‘When the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.’ Proverbs 21:11 NKJV Whether it’s in your personal life or your career, learning how to communicate with others is vital to success and happiness in a relationship. Apart from learning facts, communication should be a way to gain some understanding into the heart and mind of another person. And good communication calls for translation. Really, you’re learning that other person’s language. We all use the same words, but we have unique...

‘By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.’ Hebrews 11:3 NIV Speaking of our amazing bodies…what about DNA? Each human cell (up to 100 trillion) contains a database larger than the Encyclopedia Britannica! Could all that have originated by chance? English physicist Paul Davies makes this comparison: ‘It’s rather like exploding a stick of dynamite under a pile of bricks and expecting it to build a house....

‘Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous.’ Psalm 139:14 NLT Could life as we know it – plant, animal, and human life – have spontaneously happened by chance? Could our amazing solar system have happened by accident? The more advanced science becomes, the more evidence there is for a Master Designer. Researchers continue to uncover the divine order in each tiny human cell. American biochemist Bruce Alberts, former president of the National Academy of...

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your…mind.’ Mark 12:30 NKJV Loving God with all your mind means managing your mind and making the most of it. It means loving God in all ways: logically, creatively, intuitively, and thoughtfully. Albert Einstein, one of history’s greatest minds, said: ‘The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous...

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your…mind.’ Mark 12:30 NKJV God has created us with the capacity to keep learning for the whole of our lives, which is something we shouldn’t take for granted. The average brain weighs approximately three pounds, but neurologists estimate that we have the ability to learn something new every second of every minute of every hour of every day for the next three hundred million years. Isn’t that amazing! But it’s more than that. It’s an awesome...

‘Teach us to use wisely all the time we have.’ Psalm 90:12 CEV We all get the same twenty-four hours every day. That’s 1,440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds. And we ‘must give an account to God’ for how we use them (see Ecclesiastes 11:9). A good place to start is by asking yourself, ‘How would I spend the next twenty-four hours if I knew I would have to tell God tomorrow about how I spent them?’ Your answer can help you prioritise your life. Think about it: if somebody steals your car, you can...

‘[You] too may live a new life.’ Romans 6:4 NIV Refuse to let your past steal your future. This year God wants to give you a new start. Let’s face it, we all have relationships that can’t be healed, and issues that will never be resolved ion the way we’d like. But by God’s grace we can forgive, forget, and move on. You don’t have to lie awake at night digging up old bones, picking at scars, and reviving painful memories. If you give them an opening, the ghosts of your past will make their...

‘Let the one…boast…that they have the understanding to know me.’ Jeremiah 9:24 NIV God said: ‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me’ (vv. 23-24 NIV). The truth is, if you don’t know God it doesn’t matter how much money you have in your bank account, or what certificates hang on your wall, or what position you hold in the company....

‘I have chosen Bezalel.’ Exodus 31:2 NIV The first person in the Bible who was said to be ‘filled with the Spirit of God’ was Bezalel. And if his name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because he wasn’t a prophet, priest, king, or apostle. He was a craftsman, skilled in design. He had an eye for colour and a flair for management, and when it came time for building the tabernacle, he oversaw the job. Here’s what God said about him: ‘I have chosen Bezalel…and…filled him with the Spirit of God, with...

‘Those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.’ 1 Corinthians 4:2 NIV Most adults spend about half their waking lives at work. Your work is a huge part of God’s plan for your life. He designed a specific vocation just for you in which you should find personal fulfilment, meet the needs of yourself and the family you build, and help to maintain His purposes in the earth. The fourth commandment covers all seven days of the week, not just the Sabbath. ‘Six days you shall labour and do...

‘Whatever you do, do well.’ Ecclesiastes 9:10 NLT In the Bible, you’ll notice that everybody works! And most of its heroes had secular jobd. Isaac developed land, Jacob was a farmer, Joseph served God best by staying in his well-paying government job rather than starting a non-profit, faith-based organisation to do charity work. Daniel was an immigrant who attended Babylon’s version of Oxford University and grew to be prime minister. Lydia was a profitable businesswoman in textiles. And the...

‘Fill the earth and govern it.’ Genesis 1:28 NLT The first thing God told Adam and Eve to do was ‘fill the earth and govern it’. Because Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden doesn’t mean they were limited to the Garden of Eden. God told them to ‘fill the earth and govern it’. Let’s stop and think about that for a moment. God was inviting Adam and Eve to explore. Everything outside Eden was uncharted territory. They could travel 24,759 miles in any direction and never see the...

‘The shepherds returned, glorifying…God for all the things they had heard and seen.’ Luke 2:20 NIV An early pioneer travelling across the Great Plains of America stopped at the edge of the Grand Canyon. Amazed to discover a vast chasm one mile deep and eighteen miles wide stretching out of sight, he exclaimed, ‘Something must have happened here!’ And as preacher Haddon Robinson said: ‘At…Christmas…anyone who stops to look and listen must ask what the hustle and bustle is all about. A...

