Young People’s Blog

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Probably many of you who are reading this calendar are growing up in Christian homes, and are familiar with the Bible, the Word of God. If so, you are being kept from much of the evil that is in the world, and perhaps do not realize how wicked your heart really is.

I grew up on a farm, and since we kept chickens who laid eggs, I was very familiar with fresh eggs and rotten eggs. Fresh eggs are the kind you like to eat for breakfast, but they eventually become rotten if they are left at room temperature without being refrigerated. Then gas forms inside the shell, and if you break it open, it makes an awful smell. As long as the shell is intact, you cannot smell anything, but as soon as you break it open, the bad smell comes out.

That rotten egg is like our human hearts. We are all rotten inside, but children that are raised in good homes are like the rotten egg with the shell unbroken. You cannot smell the rottenness inside, but it is there. Those who may not be brought up daily with God’s Word are often like the eggs with the shell broken — all the badness comes out. But let us remember that whether the shell is broken or not, our hearts are all the same. We all need a Savior!

“Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Even for young people today there seem to be many cares in our lives — things that naturally cause us to worry and be concerned. But here the Lord tells us to cast all our care upon Him, because He cares for us. Notice that it says “all your care,” not just some of it. The Lord does not want us to worry about things that might happen.

Perhaps we really want to cast our cares on the Lord, and maybe we kneel down and ask the Lord to take them. But then we may get up, and start worrying again. I must confess that I have done this sometimes, and maybe you have too. Why does this happen? It is possibly because we have not paid attention to the previous verse — “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Pet. 5:6). We must first of all accept our circumstances from the Lord, and not resent them. Then, when we have accepted them as the Lord’s will for us, we can roll those cares onto the Lord, and have the confidence that He will carry them for us.

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15).

A few years ago some friends of ours were visiting the state of Wyoming in the U.S.A., at the Grand Teton National park. Out in an open field, they saw some American bison (sometimes called buffalo) roaming around freely. Our friends wanted to get a good picture of a female bison with her young calf. They did not see the signs warning them not to get near the animals. They approached them in order to get a good picture, when suddenly the female bison snorted, and started running toward them. Then a larger bison, a male, also started charging at them. Our friends were so frightened that they did not know what to do. To run away would have been futile; the bison could run much faster than they could. They quickly looked up to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to protect them.

Suddenly, the bison stopped, turned around, and started walking away from them. The Lord had stopped them, for He has power over His own creation. How relieved our friends were! They thanked the Lord for looking after them, for an attack by bison can be fatal. More people die in Wyoming from bison attacks than from any other single animal, but the Lord is able to protect us.

“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).

The disciples badly wanted to have more faith, and asked the Lord Jesus to increase their faith. But the Lord’s answer was unusual; He said, “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you” (Luke 17:6). The Lord did not mean that believers should go around asking Him to pull up big trees by the roots. Rather He was telling them that even a small amount of faith would be effective, for the mustard seed was very small, one of the smallest of seeds. What was important was that their faith be in the right person — the Lord Himself.

Also, we do not increase our faith by talking about it. Rather, our faith is increased by using it. When we trust the Lord in little things, He rewards our faith, and then it is increased. As we walk in faith, our faith is strengthened, and we have confidence to trust the Lord in bigger things.

“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

In this verse, the Lord Jesus describes Himself as the good Shepherd — the One who gives His life for the sheep. You will remember that David, while he was still a shepherd looking after his father’s sheep, risked his life for them. At different times, both a lion and bear came out against the sheep, and David went out to rescue the lamb that had been taken. With the Lord’s help David was able to kill both the lion and bear, and to save the life of the lamb.

Just as the lamb was helpless when the lion and bear attacked, so we were helpless sinners, in the grip of Satan. But the Lord Jesus has rescued us, although He had to give His life to do so. David risked his life, but the Lord Jesus died for us, and shed His blood, so that we could become His sheep. Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior?

