How to stand firm in the face of pressure

Back in the early 1990s, it was no secret that President George H. W. Bush was not a fan of broccoli. In fact, his distaste for the vegetable was so strong that he actually banned it from Air Force One. This embroiled the entire nation in a “broccoli discussion,” prompting broccoli growers to dispatch 10 tons of the vegetable free to Washington D.C. 

	Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. — 1 Corinthians 15:58

Yet the President reiterated his distaste with gusto:

I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. Now look, this is the last statement I’m going to have on broccoli. There are truckloads of broccoli at this very minute descending on Washington. My family is divided. For the broccoli vote out there: Barbara loves broccoli. She has tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself. So she can go out and meet the caravan of broccoli that’s coming in.

Satan's Tools

"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and, let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1).

There are weights which are not sins in themselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christian progress. One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness.

The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, "as it were murmured." Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever.

We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us with victory.

The Broken Way

Gwen Smith

Today's Truth
Moses answered the people, 'Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today ... the LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still (Exodus 14:13-14, NIV).

Friend to Friend
While at a football game of my son Preston's, I had a moving conversation with another team mom. It was the first time we'd ever dialogued beyond socially expected niceties. Between cheers that went up to our football-playing boys, she stumbled upon the fact that I was a Jesus-loving girl and was excited to share about how God has intimately drawn her heart to his over the past five years. How He met her where she was, ministered to her through the hands of others. How He sparked life into her soul through His Son Jesus Christ. She was radiant and she spoke with excitement, joy in every sentence, praise on her tongue for the God who gives her strength and life. This dear lady opened her heart and told me of her grueling battle with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

Faith When You Can't See a Thing

Written by Jack Hayford

How many times do obstacles get in the way and seem to turn your future opaque? The Bible says that now we see through a glass darkly. But there are times when we don't even see through the glass; all we see is darkness.

The story of Bartimaeus and the ministry of Jesus is one of the greatest stories in the New Testament because of the dynamism it displays about how to trust God when you can't see a thing.
Jesus was traveling southward, towards Jerusalem, coming into Jericho, when He came across a blind man seated by the road. The man couldn't see a thing. It always seemed ironic to me that Bartimaeus was seated in a city in which one of the most important events in the history of people of God took place. The trumpets sounded after the march of Jericho, the place was overwhelmed with the power of God, and spiritual break-through occurred. And yet, with all that history at that site, a man sits there unable to see a thing. Then Jesus came. And in that interaction, we see principles of faith about how to believe, how to stand firm in faith, and how to function when you can't see a thing. It's a lesson to us about how to lead our lives under the leadership of Jesus Christ, how to be led by the Holy Spirit of God, and how to be shaped by Him. Let's look at this text in Luke: 

Trusting God When It Means Rejection

At his father’s funeral, American track and field star Carl Lewis placed his 100-meter gold medal from the 1984 Olympics in his father’s grave. “Don’t worry,” he told his surprised mother. “I’ll get another one.” 

	What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ. — Philippians 3:8

A year later, in the 100-meter final at the 1988 games, Lewis was competing against Canadian world record holder Ben Johnson. Halfway through the race, Johnson was still five feet in front. Lewis was convinced he could catch him. But at 80 meters, he was still five feet behind. “It’s over,” Lewis thought. As Johnson crossed the finish, he stared back at Lewis and thrust his right arm in the air, index finger extended.

Lewis was exasperated. He had noticed Johnson’s bulging muscles and yellow-tinged eyes, both indications of steroid use. “I didn’t have the medal, but I could still give to my father by acting with class and dignity,” Lewis said later. He shook Johnson’s hand and left the track.