Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Many Christians complain that God doesn't speak to them when they're in need of guidance. For some reason they have forgotten the first and most basic way God leads His children—through His written Word!

While we think we may be immune to the endless litany of television commercials, newspaper ads, . . . the constant admonition to spend, spend, spend, we Christians need to be alert to how Satan tempts us with the temporal.

Some years ago I was given a book of Puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision. I have worn out one copy and had to purchase another. I recommend this volume to you. Read the following prayer from the Puritan's pen slowly.

When it came to clear communication, Jesus was a master. Children and adults alike had no difficulty understanding His words or following His reasoning.

I have found great help from two truths God gave me at a time in my life when I was bombarded with a series of unexpected and unfair blows (from my perspective).

Contentment is something we must learn. It isn't a trait we're born with. But the question is how? In 1 Timothy 6 we find a couple of very practical answers to that question.

I love memories. Today I've been remembering a perfect Monday evening from years back . . . . The smell of homemade clam chowder greeted me as I walked through the front door.

Americans like things to be logical and fair. We operate our lives on that basis. Meaning this: If I do what is right, good will come to me; and if I do what is wrong, bad things will happen to me.

In all my studies I've found only one place where Jesus Christ—in His own words—describes his own "inner man." In doing so, He uses only two words. He doesn't say: "I am wise and powerful," or "I am holy and eternal."

Ours is a hell-bound, degenerate world, and you know it. Political corruption abounds. International peace, a splendid ideal, continues to blow up in our faces. The crime rate escalates . . .

To rally: "to muster for a common purpose . . . to arouse for action . . . to come together again to renew an effort." That's the way Webster defines the verb. He says the noun means: "a mustering of scattered forces to renew an effort."

A severe case of ingrown eyeballs strikes all of us every once in a while. In both dramatic and subtle ways, the stubborn enemy of our souls whispers sweet little nothings in our ears. He reminds us of how unappreciated and ill-treated we are.

God calls us to be salt-and-light Christians in a bland, dark society. We need to remember salt must not lose its taste and light must not be hidden. Let me suggest three statements that declare and describe how to fulfill this role.

Last fall one day at the church, I spotted a visiting gentleman who was shaking hands with a half-dozen folks he’d never met before. Then he looked at me, and with a grin and a twinkle, he whipped out his hand.

"Lord, I'm back and I diligently seek you." How many times have we said this? This time stop talking and sit silently. Wait patiently, seek diligently, sit silently. That means you need to pour out your heart and then deliberately be quiet.

"Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph" (Exod. 1:8). Too bad. Tragic, in fact. Seems a shame Joseph had to die at the young age of 110(!), before he had a chance to impact the new king.

The apostle John asks: "If someone who is supposed to be a Christian . . . sees a brother in need, and won't help him—how can God's love be within him?" (1 John 3:17, TLB). True servants are merciful. They care. They get involved.

The children worked long and hard on their little cardboard shack. It was to be a special spot—a clubhouse, where they could meet together, play, and have fun. Since a clubhouse has to have rules, they came up with three.

We must have resembled a family of Gypsies or a scene from Grapes of Wrath as we rambled along the highway. Several layers of redwood forest dust mixed with pine tree sap covered our car.

The heart of the term "cordial" is the word "heart." And the heart of "heart" is kardia, a Greek term that most often refers to the center of our inner life—the source or seat of all the forces and functions of our inner being.