Month: November 2024

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”

Proverbs 19:11 (NIV)

When you’re dealing with people who are offensive or irritating, you need to look past the behavior to the pain.

Everything we do is motivated by something. When people hurt others, it’s because they’re hurting on the inside. Hurt people hurt other people.

The more you understand about someone’s background, the more grace you’ll show them. Think of a person you find to be difficult or irritating. You probably know nothing about their background, so you don’t cut them any slack.

You don’t know that maybe they lost their parents at a young age. You don’t know that maybe they were molested. You don’t know that maybe they’ve gone through two marriages and their spouse just walked out on them. You don’t know their story, and that’s part of why you’re not showing them any grace.

The Bible says in Proverbs 19:11, “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense” (NIV). It’s easy to take offense from people you find difficult. But when you’re wise, you don’t get offended easily. Why? Because wisdom gives you patience.

When you patiently take the time to understand someone’s background, you understand the stress they’re under—and it’s easier to show grace. Your understanding gives you the patience to overlook the offense.

What I’m talking about here is real love. In fact, the Bible says refusing to be offended by other people is actually an act of mature love. The more love you have in your heart, the harder it is for someone to personally offend you. The less love you have in your heart, the more insecure you feel and the easier it is to offend you.

Proverbs 10:12 says, “Love overlooks the wrongs that others do” (CEV). The more you’re filled with love, the less you’ll be upset when people are demanding, demeaning, or disapproving.

When you encounter a difficult person, remember to do this: Look past the behavior to the pain. Then refuse to be offended and, instead, respond in love.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“The Lord says, ‘I am the one who strengthens you. Why should you fear mortals, who are no more enduring than grass?’” Isaiah 51:12 (GNT)

One way to overcome the fear of rejection is by keeping the right perspective. You can listen to the opinions of others—but don’t ever overvalue what they say.

In Isaiah 51:12, God says, “I am the one who strengthens you. Why should you fear mortals, who are no more enduring than grass?” (GNT). Your life here on earth is temporary, so why be afraid of other people’s opinions?

Other people are not God, and their opinions aren’t going to last. The secret to success is to outlast your critics—to realize it’s the long game, eternity, that matters. In Isaiah, God reminds you he’s the one who counts.

When people put you down, don’t assume their judgments are the same as God’s. Don’t automatically accept someone’s criticism; instead, judge it for what it’s worth.

Why does this matter? Because when people’s approval becomes all-important to you, you set yourself up to live in fear of rejection.

The Bible says, “In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31 GNT). If you recognize how much God is for you, it gives you the ability to withstand tremendous rejection from other people.

For some people, all that matters is popularity, fame, or applause. They think: “What do other people think of me? How do I look to everybody else?”

If you live this way, you are at the mercy of everyone else’s judgments. If someone thinks you’re a loser, you must be a loser! If someone thinks you’re incapable, you must be incapable!

Do you really want to live that way?

The good news is God never intended for you to live this way. It’s as if he’s saying to you, “Why are you listening to them? They’re just mortal men and women. I’m the one who counts. They are no more enduring than grass.”

The apostle Paul said his goal in life was to please God, not others: “Does this sound as if I am trying to win human approval? No indeed! What I want is God’s approval! Am I trying to be popular with people? If I were still trying to do so, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10 GNT).

Paul says you have a choice. You can choose to live for the applause of God or for the applause of people.

Who are you more interested in pleasing? You can’t seek the approval of God and people at the same time. You have to decide who you want to impress. Just remember who is “no more enduring than grass” and who is “the one who strengthens you.”

God is for you, and he wants to see you succeed! Choose to live for him today.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” Galatians 1:10 (NLT)

In life, there is only one person you need to please: your Creator. You only have to please the Lord, the one who made you and has a purpose for your life.

That simplifies life enormously!

Jesus said, “I don’t try to please myself, but I try to please the One who sent me” (John 5:30 NCV). He’s saying, in effect, “I’m living for an audience of one.”

Did you know that people-pleasing is a form of idolatry? The first commandment in the Ten Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3 NIV).

Anything you put before God becomes a god. So a boat could be a god. A career could be a god. A girlfriend could be a god. Golf could be a god. Anything that becomes number one in your life that isn’t God becomes your god.

The second commandment is, “You must not make for yourself an idol” (Exodus 20:4 NLT). Anything that replaces God in your life is an idol. Success can be an idol. Money can be an idol. Sex can be an idol. A relationship can become an idol. If that relationship with your spouse, boss, or friend is more important than God, it’s an idol.

People pleasers allow other people’s opinions to take first place in their lives. Those opinions become a god because they matter more than God’s opinion. You don’t want to tell people you’re a Christian because they might think less of you. You don’t want them to know you go to church because they may not like you. At that point, you have another god in your life. You have made an idol of people pleasing.

Paul said in Galatians 1:10, “I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant” (NLT).

