Matthew 4:10
Jesus said to the devil, “Go away from me, Satan! It is written in the Scriptures, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.'”
If only I would do this every time I am tempted, discouraged, or start to doubt. Tell Satan to get the hell out of here, then recite Scripture.
I’d be better off.
I will be better off.
Matthew 4:17
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Change your hearts and lives, because the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Anything that hinders or offends one’s relationship with the Father is to be parted with.
Proverbs 4:1-9
In the Old Testament, the priests taught the law of God, and the prophets declared the word of God (Jer. 18:18). But the fathers and mothers gave their children the wisdom of God (Prov. 1:8; 6:20). Their tone is urgent: “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom” (4:7). The strong expressions “hold fast,” “keep,” “get,” “love,” “prize,” and “embrace” set the tone of the section. We grow wise not by brains but by bold decisiveness. Do we want the mind of God, ultimately revealed in Christ? We may, we must, receive his wisdom through the gospel. Getting it will cost us, but not getting it would cost us infinitely more (Matt. 13:44–46).
from The Gospel Transformation Bible
We grow wise not by brains but by bold decisiveness.
I finished reading Tribes by Seth Godin this week, and in it he writes that in all his experience he has found that leaders have only one thing in common–the decision to lead. Within the sea of seemingly infinite diverse personalities, physicality’s, histories, and handicaps, the one thing they all shared was the decision to lead. In fact, that’s the only thing they really shared. This is what makes a leader.
Decision.
Godin says that one is not a leader because he or she is charismatic, but one is charismatic because he or she has decided to be a leader. We get this backwards.
We make so many excuses.
This observation takes excuses off the table.
If you’re not living abundantly in Christ, there is no one else to blame. The reason is because of your own decision not to.
Shalom is always available.
Always.
Will you choose it?
Are you providing a welcoming home for peace?
What is your decision?
Proverbs 4:20-27
We make progress toward wisdom by staying intensely focused: “Let your eyes look directly forward” (v. 25). Many distractions in this world would draw us away. How can we remain loyal to God through it all? “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (v. 23). Jesus may have been thinking of verse 23b inJohn 7:38: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” True life does not flow into us from external circumstances; true life flows out of us from the internal fullness of the Holy Spirit.
from The Gospel Transformation Bible
True life does not flow into us from external circumstances; true life flows out of us from the internal fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Fill yourself with God everyday, every hour, every minute. What else is there? This life is our training for the fully realized, inevitably approaching kingdom of God. In His kingdom, the only way to live that makes any sense at all is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and live according to God’s precepts. All else causes rupture and dis-integration because it goes against design, against peace.