Guidelines For Living Devotional

Do you find yourself increasingly bored, dissatisfied, and thoroughly unhappy with life?

Have you ever had one of those days when you were tired and discouraged? It can happen to anybody--times when you felt like quitting!

For the individual who believed that his giving was a strictly private matter—between only God and himself, a lot of what Jesus said when He was on Earth must have been rather disturbing. Author Randy Alcorn says that about 15% of everything that Jesus said has to do with your possessions and what you do with them. So why was what Jesus said so disconcerting to people? Repeatedly he urged people—not to give money to Him personally--but rather to give to the poor and needy, and thereby have treasure in heaven.

Have you ever been to a party where they played the "Newlywed Game?" The emcee separates the men and women and then asks them the same questions independently, then compares answers to see how nearly they say the same thing.

There's a problem which is quite common these days which afflicts people and does a great deal of damage to relationships. Primarily, though not exclusively, men suffer from this disorder; however, quite often children and teenagers are also afflicted by it. I define the malady as the PADD syndrome. Never hear of it? PADD is an acronym for a condition I describe as the Periodic Amnesia and Deafness Deficiency (PADD) syndrome.

Do you ever ask yourself, "Why do people end up marrying jerks?" I'm talking about a situation where a person has married someone who is totally undeserving of the other, someone who treats the other person disrespectfully, or is in no way an equal. It happens. Marry in haste and repent in leisure, goes the old saying.

In spite of the fact that he lived with an unhappy marriage himself, the English author Charles Dickens understood the importance of communication. He wrote, "Never close your lips to him to whom you have opened your heart!" Dickens realized that communication is the key to real love, but is that the only reason to learn communication skills? Not at all.

He cheated his brother out of his inheritance. He deceived his father into giving him the inheritance which, by right of birth, should have gone to his brother Esau. He lied to his father-in-law about the size of his flocks, yet he is venerated as the third of the patriarchs--remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? And the writers of Scripture in several places refer to God as "the God of Jacob." God, however, saw beyond the character defects which I've just mentioned. He saw his heart.

There is a vast difference between hesitancy and uncertainty when it comes to a decision and waiting on the Lord to show you clearly what is His will for your life. So how do you know which is which?

Many intelligent, well-meaning folks have been asking themselves just what part God plays in the affairs of life today. When they see what is happening in the Middle East, Moscow, Beijing or Washington, they wonder who is really running the world. At first glance, they are prone to think that God may have created the world and then left it to mortals to run.