Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Psalm 100 wastes no time with preliminaries. Rather than try to convince the reader to praise the Lord for His goodness and our many blessings, the composer issues three commands in the first two verses.

The longer I live, the more I realize how easily a routine can become a rut and how quickly priorities can become obsessions.

While we have experienced financial ups and downs in the last century—some of them significant—we nevertheless benefit from an unprecedented level of abundance.

A young fellow entered a convenience store and asked to use the phone. The manager overheard his side of the conversation as he asked, “Sir, could you use a hardworking, honest young man to work for you?”

Having predicted your success in battle against the attacks of the devil (Psalm 91:5–10), this Psalm continues with several commitments from the Lord. He has promised to give you a tactical advantage.

In our study of what the book of Proverbs says about laziness, we have discovered two unpleasant character traits common to sluggards.

In Psalm 91:1–4, the songwriter has acknowledged the Lord as his refuge when under attack by the forces of evil. Now in 91:5–10, he sizes up his enemy and calculates his (and our) chances of surviving the battle.

Solomon and the wise men of Israel identified six characteristics of a sluggard. Our responsibility is to identify these faulty traits . . .

While the first two verses of Psalm 91 depict the faithful character of God, verses 3 and 4 describe what God does. The psalmist names three actions the Lord takes on our behalf.

Throughout the Bible we are encouraged to be people of diligence, committed to the tasks in life that we need to accomplish. Some, however, do not consider this a privilege, but a burden.

We must never forget that believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are not removed from the presence of wickedness. In fact, our Savior prayed specifically: "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15).

Many people live under the impression that work is a curse. Some even attempt to quote Scripture to support their position that work is the sad consequence of Adam’s fall in the garden of Eden.

Enemy attack? There was a time in my life when I had no enemies. Once I began ministry, however, that changed. It should come as no surprise that many who serve God in full-time ministry become targets of demonic assaults.

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.

What is true of Nebuchadnezzar and all kings who followed in his footsteps remains true today.