Pathways Press.com

Written by Uli Chi, a contemporary author, entrepreneur, mentor, and business leader. This is an excerpt from his book “The Wise Leader.”

We live in a media-filled world that seeks our attention. Social media measures its success by the number of eyeballs captured. Attention has become the currency of our digital age. Our attention—or lack thereof—drives advertising, product placement, and even product design. Where our eyes go, modern marketing follows. And consequently, modern marketing desires to determine where our eyes should go. What we pay attention to matters. What we look at—and how we “see” what we look at—shapes who we become. Jesus knew this. As he memorably taught in the Sermon on the Mount, our “eye,” our “heart,” and our “treasure” all affect one another. What we focus on, what we desire, and what we value are all deeply interconnected. But our eyes are critical. Our attention requires our attention.

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” [Matthew 6:22–23]

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Written by Jennifer Tucker, a contemporary writer. This is an excerpt from her book “Breath Prayer.”

At the root of my fear is a lack of trust in the heart of God. When the story of my life isn’t unfolding the way I thought it would, when a season of suffering lingers longer than I think I can bear, when the news is too bad and bills are too high and tasks are too hard and the pain is too much — when everything looks lost and nothing seems right — it can be hard to see or understand the heart of God. And it’s difficult to trust what we don’t understand. But His ways are not at all like ours. There is always more happening than we can see. Just look at Jesus: the Hope of the world born in the form of a vulnerable infant, the way of salvation forged through significant suffering. What looked like utter death and defeat on the cross was really the way to ultimate life and salvation. What looked like the end was really the beginning of all things being made new. So that hard thing we don’t understand? That pain we fear may break us? It may turn out to be the tool for our rescue. The storm that threatens to drown us may actually be the path to freedom. When we shift the way we see our suffering and trust the heart of God, we can let go of fear and be filled with peace because we know that He is working even if we don’t understand.

See, God has come to save me. I will trust in Him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; He has given me victory. [Isaiah 12:2]

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From the Community of the Beatitudes, a contemplative and missionary community founded in France in 1973.

Lord, you know everything, you see everything… Free us from the power of the world, from its deadly, materialistic, consumerist ideas, that may dwell in our heart and in the community. Free me from myself, from my ideas, from my external and internal slavery (from bad addictions, from wounds that return to haunt me, from the tyranny of my emotions and my sensitivity, from my sins, from the dictatorship of my desires, of my excesses, etc.), of all idolatry and all control. I come to you, Jesus the free Man par excellence, for you are the only true Way of my freedom!

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  [2 Corinthians 3:17]

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Written by Mark Roberts, a contemporary writer.

If you want to receive, clarify, craft, and live your purpose in life, then pay attention to your generativity. What is generativity? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “generativity” as “a need to nurture and guide younger people and contribute to the next generation.” Generativity could be described as a deep desire to leave a legacy for the future, not just a financial legacy, but a legacy of excellence, example, empowerment, and encouragement. The significance of generativity was first emphasized by developmental psychologist Erik Erikson. In his earlier writings, he saw generativity as crucial for middle-adulthood, ages 40-65. But as he got older, Erikson recognized that a concern for generativity remains strong beyond age 65… You may already be in touch with your generativity. If you are a grandparent, for example, you are likely concerned about the future of your grandchild (or grandchildren), and not just their personal future, but also the future of the world in which they will live. You are eager to make a difference in their lives and their world, a difference that will endure long after you are gone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come. [Psalm 71:17-18]

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Written by Chelsea Logan, a contemporary writer and church planter.

The story of creation gives us a powerful reminder that it’s through the waters of chaos and nothingness that God brings forth creation and new life. In those spaces and places that feel the most void, the least purposeful, and often the most painful, God is already at work creating and redeeming. As one theologian put it, “The anxieties that torment me as I face the insecurity of my existence and the dark curtain of the future become the raw material from which I let God build my trust and my faith.” The chaos we experience, in Christ, becomes fertile ground for creation. And while this is by no means easy, trusting in the Lord means knowing and expecting God to take the soups of nothingness in our lives and transform them into works of divine creation.