Almost everyone wants to be liked. It’s tempting to want to please other people. But don’t do it at the expense of pleasing God. As a servant of Christ, you have an audience of one. You need to only please God.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“If you … know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”  Matthew 7:11 (NIV)

God is the source of everything. He made everything you see in the world—and everything you can’t see in the world and in the universe.

As you depend on God as your source for everything, there are four truths you need to remember.

First, everything is a gift from God.

Nothing you have has really been earned. It’s all a gift of God’s grace. If God didn’t want to give it, then you wouldn’t have it.

James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above” (NIV). That’s why the Lord’s Prayer says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Why? Because everything God gives you is a gift. You can’t earn it—thank God for that, because none of us could work hard enough to deserve his good gifts.

Second, there’s nothing you need that God can’t provide. You don’t know what you’re going to need the rest of this year. But God knows, and he has the power to supply whatever it is.

The Bible says in Philippians 4:19, “My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (NIV). This means God gives gifts as only someone with unlimited resources could do. It won’t always look like you expected or wanted, but his gifts are always just what you need and for your good.

Third, God wants to give you everything you need.

Matthew 7:11 says, “If you … know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (NIV). God is not obligated to be generous to us. He does it all out of his love. And he doesn’t hold back!

And here’s the fourth thing: God is waiting on you.

If you have needs in your life that are not being met, it’s not God’s fault. You’re not waiting on God. He’s waiting on you. James 4:2 says, “You do not have because you do not ask God” (NIV).

You don’t have to wait to clean yourself up or get things together before you ask God for something. He’s ready and waiting for you to ask him. When you do, you’ll discover just how good and generous a Father he is.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“The LORD is near to all who call on him.”  Psalm 145:18 (NIV)

God is not as far away as the furthest star. He’s as close as your next heartbeat. He’s right there with you every moment. The Bible says in Acts 17:27, “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (NIV).

You might feel like God is a million miles away. But your feelings and reality don’t always match—we all know that’s true. The truth is, God is with you right now.

Because he is a close Father:

God is never too busy for you. That’s how close he is. That’s the kind of love that he has. Psalm 145:18 says, “The LORD is near to all who call on him” (NIV). Every time you call, God is near. You’re never going to get a busy signal! He thinks about you a lot more than you think about him. He thought about you before you were born. He thinks about you every moment of every day. The truth is that too many times, we get too busy for God. But he never gets too busy for us.

God loves to meet your needs. He doesn’t do it begrudgingly. He loves taking care of his children and giving them the things they didn’t even know they needed. Mathew 7:11 says, “If you . . . know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (NIV). You can enjoy the fact that God enjoys giving good gifts to you.

God is sympathetic to your hurts. Some of you are going through something tough this week, and you need this verse: “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed” (Psalm 34:18 NLT). Whatever is weighing you down, you can give it to God and let him carry it for you. He is always ready to comfort and help you.

God is close to you, and he understands. Turn to him, talk to him, and trust him for every need you have today.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Let go of your concerns! Then you will know that I am God. I rule the nations. I rule the earth.”  Psalm 46:10 (GW)

Every day, you have to decide who’s going to be in control of your life: you or God.

That choice is a battle. There are things in your life that you want to control. You want to make your own rules. But relieving stress always starts with letting God be God. It starts with saying, “God, only you can control the things that are out of control in my life.”Psalm 46:10 says, “Let go of your concerns! Then you will know that I am God. I rule the nations. I rule the earth” (GW).

I don’t know what you’re going to face this week. You don’t, either. But I can already tell you what God wants you to do: Let go, and know. Let go of control, and know that God is in control. Let go, and know! This is the first step to peace in your life.

Whenever we face out-of-control situations, we tend to go to one of two extremes. For some people, the more out-of-control life gets, the harder they try to control it. Some people do the exact opposite: They just give up! They have a pity party and invite themselves to it.

Both of those reactions to stress are foolish. They don’t work. Instead of being a victim or becoming hyper controlling, you need to surrender your control to God.

The number one reason you’re under stress is because you’re in conflict with God. You’re trying to control things that only God can control. The more you do it, the more you’re trying to play God, and that puts you in opposition to God. Not only are you going to lose that conflict, but you’re also going to be tired.

Millions of people pray the Serenity Prayer, which is based on the Lord’s Prayer, but most have never read the last part of the prayer: “Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as the pathway to peace; taking as Jesus did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to his will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with him forever in the next. Amen.”

That’s where the power is! There is power when you surrender to God the very things you’ve been trying to take control of from him.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  James 1:17 (NIV)

When everything’s changing around you, it’s important to remember that God is a consistent Father. He will never let you down. He can be counted on. He is reliable. He is worthy of trust.

James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (NIV). God is an unchanging, consistent Father.

Human fathers are often unpredictable. I’ve talked to people who said, “Growing up, I never knew how my dad was going to treat me. I never knew if he was going to be silent or violent. I never knew whether he was going to hug me or slug me. I never knew if he was going to take me in or reject me.” Inconsistent fathers produce insecure children.

But God is not moody. He does not change in his character or his feelings about you. Nothing you could do would make God love you more, and nothing you could do would make God love you less. Your heavenly Father is consistent. One of the things you can count on is that God always acts the same toward you.

