If Jesus stood in front of you and said, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you…” Mark 4:11, wouldn’t you do whatever you could to hear and understand that? Sadly, most people don’t. Why? Because of the condition of their heart. The things they love, the things they think about all the time, the things they chase after, the things they think are important, the things they think other people think are important, the things they end up basing their entire life on – a.k.a. the condition of their hearts – take up so much of the capacity of their heart, desires, and attitudes that they don’t pursue the kingdom of God – even though Jesus tells us He has revealed it to us! Their heart is “hard” so that the Word of God can’t penetrate it. But it has been trained over time to be satisfied by the things of the world. How? In Mark 4:19, Jesus said that we have been led astray by 1) the worries of this life (past experiences that tempt us to focus on the giants in our lives instead of God’s omnipotent power to protect and sustain us), 2) the deceitfulness of wealth (present day possessions that give us a false sense of security and value) and 3) the desires for other things (spending our coming days chasing after the newest material possession to try to fulfill our desires and longings). Many people in the end will have nothing to show for their lives. And it’s mostly because they simply did not make time to read and study the Word, and hear it preached or taught, and make the Word the priority of their life, in order to crowd the other stuff out. Yes it is true – God loves us just as we are! But it is also true that He loves us too much to want us to stay there! For the sake of our earthly and eternal lives, as well as the Kingdom of God, begin today making a commitment to trust Him, pursue Him, and love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30). Then we will gradually see a heart that is able to “accept the Word, and produce a crop – thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.” (Mark 4:20). That is a fulfilled life!

Take time today to read Mark 4:1-20 and write down some ways to apply it to your life.

“Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”

Psalm 147:1, 10-11

You don’t have to be perfect to delight the heart of God! You don’t have to be physically attractive. You don’t have to be smart or athletic or rich or popular or funny or healthy. What you have to be is someone who recognizes your need and who puts your total trust in Him!

God does not delight in our accomplishments or in how well we perform; his heart LEAPS when we put our trust in Him. As A.W. Tozer wrote, “In our desire after God let us always keep in mind that God also has desire, and His desire is toward people, and more particularly toward those people who will make the once-for-all decision to exalt Him over all. Such as these are precious to God above all treasures of earth or sea. In them God finds a theatre where He can display His exceeding kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. With them God can walk unhindered; toward them He can act like the God He is! ~ Jan Dravecky

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

– Psalm 147:3

Psalm 147 is a psalm laden with the wondrous works of God, rich with imagery and powerful in stirring our affections for God. In it we learn that God “determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names,” and that he “covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.”

Verse 3: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Jesus was a perfect example of God’s heart to do this very thing. All throughout his ministry Jesus healed those around him physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Scripture gives us insight into characters such as Mary Magdalene, who was delivered of demon possession and brought into close friendship with Christ himself. Jesus healed her spiritually, emotionally, and physically by delivering her from oppression and being her friend. Then there’s Paul. Before Jesus revealed himself to Paul, he was Saul, a man committed to destroying the very movement of Christianity that he would later give his life to build. He was a driven, successful, and prideful man. He was a religious zealot of great discipline, but a man far away from the heart of God. However, after meeting Jesus and being healed of his former ways, he was able to confidently say he counted all things “as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

God has the same heart for you he had for Mary and Paul. He knows the wounds that people, circumstances, and sin have caused in your life. He knows what you struggle with, the habits and addictions that hold you back from living the abundant life he has planned for you. And he has both a desire and plan to heal those wounds. God desires to heal your heart right now. You don’t have to wait to encounter the power of God. God wants you to live a life receptive to all the love and blessing he longs to give you.

Let the stories of Mary and Paul fill you with a longing to encounter more of God. Allow what God has done in others’ lives to stir up a yearning to be healed by God yourself. Wait on the Lord, open your heart to him, and let him do what he has promised to do in you. He’s promised his healing, transformation, and abundant life. All that’s left is for you to receive the gift of healing he longs to give as you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit today.

