No matter whose employ we are in every one of us is working for him or herself. We delude ourselves if we think otherwise.

I have read that when former astronaut Frank Borman became head of Eastern Airlines, he was determined to make the service of his company the best in the industry. On one occasion he noticed an employee sitting with his feet perched on a desk ignoring the telephone which was ringing relentlessly.

“Aren’t you going to answer the phone,” Borman asked. “This isn’t my department,” the employee answered without any hint of concern. “I work in maintenance.”

“Not anymore you don’t,” Borman barked.

It’s the person who is faithful in the little things who gets entrusted with bigger and better responsibilities.

That is true in both man’s economy and God’s. As Christians in the hereafter we won’t be judged for our sins as Christ took that judgment on himself at Calvary. But we will be rewarded according to our faithfulness in serving the Lord here on earth.

It pays to be faithful and dependable in all our responsibilities. As another has said, “The greatest ability is dependability.” Of equal importance is response-ability!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me today and always to be ever ready to serve and glorify You in everything I am and do. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. King Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 9:10, (NIV).

Zig Ziglar wrote that according to legend, it was reputed that a very wise old man who lived on a hilltop overlooking the beautiful city of Venice, Italy, could answer any question anyone might ask him. Two local boys figured they could trick him, so they caught a bird and took it to the wise sage.

“Tell us,” they asked, “is the bird in our hand dead or alive?”

The wise man replied, “Son, if I say the bird is alive, you will close your hands and crush it to death. Or, if I say the bird is dead, you will open your hands and it will fly away. The answer is in your hands.”

And so it is with life. Whether we succeed or fail, live a meaningful or empty life, lay up treasures in heaven or go empty handed to meet our Lord and Savior, it’s all in our hands! For whatever we sow we reap. It’s the law of the harvest.²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to invest my life in eternity and lay up treasures in heaven so I will reap abundantly in this life and the next—all for Your praise and glory. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name. Amen.”

1. Matthew 6:19-20 (TLB).

2. Galatians 6:7.

One of the best pieces of advice I received as a young man was from a minister who said to me, “Every young man should read a chapter of Proverbs in the Bible every day.” I did this for many years and learned many truths as a result. I still appreciate proverbs both in and outside of the Bible. A proverb is a proverbial saying, or as Webster defines it, “A short popular saying that expresses an obvious truth.” We call them one-liners today.

One of my hobbies is to collect proverbial one-liners. The following are some which convey valuable nuggets of truth.

Winston Churchill: “The farther backwards you can look the farther forward you are likely to see.”

Arnold Toynbee: “An autopsy of history is that all great nations commit suicide.”

Henry David Thoreau: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Larry McMurty: “It is impossible to impress a people with truths that they aren’t ready to hear, much less accept.”

Isaac Newton: “What we know is a drop. What we don’t know is an ocean.”

Richard Lamm: “Our moral compass gyrates wildly.”

Rabbi Mervin Romsky: “He is a failure as a human being, no matter what his other achievements, whose heart does not hurt for his fellow man. And he is a successful human being, no matter where else he may be lacking, who is rich in compassion.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me a heart for wisdom, a love for truth, a desire for learning Your Word, and a passion for living and walking in truth. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name. Amen.”

1. Proverbs 1:5 (NKJV).

For a number of years I lived in the shadow of 10,000-foot-high high Mt. Baldy in California where we were protected from most of the high winds that roar down a canyon pass a few miles east of us. At times when the high winds did reach us, numerous trees were toppled.

Here, the trees, when planted, are tied tightly to stakes to hold them firmly when the winds blow. However, because of being tied too tightly to the stakes, they don’t develop a strong root system. In South Australia I lived at the top of the Adelaide hills, about 2,000 feet high, where strong gusty winds are common. There we planted the trees when they were very small—with just enough support to stop them from toppling—so the winds would help them develop a sturdy root system. When fully grown, rarely were they toppled by the winds.

