Month: May 2024

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling his Good News to others, and so we never give up.”  2 Corinthians 4:1 (TLB)

Do you know that God loves you? Maybe you’ve heard that truth all your life!

But if you know God loves you, do you sense and recognize God’s love? When you stop believing you are loved by God, you can start to get discouraged. Why? Because if you don’t believe God loves you, then you can’t experience his grace and mercy.

The best way to defeat discouragement is to remember how much God loves you and to stay focused on that truth.

“It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling his Good News to others, and so we never give up” (2 Corinthians 4:1 TLB).

What is mercy? Mercy is when God gives you what you need, not what you deserve. Mercy is when God knows every mistake you’ve made and will ever make, and he still gives you every good thing in your life. God’s mercy is what keeps you going when you feel hopeless or worn down or discouraged.

A lot of people who have been Christians for a long time don’t sense God’s love because they only think God speaks to them in a critical voice. But if the voice you’re listening to is always negative, it’s not God.

God made you to love you. The number one purpose of your life is not for you to do good. The number one purpose of your life is not even for you to love God back.

The number one purpose of your life is to let God love you. When you do that and experience his mercy and grace, you’ll be free to pursue all that he has planned for your life.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won’t sin.”  Psalm 119:11 (MSG)

The more of God’s Word you get into your mind, the more defenses you will have against persistent temptation.

In fact, the Bible is part of your emergency kit for temptation. The Bible calls this “hiding God’s Word in your heart.” The Message paraphrase of this verse says, “I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won’t sin” (Psalm 119:11).

You hide God’s Word in your heart, or memorize it. Then, when Satan tempts you, you say, “That’s not right, because I know that God says this.” When Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness, he gave Jesus three big temptations. Every time Satan tempted him, Jesus quoted a Bible verse back to him. If this is the approach Jesus used to resist Satan, then it’s the same one you should use too.

When Satan tempts you, you don’t want to pull out the Bible app on your phone and say, “Now, I know somewhere in here, there’s a verse that says not to do that.” That’s not helpful. But when you have God’s Word memorized, then the Holy Spirit can remind you of its truth.

You have to start memorizing God’s Word if you want to have an effective tool for victory over the persistent temptations in your life. If you know the areas in which you are most vulnerable to temptation, then you can find the verses in the Bible that talk about those things. Then you write those verses down on an index card and read them over and over until you have them memorized.

There is no shortcut to learning the discipline of memorizing Scripture. You just have to start and then be persistent, trusting God to help you learn and remember everything you need for spiritual growth.

The Bible is worthless to you when it’s sitting on the shelf in your home. But with God’s Word in your mind, it becomes a powerful weapon to fight every temptation Satan can throw at you. Start today by finding some Bible verses that will help you in the areas where you’re weak.

Then bank them in the vault of your heart.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you.”  Psalm 50:15 (NLT)

Sometimes you’re going to need an “emergency kit” for temptation.

When you get in a situation where you’re tempted and you don’t know what to do, you need to cry out to God.

If you’re facing a temptation and you start to panic because you feel the adrenaline running through your body, you can’t have a long conversation with God—and you don’t have to! You can just do what I call a “microwave prayer,” and it’s one word: Help! You tell God, “This is not where I want to be right now, and I’m about to step across the line. I need your help right now.”

God promises, “Call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you” (Psalm 50:15 NLT).

Cry out to God. When you do, you can expect him to help you, because he’s sympathetic to your situation. The Bible says, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15 NLT).

Did Jesus ever struggle with anger? Yes. Did Jesus ever wrestle with loneliness? Yes. Did Jesus ever deal with sex and sexuality? Yes. Was he ever tempted by fatigue and discouragement? Yes. How? Because he’s God, but he’s God in a fully human body.

Jesus faced the same temptations we do, so we can expect him to help us when we cry out to him. And we don’t have to feel shame. “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” (Hebrews 4:16 NLT).

That is a great comfort. And that is the power to change.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.”  2 Corinthians 2:10-11 (NLT)

You can’t defeat temptation if you don’t understand how it works.

The only good thing we can say about Satan is that he doesn’t have any new ideas. He’s used the same temptations over and over since humanity was created. The tactics he used on Adam and Eve are the ones he’s still using today.

God had clearly told Adam and Eve they could eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When Satan tempted Eve, he asked her something like, “Did God really say to not eat this?” And then he said, “Go ahead and try it. You’re not going to die if you eat this! You’re going to be a god yourself.”

Satan uses that same pattern in your life every day. First, it starts with a wrong desire inside you, like envy, lust, or impatience. Or it starts with a right desire, like for food or sex or love, but with the temptation to fulfill it in the wrong way at the wrong time. Satan can take any desire and make it destructive.

Then he causes you to doubt God’s Word and whispers, “Did God really say that?” He takes the seed of your doubt and grows it into a lie he knows you are vulnerable to accepting. Behind every sin is a lie you choose to believe. Remember, Satan is crafty. He knows where in your life you are most likely to fall, and he focuses on turning your doubt into full-blown deception.

