Many people don’t understand this idea of gentleness or meekness. It has nothing to do with going around with your head down and your feet dragging. Meekness has to do with your...willingness to submit your will to the will of God. The best example of meekness in action is the process of taming a wild stallion. The cowboy puts a saddle on this wild horse and get on his back. The stallion bucks because he doesn’t want to be ridden. The cowboy is determined to ride the stallion until he breaks him. Is the cowboy trying to break the horse of its strength? No, he needs the horse’s strength. Instead, he is trying to break the horse of it stubborn self will…This is what God wants to do with you and me. He wants to bring our will under His authority—Tony Evans, What a Way to Live!

 

Study and meditation on the Word [of God] was my lifeblood. It was my daily fuel for living. Trying to handle the scope and intensity of my daily obligations, however, rarely afforded me the restful times of simply dwelling in God’s presence that I craved and needed. During the season, I would grab them when I could…. When I’d go before the Lord, I’d often leave feeling guilty that my prayers weren’t more focused…. It was a tension I would battle the duration of my career—how to carve our the uninterrupted time I needed with the Lord when the demands of the football season were buzzing about me like angry hornets. Thankfully, I was still feeding on God’s Word, disciplining myself, fasting and centering my self in prayer.—Bill McCartney, Sold Out

As David found when he was tempted by the bathing Bathsheba, the initial enticement is rarely to sin. It’s more often a temptation to linger too long. And that becomes the first link in a chain of seemingly innocent choices that lead to destruction. From the clear teaching of Scripture, from my own experience, and from the stories of thousands of other men, I can tell you that the longer you linger, the sooner you’ll stumble. Godly men are prompt to do God will.  If we don’t immediately identify tempting thoughts and take them captive the what we know to be true—if we don’t immediately replace the wrong thinking with right thinking—we’ll become so weak that we won’t care what we do until after we’ve sinned and begun to taste the bitter consequences.—Gary J. Oliver, Go the Distance.

Imagine considering every moment was a potential time of communion with God. By the time your life is over, you will have spent six months at stop lights, eight months opening junk mail, and a year and a half looking for lost stuff (you can double that in my case), and a whopping five years standing in various lines. Why don’t you give these moments back to God? By giving God your whispering thoughts, the common becomes the uncommon. Simple phrases such as “Thank you, Father,” “Be sovereign in this hour, O Lord,” “You are my resting place, Jesus” can turn a commute into a pilgrimage. You needn’t leave your office…. Just pray where you are…. Give God your whispering thoughts.—Max Lucado, Just Like Jesus.

The poet Samuel Coleridge once described friendship as “a sheltering tree”. When you have this quality, the branches of your friendship reach out over the lives of others, giving them shelter, shade, rest, relief, and encouragement…. Friends give comfort. We find strength near them…. When something troublesome occurs in our life, we pick up the phone and call a friend, needing the comfort he… provides. Friends also care enough about us to hold us accountable… but we never doubt their love or respect….  The fillip side of that is equally healthy—-our being friends like that to others. It works both ways.— Charles R. Swindoll, Hope Again

Sunday—  John 15:9-10

Wednesday— Proverbs 18:24

Thursday— Romans 8:13-14

Tuesday—  Psalms 17:15

Monday— Psalms 32:6

Daily Devotional—Please check back often for updates!

 

 

This site is hosted by XSWEBHOST.COM located in Hayesville, North Carolina

We would like to thank Owners Tom and Tina Hood for making this web-ministry possible. When you give them a visit, tell T-Bone the Preacher sent you.

Friday— Proverbs 23:16

I remember from my youth when men’s character was much stronger and richer in integrity. The moral climate was such that lying, cheating, and stealing were gross sins. Those caught in them were dismissed from school, barred from practicing law, voted out of public office, and ruined in reputation. When a man gave you his word and shook you hand, it was better than a singed contract; it was a covenant….  Such is not the rule today. Lawyers draw up legal papers with infinite pains to cover every detail of the agreement…Even in marriage, men still vow to remain wed “until death do us part,” but too often they treat their vow as part of a ritual with out true meaning….  When men don’t hold to a high value of truth, they don’t place a high value on their word, either.—Edwin Louis Cole, Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper

Saturday— Philemon 7

Several years ago a man in our church made an appointment to see me. I wondered what he wanted me to do for him. I’ll never forget that appointment. Brent ;looked at me and said, “Pastor, I know you’re so busy and the church is growing, God has been speaking to me in my devotions lately, and I would like to serve you.”  I said, “Brent, what do you mean?”  He said, “I would be willing to give you a half a day every week. If you would just give the secretary a list of things for me to do, any dry cleaning you need picked up, of if you want your car washed—any errands you need to have done, I would like to do them, so you can have more time with your family and more time to serve the Lord.”  With big tears streaming down his face, this dear brother was teaching me the joy of servant hood and the joy of receiving. Dr. John Maxwell,(speech, Detroit Michigan, 1997)

I would like to pass on this challenge to you. Become involved at a Bible believing and teaching church in your local area and just watch and see the amazing things God begins to do in your life.