Phrases and Proverbs That Help Me Follow Jesus

Having been under the fire of temptation for oh, 39 or so years now, I've learned a thing or two about fighting it. Sometimes it helps to have a quick phrase, a great one-liner, a modern-day proverb if you will at your mind's disposal.  Obviously it's best if they come straight from the Word.  Afterall, the supreme black-belt of temptation-fighting Jesus, fired the Scriptures back at Satan every time the king of evil tried to trick Him into doing something wrong.  Still, as long as the phrases are Biblically-based, they can help as well.  Here are a few that help me, followed by a collection that I have been teaching to my own son and other youth.

·         Eternal rest for the weary.

·         What would Jesus watch?

·         What would Jesus listen to?

·         What would the man I want to be for God do?

·         Can’t teach about a Jesus that I don’t serve (or obey).

·         “Make me a servant”, mentally sung to myself in a kind of mocking, opera style when I realize I’m getting upset for having to serve.  

·         Don’t love the world.

·         Abhor evil (it helps to pick a specific evil). 

·         Keep your head in the ball game. 

·         Okay. What could I do to just really hack Satan off right now?

·         There’s no treasure in heaven for storing stuff in the attic. 

·         Calmness is strength.  Getting upset is weakness (Tried to keep telling myself that the year I taught middle school.  I probably couldn't have bench-pressed two pounds based on that saying).

·         Recognize the hazard.  Understand the defense.  Act accordingly in a timely fashion.

·         I can’t become strong, but I can become wise.

·         The best time to fight temptation is when you are not being tempted.

·         Realistic expectations.

Phrases that I have been teaching my son and other youth:

1.    God made us to be like Him.

2.    The Bible is a treasure and a treasure map.

3.    Focus on Jesus. / Focus on God.

4.    Choose today the narrow way.

5.    When you wake up, get up and say, “What can I do for Jesus today?”

6.    Just like air, God is there.

7.    If things like shelves did not make themselves, it had to be that God made me.

8.    God knows anything He wants to know, any time He wants to know it.

9.    Everybody misses the target sometimes, everybody but Jesus.

10.  Because Jesus paid the price for me, in heaven with God I can be.

11.  When I’m selfish, I think only of me.  Thinking of others God wants me to be.

12.  Don’t worry about what others can do.  Just use what God has given YOU.

13.  With Jesus in me, I can handle the heat.

14.  It’s easiest to say “no” to something you’ve never tried.

15.  When we’re divided everything’s wrong, but when we’re united, then we are strong.

16.  God rewards those who truly want to find Him.

17.  Know where your path goes / Know where you are going.

18.  Know how to get to where you want to go.

19.  Learn the ways of the one who loves you, reject the ways of the one who hates you.

20.  Night or day, take time to pray.

21.  If you want to follow Jesus, don’t be afraid.  Jesus will not turn you away.

22.  When I’m mad or sad about what life brings, look at things differently or look at different things.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thoughts About Attitude

Sunday I taught the 5^th and 6^th graders at church.  This month they are doing a series on “Attitude” and, as it so happened, I was asked to teach the first lesson: “Does your attitude need adjusting?”  And yes, as recently as Friday, mine needed a major overhaul, not just an adjustment.   

Well, as I was preparing for this lesson, I picked up a new treasure.  I saw in God’s Word something that I hadn’t noticed before.  What I discovered I summed up for the 5^th and 6^th graders this way:  “When I’m mad or sad about what life brings, look at things differently or look at different things.”

God gives us an amazing set of tools that we can use to cope with the trials and hardships of life.  So often though we stand there trying to chop down our own problem tree with the small, dull axe we bought at Satan-Mart, while God’s super-sharp power saw just sits there by our feet.  If we would ever take a moment to step back and look at our own silliness, we would have to think “Why am I not using that??”

Let me give you some examples of what I am talking about.  First, let’s examine how we can see things differently.

This is James chapter 1, verses 1 to 4: 

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:  Greetings.  Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Here I am facing some sort of trial and James wants me to do what??  Count it pure joy!?!  How in the world can we do that?  By remembering that this test of our faith will lead to perseverance!  This pain will lead to gain!  There is genuine good that can come from our trial, good that we can actually be excited about!

Believe me when I say James didn’t write this so that we would read it and think “Oh, how cute!”  He truly wants us to practice looking at our trials in a joyful way, by remembering the strength, the endurance we will gain from it.

I’ll give you some other passages you can look at in a minute, but for now let’s move to the next coping tool - looking at different things.

In John 16, verse 33, Jesus told His closest followers, the apostles, this:  “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation [i.e., troubles, hard times].  But be of good cheer.  I have overcome the world.”

What was Jesus desire for His followers?  Peace and joy!  How were they to obtain it?  Through a problem-free life?  No!  But by remembering that Jesus overcame the world!  We, too, can overcome this world with its tribulations by trusting Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1-3 is just as good.  There, after giving an awe-inspiring list of people who kept their faith in the face of hardships, the Hebrew writer says  

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

How did Jesus endure the pain and agony of the cross?  He focused on “the joy set before Him”! 

Remember how Jesus said during His arrest “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53)  Well, how did He find the emotional and spiritual strength not to call them?  Again, instead of focusing on the cross, He focused on the coming joy.

So what does the writer say to us? Fix your eyes on Jesus!  Consider what He did!  If we follow His example, we too can find the inner strength we need by focusing on the joy set before us.

Now how and when we apply this to the problems and hardships of others is another blog for another day.  Suffice it to say we rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15).  When one member suffers, we suffer with them.  If they are honored, we rejoice with them (1 Cor 12:26).

But when it comes to facing our own struggles, when we are mad or sad about what life brings, let us look at things differently or look at different things.

For further reading – looking at things differently

2 Cor 12:7-10      God’s strength is perfected in our weakness.

Acts 5:40-42, 1 Peter 4:12-16       It’s a blessing and an honor to suffer for Jesus.

Hebrews 12:4-11   God disciplines those whom He loves.

1 Peter 2:18-25      It is commendable before God to endure suffering when you did no wrong.

1 Timothy 6:6-9     We can find contentment in knowing that we can’t take the stuff of this world with us.

For further reading – looking at different things

Romans 12:12   Rejoice in our hope.

Matthew 5:11-12, James 1:12   Remember the rewards.