Category: Daily Promises

RESISTANCE

“What I say to you is: offer no resistance to injury.” —Matthew 5:39 We are not to resist injury, but we are to “resist the devil” and he will flee from us (Jas 4:7). In fact, we are to charge the gates of hell, which cannot prevail against us (Mt 16:18). We should give the devil resistance plus aggression. However, we must offer no resistance to insult from people. We should not avenge ourselves (Rm 12:19). We should not be resisting and fighting human forces but Satan (Eph 6:12). At first, this approach seems unrealistic and doomed to failure. Look...

FAITH AND CONSEQUENCES

“He who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has life eternal and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is real food and My blood real drink. The man who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.” —John 6:54-56 When we receive Holy Communion and when we celebrate this solemn feast of Corpus Christi, we are making a great act of faith. (St. Thomas Aquinas maintained that faith in the Body and Blood of Jesus is the greatest act of faith.) Today we publicly profess...

THE WORD ON OUR WORD

“Say ‘Yes’ when you mean ‘Yes.’ ” —Matthew 5:37 Jesus is, to put it mildly, a Man of His word. In fact, He is the God-Man of His word. He is the incarnate and eternal Word. Consequently, it is in character for Jesus to say in the Sermon on the Mount: “Say ‘Yes’ when you mean ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ when you mean ‘No.’ Anything beyond that is from the evil one” (Mt 5:37; cf Jas 5:12). Jesus “was not alternately ‘yes’ and ‘no’; He was never anything but ‘yes.’ Whatever promises God has made have been fulfilled in Him” (2...

DIRTY LOOKS

“What I say to you is: anyone who looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his thoughts.” —Matthew 5:28 We live in a promiscuous society where girl-watching and boy-watching seem virtuous compared to fornication, adultery, and pornography. What once was called pornography is now called prime-time TV. However, Jesus calls us to sexual purity, not merely a lesser degree of perversion. We are not even to look lustfully at another person. Jesus calls us to commit ourselves to sexual purity, so that if our right eye is our trouble, we gouge it out (Mt 5:29)....

A LIFE IN HIS WORD

“Of this much I assure you: until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter of the law, not the smallest part of a letter, shall be done away with until it all comes true.” –Matthew 5:18 Most of you reading this book love the Bible and believe it is the Word of God (1 Thes 2:13). Therefore, you wish to know the Bible to better live it. Nevertheless, you may not be reading the Bible daily (see Acts 17:11) or going out of your way to study it intently in detail. However, Jesus may be calling you to...