Affliction

Your Shared Affliction

Isaiah 63:9

"In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old."

"I know what you are going through." This is a statement many people make who really understand what someone is going through. There is only one way that you can know what someone is going through, and that is to go through what another is facing. Yet, even then it is not quite true, for every situation is uniquely different.

There is only One Who can truly make this statement, and that is God. He says in the verse above, "In all their affliction he was afflicted,..." In other words, He wasn't just saying that He has gone through what someone is going through, but He is saying that He is going through it with the person who is afflicted. When they feel distress come their way, He feels the same feeling of distress trying to take over. When the situation gets tight, He feels the same tightness, for He is going through it with them. God knows exactly what you are facing because He has not only gone through it before, but He is sharing your affliction with you right now.

God says in Hebrews 4:15, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." This verse should be comforting for you as you go through your trials because it shows us that God is not a novice when it comes to your problems. You can see that He has felt every heartache and faced every trial that you have or will ever face. So, when God shares our afflictions, He has the wisdom and knowledge of how to face it, for He has gone through it before.

Christian, let me encourage you that God knows what you are facing today. He should be your counselor through your tough times, for He has faced your problems before. Many people may try to help you through tough times, but only God truly knows how to help you through it, for He has faced your situation before. There is nothing in your situation that catches God by surprise. Something you face may catch you by surprise, but God knew it was going to happen.

Furthermore, God not only knows what you are going through because of past experiences, but He also knows what you are going through because He is sharing it with you. God is there to share the yoke of heartache and trials with you. You don't have to carry the burden by yourself. He is trying to share the burden so that don't have to carry it by yourself.

I challenge you today to let God help you share your affliction. When you feel that you are at your end, remember God is there to help you carry that burden. He is the only One Who can lift your burden, but you must let Him. Run to Him and tell Him your heart's feelings, for He truly knows how you feel and how to help you. If you will look closely enough, you will see that God is along side sharing your affliction with you. What a comfort to know that you are not going through it alone!

Adorn

Adorn Yourself

Song of Solomon 8:9

"If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar."

The verse above is about a husband and wife who were concerned for a younger sibling who apparently was not the most attractive young lady. concern was that she was so plain that no man would ever want to marry her. They decided to help her by adorning her so that her appearance wasn't so plain.

Though the verse above is talking about someone's physical appearance, I believe it could also be applied to someone's personality. Most people are not naturally attractive when it comes to their personality. Most people have to work at adorning their personality if they want to be attractive to people. Your personality is important in many areas of life. It is important to have a good personality in the business world. You rarely see someone rise in the business world who has no personality. In the Christian life, it is very helpful to have a good personality if you are going to reach others for Christ. If you are going to lead people in the church, whether it be a Sunday school teacher, bus worker or a helper in a church ministry, a good personality is important so that you can help more people.

Just like the young lady in the verse above needed to adorn herself to help her appearance, I believe it is important to adorn your personality so that you can be a better servant of Christ. I don't say this to demean anyone, but most people must work on their personality. I constantly work on my personality so that I can better help people who would not normally want anything to do with me.

Some of the things with which you could adorn your personality to help you reach more people are very simple things. For instance, you could adorn personality with friendliness. Proverbs 18:24 says, "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Anyone can be friendly if they so choose. You could also adorn your personality with kindness. You could adorn your personality with laughter and cheer. People love being around someone who enjoys life and is happy. You could adorn your personality with concern. Being good to people is welcomed by all. These are just a few areas where you could adorn your personality, and it would help you in many areas of your life.

Like the young lady above needed others to help adorn her, you will need others to help adorn your personality. Look at others and see what is attractive about their personality, and don't be afraid to add it to yours. Throughout the years, when I see something about someone's personality that has attracted me, I have never been afraid to work on adding that to my personality. If it attracted me, then it will attract others if I also adorn myself with it. There is nothing wrong with this, for everyone is a compilation of many influences. If God sent a person across your path, then maybe His purpose was to help teach you something you need to work on.

