“Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other.” (Colossians 3:16a NLT)

Mission — Every day you teach people about God. You may teach Truth or you may teach mythology; either way you teach. You teach others that God is faithful or that he can’t be trusted, and you do that by reflecting faith in God, or by behaving as if he can’t be trusted.

As if.

Some of us carry a myth in our minds that the only people who can teach are the gifted or the professional, yet the Apostle Paul says, “I know that you have all the knowledge you need and that you are able to teach each other.” (Romans 15:14b NCV)

Certainly teaching includes unpacking Bible stories and giving theological insight, but we also teach as we model biblical behavior when it comes to the stuff of life, such as how to love/respect your spouse, how to make godly decisions, how to keep our thought-life pure, or how to get out of debt.

That means we become teachers when we tell, show, reflect how God is working in our lives, and we become teachers when we respond, act, walk as if Jesus himself were living through us (and he is – Romans 8:9-11). By watching you, others will see what “Christ in you” looks like in another human being. (Colossians 1:27 NIV)

So what?

· Being a living teacher makes you wise – Paul says, “Let the words of Christ live in your heart.” You need to know God’s Word before you can teach it through study or by living it. By hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on the words of Christ, they’ll take root in your heart, and this will make you wise. (Romans 15:14b NCV)

· God’s wisdom over conventional wisdom – Too often we look to the world’s conventional wisdom when we’re seeking answers, yet the Truth is found only in God’s wisdom.

Question: What wisdom has the Lord blessed you with that you can share with others?

About this Author: Jon Walker

Originally written by Charles H. Spurgeon, published in “Mornings & Evenings,” entry for February 18th, AM.

Updated to modern English by Darren Hewer, 2009.

“Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.” Job 10:2, KJV

If today you are tired, worn down, and acutely feeling the pressures of daily life, perhaps the Lord is doing this to develop your graces. Some of your graces would never be discovered if it we didn’t face trials in our lives.

Do you realize that your faith never looks as grand in summer weather as it does in winter? Love is too often like a firefly, showing little light except when it is in the midst of surrounding darkness. Hope itself is like a star, not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. Afflictions are often the black foils in which God sets the jewels of His children’s graces, to make them shine even greater.

It may have been only a little while ago that, on your knees, you were saying, “Lord, I fear I have no faith: let me know that I have faith.” Were you not really, though perhaps unknowingly, praying for trials? For how can you know that you have faith until your faith is tested? God often sends us trials so that our graces may be discovered, and that we may know for sure of their existence.

It is not merely discovery. Real growth in grace is the result of sanctified trials. God often takes away our comforts and our privileges in order to make us better Christians. He trains His children, not in dwellings of ease and luxury, but by using them in hard service. He makes them cross through streams, swim through rivers, climb mountains, and walk many long miles with heavy backpacks of sorrow on their shoulders. Could this sanctification account for the troubles you are facing? Is not the Lord bringing out your graces, and making them grow? Is not this the reason why He is contending with you?

“Trials make the promise sweet; Trials give new life to prayer; Trials bring me to His feet, Lay me low, and keep me there.”

Question: Do you know someone who’s been going through trials who might appreciate hearing this message?

About this Author: Charles Spurgeon

On Saturday  November 8th, 2008 my world blew apart – literally.   I was carrying a package I thought was a gift when it exploded in my hands.

We had recently sold our cozy townhouse and were excited to move into a larger home with a yard for our daughters.  The day started out with a quiet breakfast of tea and cinnamon buns.   We were reflecting on the many fond memories from our time living in this wonderful, friendly neighborhood of beautiful Walnut Grove. Moving to a new neighborhood was going to be harder than we thought.

After breakfast, my wife Lynda and I kissed our two daughters ages one and three good bye as they joyfully went to spend the day with their Oma.   We didn’t want to  worry about them getting in the way during a hectic day of moving.  The moving truck and a handful of family and friends came right on time to help us load up and get on our way. One of the last items that needed to be loaded onto the truck was the BBQ. I tossed the wet BBQ cover over the balcony railing, and my father helped me carry the BBQ down the stairs. As I went to retrieve the BBQ cover from the back yard I discovered an unexpected package sitting directly in front of the back door.

