Dear Pastor, Preacher, or Bible Teacher –

I hope your weekend was blessed in the service of God, His people, and a needy world! Here’s a thought for the start of this week from Isaiah 14:1:

For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob,
and will still choose Israel,
and settle them in their own land.
The strangers will be joined with them,
and they will cling to the house of Jacob. (Isaiah 14:1)

Sometimes God’s work is gloomy work, and many of God’s prophets have labored in gloomy times. God told Isaiah to tell the people of God that the mighty Babylonian Empire would crush them as an act of God’s judgment – not a cheerful message! Yet, God gave hope in the midst of gloom, and the gloom of Isaiah 13 turns into the hope of Isaiah 14, where it says: For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel.

Did you notice those four words? “Will still choose Israel.” Sometimes we feel that we know God chose us, but if He had to choose again, He would change His choice! He chose you for salvation and will still choose you. God chose you for ministry and will still choose you.

God’s love hasn’t changed since the days of Isaiah. He would still choose you. Sometimes sin, defeat, and discouragement make us think that God is almost “stuck” with us now and would choose differently if He could. That isn’t the case. His love towards you remains the same. He loved you all along, knowing how you would fail Him – but God’s love to you is based in who He is, not in who you are. Rest assured: He will still choose you.

Remember the great promise of Romans 11:29: “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” It’s true that there may be seasons when we step back to strengthen our discipleship or character, but the fundaments gifts and calling of God are not taken back.

He chose you, and He still chooses you. Take some rest in that today!

Blessings to You in Jesus’ Name – David Guzik

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Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4)

Dear Pastor, Preacher, or Bible Teacher –

I pray that as this comes to you on a Monday or a Tuesday after a weekend of ministry, that you are being refreshed and recharged by God. In whatever way you served God, His people, or a needy world this week, God saw what you did and how it honored Him.

There is a lot I could say about what God said to Jonah with this question. The context of it all in the book of Jonah makes it even more fascinating. But I know you are busy and hopefully will have some opportunity to rest and recharge today, so I won’t take much of your time with this.

God asked Jonah, is it right for you to be angry? God likes to ask questions, and it’s a great study to find out all the questions God asks of man throughout the Bible. God teaches through His questions, and He wanted to teach Jonah. Jonah felt justified in his anger, but God wanted him to see that not right for him to be angry.

What might God ask you today?

Is it right for you to be discouraged?
Is it right for you to be jealous?
Is it right for you be proud?
Is it right for you to be bitter?
Is it right for you to be unforgiving?

I might feel I have a reason to hold on to all of these things, and maybe more. When I think of how great God is, and how marvelous His plan is, and how good it is for me to die to self even when it is difficult, I see that it isn’t right for me to hold on to any of those things.

Dear brother or sister, don’t let the work of God in you and through you be hindered by holding on to something that isn’t right.

Blessings to You in Jesus’ Name – David Guzik

Click Here to Receive Email from David for Pastors, Preachers, and Bible Teachers

Blessed is the man who endures temptation;
for when he has been approved,
he will receive the crown of life
which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (James 1:12)

Happy Monday! If you served God, His people, or a needy world this last weekend in Jesus’ name, I pray today God will find several ways to recharge and refresh you.

We love the Beatitudes – those wonderful sayings of Jesus in Matthew 5 about those who are blessed. Yet the New Testament gives us a few more beatitudes beyond the Sermon on the Mount. Here, God pronounces a blessing on the one who endures temptation.

I think there are several kinds of temptation that are common to pastors, preachers, and Bible teachers. We are tempted to discouragement and tempted to pride. We tempted to self-reliance and to carelessness. We are tempted to make an idol out of the ministry or to lose heart with it.

Friend, please know – as you endure these temptations, God promises the crown of life to you. It’s worth it to keep going, to keep trusting in Jesus, and to keep receiving His strength.

Enduring through temptation, there is a promise for us: The crown of life which the Lord has promised. With this, James reminds us that it really is worth it to endure under the temptations we face.