“His soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

This verse tells us that the person who is proud, and whose “soul is lifted up” is not upright. He thinks that he can manage on his own, without trusting the Lord. But the just shall live by his faith. This verse is so important that it is repeated three times in the New Testament — in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews. See if you can find them!

We cannot be just before God unless we know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, but when we are saved, we are told to live by faith. Someone has said that it requires only a little faith to bring us to heaven, but that much faith will bring heaven to the soul. This means that even in the little things of everyday life, we can ask the Lord for His help. For example, we can ask Him for help in our exams, or perhaps to do something else that is difficult. (But we cannot expect the Lord to help us get good grades if we have not studied!) We can ask him for safety in any kind of danger; we can ask Him to help us find something that we have lost. The Lord wants to help us, and wants us to trust Him.

“He [God] hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man [the Lord Jesus] whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

Last Lord’s day we saw that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was the sign of God’s full approval of His work on the cross. Today we learn that it is also the assurance that God will judge this world, and that He has set the day when it will happen. When man crucified the Lord Jesus, they thought they had gotten rid of Him. But now He has risen from the dead, and is sitting at God’s right hand in heaven. All power has been given to Him, and one day He will come back to judge this world. Man is not going to get away with that awful crime of crucifying the Lord Jesus.

How happy we who are saved should be, for we know that there cannot possibly be any judgment for us. Judgment is behind us, not ahead of us, for all our sins were borne by the Lord Jesus on the cross. If we realize how terrible God’s judgment will be, we will want to tell others about the Lord Jesus.

“These all, having obtained a good report through faith” (Hebrews 11:39).

In this chapter, we have quite a few people mentioned from the Old Testament who had real faith, but there are two groups of them. The first group won great victories through faith, for it says that they “subdued kingdoms…obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword…” (vss. 33-34).

But then we read about the second group. It says, “And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance…And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned…were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins…they wandered in deserts…” (vss. 35-37). Were these people without faith? Was there something wrong with them, that the Lord allowed them to suffer? No, for it requires more power to endure suffering than to gain a big victory.

God was honored in each case — by those who won victories, and by those who suffered. The Lord reminds us that all of them obtained a good report. It is the same today. Some believers honor the Lord in victory; others honor Him with suffering, and all will get their reward for faithfulness. Read the whole chapter (Hebrews 11) for yourself.

“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:3).

Yesterday we spoke about praying to the Lord in true faith, recognizing who He is, and that His power is able to answer our requests. But does this mean that we always get everything we ask for? No, for sometimes even as Christians we can ask for things that would not be good for us, and things that would only make it easier for us to sin. Then the Lord wisely does not grant our request. A mother would not give her small son a pair of sharp scissors, even if he were crying for them. He would hurt himself with them for sure!

The Lord expects that our requests would be made for things that would help us to please Him, to honor Him, and to serve Him better. If we are walking with the Lord, He will be much more likely to grant our requests, for we will pray for things that He wants to give us. Even if we are wanting to please the Lord, He may not give us everything we ask for, because He knows better than we do what would be good for us. We can trust Him to answer our prayers perfectly!

“According to your faith be it unto you” (Matthew 9:29).

“If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us” (Mark 9:22).

These first words in Matthew 9 were spoken to two blind men who wanted to have their sight given to them. When the Lord Jesus asked them, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” they said clearly “Yea, Lord.” Then He immediately healed them.

Others doubted the power of the Lord Jesus, and came to Him only as a “last resort.” This was the case with the man in the second verse we have quoted today. His son had been possessed with the evil spirit for a very long time. He finally came to the Lord Jesus, but he said to Him, “If Thou canst do any thing…help us.” The Lord had to remind him, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark. 9:23). The word “if” did not apply to the Lord’s power, but it did apply to the father’s faith.

The Lord honors even a little faith, but faith that wavers does not please Him. When we come to the Lord Jesus, we must believe who He is, and that our faith will be rewarded. We must approach Him with full confidence in His power.