Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Every achievement worth remembering is stained with the blood of diligence and scarred by the wounds of disappointment. To quit, to run, to escape, to hide—none of these options solve anything. They only postpone the acceptance of, and reckoning with, reality.

Our greatest struggle is not in the realm of understanding the will of God; it's in the realm of obeying the God whose will it is. . . . we do not find ourselves puzzled and mystified about God's will nearly as much as we find ourselves stubborn and resistant.

We are to talk of spiritual things in our homes just as we would talk about anything else. You talk together about how the Dodgers played last night. No big deal, you just talk about that. You talk about what you're going to do next week. You don't lecture on it.

We live today in a microwave culture. If it takes longer than five minutes to fix lunch, that's long! In earlier days, you even had to wait for a TV set to warm up. Can you imagine? And you couldn't push a single button on your phone to call home on a pre-set number.

Anxious. Intriguing word. It literally means "to be divided" or "distracted." . . . We find a perfect illustration of this in the story of Mary and Martha recorded in Luke 10:38–42. Taking a minute to look into their little abode, we find that Martha is distracted, anxious.

When was the last time you took a glance at a mountain? You don't glance at pictures of Mount Everest and say, "Hmm, nice hill. Maybe a little taller than some mountains." You don't witness the glaciers in Alaska and say, "Oh, yeah, that's a pretty nice glacier."

Our world has become a large, impersonal, busy institution. We are alienated from each other. Although crowded, we are lonely. Distant. Pushed together but uninvolved. No longer do most neighbors visit across the backyard fence.

There are numerous riddles in life that remain wrapped in mystery and shrouded inside an enigma. The sea, for example, is an unexplainable phenomenon. Who can fathom its tide affected strangely by the moon . . . ?

While most people in the world are busy building towers with highest hopes of making a name and gaining fame, God's truth sets the record straight. On the basis of God's Book, His Holy Word, it is my plea that we simply admit our need and claim God's grace.

Jesus' words are neither complicated nor vague. He simply says, "If you are going to call yourself one of My disciples, you must release your grip on materialism." To keep all this in proper perspective, think of it this way.

We're very fickle in our faith, aren't we? We are inconsistent, ambivalent. We sing "My faith looks up to Thee" . . . until the medicine stops working, until the lights go out, until the bill comes due and we don't have what it takes to pay it.

Let me urge you to take charge of your mind and emotions today. Let your mind feast on nutritious food for a change. Refuse to grumble and criticize! Let your life yield a sweet, winsome melody that this old world needs so desperately.

The thing I have always appreciated about the Bible is that when great truth is given, God frequently incarnates that truth in lives with whom we can identify. He doesn't stop at theory as He teaches us about the abstract importance of faith.

On the day Jesus was crucified, a sinister darkness blotted out the sun and smothered Jerusalem under a blanket of evil. It would have appeared to anyone seeing through eyes of flesh that the darkness, the devil, and death had defeated the Son of God once and for all.

On the once bloody battlefield at Saratoga there stands a towering obelisk. A 155-foot-high monument commemorative of that decisive struggle where the British made their last stand over two centuries ago.

Few things solemnize the finality of death like making funeral arrangements and choosing a coffin, or arranging the details of a memorial service. They are among the grueling but necessary duties of the bereaved. Death comes to all.

Tests are never wasted. God never says, "Oops, made a mistake on that one. I shouldn't have given you that. I meant that for Frank. Sorry, Bob." It's as if the Lord has our name on specific trials. They are specifically designed for us.

By making us in His image, God gave us capacities not given to other forms of life. Ideally, He made us to know Him, to love Him, and to obey Him. He did not put rings in our noses that He might pull us around like oxen.

One of the greatest benefits to be gleaned from the Bible is perspective. When we get discouraged, we temporarily lose our perspective. Little things become mammoth. A slight irritation, such as a pebble in a shoe, seems huge.

All of us are surrounded by and benefit from the results of someone's quest. Let me name a few: Above my head is a bright electric light. Thanks, Tom. On my nose are eyeglasses that enable me to focus. Thanks, Ben.