The idea of our coming crown is amazing – almost more than we can take in. Spurgeon said this about our coming crown: “O you dear Christian people that live in poverty and obscurity, I have a reverence for your heads which are already anointed with grace, for your heads that are yet to be crowned with glory. You run – often run better than the greatest and most observed of your fellow Christians; and you shall not miss your reward. There is a crown laid up, not only for Paul, but ‘for all them that love our Lord’s appearing.’”

I don’t know what temptations face you on a Monday following a weekend serving God. Whatever they are, be encouraged. Endure through them. Look forward to the promised crown.

Blessings to You in Jesus’ Name – David Guzik

Click Here to Receive Email from David for Pastors, Preachers, and Bible Teachers

And the king commanded them to quarry large stones,
costly stones, and hewn stones,
to lay the foundation of the temple. (1 Kings 5:17)

It was one of the most amazing building projects of the ancient world. Thousands of men worked together to make the temple God inspired David and his son Solomon to build. In fact, a few verses before it says that were 70,000 men who carried burdens and quarried stones on this job site.

1 Kings 5:17 tells us that Solomon used costly stones. This is literally “quality stones,” showing that Solomon used high quality materials even in the foundation where the stones could not be seen.

The Bible says that we are like a temple being built by God. Ephesians 2:19-21 tells us that God’s people are being built up like a temple, with Jesus Christ as the chief corner stone and God’s apostles and prophets as the rest of the foundation. Then God keeps building with all of God’s people, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord (Ephesians 2:21).

Even closer to the point, 1 Peter 2:5 speaks to God’s people and says, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house. The picture is of God building a building, and we are the “bricks” or the “stones” that God builds with.

So, what might it say to you that Solomon used only costly stones in building the temple?

This speaks to the way you should work for God. We don’t work for appearance only, but also to excel in the deep and hidden things. All of our work for God should be done thoroughly – perhaps especially the work that is like a foundation, lying low and hidden, and not commonly seen by others.

This speaks to the way God works in you. He works in the deep and hidden things when others are concerned with mere appearances. You probably know this from your own life – how God has done a lot of unseen, underground work in your life.

This speaks to the way God builds the church. He wants to do a work of deep, strong foundations instead of a work a mile wide but an inch deep. If we want to see a solid work of God in our churches, it will be built upon His solid people.

Best of all, never forget who paid the price for every one of those costly stones: Jesus our redeemer. It is His temple and all the materials in it are His purchased possession. Thank Jesus for buying, building, and for letting you serve in His temple!

Blessings to You in Jesus’ Name – David Guzik

Click Here to Receive Email from David for Pastors, Preachers, and Bible Teachers

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. (Hebrews 6:10)

I don’t know how your weekend was. Maybe you are exhausted from a busy weekend and long hours. Maybe you are pleased because God really seemed to do some wonderful things through your service to Him and His people. Maybe you’re frustrated, confused, or anxious.

I don’t know how your weekend of serving God and His people was, but I do know this: God is a just God. He will always be fair and do what is right. And, as it says here in Hebrews 6:10: if God forgot what you did for Him, He would be unjust. Since God can never be unjust, He will never forget!

We can look at this verse and make some good prayers out of it:

– He remembers your work: “Lord, help me to keep working!”
– He remembers your labor of love: “Lord, help me to keep loving!”
– He remembers what you do in His name: “Lord, I want to work to give glory to Your name, not mine.”
– He remembers that you have ministered to the saints: “Lord, make me a servant to Your people, Your holy ones.”
– He remembers that you continually do minister: “Lord, help me to keep going in my service to You and Your people.”

People may forget. The community may not care. You yourself might even forget. But we have God’s word on it: He will never forget what you have done and keep doing for His glory and His people.

So, with God helping you – give Him more to remember!

Blessings to You in Jesus’ Name – David Guzik

Click Here to Receive Email from David for Pastors, Preachers, and Bible Teachers