stronger

Devotions

Devotions are just that, taking the time out of your day or week to devote to building your faith and your relationship with God. It’s kind of like an inner workout. 2:52 has some great devotions to get you started, so make some time and start strengthening yourself from the inside out.

Keep It Flowing Judges 15:19 When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived.: X
Even Samson the Strong lost his strength when he hadn’t drunk water in a while. He’d just finished wasting one thousand Philistines, and then he staggered among the piles of corpses, muttering, “Must I now die of thirst?” (No one answered; they were all dead.)

Fortunately, God showed him a water spring, and Samson lay on the ground and chugged the cool stuff down. You thought Samson’s strength was only from his long hair? Hey, the guy had to drink water to keep his strength up too.

Most people today don’t drink nearly enough water. If all you’re getting is a glass of milk in the morning, a juice box at lunch, and a glass of water at dinner, you’re not even halfway there! Your body can get dehydrated (dried out) and then you’re in trouble. You can get headaches, or worse.

Want to avoid grief? Drink six to eight glasses of liquid a day. Sure, you’ll be peeing more, but God designed your urine to carry poisonous wastes out of your body. Drink too little water, and the golden stream nearly dries up. By the way, make most of your liquid intake water. Drink that much soda pop and you’ll have a sugar buzz. They’ll be peeling you off the ceiling.

The Bible does not say, “Thou shalt drink water,” but common sense tells you that you need to keep your tank full.
Unmistakable Smell Genesis 27:27 When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field.”: X
Jacob wanted to have the oldest son blessing, but there was one little problem: Jacob’s twin brother, Esau, was the oldest. That meant the blessing belonged to him. Jacob’s mom, Rebekah, had a crooked plan. Since Isaac was blind, Jacob could go in, pretending to be Esau. So “Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob” (Genesis 27:15).

Jacob walked into Dad’s tent, and when Isaac got a whiff of those robes, he recognized Esau’s unmistakable smell —and gave Jacob the blessing. See, Esau was a hunter. He crawled in the dirt, sneaking up on animals. No way his mom could get all the sweat stains and antelope poop out in the wash. But these were Esau’s best clothes. What was he doing getting these clothes dirty and smelly?

And the big question: do you do the same thing? No, don’t answer that. But when your mom says to change out of your good clothes, do it right away before you forget. Fold ’em, hang ’em up, or hurl ’em in the laundry – whatever it takes. If you crawl around in your best clothes, not even detergent will get out the dog poop smell.

Funny thing about Esau: he was seventy-seven years old, and he still hadn’t clued in! Hey, but it’s stillnot too late for you to start taking care of your clothing.
Alien Fungi Leviticus 14:35 “I have seen something that looks like mildew in my house.”: X
You know what mildew is? It’s a whitish growth that sometimes appears on walls and ceilings inside houses. You sometimes see black mold moving in too. Mildews and molds were a problem in ancient Israel, and they’re still a pain—especially if your room is warm and humid and you never open the window to air the place out. Your bedroom is private, right, but it shouldn’t smell private.

Not only do mildew and mold look yucky, but they can cause health risks. If you have asthma, they can make you seriously ill. Even if you don’t have asthma, they can sicken you. And mold growing on plates of half-eaten food under your bed? That stuff can be deadly. Sweaty, dirty socks can give you athlete’s foot, and the itch can nearly drive you crazy. The list goes on and on.

If you see something strange, tell your parents. It could be alien fungus taking over the world, beginning with your bedroom (just kidding). Check stuff out, and you can solve problems before they even start. And while you’re at it, take those dishes to the kitchen and dump your dirty jeans in the laundry. If your socks are grimy and slimy, change them.

If you get in the habit of taking care of details, good things will start happening, and bad things will stop happening. One thing for sure: at least the mildew and mold won’t get you.
Grow Like a Statue? 1 Samuel 2:26 And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature.: X
Samuel didn’t grow like a statue; he grew in stature—which means taller and bigger with strong bones and tough meat wrapped around his bones. When Samuel was just a little guy, his mom dropped him off with the high priest in Shiloh.

