Pathways Press.com

Written by Max Lucado, a contemporary pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his book “God Is With You Every Day.”

Have you heard voices of failure? When you lost your job, flunked the exam, dropped out of school. When your marriage went south. When your business went broke. When you failed. The voices began to howl. And you joined them! Failure finds us all. Failure is so universal we have to wonder why more self-help gurus don’t address it. Bookstores overflow with volumes on how to succeed. But you’ll look a long time before you find a section called “How to Succeed at Failing.” Maybe no one knows what to say. But God does. His book is written for failures. It is full of folks who were foul-ups and flops. David was a moral failure, yet God used him. Elijah was an emotional train wreck after Mount Carmel, but God blessed him. Jonah was in the belly of a fish when he prayed his most honest prayer, and God heard it. Perfect people? No. Perfect messes? You bet. Yet God used them. A surprising and welcome discovery of the Bible is this: God uses failures.

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. [Psalm 40:1–3]

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Written by Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911], a lay speaker and author in the Holiness Movement and active in the women’s suffrage and temperance movements.

I once met a poor woman, who earned a precarious living by hard daily labor; but who was a joyous triumphant Christian. “Ah, Nancy,” said a gloomy Christian lady to her one day, “it is well enough to be happy now; but I should think the thoughts of your future would sober you. Only suppose, for instance, you should have a spell of sickness, and be unable to work; or suppose your present employers should move away, and no one else should give you anything to do; or suppose—” “Stop!” cried Nancy, “I never supposes. De Lord is my Shepherd, and I knows I shall not want. And, Honey,” she added, to her gloomy friend, “it’s all dem supposes as is makin’ you so mis’able. You’d better give dem all up, and just trust de Lord.”

“Be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” [Hebrews 13:5-6]

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Written by Bill Gaultiere, a contemporary psychologist and spiritual mentor.

Do you ever feel like stopping? Let’s be honest — all the texts, emails, calls, meetings, events, and demands can leave you feeling anxious, exhausted, or disconnected. Even too much of a godly thing (like caring for others) can leave you spiritually drained. Solitude and silence teach us to stop doing, stop producing, stop people-pleasing, stop distracting ourselves, and stop controlling outcomes. Spiritual disciplines of less help Jesus become more in our lives and ministry. It’s how we grow in authentic love for Christ alone and make him the foundation of loving others. Jesus models for us the importance ofgetting alone and getting quiet with Abba… The ultimate fruitfulness of solitude and silence is that these practices empower you to love others. Being with the God of love helps you naturally and organically express his love to those around you.

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. [Mark 6:31-32]

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Written by Louis Albert Banks (1855-1933), an American pastor and author.

A gentleman, writing about the breaking up of old ships, recently said that it is not the age alone which improves the quality of the fiber in the wood of an old vessel, but the straining and wrenching of the vessel by the sea, the chemical action of the bilge water, and of many kinds of cargoes. Some planks and veneers made from an oak beam which had been part of a ship eighty years old were exhibited a few years ago at a fashionable furniture store on Broadway, New York, and attracted general notice for the exquisite coloring and beautiful grain. Equally striking were some beams of mahogany taken from a bark which sailed the seas sixty years ago. The years and the traffic had contracted the pores and deepened the color, until it looked as superb in its chromatic intensity as an antique Chinese vase … So there is a vast difference between the quality of old people who have lived flabby, self-indulgent, useless lives, and the fiber of those who have sailed all seas and carried all cargoes as the servants of God and the helpers of their fellow men. Not only the wrenching and straining of life, but also something of the sweetness of the cargoes carried get into the very pores and fiber of character.

You will come to your grave in a full age, as stacks of grain are harvested in their season. [Job 5:26]

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Written by Anne Graham Lotz, a contemporary writer and evangelist.

When I’m tired or busy, I don’t always pay attention to someone who is speaking. And if the person is fairly long-winded, my mind will wander to other things. As a result, I’m disconnected. Distracted. Even though I hear the voice, I don’t know what’s being said because I’m not listening. The same thing is true when it comes to reading my Bible. I can read the words, yet not really hear what God is saying because I’m rushing through my reading, or distracted by wandering thoughts, or focused only on facts and information, or just too tired to concentrate. As a result, my daily time with Him in His Word becomes routine. Drudgery. A “have-to,” not a “want-to” exercise. Learning to listen for God’s voice speaking to me through the pages of my Bible has transformed my daily time with Him. I now approach the time with eager anticipation of what He will say. Perhaps more than any other aspect of my Christian life, it has drawn me closer to Him in an intimate relationship. It has become the very core of who I am. Because, dear friend, God does speak through His Word. I know from experience!