Furthermore, you will notice that it is building process. In other words, you should never stop working on adorning your personality. It should be a lifelong process of building your personality. Don't be discouraged when you aren't immediately like something, but be patient as you work on building your personality.

Certainly, personality is not everything, but it would be helpful not to have a plain personality. The better your personality is, the better influence you will have for Christ upon others. Don't fight it, but be honest with yourself and what you need to work on, then adorn your personality in the areas where you are weak so you can be a better representative of Jesus Christ to others.

Timing

Getting the Right Timing

Ecclesiastes 3:11

"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."

The right timing is everything. You can do the right thing at the wrong time and it will not turn out the way that it should. For instance, a person can marry the right person at the wrong time and have marriage problems because they were not quite ready for marriage. Determining the right timing in everything is important to the degree of success and happiness that you will have.

The verse above says, "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time:..." God believes that timing is important. If you get the timing right, then everything will work out fine. I remember years ago when I was working on my car that I accidentally got the timing on the firing order of the engine wrong. Because the timing was wrong, the car would not run correctly. I had to go back and get the timing right for it to run correctly. Sadly, you can't go back in life and get the timing right. You have one time to get it right, and God says when you get it right it is a beautiful thing. Let me give you some suggestions of how to get the right timing.

First, don't be in a hurry. When you get in a hurry, you will most certainly find the wrong timing. Timing takes patience. Most people struggle with patience and get themselves into trouble because they rush things. You must remind yourself that your life will be easier and happier if you get the timing right. If you will learn to wait and not rush what you want, then you will find that God's timing is perfect.

Second, get God involved in your timing. In the earlier years of my ministry I asked my pastor, Dr. Jack Hyles, how I could grow my ministry. I sincerely wanted my ministry to grow faster so that I could influence more people for right. His counseling was very wise in that he told me that God knew my name, address and telephone number, and that I just needed to be patient and let God grow my ministry in His timing. Thankfully, I listened to his advice, for God's timing in my ministry has been impeccable. God knows what is best for you, and you must wait on Him to show you the right timing in all that you do. Trust that God knows the best timing. Read God's Word to help you to determine the best timing. Pray and ask God to show you the best timing. God's involvement in your timing will help you to find the right timing.

Third, don't sacrifice the future for the immediate. Too many people want to live the future right now, when they need to live in the present and let the future take care of itself. Take care of what you are supposed to do right now, and you will find that the timing will take care of itself. I have found that if I stay busy doing what I'm supposed to do, then the timing of everything falls into place.

Last, don't delay the inevitable because of hardship. Many people pass up the right timing because of how hard the right timing may be. Let me warn you, if you delay what you are supposed to do because of how hard it is, then you are only making it harder for yourself when you do have to face it. Don't put things off to tomorrow when you can take care of them today. Timing isn't always easy, but it is always best.

Learning the right timing will be one of the most important things you accomplish. If you get the right timing, then you will find that success is much easier to achieve. If you will do things in the right time, then you will find that you can lessen life's heartaches. Take the advice of this devotional and determine to not only do the right thing, but do the right thing at the right time.

The Lie

The Lie of Lies

Job 11:3

"Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?"

Zophar asked, "Should thy lies make men hold their peace?" He was simply asking Job if he thought his lies would cause others to obtain peace. Zophar understood that one of the biggest lies about a lie is that it cannot deliver the peace it promises. A lie may promise that peace will come, but lies never deliver peace because conflict is the root of a lie.

One of the stories in the Scriptures when a lie promised peace was when the serpent told Eve in Genesis 3:4-5, "...Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Satan's lie to Eve did not deliver the peace that it promised; rather, it delivered conflict and strife that we still endure today. The lie of lies is that it will never deliver peace.

We must always understand that the core of a lie will never give what it says it will. The reason it will never deliver is because John 8:44 shows us that the Devil is the father of lies. From the beginning the Devil could not be trusted; therefore, why do you think you can trust his lies? He may promise one thing, but he will deliver the opposite. He may promise peace, but he will deliver conflict. You must never forget that the Devil is a deceiver, and anything which he father's is filled with deceit.

