Pathways Press.com

Written by Uche Anizor, a contemporary professor of theology. This is an excerpt from his work “The Goodness of God in the Gift of Scripture.”

The first word in the book of Psalms is “blessed.” True blessedness is, in a sense, the theme of the Psalter…The theme of blessedness in Psalm 1 is linked to our attitude toward God’s law, and this is at the very beginning of Israel’s songbook. This should grab our attention because it signals that the blessedness of being God’s people—the blessedness from and about which we sing—is wonderfully connected to our relationship to his word…I have a nagging sense that when we read the word blessed, we either feel indifferent or suspicious. Both of these responses are likely the result of the way the term is (over)used in our day-to-day lives. Scrolling through social media, you’ll find pictures of people admiring themselves in the mirror with the caption “#Blessed.” … In our culture, to be blessed is to have something you know many others would want or something you know is beyond the experience of the average person. [One] writer quips, “There’s nothing quite like invoking holiness as a way to brag about your life.” While there are many examples of the term being used in appropriate and even humble ways, the omnipresence of its use, the things it is normally attached to, and the context in which it’s used has largely cheapened what should be a rich and meaningful term…There are two Hebrew terms normally translated “blessed.” The first, baruk, often refers to giving or receiving some kind of gift. In the creation account, the man and woman are “blessed” as those created in God’s image and called to carry out his mandate. Abraham is “blessed” as the partner in God’s covenant. In this case, blessing is about bestowing gifts from one party to another. The second term, ashre, refers to the state of true happiness…Now being “blessed” (baruk) and being happy (ashre) are clearly related. The one who experiences true blessedness (ashre) is certainly someone blessed (baruk) by God. The terms overlap but are distinct. Outward blessing is not an automatic indicator that someone’s life is truly blessed (ashre). Celebrity lives are a cautionary tale in this regard. This is also the sense of blessedness we find in the Beatitudes. Our Lord says, “Blessed are those who mourn. . . . Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake”… True happiness is not found in circumstances or in stuff. Mourning and persecution are not the kinds of things we would normally label with #Blessed. True happiness is being seen as we really are by God. In fact, true happiness is being connected to God despite our situation or feelings. To be blessed is to experience fullness of life.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.  [Psalm 1:1-2]

Written by Mark D. Roberts, a contemporary author.

In the second chapter of his letter to the Christians in Philippi, the Apostle Paul encourages the Philippians to be unified in mutual love. Then he warns them not to do anything for selfish purposes. Rather, they should exercise humility by thinking of others as better than yourselves. This other-centered mindset suggests the following imperative: Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others.  Watch out for what is better for others! That sounds very much like what I’m calling living and leading for the good of others. If your humility is genuine, not only will you think of others more than yourself, but also you will pay attention to what is good for them, even best for them, before worrying about what’s best for you.  If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll have to admit that this isn’t easy to do…We are not wired to prioritize the good of others, paying closest attention to them and their needs… So, why, you might wonder, should we do what does not come naturally? Why put others first? Why watch out for their good before watching out for my own good?  Paul’s answer to this question: Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus… Christ provides not only the rationale for watching out for the good of others, but also the superlative example of such watching out. 

Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others. Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus. [Philippians 2:3-5]

Written by the Lead Like Jesus team, an organization founded by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges that promotes a transformational leadership model based on following Jesus.

What keeps you going when life gets difficult? Where do you look to renew your hope when things seem hopeless? God is our only secure hope. He doesn’t change like the circumstances; He remains faithful and sure. Confidence grounded in anything other than Him is misplaced. When challenging days come, when the future is cloudy, look to God. He alone is worthy of your confidence and hope. He will faithfully lead You and renew Your vision and hope as You look to Him.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. [Psalm 42:11]

This devotional is from the pray.com team.

Have you noticed how quickly a single comment or glance can change how you feel about yourself? One compliment can lift you, one criticism can crush you. That’s because many of us are still looking into the wrong mirrors—letting others, or our own performance, define our worth. God’s Word invites us to step back and look again. You were made in His image, not mass-produced or accidentally formed. You are loved with an everlasting love, not a fragile one that disappears when you fail. And your value was proven at the cross, where Jesus paid the highest price for you. Learning to live from God’s mirror doesn’t happen overnight. It grows as you trust His truth more than your feelings and step into community, service, and love. Often, it’s while loving others that God reminds us—we are deeply loved too.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. [Psalm 100:5]

Written by Brian Morykon, a contemporary writer.