That’s where Samuel grew from a boy into a teen and then a young man. Like Samuel, all kids grow. When you’re about ten, you start going through a stage called puberty, and later you begin growing like crazy! This is called a growth spurt. By the time you hit fourteen or so, you’re shooting up about four inches a year and starting to get some serious muscles.

Now, you may be wondering, “How come my transformation hasn’t kicked in yet?” Don’t sweat it. It hits some boys earlier and other boys later. Of course, your body can’t grow tall and muscular all by itself. You have to throw fuel in your engine by eating properly and getting sleep. You’ve heard that smoking will stunt your growth, right? Well, a steady diet of junk food is also a bad stunt. So avoid guzzling down too much soda pop or wolfing down too many french fries, chips, and candy. Otherwise you’ll get fatter and unhealthier when you should be getting taller and stronger.

Want to grow? Go for healthy food—meat, starches, fruit, and veggies. You need all of that stuff even if your taste buds try to lie to you and say that you don’t.
Girls Are Cool Galatians 3:28 There is neither... male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.: X
Many ancient peoples—including Israelites—looked down on women. That’s the way it was back then. In ancient days, a woman’s word really didn’t count. She couldn’t even be a witness in a court case. When Jesus came along, he put that attitude out on the curb with the recycled trash. Instead of putting women down, Jesus showed the world how important they were. Did you know that the very first people to witness that he had been raised from the dead were women? It’s true!

Paul is saying don’t judge people by whether they’re male or female. Now, that doesn’t mean that men and women are the same. They’re different, to be sure, but men are not better than women. They’re equal. Yet even today some boys think they’re cooler than girls. They say stuff like, “Boys rule, girls drool.”

Listen guys, toddlers drool, Jesus rules, and both boys and girls are cool. No sweat if you’d rather hang out with guys than girls. Boys are interested in boy stuff, so that’s perfectly normal. But the thing is, you gotta treat girls with respect. That doesn’t mean you need to like all the things that girls like; no one’s asking you to paint your fingernails. Let girls do girl stuff. That’s their thing. Just don’t look down on them for it.

Girls are different than boys—no one’s arguing with that—but Jesus loves both guys and gals the same! That’s the bottom line.
Roll Up Your Sleeves Judges 5:18 The people of Zebulun risked their very lives; so did Naphtali on the heights of the field.: X
Long ago a Canaanite king named Jabin conquered northern Israel, and for twenty years he cruelly oppressed them. Finally, a warrior named Barak sent out an urgent message to all the tribes of Israel to gather an army and defeat the Canaanites. Only problem was, some tribes, like Zebulun and Naphtali, faced the full heat of the battle while others, like Reuben and Dan, didn’t even bother to show up.

Afterward, the Israelites had years to sit around, roll up their sleeves to show off their battle wounds, and talk about the heroic fighting that day. But those who didn’t show up also had years to ask themselves why they weren’t there when they were needed. It’s the same today if your youth group is on a major fund-raiser, and you opt out; or your parents ask everyone to help clean the house, but you skip out and play video games.

There will be times in your life when people will be counting on you to be there. Decide ahead of time that you’ll answer the call, roll up your sleeves, and help. Jesus said that if you love others, you’ll lay down your life for them. That doesn’t only refer to dying on a battlefield. It could simply mean being there and helping out—especially if you promised that you would.

There are opportunities every day for a man to do what a man should do. Let every day be your moment of truth.
Endurance Joshua 11:18 Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time.: X
If you read the book of Joshua, you get a widescreen picture of knockout battles, surprise attacks, and huge military victories. But that all happened during the first couple of years of the move into Canaan! Joshua waged war for another four years after that, and by then the Canaanites had dug in. They oiled their chariot wheels, opened new sword factories, and added extra bricks to their walls. Then the war bogged down, and the Israelites sat around besieging cities.