I point this out to you for two reasons. First, don't ever fall for the belief that there are times when lying is okay. We live in a day when people think that lying is okay if the situation dictates it. Let me make this clear, you may cause people to have peace at the moment with a lie, but eventually the lies will cause greater conflict. You may be able to get people to stay silent for a while because of a lie, but the lie will always come back to bite you with conflict. The lie that lies give peace is only temporal, but the long term effect of lies is conflict. This is why you must never deem it okay to lie for the moment to keep peace. It may keep temporary peace, but eventually you will deal with the conflict, but in an even greater way.

Second, I point this out to you because lying to yourself only causes your conflict to become greater. Many people lie to themselves to make themselves feel better, but they find out that the lie never gives them peace; instead, it gives them greater conflict. If you have a problem in your life don't listen to the lie; instead, deal with the problem. You can listen to the lie that your marriage is fine when you know it's not, and the only thing you will have is greater marital problems in the future. You can listen to the lie that you can control your vice, but your vice will only deliver greater conflict in your life. You must not lie to yourself! When your heart tells you that you have a problem, the best thing to do is deal with it.

Let me challenge you to become a person who lives in truth. Be the type of person who tells the truth all of the time. Yes, there are times when truth will be hard on those whom you tell it to, but you can always tell the truth with grace to keep the truth from hurting as bad. Yet, you must remember that when you tell the truth, you are actually delivering peace if people will deal with what the truth tells them. Likewise, you must be a person who doesn't lie to yourself. When you know you have a problem, listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and correct your problem. You will find that if you listen and do what truth tells you, then peace will be the eventual result.

Promotion

Unadvised Promotion

Esther 3:1

"After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him."

Who people promote to a place of authority will either make or break them. Often people choose someone to follow, and by doing so they are promoting that person to be their leader. This choice ultimately determines their future. Adults make this decision on a regular basis. Young people make this decision many times to their own detriment. It is imperative that you choose the right type of people to promote to leadership in your life.

King Ahasuerus made an unadvised promotion when he promoted Haman to a high position. Apparently, Haman was already working for Ahasuerus in some role when he was promoted to this high position. You would think that Ahasuerus would know what kind of man Haman was, but apparently he didn't or he didn't care. Yet, this promotion put a black mark on Ahasuerus' legacy. Like many leaders, it was an unadvised promotion that dogged him and his ability to lead. He should have been more careful with his choice, for if he had, this would never be the regret of his tenure.

Sadly, people commonly make the same mistake. People without hesitation or prayer quickly promote someone to be their pastor, boss, leader, or friend without doing any background check on them. You should always be careful who you allow yourself to follow, and be careful not to make unadvised promotions. There are several things about Haman that are indicators of someone whom you should not promote in your life.

First, Haman was wrapped up in himself. Haman was all about Haman. This type of person should never be promoted in your life. You should only promote people who point people to Christ and others. You don't want to choose a man to be your pastor who is more interested in his own name than he is the name of Christ. You don't want to choose friends who will pull your attention away from Christ towards themselves. This would be an unadvised promotion.

Second, Haman was improper with the opposite gender. It didn't bother him to throw himself into the same bed with Esther. When you see that a person is improper with the opposite gender, you would be wise not to follow them. Their actions will eventually rub off on you and could eventually cause you to fall. It would be an unadvised promotion to follow someone who is improper with the opposite gender.

Third, Haman was hateful towards groups of people. Again, this would not be the type of person you should follow or with whom you should yoke up. When a person is prejudiced towards any race, then that person has a serious problem. Every person, no matter their color or background, is a human being and is loved by God. You should avoid following or being close to this type of person for it is an unadvised promotion.

Let me warn you not to carry these characteristics. You should want to be the type of person whom people can wisely follow. If you shouldn't follow a certain type of person, then you shouldn't be that type of person. If you find yourself having any of these types of unadvised characteristics, then change them. Make it your goal to be the type of person whom others can follow. Let their choice to follow you be a wise promotion.