Take time to press into the heart of God to heal you today as you enter into a time of guided prayer.

The Prayer

1. Meditate on God’s desire to heal any broken places in your life as revealed in Scripture.

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” Psalm 103:2-4

2. Tell God of the places in your heart that are broken. Your wounds could go back to your childhood or just yesterday. Either way, God desires to heal anything that’s holding you back from fullness of life in him.

“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.” Jeremiah 17:14

3. Take action where God is leading you. Sometimes healing comes through forgiveness, a conversation, or taking some extra time to pray and be with God. Ask him how he feels about any wounds from your past, any broken relationships, or any recurring sin in your life. Journal what he says.

Healing is often a process, but know that God desires to lead you through every step of the way. If he puts it on your heart to forgive someone or to have a hard conversation, know that it’s best for you. While it may be hard today, your life will be better because of it. As these issues begin to come up, take time to be in God’s presence and allow him to heal the broken places in your life. God has healing and transformation in store for you, and that life is available to you right now.

Extended Reading: Psalm 147

(Shared by Harvey Ellis)

One of the great privileges of our lives as Christians is to pray for other people. There are so many needs, and so many reasons to ask God to bless others.

A great way to pray for someone is to pray Scripture. Knowing your Bible is critical for living your faith out in your every day life. As you read and study it, the Holy Spirit will make some verses “stand out” to you. And then when you think of someone to pray for, the Lord will bring that verse(s) to your mind. When this happens, you can trust that God wants to bless that person through you using these Scriptures.

Many verses can be used to pray for anyone you know!

An example of this is Romans 12:2. The book of Romans is a great book to read and study. Many of the verses and passages are foundational to our faith and “famous” verses that you would hear in talks and sermons, as well as devotionals and books.

You could go to God and say, “Lord, I pray for _________, that they would not be conformed to this world, but that he/she would be transformed by the renewing of his/her mind. Enable them to know your good, pleasing and perfect will for them.” As you do this, you know that you are praying in God’s will because God wrote the Bible and will always agree with it!

Spend some time today 1) praying for someone and looking for verses that you could use in this way, and 2) exploring the Bible to find verses that you can write down and “store” as your favorites to pray for someone.

Feel free to share with me any verses that you find or already use to pray for someone!

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Philippians 4:8 NIV

When the Scripture invites us to seek whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable, it is inviting us to discover a God who himself is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable. And when we encounter this God, we will be changed. Like a refiner’s fire burning away the dross, he will purify us to make us like himself. And out of his abundant goodness, he will teach us to love all that’s good.”⠀-Hannah Anderson

Does God promise to give me wisdom if I ask for it?

Scripture tells us to seek wisdom – Proverbs 2;1-11; 4:5-7.

Wisdom from God is different from worldly “wisdom” – 1 Corinthians 3:18-20; James 3:13-17.

God will give me his wisdom if I ask for it in faith – Matthew 7:7-8; James 1:5-6.

Scripture can give me wisdom – Psalm 119:97-104; 2 Timothy 3:14-15.

The Holy Spirit can guide me into all truth and wisdom – John 16:13-15.

“Suppose you have a prayer list: ‘Lord help me be patient and kind and gentle and faithful and honest and pure and self-denying and loving and courageous and risk-taking and generous and joyful.’ Suppose that you add to that list: ‘And help me to exalt Christ.’ This would be good. Very good. But what remains unclear in this list is how exalting Christ relates to all those other things.⠀

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Something dramatic and profoundly biblical happens when you don’t list ‘exalt Christ’ as a separate aim alongside the others, but as an adjective modifying the rest. Lord help me show Christ-exalting patience, and Christ-exalting kindness, and Christ-exalting gentleness, and Christ-exalting faithfulness, and so on.⠀

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This small grammatical change wakens us to the all-important fact that the glory of Christ matters in everything we do — not just alongside it, but in it. There is no part of life, no matter how seemingly insignificant (Christ-exalting teeth-brushing), in which making much of Christ is alien. ‘Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31). . . .⠀

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Treating ‘Christ-exalting’ as an adjective weaves an all-encompassing truth into our words, and thus into our minds and hearts — namely, the truth that making much of Christ is not one action alongside others, but is the ever-present and highest aim of all our actions and thoughts and feelings.”⠀  -John Piper

“Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” Psalm 126:5,6

What a promise! Think of it… When you sow in tears, you will enjoy a marvelous and abundant return in your investment.