“How nice!” I thought, “one of our friendly neighbors has left us a going away present.  I really will miss this neighborhood. It’s too bad the kids aren’t home to discover and enjoy this, whatever surprise gift they would find inside.”   As I picked it up and as I walked through the back room and into the garage I remember wrestling in my mind about what I should do with the gift.  Should I put it on the truck for the kids to open later?  Should I run it up to Lynda for her to open?  While I stood there wondering, the brightly colored package violently exploded in my hands.

The deafening blast felt like a vicious slap by a tsunami of fire.  It had enough force to send me flying backwards, violently knocking the wind right out of me.  I was stunned, injured and in excruciating pain. My first thoughts, next to the utter shock of realizing that it was a bomb, were towards God. Before I hit the ground I sensed a deep connection with him as I asked with great surprise: “What do you want to do with this?”

Lying on the garage floor, holding my face together and gasping for breath my thoughts quickly turned to how grateful I was that my two precious daughters were not here to experience this horrific trauma. I was also grateful that my wife was upstairs packing, and my father was in the back room picking up boxes.   The blast sent razor sharp shrapnel tearing through my face, chest, arms and legs. I was bleeding from my face and having a difficult time catching my breath. All I could do to breathe was to breathe through a scream. The garage was full of thick smoke and I could hear my dad and my wife Lynda calling for me. As I lay on the floor desperately trying to stop the blood that was gushing from my face I could hear many people scrambling and screaming for someone to call 911.

The bomb left me with a severely lacerated face, abdomen, chest, and arm. I had a hole in my abdomen and burns from my knees to abdomen.  My sinus was shattered and my jaw was cracked.   I was relieved to find so many people quickly coming to my aid. The police were just down the street when they received the many frantic 911 calls. And the ambulance seemed to only take minutes to arrive on the scene.

The next thing I knew, I was sitting outside on the sidewalk with a towel pressed up against my face. Then I was whisked off in the ambulance for a number of surgeries and 5 days in the hospital.

I had the opportunity to return to our townhouse after I was released from the hospital. I was shocked to learn the extent of the damage done to our home. The blast blew large holes through the walls, ceiling and even the cement floor. It even blew through the neighbor’s window across the street. When I saw the damage done to one of our hardwood dining room chairs that was waiting to be loaded in the truck, I knew that it was only by the grace of God that I was still alive.

The experience sent my family and entire community into absolute chaos, with everyone asking the question, Who would plan to bomb and kill an innocent family like ours?
While I have great confidence in the Langley RCMP and the officers who we have trusted to bring the people or person responsible to justice, a year after the incident, the question of who still remains unanswered.

While there is no evidence to suggest that the bomb was targeted towards me or our family in anyway, we can clearly see that whoever planned, built and carefully planted this evil device must have been tormented with incredible anger and hate.

Ever since our peaceful world had been so violently interrupted, I have become much more aware of the violence that continues to make headlines throughout our world and community.  Whether it is international news of a child suicide bomber, the latest victim of gang violence, or headlines of police being deployed with automatic assault rifles, we all recognize that something is terribly wrong with our world. We know deep in our souls that this is not how the world should be.

We are so inundated with acts of violence in our news whether it be from our local community or from the other side of the world that we are almost numb to it.  At least until it happens to you or someone you know and love.

We can try to ignore violence as long as possible, but every act of violence affects our entire community. One act of violence doesn’t just damage one life, it damages many others and potentially generations. Now through the power of the internet one act of violence is felt around the world, as we are increasingly becoming one global community.

I have recently read a book called Soul Cravings and I have really appreciate what my friend and author Erwin McManus has to say about the common thread between love and community as opposed to hate and isolation.

In entry 5 of Soul Cravings Erwin writes: The farther we move from community, the closer we move to violence.

Why is this? Because the farther we move away from understanding and caring for the needs of others, the closer we are to selfish judgment, prejudice and hatred.

This may not be true in every case of violence, but it seems to be true in the case of the quiet community of Jefferson County Colorado when two teenage boys planned for over a year to ruthlessly massacre as many students and teachers at Columbine High School as possible.

In Soul Cravings Erwin writes:

If I know nothing else about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, I know that they had given up on love. They no longer considered themselves as part of the human community. They cared for no one and cared about no one, not even themselves. Where there is no love there is no value for life. When hate consumes our hearts, all we can think of, all we desire is to destroy.
When there is disengagement from human community, there is the potential for inhumanity.