That’s what makes us strong too. The winds of adversity that are par for life’s course can either motivate us to grow strong or we can allow them to topple us. This is the reason James said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers [and sisters], whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”²

Remember, too, “Kites rise against the wind, not with it.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to grow and become strong through the “valleys of despair and winds of adversity” that You allow to come into my life—and thereby help me to become the person You want me to be. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name. Amen.”

1. James 1:2 (NIV).

2. James 1:2-4 (NIV).

According to an article in Turning Point Daily Devotional, “Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), the world-famous violinist, earned a fortune with his concerts and compositions, but he generously gave most of it away. So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, he wasn’t able to buy it. Later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the seller, hoping to purchase that beautiful instrument.

“But to his great dismay, it had been sold to a collector. Kreisler made his way to the new owner’s home and offered to buy the violin. The collector said it had become his prized possession, and he would not sell it. “Keenly disappointed, Kreisler was about to leave when he had an idea. ‘Could I play the instrument once more before it is consigned to silence?’ he asked. Permission was granted, and the great virtuoso filled the room with such heart-moving music that the collector’s emotions were deeply stirred. ‘I have no right to keep that to myself,’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s yours, Mr. Kreisler. Take it into the world, and let people hear it.’

“We have a message to share. Our heavenly Father created us as exquisite instruments, and the beautiful music we are to make is the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. We were made to be played.”²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to let my light so shine that it will be as ‘music to another’s ears,’ and draw them to You, the ‘Master Musician par excellence.’ Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Matthew 5:15-16 (NIV).

2. Turning Point Daily Devotional (7-26-06). Cited on PreachingNow http://www.preaching.com.

Like millions of others I happened to be born into a very ordinary family that happened to be quite dysfunctional. Nevertheless, there will always be one thing that I will be eternally grateful for and that is that my parents took me to Sunday School and church where I heard the Christian message. As a 15-year-old teenager I vividly recall responding to a challenge to serve God with my life.

Back then I could never have imagined in “a million years” where that commitment was going to lead me—to where I would be and what I would be doing today (and I couldn’t imagine being more thankful). The reality is that the choices and decisions we make today can and do affect us for the rest of our lives and for all eternity.

Regardless of one’s age, the important thing is to choose wisely how we are going to live and for what purpose because the choices we make today will affect us, not only for the rest of this life, but for all eternity. In the words of Roy L. Sharpe:

A Bag of Tools

Isn’t it strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make –
Ere life has flown –
A stumbling block
Or a stepping stone.

Each of us has been given “a bag of tools” and it’s up to each of us how we use them; that is, how we invest the one life we have been entrusted with. To be or not to be all that God has envisioned for us to be is the choice we are all called on to make.

Suggested prayer: “Dear Jesus God, my choice today (with Your help) is to love, serve, trust, obey, and follow You all the days of my life. And, acknowledging my own weaknesses, in the words of the hymn writer, ‘O to grace how great a debtor / Daily I’m constrained to be! / Let Thy goodness like a fetter / Bind my wandering heart to thee / Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it / Prone to leave the God I love / Here’s my heart, O take and seal it / Seal it for Thy courts above.’² Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Matthew 4:19. (See also Matthew 8:22; 9:9; 10:38; 16:24; and 19:21).

2. Robert Robinson (1735-1790).

I have read how a boy who loved to listen to music was bitterly disappointed because he could neither play nor sing. But a kindly gentleman encouraged him with these words: “There are many ways of making music. What matters is the song in your heart.” That boy—Antonio Stradivarius—took the man at his word and became the world’s greatest violin maker.

I also read about “a well-dressed European woman on safari in Africa. The group stopped briefly at a hospital for lepers. The heat was intense, the flies buzzing. She noticed a nurse bending down in the dirt, tending to the pus-filled sores of a leper.

