by donfinto | Jan 13, 2016 | The Good Report
“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
but man is tested by the praise he receives.”
Proverbs 27:21
Don’t let that praise land on you! It’s all a test!
Turn it toward gratitude to the Lord for anything good that has come through you. As James says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (1:17).
If you have a good voice, it came from him. If you have a superior IQ, God is its origin. Do you have a healthy, even beautiful body and/or face? All of this began in God! Spiritual gifts? Athletically adept? Good at fixing things around the house? Creative? Hard worker? All from Him!
Let praise reverberate off of you and on to the Lord! Use every gift to fulfill that first and second great commandment! Love God! Love others! Love self!
“Let another praise you and not your own mouth, someone else and not your own lips.”
Proverbs 27:2
Pass the test!
by donfinto | Dec 30, 2015 | The Good Report
1 Samuel 30:6
David is one of my heroes. Not because he did everything right, but because he continually turned to the Lord. One of the most astonishing scriptures in the Bible for me is Acts 13:22, where God describes David as a “man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do!”
A man after your own heart, Lord? Don’t you remember that David was an adulterer and a murderer? I want to say to the Lord. And He seems to answer: Ah! But he always turned back to me with a heart surrendered.
I want that surrendered heart. I am a man “after God’s heart.” I may not yet have His heart, but I am “after God’s heart!”
There was one time in David’s life when everyone around him seemed to have turned against him. David’s village had been raided and his family and the families of all his men had been captured. The men were so upset, so “bitter in spirit because of their sons and daughters” that they were talking of stoning David. He was alone in his distress. So what did he do?
“David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Sam. 30:6 NASB).
Do you at times feel all alone, that no one really understands you, perhaps your dearest people seem to have turned against you? Remember David!
Strengthen yourself in the Lord your God!
Have a blessed day! In Jesus Name!
by donfinto | Dec 23, 2015 | The Good Report
Mark 6:31
In the midst of much activity, “get some rest.”
Those were the Lord’s words to His disciples after a full day. Their day had been so full that they had “not even had a chance to eat, so Jesus said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
I just reread the story of John and Charles Wesley’s mother, Susanna. She had 19 children, ten of whom died in infancy. Her husband was such a poor money manager that he landed in a debtor’s prison for some of his life and Susanna was left to run the household alone often with little or no money. But she had promised the Lord early in life that she would devote herself continually to prayer. The children knew that when Mother threw her apron over her head that she was alone with the Lord and was not to be disturbed.
Do you have a good apron under which you can escape in times of stress? Jesus knew we all need that. He knew that He and His disciples had to find a “quiet place and get some rest.”
Happy quiets! Good rest to you! In Jesus Name!
