Month: October 2024

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“A hot-tempered man . . . gets into all kinds of trouble.”  Proverbs 29:22 (TLB)

Anger has a price tag. When you realize that truth, you’re more likely to control the anger in your life. The Bible tells us, “A hot-tempered man . . . gets into all kinds of trouble” (Proverbs 29:22 TLB). Most of us have seen someone do something really stupid because they were angry. And too many of us have seen the costly and damaging effects on people and families because of uncontrolled anger. 

The Bible is very specific on the cost of anger. The Bible says:

• It causes arguments (Proverbs 15:18).
• It causes mistakes (Proverbs 14:29).
• It causes you to make foolish decisions (Proverbs 14:17).

You’ve probably seen all of these results from your own anger and the anger of others. The Bible is also clear on the ultimate conclusion of our inappropriately expressed anger. Proverbs 11:29 says, “The fool who provokes his family to anger and resentment will finally have nothing worthwhile left” (TLB).

Think of the impact anger has on your family. As parents, we’re often tempted to use anger to motivate our children. It works in the short-term. When you get angry, you put the fear of God (or the fear of you) into your children. Your kids may give you short-term obedience, but you’ll lose in the long-term.

The end result of misplaced anger is alienation. You alienate the very people you love the most. Eventually, you’ll get more anger back and finally just apathy. No one wants to be around you.

The truth is, you always lose when you lose your temper. You may lose your reputation, your job, your children, or the love of your husband or wife when you don’t control your anger.

And it’s never worth that price tag.

It’s not your mouth that gets you into trouble with your anger—it’s your heart! Therapy is good and important, but even the best therapy in the world can’t give you a new heart. Only God can do that. When you give your life to him, he gives you his love to replace your hurt, his peace to replace your frustration, and his power to replace your insecurity.

You know he will answer when you pray, “LORD, help me control my tongue; help me be careful about what I say” (Psalm 141:3 NCV).

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin.”  Ephesians 4:26 (GNT)

We all get angry from time to time. We may handle it differently, but none of us can escape the emotion entirely. But just because we get angry doesn’t mean we’re sinning.

The Bible says, “If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin” (Ephesians 4:26 GNT). Paul tells us in this passage not to let our anger lead us into sin. That means that anger isn’t necessarily sin. The truth is, we can deal with our anger in both appropriate and inappropriate ways.

Unfortunately, many of us express our anger in ways that get us further from our goals instead of moving us closer to them.

For example, here are three things to avoid when you’re angry:

Don’t suppress your anger. Don’t store it up inside. When you suppress anger without expressing it in proper ways, it’s like taking a soft drink bottle and shaking it up. One day it’s going to pop! It’ll impact your body eventually. Doctors tell us a number of physical ailments are often brought on by suppressed anger.

Don’t repress anger. When you repress your anger, you simply deny it’s there. Deny your anger often enough, and you’ll be depressed. When I used to do more counseling, I’d hear many people tell me they were depressed, but they were really just angry. They thought that Christians should never get angry, so they bottled it up inside. Denying anger is a sin. It’s called lying.

Don’t express your anger in inappropriate ways. We can express anger in a variety of inappropriate ways. We pout, spit sarcasm, manipulate, or do something stupid. None of those approaches get us anywhere near the result we’re looking for.

So what should we do with our anger?

Confess it. You don’t just admit the anger, but you also admit the cause. You tell God—and whoever you’re angry with—that you’re frustrated or you feel threatened. The more honest you can be in your relationships, the easier it will be to get to the root causes of your anger.

Here’s the good news about your anger: You may have grown up in a home where anger was consistently expressed in inappropriate ways. Inappropriate anger is learned, but it can be unlearned too.

You don’t have to stay the same. You can start changing how you deal with anger today!

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”  Romans 8:28 (NLT)

One of the great fears we all face is the fear of the future. We fear for the futures of our families, our friends, our jobs, our communities—and everything else in between.

It’s natural. We’re not in control. But that realization shouldn’t drive us to fear. It should drive us to trust God more deeply.

We might not be in control of our future, but God is. He created the whole universe. If he wanted to, the Lord could just snap it out of existence in a moment. Yet he is working his plan in history. He is moving history to a climax, a destiny. One day Jesus Christ will come back to earth. Nothing will stop that. Just as he is working in history to move events toward that day, he will work in your life for a purpose too.

The Bible says, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28 NLT).

God’s Word doesn’t say that everything is good. It also doesn’t say that God causes everything. He doesn’t cause war. He doesn’t cause cancer. He doesn’t cause rape, abortion, abuse, or molestation. He doesn’t cause evil. We do that. God gives us the freedom to choose. Evil is the price of that freedom.

But the Bible does say that God causes everything to work together for good. He can take the dumb, evil, and bad decisions we’ve made in our lives and use them for good if we’ll trust him. Romans 8:28 isn’t a promise for everyone, though. It’s for “those who love God.” It’s for those who trust God and say, “Here, Lord, you take all the broken pieces of my life and put them together.”

This is why when I read the headlines each day, I don’t worry. Sure, there are a lot of problems in the world today, but God is still in control. He is still moving history to a climax. And he is still moving his people toward his best for them. One day God will work everything out for his purpose.

Because God is in control, we can trust him with everything—the good and the bad and all of our fear.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“We know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love . . . because God’s perfect love drives out fear.”1 John 4:16, 18 (NCV)

I’ve talked to hundreds of people about why they don’t fully trust God. Usually it’s one of three things: People are afraid that if they give their lives fully to God, they’ll lose their freedom, they’ll lose their fun, or God will turn them into some kind of religious fanatic.

None of that sounds inviting!

The bottom line is, people are afraid. We’re afraid to trust God completely. Yet God has an answer for our fear of trusting him. The Bible says, “We know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love . . . because God’s perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:16, 18 NCV).

