A merciful person helps himself, but a cruel person hurts himself” (GW). That’s another one of those universal principles: You get what you sow in life

That’s what Naaman did. He went to Elisha expecting to be healed in a particular way. When it didn’t happen that way, the Bible says, he went away in a rage.

Bartimaeus, threw off his cloak and ran trembling to Jesus. And Jesus said, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”

You cannot afford to burn the bridge you need to walk across in order to get into heaven. If you won’t show mercy, why would you expect God to show mercy to you?

Jesus preached against it. Paul preached against it. The whole Bible preaches against worry because it was designed by Satan to produce stress, strain and death.

I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
—Habakkuk 3:18

Christians are supposed to be happy persons! Our generation has become well versed in Christian terminology, but is remiss in the actual practice of Christ’s principles and teachings. Hence, our greatest need today is not more Christianity but more true Christians. The world can argue against Christianity as an institution, but there is no convincing argument against a person who, through the Spirit of God, has been made Christlike. Such a person is a living rebuke to the selfishness, rationalism, and materialism of the day. Jesus said to the woman at Jacob’s well, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” This sin-sick, disillusioned woman was the symbol of the whole race. Her longings were our longings! Her heart-cry was our heart-cry! Her disillusionment was our disillusionment! Her sin was our sin! But her Savior can be our Savior! Her forgiveness can be our forgiveness! Her joy can be our joy!

Prayer for the day
My soul delights in You, my God, and my Redeemer.

“Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times.”

1 Corinthians 3:18 (The Message)

When you confuse being current with being wise, you deceive yourself.
Being well versed in all of the current news and gossip while being ignorant of the eternal truth of God’s Word is unwise. Spending more time watching the news than reading and studying the Good News is a problem. Thinking you know it all because you can quote the lyrics of the latest hit song, the most recent sports statistic, the stock market prices, or the latest political news is foolish. You’re not as smart as you think you are!

You’ll only get wisdom from God’s Word, the Bible.

Many Christians need to spend less time on Facebook and more time getting their face into God’s book of wisdom. God says, “Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times” (1 Corinthians 3:18 The Message).

You may have the world at your fingertips, every bit of information a click away. But that doesn’t make you wise. There’s a lot of wrong information out there and news that you can’t accept without fact-checking first.

Even if you have all of the correct information in the world about something, that doesn’t mean you’re going to do the right thing with that information.

The only way to be wise is to walk with God. And to walk with God, you need to spend time reading and studying the Bible. There are no shortcuts to wisdom!

Ask God to give you a desire for his wisdom over any worldly wisdom. When you live in light of what he reveals to you in his Word, you won’t need to know everything in the world. You won’t need to be right all the time.

You’ll just want to know more of God and his love, because it is the only thing that will satisfy.

Talk It Over

What is the difference between being smart and being wise?
What do you desire more: studying God’s Word or scrolling through your phone? Why?
Why do you think it’s important to ask God for wisdom?

It does teach that the Christian can face tribulation, crisis, calamity, and personal suffering with a supernatural power that is not available to the person outside Christ

When you follow God’s plan, things work out well. But any time you forget God and ignore the playbook, things start to fall apart in your life—physically, emotionally, financially, relationally, and in every other way.