When you believe Satan’s lie, you’re saying, “I know what will make me happy more than God does.” You legitimize your wrong desire. You convince yourself it’s not that bad. And then you fall into disobedience.

The Bible says, “When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:10-11 NLT).

God doesn’t want you to be ignorant of how Satan works, because when you understand Satan’s tactics, you can see him coming with his schemes. The key is not resisting your temptations but knowing how to respond to Satan’s predictable patterns.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“The power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death.”  Romans 8:2 (TLB)

None of us are immune to persistent sins. Some people struggle with anger, while others wrestle with worry or gossip or lust.

How do you break free from persistent sin?

You understand what Jesus has done for you. On the cross, Jesus paid for the penalty of your sins so you don’t have to pay for it. All of your sins—even the ones you haven’t committed yet—have been paid for on the cross.

Jesus not only paid for your sin, but he also paid to break the power of sin in your life. Now you have a power you didn’t have before—the power to say no to sin. It’s more than willpower. It’s Holy Spirit power!

The Bible says in Romans 8:2, “The power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death” (TLB).

If you’re a Christian, you know Jesus died to pay for your sin. That’s the Good News. And if that was all there was, that would still be the best news in the world. But when he died on the cross, Jesus also took our old sin nature and gave us a new nature, one that no longer has to live in persistent sin. The Bible teaches, “We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6 NLT).

Sin no longer has any power in your life. A dead person can’t be tempted! That old nature can’t be tempted, and since it died with Christ, you can be confident that you also share in his new life.

Willpower will never be enough to break the power of sin in your life. But thanks to Jesus, you have more than enough power in the Holy Spirit to resist temptation and break the vicious circle of sin and death.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest.”  Galatians 6:7 (GW)

You don’t plant apple seeds and get tomatoes.

In the same way, you don’t plant bitterness and get love. You don’t plant criticism and then get encouragement from other people.

Galatians 6:7 says, “Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest” (GW).

Read that again: “Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest.” If you plant in the soil of your sinful nature, you’ll harvest destruction. But if you plant in the soil of your spiritual nature, you’ll harvest everlasting life.

God has said for thousands of years that our sins can affect future generations. For instance, when you’re angry and you lose your temper with your kids, you’re setting them up to lose their temper with their kids. Sins get perpetuated in families, possibly for multiple generations. Not only does it work relationally and environmentally, but it also works physically. We now know your brain can actually be changed by repetitive behavior, for good or for bad.

Everyone used to think the brain was pretty much set in stone by the time you were an adolescent. Now we know about brain plasticity and how your brain can continue to be molded for the rest of your life.

That’s good to know! It means if your brain has been naturally molded toward depression or a quick temper or anxiety, it can change.

But you’ve got to change the way you think. The Bible refers to this as repentance or changing your mind. You can change your mind, and when you do, it changes the way you feel. And when you change the way you feel, it changes the way you act.

Then, you plant in your spiritual nature and watch what amazing fruit God will reap in your life.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“None of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.”  Romans 14:7 (NIV)

Sin may be secret, but it’s never private. It will either come out now, here on earth, or at Judgment Day, but it’s going to be known.

Numbers 32:23 is one of the scariest verses in the Bible: “You may be sure that your sin will find you out” (NIV).

Another reason why sin is never private is because everything you do, good or bad, affects other people—even if they don’t know what’s going on.

If someone close to you stayed up all night doing some really immoral things and then saw you in the morning, you would notice something was off. You might not know what happened, but the result of their sin would be obvious in the way they behaved. Very few people could act as if nothing happened.

It doesn’t even have to be some big sin you commit. It could be the sin of omission. If you have a regular quiet time with God and then go a few days without spending time in God’s presence, there’s probably going to be a difference in how you react to people and circumstances. That’s because when you’re not plugged in, you don’t have spiritual power to fight sin.

The Bible says in Romans 14:7, “None of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone” (NIV).

A lot of people will say, “What I do with my life is no one else’s business. As long as I’m not hurting anybody, why should anyone else care?” But you are hurting other people. God made us to be connected people, and what we do and say always has an effect on others.

Sin affects you in ways you don’t even realize, and then your actions affect others. When you sin, it cuts you off from God’s power and keeps you from your potential. It limits the good you can do and the impact you can have.

Isn’t it sad to think of what you and others are missing when you’re not at your God-given best? There is only one way to move past the sin that holds you back and hurts others: Confess it.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“The world’s sin is unbelief in me.”  John 16:9 (TLB)

At the root of every sin rests at least a momentary doubt about God.

In John 16:9 Jesus says, “The world’s sin is unbelief in me” (TLB). When you don’t believe Jesus is who he says he is or he’ll do what he says he’ll do, that’s the root of all sin.

Here are some emotions you can look for that can help you know when you’re doubting God.

When you become fearful or anxious, it often reveals your unbelief in God’s promises. The Bible offers more than 7,000 promises. If you claim them, you’ll see your fear and anxiety levels go down. It’s the world’s greatest insurance policy.

