Kerusso Daily Devotional

Do you struggle to wonder what God’s will is for your life?

Many of us do.

Although it isn’t a quick answer, the best way to find God’s will for your life is to read His Word. The Bible will tell you the answer to that question.

Romans 8:31 tells us, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Actually, finding God’s will isn’t the hardest part. Deciding to follow His will is where we get tripped up.

People need the skill and discipline of being persistent. Too often the impulse is to give up and then, if we’re honest, pretend that God hasn’t revealed His will to us.

Good old Abe Lincoln had it right when he said that the only important response is to make sure we are on God’s side, not whether He’s on ours.

God has already told us that He’s on our side. He sent His Son, Jesus, to take the penalty for our sin. It doesn’t get any more “on our side” than that.

Change your thinking a bit. Don’t focus on what you think God is supposed to do.

Resolve instead to follow God, and do it every day.

Let’s pray.

Lord, your will is the thing that drives us on, to find our purpose in life. Thank you for sticking with us. Help us to stick with you. Amen.

Some of the greatest stories of believers down through time have involved those who really studied God’s Word. These people have gone before us to show us the way. From Charles Spurgeon to a missionary mother in China, daily study of the Word, and prayer, prepared them to mentor entire generations.

Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another.”

We also read in Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. We have to do it, so that others know how. Remember, there is no substitute for spending time in God’s Word.

In order to properly train an apprentice, you need to obviously be prepared and adept. Anything less leads to weak faith, or no faith at all.

This is what the Great Commission, sharing the Gospel, has always been about. Duplicating disciples. Grounding your own faith in the Bible, and then imparting that to others. That is the essence of true iron sharpening iron.

Let’s pray.

Lord, keep us about your work by daily reminding us to spend time with you in Your Word. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Today, we continue our series on healthy relationships, and we’re talking about managing difficult relationships.

There’s a wonderful scene in the classic film to kill a Mockingbird, when the attorney Atticus Finch is confronted by the father of a girl who has accused a black man of rape. The father, enraged, walks up to Finch—played perfectly by Gregory Peck. He spits in Finch’s face as the attorneys’ children watch.

You can see the anger in Finch’s face, but he slowly and calmly maintains his composure. He simply walks past the man, who now looks pretty small and everyone’s eyes.

God has given us the power over difficult people. It’s called not letting them set the rules.

1 Peter 3:9 says, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing because to this you were called, so that you may inherit a blessing.”

Not always easy, definitely, but we’re capable of it. Remember that. This life is very much about winning and losing. Determine that a difficult person in your life is not going to win by controlling you and getting under your skin. In wrestling terms, don’t let that person pin you.

Is that obnoxious person in your life really all that obnoxious, or are you a grouch, letting yourself get caught in what is really only a difference in personalities? Go home from work one evening and think about that. Make your mind up to start out the next day by being nice to that person. You’ll be surprised how that can change the equation. And that's what Colossians 4:6 is talking about when it says, “Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man.”

Or maybe you’re a man frustrated with the relationship between your wife and your mother. This is always a potentially difficult situation. Maybe you think your wife should be more adaptable, but have you forgotten what God told the man in Genesis 2:24? It says, “This is why a man leaves his father and mother, and is united to his wife. And they become one flesh.” Your responsibility in that situation is to your wife, not to making sure your parents’ feelings come first in all situations.

So you see, often that difficult person you’re dealing with is you, or at the very least a different perspective will help you see where the fault really lies.

Finally, in 1 Corinthians 5, we read that Paul advises for really difficult people, a cooling off period is legitimate. For example, the person who is causing real strife in a church should not be allowed to go on like that indefinitely; bad behavior sometimes must be confronted for the good of the community. And even for the good of the offended person, this is sound advice.

So if we stick to what the Lord has already told us, and our tried and true methods for dealing with difficult people, we can get to a better place.

Let’s pray.

Father God, a person who is angry or troublemaker creates chaos for everyone. Help us analyze each of these situations as unique so that we know how to handle them from Your Word. And most especially help us make it a habit to pray for those who are difficult, so that we might see their lives changed, and brought into harmony and unity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have you ever had the pleasure of waking up in a cozy cabin...after you’ve let the fire go out from the night before? If you don’t get out of bed and put more wood in that furnace, the squirrels or raccoons aren’t going to do it for you!

Much more serious is the tendency to get lazy about the fire inside us to share the love of Christ. After so many years of being a Christian—especially living in a free country—sharing the Gospel can be put on the backburner.

Romans 12:11–12 says, “Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive. Serve the Lord. When you hope, be joyful. When you suffer, be patient. When you pray, be faithful.”

Do you see what God is urging us to do in Scripture? He says to never let the fire go out! Never doesn’t mean sometimes, when we’re tired or annoyed about something. This is too important to mess up. Remember that Jesus saved you. And more than likely, through someone keeping their own inner fire going, they saw you through the eyes of compassion.

Let’s pray.

Lord, give us a passion for the souls of all people, at all times. And help us to be ready to share Christ with them. Amen.

Picture what it would be like to lose everything in one fell swoop. Your house burns to the ground. The stock market plummets and all your money is gone. Worst of all, your children fall ill and die. Suddenly, you’ve lost not only your material possessions, but your family, too.

When people refer to someone as having “the patience of Job,” they say that for a reason.

Job was a man of immense wealth, the richest man in the region, and was the father of 7 sons and 3 daughters he loved dearly. He was also a faithful servant of the Lord, and grateful for every blessing.

In a terrible turn of events, Job lost his fortune in a single day. His crops, property, livestock, and servants were gone. Most devastating of all, Job lost his children. But Job didn’t blame God. He accepted that God had a plan for him, and was patient as he waited for the Lord to reveal that plan. He knew that sometimes bad things happen to good people, and he continued to praise the Lord in the midst of trial.

Exodus 14:14 says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Job lost everything, but he didn’t take matters into his own hands to seek justice for what he had lost. He fell to his knees and worshipped the Lord, and then he was still. In the quiet of his soul, Job knew God had a plan, and in the end, God restored to Job twice as much as he had in the beginning.

A godly man is patient.

Let’s pray.

Lord, waiting is hard to do. Waiting for an answer. Waiting for resolution. Waiting for things to get better. Restore peace and patience as we grow in faith and learn to wait on you. We trust you. Amen.