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. [Matthew 15:10]

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Written by Grace Pouch, a contemporary writer and teacher of spiritual renewal.

Your life includes all of you. Work you. Home you. Church you. Private and public you. A person of integrity is someone whose life is seamless, whose many “yous” are one and the same, who is good, through and through. Becoming a person of integrity means giving Jesus access to all of you. If the soul were a house, this means allowing him into every room of it. It’s possible to happily give Jesus access to some rooms but put little Do Not Enter signs on others. Maybe I’m glad to have Jesus rearrange my relating-to-family room, but I’d prefer he stay out of my finance room. Maybe he’s welcome in my devotional room, but not my political-views room.  Groups of Christians can do this too, posting “Keep Out” signs to block Jesus from entering culturally cherished beliefs, practices, and goals. (Jesus’ original audience included religious groups who identified themselves as God’s people but whose traditions were off-limits to Jesus’ revision; this continues today.) Sometimes we only allow Jesus into certain parts of our lives. Or, to flip it, we only allow certain parts of Jesus into our lives—perhaps his power without his humility or his love for one people group without his love for another. This kind of selective surrender and selective receiving leads to disintegration. Eventually, things fall apart…To enter [Jesus’] covenant is to take the entire cup he offers, bitter and sweet. To trust him is to allow him into every nook and cranny of our personal and communal ways of thinking. Why wouldn’t we? His way is better than our way in every dimension of life. His way is wholeness.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. [1 Corinthians 10:31]

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Written by Bethany Fox, a contemporary writer and editor.This is an excerpt from the book “A Beautiful Year in the Bible.”

What does it look like to live wisely amidst the cacophony of life’s demands and distractions? We might imagine an angler waiting patiently on still water to catch a fish. Like our quest for wisdom, fishing requires stillness, patience, and a readiness to act when the moment arrives. The angler knows that beneath the calm surface, the waters are teeming with life. Similarly, we are reminded that beneath the regular rhythms of our daily routines lies rich depts of knowledge to be explored. In this stillness and quiet, we find that patience leads to better results than hurried action. When we rush forward without pause, we risk missing the subtle wisdom that invites us to move thoughtfully and purposefully through the world. Pursuing true wisdom isn’t about proving ourselves the smartest or most successful. Rather, to be wise is to follow the path God sets out for us, keeping our eyes fixed on the divine and not getting distracted by the ways of the world.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. [Proverbs 1:7]

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Written by Keri Eichberger, a contemporary minister and writer.

Can you remember when you weren’t feeling as joyful as you should’ve been? Or found yourself sad for no reason? Or maybe you did have a good reason to be down, but knew you had even more reason to smile and be thankful. I get it. Some days I’m a bit blue and can’t quite understand why. Sometimes it seems to stem from something silly. And then there are moments, like when I was getting ready to have a big surgery and had been struggling through lots of disappointment, but still knew in my heart that God was immensely good and deserving of so much praise. Praise. That is the key. I’ve been down dark roads before, and offering up praise to my good God was always the way out. I just needed that reminder. I needed it then, I need it now, and I’m guessing you might need this reminder too, time and again. There really is so much blessing wrapped up in our praise of the one who deserves it all.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! [Psalm 150:6]

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Written by J. R. Miller (1840-1912), a pastor, author, and editorial superintendent of the Presbyterian Board of Publications.

What can puny human strength take by force out of the hand of Omnipotence? Can we wrest blessing by force from God? It is never the violence of willfulness that prevails with God. It is the might of clinging faith, that gets the blessing and the victories. It is not when we press and urge our own will, but when humility and trust unite in saying, “Not my will, but Thine.” We are strong with God only in the degree that self is conquered and is dead. Not by wrestling, but by clinging can we get the blessing.

For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him [Deuteronomy 11:22]

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Written by Barb Roose, a contemporary writer. This is an excerpt from her book “Matthew: Pray Like This.”

Do you ever wonder if God hears our prayers and laughs because our prayers sound like we’re calling the shots and telling Him what to do? … Too often, our control-loving mindset looks like “do first, pray later,” which explains why we frequently jump into spaces where God has not called us to be, or we’re too impatient to let God work because we’re worried about the outcome. Our control-loving slogan sounds like “Something needs to be done and I need to do it NOW.” If we can’t see God working in a direction we approve, we’ll get to work with our control-loving tools like micromanaging, interfering, enabling, or stonewalling. We make our plans but forget that God is still the good, loving, sovereign captain of S.S. Humanity.

In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. [Proverbs 16:9]

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