When you become impatient, it reveals your doubt in God’s perfect timing. God has a plan for your life, but he’s never going to be in a hurry. That’s easy to forget when you want things to happen on your own timetable—so you take matters into your own hands instead of waiting on God.

When you become resentful or bitter, it reveals your doubt in God’s wisdom. God is wise and good and loving. But when things don’t turn out like you plan or want, you think he messed up somehow. And you don’t believe he can bring good out of bad.

When you dwell in guilty feelings, it reveals your unbelief in God’s forgiveness. How long should a follower of Jesus feel guilty? About one second. That’s how long it takes to confess a sin. If you’re carrying around guilt, it means you can’t forgive yourself because you don’t believe God has forgiven you.

When you feel inadequate, it reveals your doubt in God’s power. God has said his power shows up best in your weakness. But when you don’t believe that, it shows you think power should come only from yourself. If you think that, you’re always going to be disappointed.

Do you want to turn around those feelings of fear, impatience, resentment, guilt, and inadequacy? Then you need to start doubting your doubts.

If you believe in God’s Word, you can trust what it says about God and the way he feels about you and takes care of you. You can trust that God keeps his promises, has perfect timing, is wise, forgives you, and works powerfully through you.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Everything he does is good.”  Psalm 111:7 (NCV)

When you ask people what sin is, you’ll get a wide range of answers, from murder to forgetting to call your mom on Mother’s Day.

Most of the time, people think of sin as bad behavior. And your bad behaviors often do reveal sin. But the Bible tells us that God pays more attention to our thoughts than our behaviors—because it’s sinful thinking that leads to sinful behavior.

So what is sin? Sin is the opposite of God. The Bible says, “Everything he does is good,” “he is good to everyone and has compassion on all he made,” and “everything that God has created is good” (Psalm 111:7 NCV, Psalm 145:9 GNT, 1 Timothy 4:4 GNT).

Everything God does is good, and everything he created is good. But when we take what God created and use it in bad ways, that is sin.

For example, when you use prescription drugs the right way, they can bring helpful relief. But when you misuse and abuse drugs, something good becomes something harmful. Money is neither good nor bad. It can be used for great good, but it also can be used for incredibly bad things.

God expects you to turn from your sins and start walking faithfully toward him. Part of faith is trusting that God has your best interests in mind. You don’t have to wonder what God is like. The Bible says clearly that he is perfect and does not sin.

While you will never be perfect on earth, you can become more like Jesus. This starts by turning away from sin and making choices every day to pursue what is good and godly.

Talk It Over

• If your purpose in life is to become more like Jesus, how can you shift your priorities so that you are focusing more on that goal?
• How does knowing God’s Word better help you turn from sin?
• What are some other tools God uses to help you become more like him?

Are you ready to find rest in God? The first step toward rest is to make peace with God by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You can start with this simple prayer: 

“Dear God, I don’t want my sin to separate me from you any longer. You have promised that if I believe in Jesus, you’ll forgive me for everything I’ve ever done wrong, you’ll show me the purpose of my life, and you’ll accept me into your family and bring me to heaven one day to live with you for eternity. 

“Jesus, I confess my sin, and I believe you are my Savior. I trust you when you say salvation comes by grace, through faith, and not by anything I do. I ask you to come into my life as my Lord. Today, I commit my life to you. 

“I want to live the way you created me to live—at peace and rested—and to use the remainder of my life to serve you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.” 

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 (NLT)

A lot of things that are true won’t set you free. You can learn how to program a computer, but that won’t set you free. You could read all the latest self-help books, but that won’t set you free either.

The only truth that sets you free is the truth of God’s Word: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32 NLT). A lot of people can quote this verse, but not everyone acknowledges that it’s talking about the Bible or is even from the Bible.

If knowing God’s Word is the only way to be free, then you’ve got to make reading and studying the Bible a priority in your life. You’ve got to feed your mind on the truth of God’s Word.

The ancient Israelite King David understood how important God’s Word is. There was a time when he had so many enemies that he was actually a fugitive. He was running for his life and hiding in caves. But no matter what happened, he fed himself with God’s truth.

Psalm 119:95 is one of the psalms he wrote during this time, and it says, “Though the wicked hide along the way to kill me, I will quietly keep my mind on your laws” (NLT).

When you look at things happening around the world, it’s easy to get discouraged. When you scroll through your news feed, listen to talk radio, or watch the news, you may start to feel down. You may start to feel hopeless. But when you fill your mind with the truth of God’s Word, then you will have more hope and a better perspective on your life—even when you’re in a crisis and running from your enemies.

The Bible says, “How I love your law! I think about it all day long” (Psalm 119:97 GNT). It might be intimidating to try to think about God’s Word all day long. That’s because it doesn’t come naturally to anyone! You might struggle to think about God’s Word even one time in your day, but you can start somewhere.

Try starting your day with the Word of God. Spend 10 minutes reading the Bible in the morning, and then you can think about what you read throughout your day. And the Holy Spirit will help you recall what you’ve read when you when you need it in difficult times.