The Word For Today

There is a saying in baseball: 'Three strikes and you're out.' We tend to play life the same way. We give people two or three chances, but no more. But God never gives up on us; it's not in his nature.

When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother, Peter presumed, 'Seven times?' But Jesus set the gold standard: he upped it to 'seventy times seven' (Matthew 18:22 NLT). Then he ups the ante even more with a story of a master who forgave his servant a 10,000-talent debt. Let's do a currency exchange. One talent totalled 180 months' wages - that's fifteen years! And that's just one talent. So a 10,000-talent debt totalled 150,000 years of wages. Using today's average life expectancy, it would have taken his servant 2,232 lifetimes to pay off the debt. Of course, the average life expectancy in the first century was less than half than now, so it would have taken twice as many lifetimes to pay off the debt. Let's put this debt into dollar value. Using a minimum wage of $23.50, for a nine-to-five job, Monday to Friday, that's an annual income of about $48,000. This may not seem like much, but when you multiply it by 150,000 years, it totals about $7,200,000,000. That's a huge debt paid off!

Through what Jesus accomplished on the cross, your sin debt - past, present and future - is paid in full. That's a truth you can be confident in and stand on.

Several men went on a mission trip to Haiti where they met a nineteen-year-old young man who loved Jesus deeply. So they invited him to visit them in America and paid for his trip. The young Haitian felt as if he were in another world. He'd never slept between sheets, had three meals a day, used indoor plumbing or tasted a hamburger. When it was time to return to Haiti, they asked him for his impressions of what he'd experienced, and he replied: 'I have really enjoyed my time here with you. But I am also very glad to be going home. You have so much in America that I'm beginning to lose my grip on my day-to-day dependency on Christ.'

Paul spoke of a time of trouble in Asia in which he was 'crushed and overwhelmed' (2 Corinthians 1:8 NLT). Then he wrote: 'As a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God' (2 Corinthians 1:9 NLT). And God wants to bring you to that place also. Yes, he wants you to use the gifts and resources he has provided, but his desire is that you rely completely on him. Only then can he provide everything he desires to give you, because then you will be open, ready and mature enough to receive it.

Remember this: 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don't be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear [reverence, respect, obey] the Lord' (Proverbs 3:5-7 NLT).

Unlike jealousy, which is the fear of being displaced, envy is ill-will towards those who possess something you want. Jealousy says, 'I'm afraid you are going to take what I have.' Envy says, 'I want what you have, and I resent you for having it!' Envy is one of the most frequently concealed emotions. You may be more likely to admit to an uncontrollable temper, a phobia or any other negative emotion than to acknowledge that you are envious. Envy inevitably leads to resenting and criticising the person you envy. And once you allow envy and resentment to enter your heart, they act like free radicals producing an emotional cancer. Eventually they will manifest themselves in some destructive way, whether it is in the form of taking mood-altering substances, overeating, shopping excessively, lashing out, being sarcastic or physically harming others.

If you covet what someone else has, ask yourself, 'Am I willing to pay the price they paid to obtain it?' The world has a saying: 'There is no such thing as a free lunch.' Everything - except salvation - has a price tag. So whether you want to be thin, rich, educated or whatever, stop envying the success of others, and ask God to help you succeed in the assignment he has given you for your life.

If you harbour envy towards someone, it's time to deal with it. David wrote: 'You desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow' (Psalm 51:6-7 NIV).

We often think of great artists and musicians as having 'bursts' of genius. But more often, they're models of painstaking patience and perseverance. Their greatest works tend to have been accomplished over longer periods and through extreme hardships. Beethoven is said to have rewritten each bar of his music at least a dozen times. Joseph Haydn produced more than 800 musical compositions before writing The Creation, the oratorio for which he is most famous. Michelangelo's The Last Judgement is considered one of the twelve master paintings of the ages. It took him eight years to complete, producing more than 2,000 sketches and renderings in the process. Leonardo da Vinci worked on The Last Supper for ten years, often working so diligently that he forgot to eat.

When renowned pianist Paderewski was quite elderly, an admirer asked him, 'Is it true that you still practise every day?' He replied, 'Yes, at least six hours a day.' The admirer said in awe, 'You must have a world of patience.' Paderewski said, 'I have no more patience than the next fellow. I just use mine.' It is said that in the Kentucky Derby, the winning horse effectively runs out of oxygen after the first mile and runs the rest of the way on heart. Basketball legend Michael Jordan says, 'Heart is what separates the good from the great.'

In the Bible, James wrote, 'As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about' (James 5:11 NIV). Those who are 'blessed' with success are those who keep persevering and refuse to give up.

The Bible says, 'If anyone has slipped away from God and no longer trusts the Lord and someone helps him understand the Truth again' (James 5:19-20 TLB). It is possible for a true believer to slip away. This means we must never put our convictions on the shelf. If we don't make a deliberate effort to stay close to the truth of God's word, we could wander from it. After all, we live in a world with lots of distractions. Today many people are on a quest for 'unity at all costs' and are devaluing the importance of the truth as revealed in God's word.

Knowing he would soon die as a martyr for his faith, the apostle Paul wrote to his successor Timothy: 'Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of' (2 Timothy 3:14 NIV). Then in 2 Timothy 4:2-5 (NIV), he encouraged Timothy: 'Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship...discharge all the duties of your ministry'.

So the word for today is - stay true to the truth of God's word.

As a leader, you must understand what you do well and know where you need assistance. Your strengths and weaknesses don't make you wrong or right; they just make you who you are. If you've heard the saying, 'No man is an island,' it was probably said about a great leader. Few people achieve success on their own. Consider an actor in a play. He may be the one in the spotlight - with perfect hair, make-up and costume, reciting poignant lines and getting all the applause - but he didn't do it alone. He had to rely on the costume designer for the outfit he wore, the hair and make-up artists who made him look flawless, the playwright who wrote the words, and the lighting and sound crews who set the stage, etc.

Good leaders are wise enough to surround themselves with people who have strengths that complement theirs. They are still in charge, but they have teams that help them achieve their vision. You are a leader in some area of your life - home, family, work, church - and you know leadership has its challenges. While there are certainly many benefits, a leader has to deal with conflict, controversy and naysayers who think they know better. This comes with the territory. But you can't allow others to keep you from achieving your goals. Not everyone will be your cheerleader. That's just a fact of life.

If you are going to be an effective leader, hold fast to your vision, build a great team to help you, and stand on God's promise: '"I have spoken; I have called [you]. I have brought [you], and I will make [you] successful. (Isaiah 48:15).