UCB Word For Today

God forgives and forgets. Amazing, isn’t it? He remembers everything you’ve done right while forgetting everything you’ve done wrong. Yet, while God cannot remember our confessed sin, we have a much harder time forgetting it. We tend to remember our mistakes more readily than our successes. That’s why it’s harder to forgive ourselves than to receive God’s forgiveness. We tend to remember what we should forget while forgetting what we should remember. That inability to forget the sin we’ve confessed is part of our sin nature itself. The fall fractured the image of God in us, including the amygdala. That’s the part of the brain responsible for storing emotional memories. The strength of the memory is dictated by the strength of the emotion. We quickly forget the moments that don’t make a blip on our emotional radar. Strong emotions, such as shame, take sinful snapshots and poster-size them. They get blown out of proportion in the darkroom of the mind. Are you struggling to forget what God has forgiven? Read these Scriptures carefully and prayerfully: ‘I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins’ (Isaiah 43:25 NKJV). ‘I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you’ (Isaiah 44:22 NKJV). ‘For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins…I will remember no more’ (Hebrews 8:12 NKJV). God has forgiven and forgotten your sin – it’s time for you to agree with Him and do the same thing.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

When you fail, God’s love for you does not fail. And to enjoy the fullness of what He wants you to have, you must believe that. The knowledge of God’s love will carry you through to victory when the powers of hell are against you. The knowledge of God’s love will carry you through life’s storms and into a place of peace. God’s love is not restricted to the days when you have performed well. He loves you just as much during the times when you fail. You need to be confident of His love, especially when you have trials and the devil is accusing you and saying, ‘Well, you must have done something wrong.’ God’s love is not doled out on a merit system. You did nothing to deserve His love; therefore, you can do nothing to forfeit it. John wrote: ‘We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect [mature]. So, we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. [We are clothed in Christ’s righteousness.] Such love has no fear, because [God’s] perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced [and embraced] his perfect love’ (1 John 4:16-18 NLT). So be confident of God’s love for you.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

If you’re dealing with an insecure partner, you must make every effort to be accountable. It’s important to voluntarily provide adequate details. After all, he or she is looking for assurance. Learn to explain your whereabouts in a casual but thorough manner. Short, one-syllable responses will provide more insecurity and leave the person to imagine various negative scenarios. A jealous person is insecure and thus has doubts about having what it takes to maintain the relationship. Do not make the mistake of thinking or saying, ‘Tough – you just need to get over your insecurity.’ If it were that easy, your partner would have done it by now. Continue to pray for their healing from this debilitating mindset, but do your part not to exacerbate the problem with vague communication. Most of all, encourage your partner to talk about his or her fears. Listen without being critical or judgmental. Seek first to understand. Make it clear that you love your partner and have pure intentions regarding your relationship. But here is something important to keep in mind: stay balanced in your interaction. You must also make it clear that you will not be forced into an emotional prison by having to account for every moment of the day. This too could exacerbate the jealousy and set up unrealistic expectations. Trust is a two-way street. And one way to build trust is by praying together. In prayer, we become honest and transparent, realising that God already knows every detail about us. When your partner hears you share your heart in prayer, it relieves unfounded fears and creates security within them.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Meditation is the most effective way to assimilate God’s Word. David describes the ‘blessed’ man this way: ‘His delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night’ (Psalm 1:2 NKJV). And whatever you meditate on and memorise, the Holy Spirit will help you recall when you need it. ‘He will…bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you’ (John 14:26 NKJV). As one of the highest-ranking American captives in Vietnam, Jeremiah Denton was subjected to gruelling torture. But he survived, and returned home to become one of Alabama’s United States senators. How did he do it? He says that one of his basic survival skills was quoting passages of Scripture he had memorised. Internalised Scriptures were his unseen sword to fend off the cruellest weapons of the enemy. By inwardly focusing on the power of God to sustain and strengthen him, he was able to rise above his circumstances. Scriptures he had memorised and meditated on years ago became his prayers of deliverance. When you meditate upon God and His Word, recalling His many promises and acts of faithfulness, your faith grows and your fears dissolve (see Romans 10:17). David understood this well. Many times, in his attempts to escape the wrath of King Saul, he recalled the greatness of God and found himself strengthened. ‘I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.’ ‘I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons’ (Psalm 16:7 NKJV). Do yourself a big favour: begin to meditate on God’s Word and memorise it.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

When you study the lives of those who were greatly used by God in the Bible, you see that they were not spared from hurt, disappointment, or even betrayal. The truth is, if you live long enough, you’ll be wronged by someone. The question is, how will you react? The apostle Paul tells us how we should react: ‘Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.’ The story is told of two friends who were walking through the desert when they got into an argument. One friend slapped the other in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt. But without saying anything, he wrote in the sand, ‘Today my best friend slapped me in the face.’ They kept walking until they found an oasis. Since they were thirsty, they stopped for water. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire, fell in, and started to drown. His friend then reached out and saved him. That night, he etched this in a stone: ‘Today my best friend saved my life.’ The friend who had first slapped him and then saved him asked, ‘After I hurt you, you wrote in sand. And now you write on a stone. Why?’ He replied: ‘When someone hurts us, we should write it in sand, where the winds of forgiveness can blow and erase it. But when someone does something good for us, we should engrave it in stone where it will be long remembered.’ Mercy forgets wrongs and remembers rights!

