Decisions, decisions, is there ever an end? The answer is yes. Death ends all decisions, the final play has been called, the curtain is dropped, no more this or that and decisions made or unmade are no more. Eternity has set in. But until then, you and I are faced with multiple decisions on a daily basis.

Each decision, great or small, has a profound influence on our future. Of course the greatest decision, the one with eternal consequences is the decision to receive Christ as Savior.

But what about all the other decisions of life, should I, shouldn’t I? What is the right decision? What will happen if…it goes on and on it’s enough to…..

May I refer you to the absolutely perfect source for decision making? James 1:5-8 “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”

For years my simple prayer in making decisions has been “Lord keep me close enough to you that you will not allow me to make a wrong choice or decision.” After asking in faith for wisdom, that prayer continues to be the filter of all my decisions. It makes decisions so much easier.

I cleaned out my office desk this week. It was way past time for this. I must confess that I tend to be somewhat of a pack-rat. I keep old shoe-strings because one never knows when he may need to tie something up and need a shoe-string. Now that I think about it, I can’t remember ever using an old shoe-string for anything. Now I need to get rid of all those strings, which will call for a thorough garage cleaning. Oh my, what have I started?

Now, back to the point, I cleaned my desk out and found mounds of stuff. There were out-dated snacks, financial statements from two years ago, reports, research, and notes that I have no idea how or why they found their way to my desk drawer and scrap paper that I vaguely remember putting there because it’s much too valuable to just throw away.

My point is this, far too often I allow what happened to my desk to take place in my heart. I unconsciously allow stuff to pile up, a hurt here, an injury there, a harsh word, a lingering thought, anger held much too long. The expiration date was yesterday. It is here that seeds of bitterness find fertile ground to root themselves in and before we know it there absolutely no room for calm, order, peace, joy of having a clean heart (Read Psalm 51). Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Heart cleaning is something I am spiritually committed to doing regularly. I have too much to lose by allowing unnecessary stuff to clutter my heart. The “stuff” I mentioned is sin that must be confessed and forsaken and treated like we would treat garbage.

After cleaning out my desk, I looked at the overflowing trash can and the clean drawers and a smile of satisfaction came across my face “this feels good, I can’t believe I allowed all this to pile up.” Those feelings can’t begin to compare to what we experience when we have a “heart cleaning.”

Give it a try. You might be very surprised at what you find tucked away in your heart.

Today I find myself reflecting, remembering some of the events that have transpired over the past several years of my life. Pruning seems to be the most accurate description. If you know anything about pruning, you know that it is ugly, painful and must be done with the greatest of care so that the vine does not suffer irreparable damage. Therefore, pruning must be executed by a master gardener.

I am so thankful that the Master Gardener loves me enough to spend time pruning me. The pruning has been extremely painful at times, but I am thankful that He trusted me with the pain. The pruning has been ugly because the Master cut away some branches that I felt were very important, if not essential to me. But who am I to question the pruning of the Master, who knows what needs to be removed. After all, He is constantly working all things for my good.

Time passes, wounds heal, new growth comes, fruit follows and opportunities have opened that I never thought possible. None of which would have taken place had the Master not subjected me to the pruning process. Wow God!

Yes, pruning is painful and ugly but I chose to submit to the process knowing with absolute certainty that the Master is working it all for my good. I am learning as I go through the seasons of life that pruning is necessary and natural for continued fruit-bearing. I’m not sure what the next season will look like, but I am excited about its potential even if it means undergoing pruning.

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account every morning with $86,400…It carries over no balance from day to day. At the end of every day, whatever part of the balance you failed to use is deleted. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course.

Each of us have such a bank…its name is time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds and every night it writes off as lost whatever you failed to invest. It carries no balance and it allows for no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back and there is no drawing against the “tomorrow”.

The Psalmist writes in Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Time is a treasure. God says we should treasure time as a valuable commodity. To realize the value of one year ask a student who failed a grade…to realize the value of one month ask a  mother who gave birth to a premature baby. How valuable is an hour? Ask the businessman whose flight was delayed an hour and he missed an important business deal. One minute? Ask that man who had a heart attack and an EMT just happened to be sitting next to him. How valuable is a second? Ask the person who barely missed a head-on collision with an oncoming car. How valuable is a millisecond? Ask the Olympic swimmer who missed qualifying by six-tenths of a second.

A. W. Tozer “Time is a resource that is nonrenewable and nontransferable. You cannot store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or save it for a rainy day…when it’s lost it’s unrecoverable…when you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”

Time is a treasure–the most valuable asset in this world…use it wisely today

“Do not let you hearts be troubled.” What do those words mean to you? I have often used John 14:1-4 for funeral services offering comfort to loved ones left behind. Jesus goes on to say, “Trust in God.”

In most of our private worlds, there is trouble to some degree. We must anchor ourselves with absolute confidence that God is a God who can be trusted. He evidenced that by allowing His Son to pay our sin debt. The final four words in John 14:1 “Trust also in me”. Jesus not only fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies concerning himself, but went on to make promises to that small group of followers all of which He fulfilled with one withstanding – His second coming – our blessed hope.

Today I choose to not let my heart be troubled because I chose to trust God and His promises. The result is confidence, not in an attitude of arrogance but an attitude of humility realizing that the Holy Son of God provides this blessing in the midst of a troubled world.