The human heart was not created to be a container for hate.

When we allow bitterness, jealousy, envy, racism, lust, greed, and arrogance to fuel our souls, we create an environment within us to be agents of violence.

We live in a time when the most terrifying bomb is not a nuclear one, but a human one.

As a follower of Jesus, I believe that we are created for love and to love, not to hate. I believe that we are created to live and thrive in community, not in isolation or exclusivity. The danger of loving nothing or loving ideas that teach that one view of the world is superior over another, is that these ideas only fuel racism and fanaticism.

There is a dramatic difference between fanaticism and love.

Fanaticism justifies and defines who you hate.

True love is unconditional – true love sacrifices oneself for another without expecting anything in return.

Unconditional love embraces and forgives and leaves no room for violence.

So if we are created for love, what happens inside a human being when belief in an ideology becomes more important than a human life?

I recently read that the security costs for the upcoming Vancouver Olympic Games were originally estimated to be $175 million dollars, but now critics are claiming the new estimates for security will push past $1 billion.  I am all for the games, and believe that we need to have security at the games. But it is the fear of violence that costs us all in the end. You don’t even need to know the ins and outs of world politics to realize that something’s wrong with this picture, that this is not what the world was created to be like.

How dark must a human soul become to justify taking the life of an innocent person just to make a point?

In light of what happened to us last November, this question resonates with us the most. Even though we may never know the true answer to the question of motive, I think it is what our entire community seeks to know.

I think my friend Erwin communicates the issue relevantly when he writes in Soul Cravings:

We stand in the midst of a human dilemma.

We long for community; we long to belong; we long for love.

Yet what we long for most we seem incapable of sustaining.

Humanity has no natural predators except each other.

We are safer in the jungle than in the city.

We are our own worst enemies.

I have heard many people say that religion is one of the main causes of violence and war, both historically and presently. As a person of deep faith and a follower of Jesus, I really think that the world has a skewed perception of the difference between organized religion and having a dynamic, life transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. It is through my relationship with Jesus that God has absolutely transformed my life.

As a Christian, my holy scriptures describe God as a loving creator and father. As a father who is deeply involved and concerned about his creation he knows the depth of our potential to hate, inclination to be violent, so he provided a way to deal with this problem through Jesus. Jesus took on the full judgment/penalty of God’s anger against humanity’s violence (Jesus took on all the violence).  A father who is passionately pursuing us much more than we are trying to pursue him. The Bible is filled with stories of God reaching out to us with mercy, grace and love despite our sin/wrong doings, how we make a mess of our lives, society. The main message of the Bible can be simplified to one simple yet profound passage:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. Who ever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” What great news!

It’s simply about trust and acceptance of God’s gift of love. I’ve come to discover that it’s not about do’s and don’ts or rules to follow, which is what the religions of our world has taught us to believe. In the book of Jeremiah, God says that he loves us with an everlasting love. God’s heart is that no one would perish but have everlasting life and relationship with him.

Again, I really like what my friend Erwin McManus says about love in his book Soul Cravings:

We speak of true love not only lasting a lifetime, but lasting forever.

We can’t manage [what’d it be like] to meet the standards of love [forever], and so we just accept that love isn’t all it’s made out to be. Prepare to be disappointed. Isn’t that the history of love? We can never live up to its standards. I think we recognize this when it comes to God. If God loves conditionally, we’re all in trouble. And this, when you whittle it down to its bottom line, is the basis of all religion.

God loves but on condition. Meet the conditions and gain the love. Love is something that is attained. Oh, we use different words for it—forgiveness, mercy, acceptance, grace—all really different words for love.

In this it appears that all religions are the same. They give God a name and then establish the rules that we must follow if we are to gain his favor and affection. I think this is why a lot of us see all religions as different ways of getting to the same thing.

Some girls want flowers; others, chocolates; others, meaningful conversation (and you thought the flowers and chocolates were expensive); all different ways of trying to get to the same place— to be loved, to find love.