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Say these words aloud several times and let them roll around in your mind: ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ Take some time to imagine how this might actually be experienced in your life. What would it be like to wake up with God on your mind? What would it feel like at night if you were aware of Him as you fell asleep? What would your conversations be like with other people if God were the unseen third party present? What would work or school be like if you were continually aware of God and were communicating with Him as you sat in your office or at your desk, asking for His help and guidance, not carrying the burden by yourself? After all, this is His promise to you: ‘Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall’ (Psalm 55:22 NLT). Reflect on the idea that the Lord is at your ‘right hand’. In Scripture, the right hand is considered the hand of power and the one that does the work. Now reflect on these words: ‘I will not be shaken’ (Psalm 16:8 NLT). Picture yourself receiving bad news or facing opposition; picture someone important who doesn’t like you. Picture your work going badly – but it doesn’t shake you. Why? Because God has given you supernatural peace. Isn’t this the life you want? Then pray, ‘God, this is the life I choose; show me what I need to do so that it may be so.’

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

The story of the prodigal son illustrates the meaning of true repentance. It’s about a young Jewish man who rebelled against all that he’d been taught, turned his back on his father, was lured by the bright lights of the big city, and ended up in a pigpen feeding swine. But he did three things that turned his life around. First, he changed his mind. ‘When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!”’ (v. 17 NIV). Second, he redirected his will. ‘I will…go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you’ (v. 18 NIV). Third, he took action. ‘So he got up and went to his father’ (v. 20 NIV). Repentance is a change of mind, which brings about a change of will, and results in a change of action. It led to the prodigal’s forgiveness and restoration to his family. Here are two things about sin you need to know: 1) God will uncover every sin you try to cover up. ‘Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts’ (1 Corinthians 4:5 NKJV). 2) God will cover every sin you uncover. ‘He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy’ (Proverbs 28:13 NKJV). Go ahead – confess and forsake your sin, and God will cover it with the blood of Christ. There is no good reason to wait. Do it now.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Paul wrote: ‘Submit to one another out of reverence to Christ.’ Satan is the enemy of marriage. In order to defeat him, you must first know how to identify where, when, and how he’s at work. As long as you focus on fighting each other or blaming yourself, your marriage will continue to slide into further misery with each failed request for intimacy, each unmet expectation, and each day spent hopelessly wishing your spouse would change. Sure, you need to learn better communication and learn how to forgive, and sickness or money problems need to be dealt with. But when you see these things as being sent from the same evil source, you can fight them so much more effectively. Do these two things: 1) Focus first on yourself. You know you can’t change anyone but yourself. And in many ways, you can’t even do that. You need God’s intervention in your own life right now (see 2 Corinthians 3:18). And you need to understand who God is calling you to be in your marriage. 2) Pray for and with your spouse (see Matthew 18:19). Prayer is indispensable in defeating the enemy of your marriage. Pray for direction in what God would have you to do. If your spouse is willing, pray together and aloud if possible. Invite God to intervene in your marriage and to make it a demonstration of the work only He can do in two people’s lives. The truth is that you can experience Christ’s victory in your marriage.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

You were created for love, but you have learned to fear! The neurological love pathway in your brain consciously evaluates toxic thoughts, and as you choose to hand the situation over to God, you do not submit to fear. And love is the stronger of the two pathways! ‘There is no fear in love; but perfect love [the knowledge and acceptance of God’s unearned and unfailing love for us] casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect [mature] in love’ (1 John 4:18 NKJV). As a redeemed child of God, you are wired for love, which means that love is your normal default mode; it is designed to dominate. Regardless of the way you have chosen to react in the past, painful, toxic thoughts can be reconstructed, even toxic feelings you have been nursing for so long and are so familiar with that you think they are normal. You can analyse them and rewire them because of your brain’s neuroplasticity. This is what Paul meant: ‘Do not be conformed to this world [its values and thought patterns], but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ Will this ‘renewing’ happen overnight? No. Science shows that you need to practise using something at least seven times before it becomes part of you. As you keep doing this, God’s Spirit will work with you, and eventually you’ll be able to use this amazing love circuit of the brain to balance your reason and emotions. When you do that, you’ll take a giant leap in the direction of bringing all your thoughts, which produce your emotions, under control (see 2 Corinthians 10:5).

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Egypt represents our days in bondage to sin. Then Jesus liberated us and gave us a new life. Our Promised Land isn’t a physical territory; it’s a spiritual reality. It’s not real estate, but a real state of heart and mind. It’s a life in which ‘we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us’ (Romans 8:37 NKJV); A life in which ‘we do not lose heart’ (2 Corinthians 4:16 NKJV). A life in which we are ‘exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation’ (2 Corinthians 7:4 NKJV); we are ‘anxious for nothing’ (Philippians 4:6 NKJV); we are ‘praying always’ (Ephesians 6:18 KJV); and a life in which we ‘do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him’ (Colossians 3:17 NKJV). Max Lucado wrote: ‘[In Canaan]…“we win more often than we lose, forgive as quickly as we are offended, and give as abundantly as we receive. We serve out of our giftedness and delight in our assignments. We may stumble, but we do not collapse. We may struggle, but we defy despair. We boast only in Christ, trust only in God, lean wholly on his power. We enjoy abundant fruit and increasing faith.” Canaan symbolises the victory we can have today, and God invites us to enter it. There is only one condition; we must turn our backs on wilderness living.’ Paul wrote: ‘You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light’ (1 Peter 2:9 NKJV).

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.