God loves you. You were created as an act of his love. Over and over in the Bible, God makes this clear. God thought you up and created you to love you and to let you love him.

The greatest expression of God’s love is Jesus. God came to earth in the form of a human being to show us what he is really like. He then showed us how much he loved us by dying on the cross.

The cross tells us once and for all that we can fully trust God. We can trust him with our lives because he gave his Son’s life for us.

If God is telling the truth in his Word that he loves you, then you know he won’t take away your freedom or your fun or turn you into a fanatic.

God isn’t a cosmic killjoy. He’s your heavenly Father.

The more you know God, the more you trust him. Why? Because you’ll see all around you—in his Word, in your life, and in the world he created—all the evidence of how much he loves you. And as your love for him grows, your fear will diminish.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Trust the LORD with all your heart, and don’t depend on your own understanding. Remember the LORD in all you do, and he will give you success.”  Proverbs 3:5-6 (NCV)

For most of us, the reason we don’t trust God fully with our lives is because we really don’t know him. We usually don’t trust people we don’t know.

The same is true with God. That’s why God wants you to know the real him, not a fake version you’ve learned from popular culture. There are many popular myths about who God is that simply aren’t true.

For example, some believe he’s like:

The force: Like in the popular science-fiction series Star Wars, God is an impersonal force that we can bend to our own will.

A celestial Santa Claus: He’s just there to give gifts. He smiles, nods, and never really pays attention to the “naughty list.”

An old man: He’s the grandfatherly-type god who isn’t that different from you. He has his own failures and faults. But he doesn’t have any of the answers.

If I thought God was like any of those popular misconceptions, I wouldn’t trust him either. But he’s not! The Bible paints an entirely different picture of the character of God.

The truth is, God is infinitely worthy of your trust, because no being in the universe is as capable to influence the world around you as he is. The Bible says, “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me” (Psalm 54:4 NIV).

God has the power (and the desire) to sustain and help you through whatever you’re going through. He wants to give you his best for your life—and he is uniquely able to help you get there. He is the Creator of the universe. He can mobilize all the resources in the universe on your behalf as you seek to follow him.

But the key is, you must trust him.

The Bible says, “Trust the LORD with all your heart, and don’t depend on your own understanding. Remember the LORD in all you do, and he will give you success” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NCV).

If you trust him, God will help you succeed in whatever he has called you to do and be.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Those who make idols end up like them. So does everyone who trusts them.”  Psalm 115:8 (GW)

I mentioned in yesterday’s devotional that everyone trusts in something. We can even make good things—like our families, our abilities, or even our ministries in the church—into idols.

But trusting in things other than God can have devastating effects on our lives. If we think who we’re with or what we do will make us totally fulfilled, we’re setting ourselves up for deep disappointment. The Bible reminds us of this in Jeremiah when he says, “Those who make idols are disillusioned” (Jeremiah 10:14 GNT).

But we do it all the time with our careers, relationships, and bank accounts. We act as if those created things give us meaning in life.

And when we do that, we’re just setting ourselves up for failure. The Bible says, “The poor, deluded fool . . . trusts something that can’t help him at all. Yet he cannot bring himself to ask, ‘Is this idol that I’m holding in my hand a lie?’” (Isaiah 44:20 NLT).

Oh, yes, those idols are lies. Sadly, idols don’t just stop after they’ve disappointed us, though. Eventually, they enslave us, too.

Psalm 115:8 says, “Those who make idols end up like them. So does everyone who trusts them” (GW). Whatever you value the most in life, you’re going to become like. If you value money, you’ll eventually become a materialist. If you value pleasure, you’ll become a hedonist. If you value works, you’ll become a pragmatist. If you value above all else Jesus Christ, you’ll become a Christian.

So if putting something else first in our lives warps us, why do we do it?

We want a god we can control. We want to be able to manage him. If we make money our god, we feel as if we can control it. If we make other people our gods, we set out to control them. It makes us feel better.

But we can’t control God. He says, “Don’t reduce me. Don’t try to fit me into your lifestyle. Don’t try to control me.”

Instead, put your trust in him. You’ll learn to let go of your control and find freedom and fulfillment as you put God first in your life.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”  Psalm 20:7 (NIV)

Everyone trusts something. The question is, in what—or in whom—do you place your trust?

Our society tends to spurn trust—or at least we say we do. We’re skeptical of everyone and everything. We don’t trust the government or journalists. Employees don’t trust employers. Customers don’t trust businesses. We don’t even trust the weather report! When you get down to the bottom of the decline of trust today, you’ll find that our society’s “truth decay” is a big part of it.

Truth and trust go together. You trust people who tell you the truth. You don’t trust people if you don’t think they’re telling you the truth. And if you don’t believe in absolute truth, then you can’t trust anyone to tell you the truth.

Our lack of trust causes us tremendous stress in life. We were born to trust. God wired us with the capacity and desire to trust in something greater than ourselves, because he wanted us to have a relationship with him.

If you don’t trust God, then you will create something else to trust. It may be a diploma on the wall, money in the bank, your spouse, your career, or a hobby. This desire to trust in something larger than ourselves is nothing new. The biblical writers were keenly aware of it in their cultures as well. The Bible says in Psalm 20:7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (NIV).

The Bible has a word for whatever we place our trust in rather than God. The Bible calls it an “idol.” God’s Word says that, for our own good, we need to stay away from idols: “For your own good . . . do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form” (Deuteronomy 4:15-16 GNT).

So, how can you know truth? You spend time reading and studying and meditating on Scripture. You learn what truth is by getting to know a person, Jesus Christ. As you do, you’ll find the most secure place for your trust and a foundation for life.