Grace 809

Elijah was depressed and exhausted. “Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’…He ate and drank and then lay down again” (1 Kings 19:5-6 NIV).

What does God say to the sad and weary? Be refreshed. God told Elijah to eat and sleep. The drama on Mt. Carmel. The execution of the false priests. The twenty-seven-mile run in front of Ahab’s chariot. He had reason to be depleted.

God rested on the seventh day. The world didn’t collapse when he took a Sabbath. It won’t fall apart if you do the same. If you are depressed and feel like giving up, his word to you is “get refreshed.”

Read more Unbreakable Courage

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Transcript

Today is Poetry Thursday, and we’ll finish the book of Ecclesiastes by reading chapters 11-12. 

And I hope you’ll forgive me, but today I am just going to run a repeat of last year’s episode for this reading. As I record this, it’s about 8:30 at night, which means there is only 90 minutes before the show is due to publish, and this is the first chance I’ve had to be in the studio all day, which is highly unusual. So there is no time to produce a new episode for you today. The first thing this morning, I got a call from Del that Kathi was on the way to the Emergency Room. I won’t go into all the details, but suffice to say that she has been checked into Loma Linda University Medical Center with internal bleeding. We’ll know tomorrow. And then the Lovely Lady LeeAnn and I had to go out today to do our weekly rounds for the family business. Long story short, this is one of just a very small number of episodes this season that will be a repeat. 

Pray for Kathi, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks for your understanding. 

Chapter 11 began with a message that would not come from an old, jaded, cynical Scrooge-type man.

He started with the advice that you should be generous with those in need, because your giving is like a farmer sowing grain. It will yield a return. And if you have the ability now, you never know when your fortunes may change and you may need someone else’s generosity.

And then Solomon advised that the young should enjoy their youth, keeping in mind that God will be the judge of all that we do. So we should avoid evil.

Chapter 12 says the young should keep the Creator in mind, because in our old age life becomes difficult. Our senses dull and our bodies become weak. And ultimately, we die.

And at the very end of the chapter and the book, Solomon refers to himself in the third person and calls himself the Preacher. And he says that after observing all that he could, he wrote down the best words that he could; words of truth. Words that could hold you steady in the storms of life. Words that were given by God. 

And his conclusion was this: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Because God will judge every work, every act, whether good or evil.

Beloved, the only true and lasting happiness and peace is found in knowing God and pleasing Him. Anything apart from that will only bring emptiness, heartbreak, spiritual bankruptcy and ultimately eternal separation from God. And as Christians, we know that the only way to truly know God is when we have a personal relationship with Jesus. 

Solomon didn’t know Jesus by name, but he came to know that God was his only hope, and I am sure that God credited his account in the same way as He did with Abraham because of that faith.

I’ll be 67 years old in a few weeks, and even though I have not lived my life with the same privileges as Solomon did, my experiences have taught me the same lessons. When I have gone my own way, veering from the path that I knew God would want me to travel, I have always found nothing but emptiness and sadness. It is only when I cling tightly to Him that I find that unshakeable peace, that joy which is independent of my circumstances, that *knowing* that everything will be alright.

I hope you have found that marvelous truth in your own life. Jesus said, “I c

You may not think of yourself as controlling. You’re just trying to protect the people you love and keep things from falling apart! Lysa TerKeurst reveals how fear can quietly drive our need for control, but how trusting God with the things we can’t fix can bring freedom and peace. You can’t control every outcome…but you can trust the One who can.

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Lysa TerKeurst describes how you can trust the Lord with one of your kids.

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Reading from 1 Kings 18:45-46, “Meanwhile the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.  The power of the Lord came on Elijah and…he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel” (NIV).

Elijah, the prophet who brought down fire, is now the prophet who brings down rain.  Elijah, the prophet who knelt on Mount Carmel in prayer, becomes the prophet who descends in a flurry.

His action inspires us to do likewise.  Lift up your eyes!  Trust the promises of God.  Apart from them life will beat you up.  But armed with them, you will weather any storm.  How different our lives would be if we heeded the promises and not the problems!

Read more Unbreakable Courage

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Transcript

Today is Psalms Wednesday. We’ll read chapters 137-139. I’m calling today’s episode “The God Who Knows Me.” 

I love the fact that God knows me intimately. To understand that He knows my desire to know and serve Him makes me feel good, as when a little boy is happy when his daddy is pleased with him. But to also understand that God knows my ugly, dark, sinful parts causes me to feel utterly amazed that He still loves me. He knows my heart, and He knows the weakness of my flesh. But as Psalm 136 said in it’s refrain: His steadfast love endures forever! 1 John 4:8 puts it this way: “God is love.”