‘These will be his royal titles.’ Isaiah 9:6 TLB Jack Hayford writes: Who is this Babe of Bethlehem…who became flesh…who called forth songs of angels…this Christ of Christmas?…the answer comes back with ringing authority…He is the Redeemer – “in whom we have redemption” (Colossians 1:14 NKJV). We who believe on His name have been “qualified” (v. 12 NKJV), “delivered” and “conveyed” (v. 13 NKJV) into a new…kingdom, by…a price once-paid to secure our freedom, potential, and fellowship. He is...

‘The Word became flesh.’ John 1:14 NKJV When the angel visited Mary, he said, ‘Don’t be frightened…God has decided to…bless you!’ (Luke 1:30 TLB).But when it comes to approaching God directly, many religions are ruled by fear. Philip Yancey says: ‘Certainly the Jews associated fear with worship…A person “blessed” with a direct encounter with God expected to come away scorched or glowing or maybe [in pain] like Jacob…Among people who walled off a separate sanctum for God in the temple and...

‘You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.’ Luke 1:31 NIV We’ve sung the words of the Christmas carol ‘Silent Night’ since we were very young. But those words don’t actually come from Scripture. ‘Silent Night’ was a poem written by an Austrian priest in 1816. The words paint a peaceful picture with the happy couple watching their newborn baby. But it’s unlikely that there really would have been silence. After an exhausting journey on a donkey, Joseph and the...

‘He will bring justice if you will only wait.’ Job 35:14 NLT When you plant a seed, it can take weeks before you see a little green shoot pushing through the soil. It stays in the ground until the time is right for it to emerge. If it’s too early or late, the conditions aren’t right and the young plant will struggle or fail. It’s the same with our God-given skills, dreams and visions. God’s planted certain things within each of us, and we have to wait for them to take root and grow. With...

‘I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer.’ Job 30:20 NCV Do you ever feel like God isn’t answering you? Job felt the same way when he said, ‘I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you just look at me…when I hoped for good, only evil came to me; when I looked for light, darkness came’ (vv. 20 & 26 NCV). We all go through times when it feels like God’s slipped away from us. What’s He up to? Why doesn’t He respond? The answer is that there are some lessons we can...

‘I came so close to the edge.’ Psalm 73:2 TLB If you’d met Asaph, who wrote some of the psalms, you’d probably have thought he hadn’t a care in the world. But you’d have been wrong: ‘I came so close to the edge of the cliff! My feet were slipping and I was almost gone.’ Then at the end of the psalm he does a one-eighty, and writes, ‘My health may fail, and my spirit grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever’ (v. 26 NLT). Even though he had problems, he chose to...

‘When people are tempted and still continue strong, they should be happy.’ James 1:12 NCV Because he was handsome, Joseph attracted the unwanted attentions of his boss’s wife. Day after day, she tried to seduce him. Now fast-forward to later in his life: if Joseph encountered that level of temptation when he was just a household slave, can you imagine the level he was exposed to when he became Egypt’s prime minister? Acting with integrity in small things equips you to act with integrity in...

‘A principled life can stand up to the worst.’ Proverbs 11:4 MSG Abraham Lincoln said, ‘Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.’ It’s easier to focus on our talent because, generally speaking, it produces results that are rewarded and celebrated by others. In other words, there’s an element of ego connected to our gifts. Character is built in private. Your reputation is what people think you are, but character is what God (and you) know...

‘Stir up the gift of God which is in you.’ 2 Timothy 1:6 NKJV Paul told Timothy, ‘Stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.’ That Scripture means, even though you’re gifted, you can become apathetic if you don’t keep doing the right things. ‘Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away’ (Hebrews 2:1 NKJV). The word ‘drift’ is not only slow and subtle, it’s deadly. Let’s look at two of the things that can rob you...

‘Cease from anger…it only causes harm.’ Psalm 37:8 NKJV Your anger may or may not hurt the person towards whom it’s directed, but it can definitely hurt you. Prolonged anger releases toxic chemicals into our bodies that can eventually affect our health and may even harm us. Every minute we give to anger is a minute of joy taken from us. And it can hurt us personally and professionally. Everybody gets upset from time to time. But when you walk around with your anger barely concealed, people...

‘Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.’ James 1:19 NLT The Bible gives us three keys to handling our anger the right way. Let’s look at each one and see what we can learn: 1) ‘Be quick to listen.’ Don’t react, and don’t rush to judgment. Slow down and try to get the facts, then prayerfully and carefully consider how God wants you to respond. 2) ‘Slow to speak.’ If you’re unsure, or you don’t know, just say so. There’s an old saying that goes, ‘It’s better to say nothing...

‘I will be with you.’ Joshua 1:5 NKJV Because we’re often very aware of our limitations, we tend to limit our efforts to our comfort zone. And that can lead to a life of mediocrity and unfulfilled dreams. Your efforts don’t rest only on your shoulders, but on God’s. You have a part to play, and you should give it your best effort, but when you’ve done your best, trust God to do the rest. On the edge of the promised land, God said to Joshua, ‘As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will...