Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

An important question is asked in Psalm 11. Go with me for just a glance. David wrote Psalm 11, probably while he was being hunted and haunted by King Saul. With borderline insane paranoia, Saul began seeking the life of David.

As a pastor, I often get asked questions regarding God's will. Today I'll consider four of the more common ones. And remember, those who really want to do His will, will know it (John 7:17).

Want to know God's will for your life? Let me ask you to stop, look, and listen. God makes His desires known to those who stop at His Word, look in with a sensitive spirit, and listen to others.

There once lived a farmer who became jaded about Christmas and all things "Christian." Late one raw winter night, he sat alone in the house, reading. In the quiet he heard an irregular thumping against the back porch door.

What do you give a young king? The magi, after traveling more than five hundred miles away to see the child Jesus, brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh with them. Why those gifts?

On that still winter's night, something was up . . . something extraordinary . . . something supernatural. The shepherds raced to the City of David and found their Savior, just as the angel had said . . . swaddled and lying in a feeding trough.

When Mary and Joseph began their journey southward to Bethlehem, they probably thought they had time to make the trip, register for the census, and then return home to Nazareth before the baby would be born.

That first Christmas, all eyes were on Augustus—the cynical Caesar who demanded a census so as to determine a measurement to enlarge taxes even further. At such a time, who was interested in a young couple making an 80-mile trip south from Nazareth?

Take a trip out of time and space. With the help of your imagination, let yourself be pulled from the gravity of this planet and move into the space beyond the earth's dimension—that mysterious realm where angels dwell.

I confess to you, at times I've doubted God's purpose and promise. I say that to my own embarrassment. When things hadn't worked as I thought they would, when I received a no instead of a yes . . .

Human logic breaks down in crisis. The mystery is enormous, and it is the enormity of it all that calls for faith. I'm sorry if that sounds like an overused bromide. But if we could unravel it, why would we need faith?

The word picture of an anchor is used often in ancient literature, but it's used only once in the New Testament in picturing hope as an anchor for our soul. Lots of hymns and gospel songs make use of this anchor metaphor.

Somewhere along the many miles of southern California shoreline walked a young, 20-year-old woman with a terminal disease in her body and a revolver in her hand. She had called me late one evening. We talked for a long time.

The same Bible that develops the subject of hell also reveals the truth about heaven. What is heaven like? Playing harps all day? Lounging around on Cloud Nine? Living in enormous mansions along solid gold streets?

A particular story Jesus once told comes to my mind every time I think of life after death. Because it is descriptive and brief, we are able to get a fairly uncomplicated picture in our minds of this subject of hell.

It doesn't take a Ph.D. in English Literature to observe that God offers us a gift in salvation. The gift is eternal life, which is directly connected to His Son. Now let's be clear and cautious. Becoming a member of a church is not the way to salvation.

Being lost is a terrifying experience. A person's head spins as panic creeps up, shouting threats like, "You'll never find your way!" or "It's impossible!" Fear clutches at you. Several strange things are true about being lost.

Following the sixth day of creation, the Lord God deliberately stopped working. He rested. It wasn't that there was nothing else He could have done. It certainly wasn't because He was exhausted. Omnipotence never gets tired!

After God made man, He observed a need inside that life, a nagging loneliness that Adam couldn't shake. "Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.'" (Genesis 2:18)

How do you get good at getting the rest God said was good for you? How do you get good at leisure? We can, of course, nod in agreement to all we've discussed in the past couple days about how important it is to rest.