“With disdain the woman remarked, ‘Why, I wouldn’t do that for all the money in the world!”

“The nurse quietly replied, ‘Neither would I.’”²

As God asked Moses (who was feeling very inadequate) when he was calling him to lead the ancient Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, he asks the same question to you and me today, “What is that in your hand?” That is, what are your abilities and talents and how are you using these for the highest purpose? Are they to enrich your own life for your own ends or to help enrich the lives of others?

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to find the most effective way to use my God-given talents and abilities to serve You by serving others in a way that will bring the most glory to Your name. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Exodus 4:1-2 (NKJV).

2. Donald L. Deffner, Seasonal Illustrations, p. 130.

Melody Beattie in her book, The Language of Letting Go, emphasizes the importance of contemplating what is on your mind first thing when you wake up in the morning? What is it in that half-asleep, half-awake place? Are you troubled about something? Is there some responsibility you have neglected and it is bothering you? Is it a goal you’ve wanted to start but have kept putting it off? Is it an unhealthy relationship you are in and you know you need to get out of? Is it a destructive habit or sin that you feel convicted about?

Very often what is on your mind at this time is coming from your inner self, your unconscious mind. It is revealing an issue you need to deal with. Listen to that “inner voice” and do what you know you need to do about it that is troubling you or motivating you. Don’t put it off. Take care of it each day.

It can help to have a pad and pen at your bedside and the first thing each morning write down what is on your mind as you awaken. This is often a matter one needs to pray about and then act on.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, as Your Word suggests, help me to learn to listen carefully to what my heart is saying and what You might be saying to my heart, and give me the wisdom and courage to act accordingly. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Psalm 4:4 (NIV).

Some time ago Our Daily Bread asked the question, “Do you remember the tortoise and the hare in Aesop’s Fables? The hare boasted that he was the swiftest animal in the forest. When he challenged the others to a race, only the tortoise dared to try. To the hare, it seemed an unfair contest, since he would win easily.

“But off they started, with the tortoise soon trailing far behind. On the way, the hare decided there was time for a nap, but the tortoise kept plodding along. When the hare awoke, he couldn’t see the tortoise anywhere, so he laughed and said, ‘He still hasn’t caught up with me!’ But as he ran toward the finish line, he saw the tortoise crossing it. Slowly and steadily, the tortoise had won!”

In the Christian life it can be easy to start well or to “keep the faith” when all is going well. But to keep hanging in through the bad times as well as the good, and be there or the long haul takes a genuine commitment that is based on a deep belief that, no matter what happens, Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, and that my life is in his hands. As Job so aptly expressed his feelings in the midst of his despair, “Though he [God] slay me, yet will I trust him.”²

“The race is not to the swift but to those who keep on running!”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be like the persistent ‘tortoise’ in my faith and give me the courage, like Paul, to ‘strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us.’³ Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Ecclesiastes 9:11.

2. Job 13:15.

3. Philippians 3:14 (TLB).

A friend of mine has trouble with Japanese bonsai trees because she sees tiny trees with great potential inhibited because they have been root-bound by man. Others have trouble seeing animals and birds trapped in cages for the same reason. For example, how do eagles feel in cages in zoos? These magnificent birds, designed to soar to the heights of mountaintops, do they get frustrated? Are they fulfilled?

Too many of us, who were also designed to reach our total God-given human and spiritual potential, are trapped in a cage of our own or of another’s making. We fail to resolve the problems in our life that hold us back. True, we may have been wounded in the past, but God wants us to be healed, to be made whole, to be free to fly, and to soar like the eagles.

We have a choice: we can “scratch in the dirt with the turkeys” or we can wait (seek after and hope in) the Lord God and rise up to fly with the eagles to the heights that God envisioned for us to reach.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to wait on You to renew my strength so that, with Your help, I will see my God-given life purpose and ‘fly’ to reach the full potential You have planned for me to achieve. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Isaiah 40:31 (TLB).