Religion exists not because God loves too little, but because we need love so much. In the end all religions misrepresent God. They either dictate requirements for love or simply become a requiem for love. I think many of us have rightly given up on God on this basis alone. We’ve been told that God is a reluctant lover and that his standards must be met before there can be any talk of love. This is lunacy. Love exists because God is love. Our souls will never find satisfaction until our hearts have found this love that we so desperately yearn for.

One of my favorite passages of scripture is in the book of John chapter 8 when the religious leaders try to trap Jesus by bringing him a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. In that day the crime of adultery was punishable by a violent death of stoning:

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:3-11, NIV)

Through this passage we see God’s heart of unconditional love and forgiveness. The world seems to view Christianity as a set of rules, but this passage clearly reveals God’s true heart and love for people.  God’s main message is about relationship and forgiveness.

It is only through experiencing God’s unconditional love and forgiveness in my own life that gives me the ability to pass on love and forgiveness to others. Whether it be someone who cuts me off in traffic, or the very person who placed a bomb at my doorstep that nearly took my life.

If we really believe that the only way we are going to see an end to violence in our world today, and experience community in the way God has created it is to live a life of unconditional love as Jesus did.

And the only way I know to live like Jesus is to follow him.  God is good and approachable, he is not hard to find as he says in his Holy word. If you seek me you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised. Is this the life for you?

If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest. Please let us know about your decision by clicking below, and let us know how we can help you continue your journey!

“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we must have the mind of Christ” 1 Corinthians 2:16, KJV

The first thing I do when I awaken each morning is to kneel before my Lord in humility, meditate upon His attributes, and praise, worship and adore Him.

The last thing I do before I go to bed at night is to kneel in prayer, to praise, worship and give thanks to Him. Thus, my first thoughts are automatically of Him when I awaken, because all night long my subconscious mind has been meditating on Him.

Every morning of every day, I acknowledge His lordship. I gladly surrender control of my life to Him acknowledging my dependence upon Him. Then, by faith, I claim His mind and His wisdom for direction in every detail of my life. I trust Him to influence and control my attitudes, my motives, my desires, my thoughts and my actions.

In different words and ways, I remind Him that I am a suit of clothes for Him and that He can do anything He wants in and through me. I invite Him to walk around in my body. I ask Him to think with my mind, to love with my heart, to speak with my lips, to lead me wherever He wants me to go, to seek and save the lost through me.

We should study the Word of God daily and diligently, determining as an act of the will to pattern our lives according to His commands and His example. We begin to experience the reality and the availability of the mind of Christ when we literally saturate our minds with His thoughts and spend much time meditating upon His Word.

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:9-15

Today’s Action Point: Consciously and deliberately I will begin each day by inviting Christ to walk around in my body, think with my mind, love with my heart, speak with my lips and continue to “seek and save the lost” through me.

About this Author: Bill Bright

“From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he’ll take charge of sending the rain at the right time …” Deuteronomy 11:13-14 (The Message)

Repeatedly, the Bible says to “serve the Lord with all your heart.” God wants you to serve him passionately, not dutifully. People rarely excel at tasks they don’t enjoy doing or feel passionate about. God wants you to use your natural interests to serve him and others.

How do you know when you’re serving God from your heart?

The first telltale sign is enthusiasm. When you’re doing what you love to do, no one has to motivate you, or challenge you, or check up on you. You do it for the sheer enjoyment. You don’t need rewards, or applause, or to be paid, because you love serving in this way.

The opposite is also true: When you don’t have a heart for what you’re doing, you’re easily discouraged.

One characteristic of serving God from your heart is effectiveness: whenever you do what God wired you to love to do, you get good at it. Passion drives perfection. If you don’t care about a task, it is unlikely that you’ll excel at it.

On the other hand, the highest achievers in any field are those who do it because of passion, not duty or profit.

We’ve all heard people say, “I took a job I hate in order to make a lot of money, so someday I can quit and do what I love to do.” That’s a big mistake. Don’t waste your life in a job that doesn’t express your heart.

Remember, the greatest things in life are not things. Meaning is far more important than money. The richest man in the world once said, “A simple life in the fear-of-God is better than a rich life with a ton of headaches” (Proverbs 15:16, The Message).

Don’t settle for achieving “the good life,” because the good life is not good enough. Ultimately, it doesn’t satisfy. You can have a lot to live on, and still have nothing to live for. Aim instead for “the better life” – serving God in a way that expresses your heart.

