| Today's Bible Verse |
| ". . . let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."
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Hebrews 12:1 King James Version (KJV)
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| Today's Bible Study |
My mother attended high school in the late 1940s. When she enrolled in her typing class, she was told she would need to provide her own typewriter. She did not own one, and her parents could
not afford to buy one for her. She borrowed a typewriter from a storekeeper.
This was the day of big, black, heavy, and clunky typewriters. But the machine my mother used was
especially cumbersome to use because it was broken. The bell indicating that the end of the line was nearing didn’t work. Neither did the tabulator key.
Mom’s efforts at becoming
a fast typist were hampered by these broken elements. She persevered, though, and eventually ranked second in her class for speed.
All of us have used broken machines: lawnmowers
that won’t start, cars that leave us stranded on the roadside, and those blasted hand-operated can openers that make only a few random cuts around the rim of a can.
But machines
are not the only things that break.
Each of us is broken. Satan has corrupted everything and everyone on the earth. We count on our hearts to beat and pump blood through our bodies,
but hearts give out. Bones break, Alzheimer’s disease takes our memories, and the strong bodies we had in youth become weak and disfigured by arthritis.
Our efforts to do good
go belly up. We succumb to “the sin which doth so easily beset us.” We are tempted to give up, but that is not the answer. We must adapt, persevere, get good people on our side, and go
with God. A great rescue is coming. Believe it.
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| Today's Prayer |
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| Father, you created me to be whole, but I come before You today broken, flawed, and discouraged. Lift me up and keep me until the day when you make all things perfect. Through Jesus, I pray, Amen.
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| Yesterday's Bible
Verse |
| ". . . of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage."
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2 Peter 2:19 King James Version (KJV)
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| Yesterday's Bible
Study |
We have lots of squirrels in our neighborhood. These little critters display a dangerous habit. One begins to cross the street, stops mid-route, then turns around and goes back
the way it came. Just when a driver thinks the animal has committed to a street-crossing plan, she finds the squirrel directly in the path of her wheels.
Consequently,
seeing dead squirrels on our streets is commonplace.
“Stop, look and listen before you cross the street. Use your eyes, use your ears and then use your feet” is a
good routine for squirrels to practice.
It is a good routine for humans to practice too, not only when crossing streets but also when making other decisions.
Some workers routinely push their snooze alarms one time too many and arrive at work late day after day. Experience should teach that sleepy snoozer, after the second or third
morning, to avoid staying in bed too long.
Drinkers should not stumble home in an alcoholic stupor more than once. Students ought to learn the importance of preparation
after failing their first algebra test.
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.
I don’t want indecision, laziness, alcohol or unpreparedness to hold me
in bondage. Those habits have nothing good to offer me. Neither do gossip, judging, cursing or procrastination. They whittle away at the spiritual nature I am trying to nurture.
The truth is this: If I don’t master my habits, my habits will master me.
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| Yesterday's Prayer |
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| Lord, letting go of bad habits is hard. I want to stop finding fault, trying to change other people, struggling to be in control, and procrastinating. Help me master these habits so they stop
mastering me. Through Jesus I pray, Amen.
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