The following devotional so accurately describes the vision of Care for Pastors:

Discouragement (I Kings 19:24)

By Henry Blackaby

Kingdom work can be challenging! You can give everything you have to God’s service and come away exhausted. This is what happened to Elijah. God had just used Elijah to call down fire from heaven in a spectacular display of Divine power. But Elijah’s exhilaration was soon replaced by strenuous work followed by death threats, causing him to flee for his life. Now he was alone, exhausted and discouraged.

Again God came to Elijah. This time not in fire or in a loud spectacular way, but in a still small voice. God’s servant was tired and God brought him comfort. Elijah’s focus had shifted from God to God’s enemies. He had allowed his circumstances to overwhelm him leaving him disoriented to God and felling alone. So God encouraged him. God provided Elisha for him as a helper, friend and companion.

God removed Elijah from activity for a time, so that he could rest and spend time with God. When the nation next saw Elijah he was rejuvenated and refocused on God and his assignment.

If you are overwhelmed by Kingdom work so that your focus is no longer on God but on all that there is to do, let Him comfort you. Listen to His gentle voice. He will encourage you and provide exactly what you need to prepare you for what comes next. If He needs to remove you from your work for a time, He will. He may place a friend or co-laborer beside you to help carry the load. God knows exactly how to encourage you. Let Him do so!

If you are a Pastor or a Pastor’s wife and we can help carry the load, please don’t hesitate to call us at 352-728-8179 or e-mail us at ron@careforpastors.org. If you know a pastor that needs some help carrying the load, please pass on to him our information www.careforpastors.org and encourage him to allow us to help.

“Oh how I wish my life was problem free.”  I’ve said these words haven’t you? Problems! We all know them well. They come in all shapes and sizes.  Some are easy to solve and others are so complicated they border on the impossible.

If you are alive, you have problems. Somehow we have the idea that as followers of Christ we should get to free-ride when it comes to problems.  However, that’s just not reality.  As Dr. Jerry Falwell said, “We are either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or about to go into a storm.” I don’t like that do you? However, that is life.

The truth about problems, in and of themselves, they are not bad. Problems are God’s way of providing us the means to move forward. Without problems there would be no growth. The truth is that “problem” you are dealing with right now has been orchestrated by God for your good. Don’t ask God why, but what? Problems confronted with truth take on a totally different perspective. A closing note: “An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?” Michael de Saint-Pierre

We want to highly recommend this internet accountability program. In today’s society we need every safety net possible. Please take a look at the following video. If you would like to subscribe, please go to our website www.careforpastors.org and click on Links under the We Are Pastors icon.

News Flash: “Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.” Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D.

Out of curiosity, I googled “the benefit of laughter” and found one of those rare areas that the Bible and the secular world agree on–laughter. Before any of the clinical research of our day, Solomon declared. “A cheerful heart is good medicine.” Proverbs 17:22a

I was so excited to read the research of Maciej Buchowski, a researcher from Vanderbilt University, who conducted a study in which he measured the amount of calories expended in laughing. It turned out that ten to fifteen minutes of laughter burned fifty calories. Just as I was ready to cancel my gym membership, I read on and it seems that loosing one pound would require about twelve hours of concentrated laughter. Back to the treadmill.

I would encourage you to take a few minutes to research laughter. During these changing times, we need to remember the benefits of laughter. It’s free.

“A cheerful look brings joy to the heart.” Proverbs 15:30a

“A heart at peace gives life to the body.” Proverbs 14:30a

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

“A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” Ecclesiastes 3:4

Please don’t forget to laugh today or at the very least smile. Don’t be surprised if that smile doesn’t turn into laughter. Laughter. It does a body good!

You’re late. Anything that can go wrong has. You grab a cup of coffee and of course you spill some on yourself; but the one bright spot of the morning is you are wearing dark clothing and the coffee won’t show.  You hop in the car.  You give thanks that you’re not so late that you can blame the traffic.  Then it happens. Click. Click.  “No! Not today of all days! Not now!”

You pray, wait a few moments and try again. Click. Click. Who hasn’t heard the sound of a dead battery?  The Florida sun is deadly on car batteries. It is so deadly that it is usually without warning–not a slow dragging and then it starts. It just goes from starting to dead.

Not to be offensive, but some of you who are reading this have dead batteries.  You are just sitting there turning the key and the only sound you hear is click, click. The intensity of life, like the Florida sun has drained your battery.  The answer to a dead battery is a jump start. Another car’s battery is connected to ours and voila we are up and running until we can get the battery replaced.

When you need a jump start for your car, you don’t hesitate to ask for help because getting to where you are going is much more important than swallowing your pride and asking for help.  Who in their right mind will sit in their car and click, click for hours at a time?  No, you get out of your car and seek help.

Why is it when our spiritual battery is drained we just sit and click, click?  Is it because where we’re going isn’t important? Is it because we don’t want anyone to know we have a dead battery?  Why is getting to an appointment more important than doing God’s appointment?

I don’t know about you, but it is never a bother for someone to ask me to jump start their car. It’s just what good neighbors do. It’s never a bother for someone to ask for a spiritual jump start; it’s just what we do.  As a matter of fact it’s a joy to offer a jump start to someone.

Make sure you have people in your life who you can call on when the spiritual battery is dead.  Make the call, it’s not a bother.  It’s a pleasure to jump start someone.  If you don’t ask, you will miss your appointment.