Figure out what you love to do – that which God gave you a heart for – and then do it for his glory!

Question: In today’s tough economy, it may not be possible to always be doing a job we love. How can we nonetheless seek to glorify God regardless of our current occupation?

About this Author: Rick Warren

Please open your Bible and read: Psalm 145:1–13

When difficulties arise, what becomes your main focus – the problem, its impact on you, or its effect on others? David’s writings reveal him following God’s plan for meeting troubles: meditating on the Lord’s sufficiency and His good, pleasing, and perfect will. The result was strength and hope for his soul.

Meditation, the focusing of mind and spirit on the Lord, is a critically important discipline in the believer’s life. Through the Psalms, David not only poured out his troubles to the Lord but also continually turned his attention back to the Father. The heart of biblical contemplation is always God.

Our circumstances can be valuable prompts for meditation if we match a character quality of the Lord to our dilemma. Because David had a trusting relationship with God, his instinct was to deal with trials by anticipating divine help and victory. For example, his impending fight with Goliath brought to mind God’s past and present delivering power. (1 Samuel 17:37) Facing a different kind of danger – King Saul’s murderous threats and advances – David chose to dwell on the attribute of protection: he visualized God as his refuge and fortress. (Psalm 91:2) Grieving over the loss of loved ones, he allowed God’s presence and comfort to fill his heart and mind. (1 Samuel 30:3 – 6)

Our main resource for meditation is the Word of God. Throughout its pages, His character, works, and purposes are clearly displayed. When the next difficulty comes, use it as an opportunity to meditate on some aspect of our triune God. From this will come strength and hope to sustain you.

Question: If you were writing a psalm today, what would you say? Which aspect(s) of God’s nature would you concentrate on?

About this Author: Charles Stanley

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8, NKJV)

God gave Joshua three things to do that would assure him that his way would be prosperous and that he would have good success. First, he was to keep God’s Word in his mouth so he would have the truth and the sure knowledge of the difference between right and wrong.  This would give him guidance and direction in the decisions he would have to make. This same Word was also a plethora of promises that he could draw upon in his time of need, and a weapon (sword of the Word) that he could use in the face of battle.

Secondly, he was to meditate on the Word day and night. Meditating is like a cow chewing on its cud. As we go about the day the Word of God comes back to mind and we further mull it over (chew on it), breaking down its contents, and consider how it applies to our own circumstances. As we digest the Word, revelation and insights are the result, and our understanding is opened up as the Word starts to become part of us, energize us, and give us strength.

Thirdly, God commanded Joshua to “observe to do” what is written in the Word. It is the action in response to the Word that actually demonstrates that we believe what we read, and brings the whole process to fruition in our lives.

So let the Word of God be richly in your mouth, speak it out, read it out, pray it out, declare it over yourself, your family and your community; think on it, digest it, let it become a part of you; and act on it to see the end result of God making your way prosperous and giving you good success.

“Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life.” (Psalm 119:92, NJKV)

Question: Which of these three “keys” do you find most difficult, and why?

About this Author: Emmie Stanley

Quiet heroes dot the landscape of our society. They don’t wear ribbons or kiss trophies; they wear spit-up and kiss boo-boos. They don’t make the headlines, but they do sew the hemlines and check the outlines and stand on the sidelines. You won’t find their names on the Nobel Prize short list, but you will find their names on the homeroom, carpool, and Bible teacher lists.

They are parents, both by blood and deed, name and calendar. Heroes. News programs don’t call them. But that’s okay. Because their kids do … They call them Mom. They call them Dad. And these moms and dads, more valuable than all the executives and lawmakers west of the Mississippi, quietly hold the world together.

Be numbered among them. Read books to your kids. Play ball while you can and they want you to. Make it your aim to watch every game they play, read every story they write, hear every recital in which they perform.

Children spell love with four letters: T-I-M-E. Not just quality time, but hang time, downtime, anytime, all the time. Your children are not your hobby; they are your calling.

Your spouse is not your trophy but your treasure.

Don’t pay the price David paid. Look ahead to his final hours. To see the ultimate cost of a neglected family, look at the way our hero dies.

