he had used 12 sponges, but she could account for only 11. The doctor curtly replied that he had removed them all from inside the patient. The nurse insisted that one was missing, but the doctor declared he would proceed with sewing up the incision.