Knowing this, my heart swells with love and gratitude. And it makes me want to continue to try to please Him, to continue to persevere in my efforts to live a  life more devoted to Him today than I did yesterday. Not because I’m trying to earn His favor…I already have it. There is nothing I can do to make Him love me more, or love me less. I just want to love Him because He loves me.

And on those dark days when I fail Him to the point where I know I must have certainly brought Him grief, as the last verse in this chapter mentions, the shame I feel motivates me to humbly go to Him and ask forgiveness. And that is when I am most grateful for the promise we have in 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Every verse in this chapter is a jewel. Every verse confirms how good God is. 

How about this one: 5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. “God is there behind me and in front of me, protecting me, surrounding me. And the most beautiful part of the verse, He lays his hand on me. When my boys were small, many were the times that when we were sitting next to each other, or when we were walking next to each other, I would lay my hand on their head or their shoulder. Just a loving touch to let them know that I was there and I love them. That’s what God does with us. Our loving daddy, or Abba in the Greek language. 

How can one read chapter 139 and not love God more? 

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 137-139 ESV

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You may not think of yourself as controlling. You’re just trying to protect the people you love and keep things from falling apart! Lysa TerKeurst reveals how fear can quietly drive our need for control, but how trusting God with the things we can’t fix can bring freedom and peace. You can’t control every outcome…but you can trust the One who can.

Receive a copy of "Making Peace with What I Can't Control" and an audio download of "How to Make Peace with What You Can't Control" for your donation of any amount! Plus, receive member-exclusive benefits when you make a recurring gift today. Your monthly support helps families thrive.

Get More Episode Resources 

Do you have a story or comment on how Focus on the Family impacted you or your family? Leave a message for Jim Daly!

If you enjoyed listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, please give us your feedback.

Lysa TerKeurst shares a sobering lesson from Judas in the Bible.

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If you enjoyed listening to Focus on the Family Minute, please give us your feedback.

The promises of God glitter like diamonds on the pages of Scripture. Will we gather them? Claim them? Delight in them? Pursue them? Elijah did. He prayed, not just once, but seven times!

“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea” (1 Kings 18:43-44). God’s answer came as a cloud the size of a hand, and that was enough to excite Elijah.

Faith sees the distant cloud. Faith sees promises as though they were fulfilled. Can you see the hint of an answer to your prayer?

Read more Unbreakable Courage

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Transcript

Today is History Tuesday and we’ll begin the book of Nehemiah. Our reading will be chapters 1-4.

See if you agree with this statement: What matters to God should matter to us. 

When the book of Nehemiah was written, about a thousand years had passed since God had used Moses to lead the people out of their Egyptian captivity. A lot had happened in the passing years. There had been the time of the judges, but then the people begged to have a king, like the surrounding lands were, so God appointed Saul as their first king. To say the least, he turned out to be a disappointment, just as God had warned the people he would be. 

Then there was David, who certainly had his share of failures, but God called him a man after His own heart. After David was his son, Solomon, who built a Temple for the people to have a place to worship God. Then a long succession of David’s descendants followed Solomon, some of whom were godly men, some of whom were evil men who did not follow God. Eventually, because the people had turned their backs on God to worship false gods, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob allowed Jerusalem to be conquered by Babylon. The Temple was completely destroyed, as was most of the city and its walls. The people of Jerusalem and the surrounding area were taken captive to Babylon, where they remained for 70 years.

After these 70 years, the people were given the chance to go home. But most had never been to Jerusalem. Babylon was their home, and only a small number of them chose to go to their homeland, about 50,000 out of about two or three million.

We read in the book of Ezra how they rebuilt the temple. Nehemiah wrote his book about fifteen years after the period spoken of by Ezra. So in doing the math, it had been nearly 100 years since the return to the Promised Land by those who had been captive in Babylon. And the destruction of Jerusalem had taken place about 150 years earlier. But the walls of Jerusalem had still not been rebuilt. 

Nehemiah had never been to Jerusalem. He lived in the capital city of the Persians, Shushan, in what is now Iran. But he loved God, and he knew that Jerusalem was important to God. 

When he learned that Jerusalem’s walls had not been rebuilt, and that the people were struggling, Nehemiah was heartbroken. And He didn’t just feel bad about the situation, he did what he could do. He fasted and he prayed. And when he prayed, he came with an attitude of  humility. He confessed the sins of himself, his family and the people. And he reminded G