David is hours from the grave. A chill has set in that blankets can’t remove. Servants decide he needs a person to warm him, someone to hold him tight as he takes his final breaths.

Do they turn to one of his wives? No. Do they call on one of his children? No. They seek “for a lovely young woman throughout all the territory of Israel … and she cared for the king, and served him; but the king did not know her” (1 Kings 1:3–4).

I suspect that David would have traded all his conquered crowns for the tender arms of a wife. But it was too late. He died in the care of a stranger, because he made strangers out of his family.

But it’s not too late for you.

Make your wife the object of your highest devotion. Make your husband the recipient of your deepest passion. Love the one who wears your ring.

And cherish the children who share your name.

Succeed at home first.

Question: What are some of the mundane activities can sometimes come between us and what’s most important in our lives?

About this Author: Max Lucado

Please open your Bible and read John 3:1-15.

Did you ever think of God as “up close and personal”? Instead of being distant and unapproachable, the Creator of the universe has constantly sought to come near to us. In order to save us, He chose to identify with us; He also made it possible for His Spirit to indwell us as our counselor and guide. God extends to everyone a personal invitation for an intimate relationship with Him and to follow Him closely.

If we look at His call to many people throughout Scripture’s recorded history, it’s clear that this is not a general, vague offer. (Jeremiah 1:5) God desires that you seek Him with all your heart so that you would find Him and the future He has planned for you. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

But before anything else, God’s first call to any of us is a call to salvation – He wants us to open the door of our heart so that He can cleanse us and do a transforming work in our lives. He calls you as an individual to receive His love, His forgiveness, and a new identity through spiritual rebirth.

Your eternal destiny depends upon your decision to answer His call with an open heart. To say “yes” is to embark on the adventure of a new life full of purpose – the life with Him that you were created to live. Have you responded to this incredible call on your life? If you have, reaffirm your commitment to Him. If haven’t answered His call yet, make today your spiritual birthday by receiving Jesus as your personal Savior and making Him the Lord of your life.

Question: Do you have an intimate relationship with God?

About this Author: Charles Stanley

Do find yourself drifting away from God? Talk to one of our mentors about that.

“A perverse heart shall depart from me” (Psalm 101:4).

Susan had wanted the photo to be perfect. But it came back distorted and she realized she had moved at just the wrong moment.

Distortion is subtle. We often don’t know its happening. It’s a bending or twisting out of shape. It can happen in conversations, in creative projects, in paintings and in photos. It often isn’t even noticed at the time.

My husband laid some hardwood floor in our house last week. At one point several rows were down and we noticed an end in one of the boards had twisted out of place and a sharp edge appeared where it should have been smooth. Immediately he reworked the area to remove the distortion. It seemed small but in the overall view it would have distorted the look of the whole floor.

It’s much the same with our hearts. Jagged edges pop up of resentment, anger, negativity, self pity and any number of little things we rationalize away. Left alone they will create a distortion in our hearts that will interfere with the picture God wants to paint of our heart in connection with Him.

Psalm 101:4 says “A perverse heart shall depart from me.”

In the original Hebrew language the word “perverse” means “distorted” and the word “depart” suggests to “sour” or “decline”.

Normally we would never view our Christian hearts as perverse and departing from God.

We recoil at the thought! But here we are warned to be careful we don’t let our hearts become distorted. It can cause a heart to become sour and decline away from our God. Distortion is so subtle.

Are you feeling a sourness in your heart? Is there a slight decline away from your God and you are puzzled by it? Ask God today to show you if there is a distortion in your heart that you have allowed to come in by resentment, hurt, or some emotion or circumstance that has caused your trust in your God to falter just a bit. Ask for forgiveness and let God know you want a pure heart so you can see Him undistorted.

Father God, I confess to You that I have allowed distortion of my view of You to creep into my heart by some relational or circumstantial difficulty I have experienced. I recognize my potential for a sour heart that can decline away from You. I don’t want that Lord. I ask that You would forgive my wrong attitude and heal my hurt. May I see You clearly and draw near to You with a pure heart today. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Questions: Do you find yourself drifting away from God? Has your attitude become sour over time? Let’s spend some time asking God to forgive us and to heal our hurt so that we can again draw close to Him.

About the Author Gail Rodgers