The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (NIV).

We know that the world is changing faster than ever before. Years ago, the futurist, Alvin Toffler, wrote that in times of rapid change, people need “islands of stability.” When everything else is up in the air, you need something in your life that never changes as an anchor for your soul. You need an island of stability in order to handle the stress.

There’s only one problem: On this planet, nothing lasts. There’s only one thing you can count on that will never change, only one thing that will give you permanent stability, and that’s the consistent, caring love of your heavenly Father. As you get to know God and experience his love for you, you’ll find solid footing in a shaky, inconsistent world.

“My God is changeless in his love for me” (Psalm 59:10 TLB).

You can count on that.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.”  Psalm 103:13 (NIV)

God is a caring, loving, and compassionate Father. He loves you more than you will ever understand. He loves you more than you can ever comprehend! God is love, and he made you to love you. He is loving toward you in everything that he does. God is a caring Father.

The Bible says in Psalm 103:13, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him” (NIV). God compassionately cares about everything in your life, which means he has concern for you.

In Mark 4, when the disciples were out fishing one day, Jesus got tired and curled up in one end of the boat and went to sleep. When a storm came up, it shouldn’t have bothered the disciples. As professional fishermen, they were used to storms. But this must have been a big one because they got scared. They were frantic and woke up Jesus to ask him one of the most important questions in life: “Lord, don’t you care?”

We ask that question of God all the time and in a thousand ways:

“God, did you see that doctor’s report? Don’t you care?”

“Do you see what a mess my marriage is in? Don’t you care?”

“Do you see how little money we’ve got in the bank and all the bills we’ve got? Don’t you care?”

“Do you see how my kids are struggling in school? Don’t you care?”

“You know this fear that grips my mind that I can’t seem to get rid of. Don’t you care?”

The answer is yes, God cares. In fact, he cares more than you care. He wants to help more than you want help. He knows what will help you more than you know what will help you. He is aware, and he cares.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV).

If you knew and felt how much your heavenly Father cares compassionately and constantly about you, you’d have to love him back. If you feel like God is out of reach, it’s because you don’t understand the kind of caring Father he really is.

You can only know the depth of God’s love for you when you know God. Spend some time with him today—and every day. As you get to know him better, you’ll see just how much he cares.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“The righteous choose their friends carefully.”  Proverbs 12:26 (NIV)

If you’re supposed to choose your friends carefully, you should be even more careful about choosing your life partner. And notice that you do get to choose. God leads, guides, and gives you guidelines. But ultimately, who you marry—and whether you marry—is your choice.

However, many people believe the myth that there is only one right person for them.

That’s romantic, but it’s just not true. It’s not biblical, and it’s not even logical! If there were only one right person for each person in the world, one person making a wrong decision would break the chain for everybody else.

Let’s say I’m supposed to marry a woman named Susan. Instead, I marry Kay. So then, Susan might marry somebody else, who was supposed to marry somebody else, who was supposed to marry another person! Do you see how the apple cart is upset for everyone on the entire planet?

There are many people God would want you not to marry. But there likely are quite a few other options that could fall within his will for your life. And in those cases, it’s your choice. You can follow your preference.

There’s another myth that many people believe: Love alone is reason enough to marry.

I frequently talk with people who are planning to get married. And sometimes I look at them and think, “There’s no way.” The family background, spiritual foundation, or personalities aren’t right. They don’t have the same amount of energy or ambition. They don’t even have the same values and goals. But they “love each other.”

Loving someone does not mean you should marry that person.

God may not tell you who to marry. But he does give you principles that will help you make a wise decision. In tomorrow’s Daily Hope devotional, we’ll go over a list of traits to look for in potential partners.

But first and foremost, if you’re a believer, it’s foundational that you marry another believer so that you have a spiritual unity and a shared life purpose.

There are few gifts in life that are better than a good spouse. Relying on God’s guidance can help you make a wise decision.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”

1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV)

When you have conflict, focus on reconciliation, not resolution.

There’s a big difference between those two words. Reconciliation means re-establishing the relationship. Resolution means resolving every issue.

In most cases, resolution isn’t going to happen—there are some things you’ll just never agree on.

Can you have a loving relationship without agreeing on everything? Absolutely. But it takes wisdom. When you’re wise, you learn to disagree without being disagreeable; you learn to walk hand in hand without having to see eye to eye.

One of the greatest things you can do with your life is to be a bridge builder, not a wall builder. You are most like Jesus Christ when you are reconciling people. That’s exactly what Jesus came to do! God sent Jesus to earth to reconcile humanity with God.

Jesus is the great reconciler. The Bible says, “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5 NIV).

But you cannot make peace with other people until you make peace with God. If you find yourself in constant conflict, ask yourself whether you’ve made peace with God. You can make peace with God by repenting of your sins and dedicating your life to serving him (see the prayer below).

The Bible calls Jesus the Prince of Peace. Peace with God leads to peace with yourself, which leads to peace with others.