When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. [Genesis 1:1-2]

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Written by Brian Morykon, a contemporary writer.

Jesus preached and demonstrated the Kingdom of Heaven, the realm where justice and wholeness are the norm. So, it makes sense that following Jesus means doing outward things that help bring God’s Kingdom to our corner of Earth. What that looks like day to day will be different for each of us according to our life season and unique calling. But it’ll look like something. And if we’re doing the outward stuff, we better also be doing the inward stuff and together stuff—solitude and sabbath and worship, the practices Jesus modeled and taught. Inner work, like outward work, is much easier to talk about than to do. And it’s easy to confuse the talking for the doing …  The full and good life Christ offers us is a balance of outward, inward, and together. So let’s be intentional about actually doing all the stuff. Together. With God. 

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. [2 Corinthians 3:2]

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Written by Robert Collyer [1823-1912], an American pastor.

If Job could have known as he sat there in the ashes, bruising his heart on this problem of Providence—that in the trouble that had come upon him he was doing what one man may do to work out the problem for the world, he might again have taken courage. No man lives to himself. Job’s life is but your life and mine written in larger text….So, then, though we may not know what trials wait on any of us, we can believe that, as the days in which Job wrestled with his dark maladies are the only days that make him worth remembrance, and but for which his name had never been written in the book of life, so the days through which we struggle, finding no way, but never losing the light, will be the most significant we are called to live.

So I endure all things for the sake of those chosen by God, that they too may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus and its eternal glory. [2 Timothy 2:10]

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Written by Dallas Willard (1935-2013), an American philosopher, speaker  and writer on spiritual formation. This is an excerpt from his book “The Scandal of the Kingdom.”

Children excel at persistence and humility. When children fall down, they get up and try again. They learn to talk by steadily babbling. As little children grow, they possess an unlimited ability to humbly persist in learning things and never quitting…The humility of little children shows in how they don’t have to think about “saving face.” “Saving face” is a façade-saving device. Grownups are not saving face, but saving the façade they have created to manage how they appear to those around them. A little child doesn’t yet have a façade to save. This kind of honesty—tearing away all the pretenses and just being who we are—is what enables us to have a tender heart that is honest and vulnerable…If we are to be humble like a child and be great in the kingdom of the heavens, we must turn from the normal human attitude that says we are competent and quite capable of managing our lives on our own…When we understand our place in the rule of God, we naturally humble ourselves under his mighty hand and depend on him to care for us.          

And [Jesus] said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 18:3-4]

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Written by Charles Gallaudet Trumbull (1872-1941), an American evangelical writer and journalist.  This is an excerpt from the book “Messages for the Morning Watch.”

In the original creation of light, God the creator divided light from darkness…Now, when God commits specific light-giving duties to certain of His creations, He makes it a definite part of their duty to divide the light from the darkness. So it is in the spiritual world. God has once for all divided light from darkness: they can have nothing to do with each other. God also entrusts His children, as co-workers with Himself, the responsibility and privilege of dividing light from darkness. We must lead others from darkness to Christ, and insist, for ourselves, a rigidly and relentlessly sharp line of cleavage between those things that belong to the light and to the darkness. May the God and Father of all light, and the True Light which lighteth every man, keep our vision clear and our will true.

God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. [Genesis 1:16-18]

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This meditation is from the Pray.com app.

God doesn’t just command us not to fear—He gives us Himself. The God of the universe promises to hold your hand and walk with you through whatever comes. His presence is constant, His help unfailing. He doesn’t stand at a distance—He stays close, steadying your heart and guiding your steps. When fear rises, you don’t have to face it alone. The One who holds your hand also holds all power. You are not abandoned. You are not forgotten. God is your help, and He will never let go.

For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you. [Isaiah 41:13]

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