If you have ever reached through an invisible wall of pain to embrace God with willful thanks, you have sown in tears. If you’ve ever been rejected by a loved one and yet turned the other cheek in love, you have sown in tears. If you have patiently endured physical affliction, or responded in love through a difficult marriage, then this could be your verse.

When you hurt physically or emotionally, it’s hard to muster a patient or godly response. Pain has a way of screaming for our undivided attention. But when you either offer a sacrifice of praise to God in the midst of your hurt, or respond in faith to a heartbreak or hardship, you are sowing in tears. Take heart, for one day God will reward you with sheaves (bundles) of joy – all because you were faithful through tears.

“I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.””

Revelation 21:3-4

From a devotional by Joni Eareckson Tada

Do Unto Others

“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself…”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭15:1-3‬ ‭

“Like people who help to carry heavy things, you should help each other to be strong during troubles and problems. This is how you will obey Christ’s rules.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6:2‬

“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:4‬

“We should not look out for our own interests. Instead, we should look out for the interests of others.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10:24‬

“Love each other as brothers and sisters and honor others more than you do yourself.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:10‬ ‭

“So then, we must always aim at those things that bring peace and that help strengthen one another.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭14:19‬ ‭

“In everything, do to others what you would want them to do to you. This is what is written in the Law and in the Prophets.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:12‬

“The whole law can be found in a single command. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:14‬

“The royal law is found in Scripture. It says, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18) If you really keep that law, you are doing what is right.”

‭‭James‬ ‭2:8‬

“Be joyful with those who are joyful. Be sad with those who are sad. Agree with each other. Don’t be proud. Be willing to be a friend of people who aren’t considered important. Don’t think that you are better than others. Don’t pay back evil with evil. Be careful to do what everyone thinks is right. If possible, live in peace with everyone. Do that as much as you can.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:15-18‬ ‭

“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:24‬ ‭

“Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭41:1‬

“Keep being concerned about each other as the Lord’s followers should.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13:1‬

“And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

‭‭John‬ ‭13:34

“Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭4:9

“You have obeyed God’s true message. As a result, you have become clean in your souls, and now you can really love other believers. So, do that very well! Continue to love each other very much.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭1:22‬ ‭

Hmmm, I wonder if God is trying to tell us something?

God cares about more than our biggest worries. He cares about the smallest worries that weigh on our hearts. If not one hair on our head goes unnumbered (Matthew 10:30), if not one tear on our face goes unseen (Psalm 56:8), and if not one cry from our mouth goes unheard (Psalm 6:8), then not one of our worries will go unnoticed by God. ⠀ ⠀

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‘It is not simply great matters we are to bring before God, not simply small things but “everything,”’ George Müller writes. ‘Therefore, all our affairs, temporal or spiritual, let us bring them before God. And this for the simple reason that life is made up of little things.’⠀

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For the most anxious Christians, worry does not grow quiet when outward circumstances do. Even when all around is calm — our families healthy, our jobs secure, our friendships steady — worry can work with the smallest of burdens. So we must take even those, trifles though they seem, and roll them onto our Father’s shoulders. As Müller writes, ‘When we have any little burdens we must tell our heavenly Father, “I have no strength for this weight, I cannot carry the burden.”’ And then remember: ‘Our heavenly Father is ready to do this for us.’ ⠀

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Over time, rolling every burden onto God can become as reflexive as a frightened child reaching for his father.” ⠀-Scott Hubbard