During Thanksgiving week I abandoned self-restraint. I enjoyed several days of feasting, appropriate for the holiday. However, the festivities ended and now I return to a more disciplined approach to filling my plate. While it feels sad, I know my heart will thank me, even if my belly cries foul.

We all exert discipline in order to live a better life. We eat right, or spend several years in intense study to earn a degree, or work long hours to develop a business. From the outside success may look easy, but a disciplined approach lies behind all prosperity.

The psalmist thanked God for discipline: Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord, the one you teach from your Law; you grant them relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked.

Notice that the primary instrument of the Lord’s discipline is his Law. God uses his Word to build strength and resilience into the lives of his followers. The result of such discipline is a certainty that the Lord is in control, and relief knowing that justice will prevail.

How do we grab hold of this promise? By spending time in God’s Word. The Lord does not pour Bible verses into my head while I sleep, at least not yet. I don’t catch much scripture on social media. A good sermon is helpful, but no substitute to opening the Good Book for myself.

I must spend time in God’s word in order for the results of the Lord’s discipline to manifest themselves in my life. Tiny acts yield vast amounts of good.

Make the effort. A few minutes in the Bible every day opens the way to experience the goodness of the Lord.

Psalm 94 in reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Joel Muniz

Are you a person who tends to pause before sharing opinions, or do you blurt out your thoughts before you know them yourself? When speaking truth into a difficult situation, it pays to choose words carefully before a big reveal. Timing is everything.

Queen Esther stepped into an extremely difficult situation. Her people faced genocide at the hands of a capricious king and his ruthless advisor. Her uncle encouraged her to go before the king, despite the risk to her life, and speak carefully chosen words of sanity. He told her, who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?

Esther moved with the attitude of if I perish, I perish. The king responded kindly and the massacre was averted. All because a quiet woman bravely stepped into her test of faith.

We all face for such a time as this moments. Where are we called to speak up? Where might I confront a petty tyrant, or solve a nagging problem, or address a wonderful opportunity?

To borrow from Esther’s example, maybe I work with a particular person for such a time as this? Maybe I live in my neighborhood for such a time as this? Maybe I’m sitting with a family member during the holidays for such a time as this? Where should I break my silence even when sharing brings risk, or the perishing of my reputation is a possibility?

I wonder, what for such a time as this moment might I face today?

Esther 4 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Ashkan Forouzani

Today’s my birthday. This evening we’ll celebrate with one of my favorite meals—Springfield Style Cashew Chicken—followed by a German Chocolate cake.

I didn’t plan to mention my birthday until I read David’s prayer early this morning:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place…all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Knit together all those years ago and still going strong (or at least, still going). Even now I’m enjoying the days appointed to me, written in the vast books of the Lord. I studied biology as an undergrad and it continues to amaze me how few things perform for years and years as well as the human body. Certainly we are magnificently created.

Not only are our bodies formed by the hands of the Lord, our souls rest in him as well. David wrote, Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? The truth remains that wherever I go, his right hand will hold me fast.

Wonderful promises to remember on a birthday, and to hold close all the other days of the year.

Psalm 139 in reading the Bible in 2023

When asked if I’m getting along well I quickly think of health, financial well-being, or my status at work. Or I’ll mention relationships with family. My first thought never goes to the question, is my soul getting along well?

John the Apostle wrote to a friend named Gaius, and commended him on the wellness of his soul:

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Lest we think he had it easy, Gaius cultivated a healthy soul in a lousy place. As a follower of Jesus, Gaius walked around his pagan city as a member of a distrusted, minority religious sect—Christianity. Then he experienced fighting in his local church. One of the leaders thrust himself to the front, manipulated members and spread malicious rumors.

Even with these burrs, Gaius maintained a healthy soul. How? He committed to the truth and walked in it day after day. The truth of Jesus as Savior, coupled with the truth embodied in the Scriptures, nourished Gaius’s soul. As he fed on a steady diet of truth—day after day—the lies of his world failed to pull him into despair.

How do you and I enjoy a soul getting along well? Like Gaius, we read and ruminate on the Scriptures under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Then we’ll see our souls grow healthy as we walk in the truth.

John 3 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Torsten Dederichs