“Maybe you need to think about your motives!" Donna's friend said when she said her attempts to talk to her husband about salvation were ending in disaster. Donna had a nagging feeling that her words held an uncomfortable amount of truth. Her friend's parting comment was, "Remember to pray without ceasing!"

A gentleman who reads these devotionals (and who I know to be a man of much prayer) told me that when he retired, he asked the Lord what He wanted him to do with the rest of his life. He was reading in the book of Joshua and decided to end that day's reading at the end of the 12th chapter.

"Only one life, 'twill soon be past;

Only what's done for Christ will last."

We live differently when we remember that the eternal is what is important. We order our lives around what is truly real rather than what will someday appear as it actually is--as unreal as shadows. 

F. B. Meyer told of a clergyman, who, when tempted to feel great irritation, said he looked up and claimed the patience and gentleness of Christ. He had developed a habit of claiming from Christ the patience he lacked within himself.

A friend sent me this true account. "Ten years ago I met Ishmael. His sister-in-law and translator, Angela, brought him to meet me. Ishmael had AIDS. At one point I asked him if I could pray for him. I prayed for his heart and then I prayed for his weary body.

Audine had walked about two blocks when she felt a strong urge to stop at a home she was passing. She had met the woman only once who lived there, so she wondered, "What will we talk about? We have nothing in common."

"Mom, you didn't have to be so rude to that guy," Joy exclaimed to her mother. 

"You know that's my pet peeve," Cheri answered defensively.

But Joy's accusation echoed in Cheri's head as they walked through the mall. She had to admit that she acted the same way each time a person with a clipboard and a questionnaire walked over to her. The interruption annoyed her. Sometimes she was approached three or four times.

Karen and her husband faced a number of hardships that seemed overwhelming: lost commissions in her husband's business, turmoil in their children's lives, and unresolved issues between the two of them. She thought she'd never have peace in her life again.