Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

NINE-YEAR-OLD DANNY BURST OUT OF Sunday school, eyes darting in every direction trying to locate his mom or dad. After a quick search, he grabbed his daddy by the leg.

IT IS ALMOST 10:00, MONDAY NIGHT. The children are snoozing upstairs. Aside from a few outside noises—a passing car . . . a barking dog . . . a few, faint voices in the distance—all’s quiet on the home front.

HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU HEARD someone say, “Are you listening to me?” Let’s be honest: in a culture awash in cell phones, social media, and other addictive technologies, we’re losing the fine art of listening.

I HAVE JUST TAKEN MY Webster’s Dictionary off the shelf and looked up thorough. It means, “carried through to completion, careful about detail, complete in all respects.”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT TO be when you grow up?” The answers we receive are all over the map. One youngster recently told me he wanted to be either a car mechanic or a garbage collector.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO THINK SO much like Christ that our minds operate on a different plane than those of others around us? Not only is it possible—it’s essential!

DO YOU REALIZE THE POWER OF humanistic reasoning to block the power of Scripture? Let me be specific.

WHEN COMPARING THE ACTS OF forgiving and forgetting, I believe forgetting is the tougher assignment. Why? Because forgetting is something that is shared with no other person.

In comparison to Jesus Christ and all the things He has made possible—His forgiveness, His love, His righteousness—everything else we may be or accomplish diminishes in significance.

COULD WE REVISIT those words Paul wrote? “I have not achieved it . . . forgetting the past . . . looking forward to what lies ahead.” Paul's openness is best described with one word: vulnerability.

THOSE WHO REFUSE to get bogged down in and anchored to the past are those who pursue the objectives of the future. People who do this are never petty.

TRUTH BE TOLD, it’s God’s forgiveness of us that makes it possible for us to forgive others. Jesus Christ paid in full the penalty for our sin.

LATE ONE SPRING AARON, a seminary student, was asking God for a position at a church or at a Christian organization. When nothing happened, Aaron took a job driving a bus in a dangerous section of Chicago.

A FULL YEAR BEFORE THE apostle Paul wrote to people who comprised the Corinthian church, they had begun a project. No doubt they got started with a burst of enthusiasm, the thrill of a fresh beginning.

I'LL NEVER FORGET SOMETHING I heard on the radio several years ago. A woman in West Palm Beach, Florida, died alone at the age of seventy-one. The coroner's report was tragic. "Cause of death: malnutrition."

Following Christ as His disciple is a costly, unselfish decision. It calls for a radical examination of our self-centered life. Whew! That's one of those easy things to say but awfully tough to carry out.

QUITE A WHILE AGO, a young man expressed an interest in living in our home and being discipled in the context of our family.

THE CHRISTIANS IN THE Macedonian churches were servants who gave without any concern about receiving the credit for their generosity. But Paul reveals something else remarkable about the nature of their gift:

WHEN THE APOSTLE PAUL MADE his way through Europe, specifically the region of ancient Macedonia, he shared with those believers the financial need of the Jerusalem church.

PART OF HUMILITY IS HAVING a preset mentality that determines thoughts like this: "I care about those around me."