The faith tradition I grew up in warned us about “slippery slopes.” There were different kinds: the worldly slopes of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, and the spiritual slopes of bad doctrines and weird practices… Whether warned about them or not, many Christians have a built-in slippery-slope detector. That’s normal and useful. Some hillsides are genuinely dangerous. But the same fear that keeps you from stepping off a cliff can also keep you from stepping up to an overlook. Wisdom is learning to discern when a fear is keeping you alive and when it is keeping you from being alive… You might feel resistance being around people not like you. You might feel it reading a spiritual classic, whose author speaks from another time and a different way of being. You might feel it when you hear the quiet, insistent invitation of the Master to serve someone in a way you know will be the death and the life of you, and you just don’t want to do it. This resistance is usually fear—fear dressed in a robe of reason. May I suggest asking the Holy Spirit to help unrobe this fear and discern the root of resistance that keeps you from fullness of life in Christ?  The Spirit might uncover… A fear of uncertainty.  A fear of losing identity. A fear of losing connections. A fear of being hurt or hurting others. A fear of being heretical or unfaithful.  A fear of offending God and thus being abandoned in some way by God. A fear of getting to heaven and being met by Christ’s disappointed face.  All these fears and more may keep us “safe” right where we are, but they also keep us from abundant life.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. [John 10:10]

Written by Ray Stedman [1917-1992], a pastor and author. 

Scripture is put together in such an amazing way that it takes both the Word and the Spirit to understand the Bible. You can read the Word, and if you are not ready for the words and open to them, those words will not say a thing to you. But if you are open, you will learn something from them. The next time you can come back, read the same words, and learn something more. Each time you will learn something more. It never ceases to refresh your spirit and instruct your mind and to open and expand your capacity to receive from God. That is the way God teaches us truth–as you are able to bear it. This is true also of His revelation to us about ourselves. One of the things about Scripture is that it shows you who you are and who you have been all along. God is gracious to us that way. He does not just rip the veil off, and suddenly you see the whole ghastly thing. If He did, we would be wiped out. But He lifts it little by little. You shake and tremble and say, ‘Is that the way I’ve been?’ You are aghast at the way you have been treating people, and you think, Thank God that’s over! The next week He lifts it a little higher. You shake and tremble and go through it again and say, At last we got to the bottom! Then God lifts it high enough for you to see more, and you are wiped out again. But you handle it, little by little. Because, along with the revelation of yourself, He also reveals Himself and His adequacy to handle your inadequacies.

With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. [Mark 4:33]

Written by Wade Johnston, a contemporary pastor, theology professor, and podcaster.

C.S. Lewis wrote a helpful book about love called The Four Loves. I highly recommend it. The four loves are affection, eros, friendship, and charity. Affection is what we have for siblings, roommates, and coworkers. We grow familiar with them. We get used to them. They become regular presences in our lives. Eros is love for our spouse. It’s getting lost in your beloved. It’s more than physical. The physical is merely an expression of something deeper—an often humorous and lighthearted expression at that. Lovers laugh at each other, Lewis says, until they have a baby to laugh at. The third love is friendship. We can get by without it, but life wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. While lovers look face to face, friends stand side by side. Their conversation never ends. It just gets interrupted, picking up even years later where it left off. Friendships have changed the world. The fourth and final love, however, is unlike any other. This love is charity. It’s selfless love. There’s no give-and-take, no quid pro quo. This love is purely gift-love. This is God’s self-giving love for us in Christ. While were still sinners, God justified the ungodly. He saved us from the devil, the world, death, and, most importantly, from ourselves. He did this simply to do it, because we needed it… To love is to see God. And to see God is to love. To see God is to love the world he has created, to delight in the rays of the sun, the chirping of the birds, the cool touch of the breeze, the lapping of the waves. It’s to stop and appreciate the hand behind what surrounds us. Even more, though, to see God is to love the people he has created, both your enemies and your neighbors—to appreciate their gifts, forgive their faults, recall the blood that bought them, and see the face of Christ in their own.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. [1 John 4:16]

Today’s prayer was written by Dimitrii of Rostov (1651-1709) a monk from Kiev who was a leading opponent of the Caesaropapist reform of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Come, my Light,
and illumine my darkness.
Come, my Life,
and revive me from death.
Come, my Physician,
and heal my wounds.
Come, Flame of divine love,
and burn up the thorns of my sins,
kindling my heart
with the flame of thy love.

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. [John 1:4]

Written by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), a British writer, scholar, and Anglican lay theologian. This is an excerpt from his book “Mere Christianity.”

Some writers use the word charity to describe not only Christian love between human beings, but also God’s love for man and man’s love for God. About the second of these two, people are often worried. They are told they ought to love God. They cannot find any such feelings in themselves. What are they to do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask yourself, “If I were sure that I loved God, what would I do?” When you have found the answer, go and do it.”

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. [Deuteronomy 6:5]

Written by Johannes Vos (1862-1949), a Dutch-American reformed  theologist.  This is an excerpt from his book “The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary.”

True happiness depends on our consciously aiming to serve the purpose for which we were created, namely, to glorify God and enjoy him. Consciously to serve the purpose for which God created him is man’s glory, and apart from a conscious consecration of himself to that purpose, there can be no real, deep, and satisfying happiness. As Augustine said in his Confessions, “Thou hast created us for Thyself, O God, and our heart is restless until it finds repose in Thee.”

 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. [Ephesians 2:10]