ROOTS OF BITTERNESS “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you” (Psalm 73:21-22 NIV). We have all been sick in our hearts before, or perhaps we are currently dealing with a sickness in our heart. The sickness I am referring to is bitterness. This kind of…
EXPRESS IT “I cannot keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. My bitter soul must complain” (Job 7:11 NLT). It is hard to keep everything in your chest when you are suffering, or when you are under a lot of pressure. You need to ventilate your frustration. If you do not do this, then…
FRIENDS “Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus” (Mark 2:3-4 NLT). It is good to be friends who…
DISCOVER YOUR GOAL “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful” (2 Timothy 4:7 NLT). Some of us have not achieved our goal because we don’t even know what it is. We cannot live on earth just by “going with the flow” and lacking a sense of…
THE TEMPORARY PLEASURES “I said to myself, “Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” But I found that this, too, was meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 2:1 NLT). What pleasures was Solomon referring to? The Word affirms that there is nothing new under the sun. We still go through the same battles…
YOUR LOVER IS THE BEST “Why is your lover better than all others, O woman of rare beauty? What makes your lover so special that we must promise this?” (Song of Solomon 5:9 NLT). The Church represents the bride and Christ is the loving groom. The question found in this verse is, why is your lover better…
THE POWER OF YOUR WORDS “Husband: How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful! Your eyes are like doves. Wife: You are so handsome, my love, pleasing beyond words! The soft grass is our bed” (Song of Solomon 1:15-16 NLT). I know that these phrases are very poetic, but perhaps they remind us that we should endeavor to…
LEADERS BRING ORDER “I immediately confronted the leaders and demanded, “Why has the Temple of God been neglected?” Then I called all the Levites back again and restored them to their proper duties” (Nehemiah 13:11 NLT). We need leaders in all areas of society. Things tend to divert from their original purpose, but when leaders…
OVERCOME WORRY “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7 NLT). There is a very common phenomenon in the human being and that is worry. We worry when we try to control the uncontrollable. When you can’t change your son, you are affected, when you can’t change…
PICK UP YOUR CROSS “And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29 NLT). The only places where one can see if they have really died…