It’s difficult for me to understand why I never had a problem in making friends. Some people have real difficulty in that area.  When tragedy hit our home, many in our families were there immediately to get us through the difficult days. However, the thing I never really expected was the very meaningful support of those who were friends from my childhood. That friendship was never lost by the years, trials, distances, and belief systems.

The most significant friendship is found in Holy Writ.

Proverbs 18:24

A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Appreciate those relationships, and never forget they come from God.

Think about it.

Gary

I’d like to buy him for what he knows and sell him for what he thinks he knows. I always believed someone from my hometown came up with that statement; however, what I didn’t know is that it has been around for a long time and no one knows where it came from.

We might know some things, but we don’t know a lot of things. Then some of the things we think we know come from an unreliable source.

The woman at the well in John’s gospel is a case in point.

John 4:10

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Did you know that?

Think about it.

Gary

Liver to me is disgusting, and just the thought of cow’s tongue makes me gag. I have no use for golf, and there is no one in the world I like well enough to go fishing with.

Before you get upset, let me just say, all of us have things we reject and things we embrace in life.

However, when it comes to the Word of God, rejection can have serious consequences.

1 Samuel 15:23 

Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has also rejected you from being king.

Saul would not get a second term in office.

Think about it.

Gary

Did you ever make a statement that you wish could be taken back? Sorry I brought such painful things to your memory.  We have all had such an experience at some time or other.

Even the Apostle Peter had those moments; Luke 9:33 states of Peter, “not knowing what he said.”

The best filter for this defect is not found at NAPA but is found in the Word of God.

Psalm 19:14

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Pass your words in His filter before they flow through your lips.

Think about it.

Gary

My Cousin who has been in this world a long time said to me, “I can’t believe how much you look like our grandmother.”  Sadly, she wasn’t kidding. Twenty years ago the mirror told me I looked like my father. Now the mirror tells me I look like my grandmother.  Time has a way of doing that.

Isaiah 40:8 

The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

Don’t try and handle me, for I’m fading fast. Handle the Word of God because it is a benefit now and forever without ever getting old.

Think about it, and thanks, cousin, for this devotional.

Gary

Many times when entering a facility, the realization I’m mask-less hits me. Disappointed, I make my way back to the truck to get my goofy mask. Even at the Bank, one is necessary. A year ago I would have set off alarms going into the bank with a mask on. Times have changed.

I don’t know how much protection I’ll get from that stuffy cloth, but I do know the protection I have in God.

2 Samuel 22:31 

This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

Wear your mask but never forget God is your shield.

Give it some thought.

Gary

I was a junior in high school and our English teacher made us read The Catcher in the Rye and discuss it. Maybe my IQ wasn’t high enough but to find some helpful life lesson in that book was an impossible pursuit for me. Really, I think it was just to kill time.

Some years later, I was directed to another book which contained information necessary for understanding the world and myself.

Joshua 1:8 

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

This is the Book that keeps on giving.

Think about it.

Gary