Christ Is Therapy LLC

REACHING OUT When people ask Dr. Thomas P. Malone, a psychiatrist, what psychiatry is all about, he answers, "Almost every emotional problem can be summed up in one particular bit of behavior people walking around screaming 'for God's sake, love me.' He goes through a million different manipulations to get somebody to love him. On the other hand, healthy people are those who walk around looking for someone to love. And if you see changes in the people seeking for love, they g...ive up their screaming for all their lives." Dr. Malone's view of his role as a psychiatrist is certainly a noble and awesome one. He tries to get people to love one another. While psychiatry certainly has helped some to adjust, only Christ can so revolutionize character as to change a person from seeking to giving. Jesus came to this world to show men how to live. Through Christ, we can learn how to give up our selfish seeking for attention and start giving ourselves to His Kingdom. Jesus told us that when we give up our lives, we find them. As we give up our selfish seeking, and long to reach out in genuine love, we receive many blessings. No wonder it says in Hebrews, Let brotherly love continue. From "Draw Near - 365 guides to greater intimacy with God" on the Bible App

"Stalk or Be Stalked Scripture doesn’t explain what Benaiah was doing or where he was going when he crossed paths with the lion. We don’t know the time of day or his frame of mind. But Scripture does reveal his reaction, and it was a gutsy one. Put yourself in Benaiah’s snowshoes.... Your vision is obscured by falling snow and frozen breath. Out of the corner of your eye you detect movement. Pupils dilate. Muscles flex. Adrenaline rushes. It’s a prowling lion stalking its prey, you. In the wild, man vs. lion scripts the same way every time. Man runs, lion chases, King of the Beasts eats manwich for lunch. But Benaiah flips the script. That’s what courage does! I don’t know if it was the look in his eye or the spear in his hand, but the lion turns tail and Benaiah gives chase. He tracks paw prints in the freshly fallen snow, finally coming to the place where the ground has given way beneath the lion’s five-hundred-pound frame. Yellow eyes glare back from out of the pit. Benaiah takes a leap, disappearing into the darkness. A deafening roar echoes off the walls of the cavernous pit, followed by a bloodcurdling battle cry. Then silence, dead silence. What has happened? Who has won? At last a human form reaches up and climbs out of the pit. Drops of blood color the snow crimson. Claw marks crisscross Benaiah’s spear arm. Against all odds, the valiant warrior from Kabzeel has earned an epic victory. In every dream journey, there comes a moment when you have to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. You have to go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. You have to go big or go home. You have to take the road less traveled or settle for status quo. You have to bite the bullet or turn your back on your dreams. If you find yourself in a pit with a lion on a snowy day, you’ve got a decision to make. A decision that will determine your destiny. You can run away from what you are afraid of, but you’ll be running the rest of your life. Or you can face your fears, taking a flying leap of faith, and chase the lion! What is your lion? What are you going to do with it? - Chasing the Lion devotional on the Bible App

DAY 12 God will make our obstacles serve his purposes. We all have mountains in our lives, and often they are people and things that threaten to block the progress of our spiritual life. The obstacles may be untruths told about us; a difficult occupation; a thorn in [the] flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7); or our daily cross. And often we pray for their removal, for we tend to think that if only these were removed, we would live a more tender, pure and holy life. How foolish you ...are, and how slow to believe ! (Luke 24:25). These are the very conditions we need for achievement, and they have been put in our lives as the means of producing the gifts and qualities for which we have been praying so long. We pray for patience for many years, and when something begins to test us beyond our endurance, we run from it. We try to avoid it, we see it as some insurmountable obstacle to our desired goal, and we believe that if it was removed, we would experience immediate deliverance and victory. This is not true! The only way genuine patience can be acquired is by enduring the very trials that seem so unbearable today. Turn from your running and submit. Claim by faith to be a partaker in the patience of Jesus and face your trials in him. There is nothing in your life that distresses or concerns you that cannot become submissive to the highest purpose. Remember, they are God’s mountains. He puts them there for a reason, and we know he will never fail to keep his promise. From Christ in Isaiah, by F. B. Meyer

DAY 10 In this passage, Assyria is marching against Ethiopia, whose people are described as tall and smooth-skinned (Isaiah 18:2). As the army advances, God makes no effort to stop them, and it appears as though they will be allowed to do as they wish. The Lord is watching from his dwelling place [Isaiah 18:4] while the sun continues to shine on them, yet before the harvest (Isaiah 18:5) the entire proud army is defeated as easily as new growth is pruned from a vine. Is...n’t this a beautiful picture of Godremaining quiet and watching? Yet his silence is not to be confused with passive agreement or consent. He is simply biding his time and will arise at the most opportune moment, just when the plans of the wicked are on the verge of success, in order to overwhelm the enemy with disaster. And as we see the evil of this world, as we watch the apparent success of wrongdoers, and as we suffer the oppression of those who hate us, let us remember those miraculous words of GodI will remain quiet and will look on [Isaiah 18:4]. Yes, God does have another point of view, and there is wisdom behind his words. Why did Jesus watch his disciples straining at the oars through the stormy night? Why did he, though unseen by others, watch the sequence of anguishing events unfold in Bethany as Lazarus slowly passed through the stages of his terminal illness, succumbed to death, and was finally buried in a rocky tomb? Jesus was simply waiting for the perfect moment when he could intercede most effectively. Is the Lord being quiet with you? Nevertheless, he is attentive and still sees everything. He has his finger on your pulse and is extremely sensitive to even the slightest change. And he will come to save you when the perfect moment has arrived. From Daily Devotional Commentary