Pathways Press.com

MEDITATION:

Written by Danny Lehmann, a contemporary author, speaker, and director of Youth With a Mission.

I have discovered, through personal experience and from biblical example, that human effort, self-assertion, positive thinking, and willpower are of little use in the quest for godliness. Throughout my years at elementary school, I was a straight “C” student. I barely squeaked through high school and was forced to abandon any hopes I had of going to college, because of a lack of discipline. Instead of school, I told my family, “I’m going surfing,” and for the next four years, lived the life of a California beach bum, regularly blowing out my brains on drugs. At age twenty-one, a longhaired, broken, burned-out freak with barely enough discipline to hold down a job, I landed at the foot of the Cross, and was gloriously saved. Since that time, God, through His mercy and grace, has helped me to discipline my life – not because I had any natural endowment of sticktoitiveness, but because His Holy Spirit came and took up residence in my life when I surrendered to Him and trusted Him. Trust, spelled with a capital “T,” is the key. If we want to better our devotional life, we must trust Him…All of God’s dealings with man, Christian and non-Christian, are for one purpose: to bring us to a point where we can trust Him.

PRAYER:

Written by Francis de Sales (1567-1622), a Bishop of Geneva. He was known for his deep faith and gentle approach to the religious divisions resulting from the Reformation. He wrote on the topic of spiritual direction and formation.

Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then. Put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations, and say continually: “The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in Him and I am helped. He is not only with me but in me, and I in Him.”