It’s not all about being lightning quick with a sword. It’s not all about courage and strength. Often you need long-term strength. That’s called endurance. For example, you’re excited when you first start taking martial arts lessons but after a while you’re bored with all the repetition. You need stick-to-itiveness. Or maybe you take on snow-shoveling jobs in your neighborhood, then after a few weeks think it’s just too much work. You need endurance.

Where do you get endurance? You have to make a commitment. Joshua and the Israelites were committed to carving out a homeland in Canaan. (They had to be! They couldn’t just mosey on back to Egypt.) If you’re involved in a huge, long-term project, make a commitment that you’ll finish it. Then tackle it one day at a time. Do what you can do in one day and leave the rest for tomorrow.

Take a tip from Joshua and set your mind to the fact that for some projects you’ll have to “wage war a long time.”
Not Beating the Air 1 Corinthians 9:26 I do not fight like a man beating the air.: X
Boxing is a lot tamer now than it used to be. The Greeks and Romans held boxing competitions, only back then boxers didn’t wear gloves. They used bare fists. Worse yet, they wrapped hard leather around their hands to cause extra cutting damage. Paul obviously spent time watching boxers training and beating the air. See, no one had thought to invent punching bags yet, so Romans were big into shadowboxing.

A boxer has to practice to be prepared, but when it comes time to fight, practice is over; now all his skills are put to the test. It’s the same with any sport. In basketball, for example, you practice dribbling and shooting the ball through the hoop. But when you’re out on the court, and the crowds are going wild in the stands, you gotta take what you’ve learned, slip through the other team’s defenses, and make things happen.

Paul used boxing as a symbol of a man of God battling against wicked spiritual forces and said he wasn’t just shadowboxing. Even though the forces fighting you are invisible, they’re real! You’re not just beating the air.

In whatever you do, if you want to excel, you have to practice. But when the real deal comes, it’s showtime. No more beating the air. Now the goal is to connect.
Sibling Solutions Acts 7:26 “Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?”: X
Pharaoh’s daughter adopted a Hebrew baby, called him Moses, and raised him as a prince in the palace. But one day Moses found out that he wasn’t Egyptian. “Gulp! You mean those ... Hebrew slaves are my people?” Now, Moses knew that the Egyptians were treating the slaves harshly. He expected, naturally, that this would cause the Hebrews to stick close together. Surprise, surprise! He saw them pounding on each other! He didn’t get it.

How many times does this happen in your home—you and your siblings settling arguments by pushing, hitting, and kicking each other? It’s one thing to quarrel and disagree, even to get upset with each other, but you shouldn’t take your disagreements into the gladiator’s arena. God doesn’t give you strength so that you can pound on your brothers and sisters.

Lots of cartoons show superheroes pounding bad guys or guys with giant guns mowing robots down. This can give the impression that “might makes right.” It doesn’t. Sure, if alien robots invade earth some day, it’s probably okay for you to blow them up. But most of the time, men of God don’t use force to settle arguments. They listen to the other guy, talk things through, and try to work out a solution that makes everybody happy.

You don’t have to be kind to alien robots. But you do have to love your brothers and sisters. When you have a quarrel with them, talk things through. Try to work things out.
Strong, Silent Type Genesis 29:2, 10 The stone over the mouth of the well was large. When Jacob saw Rachel ... he went over and rolled the stone away.: X
Esau and Jacob were brothers. Esau was Mr. Hairy-chested He-man Hunter while Jacob was Mr. Quiet Guy. In most Bible storybooks Esau is built like the Hulk and Jacob’s a skinny guy. Wrong. One time Jacob went to the Haran town well, and along came his cousin Rachel leading a flock of thirsty sheep. A megasize stone lid covered the well, and it was like a two-shepherd job to move it. But our man seized the stone and rolled it away—by himself. See, Jacob was strong too. He was just the strong, silent type.

Some guys today have a reputation for being tough, but it’s mostly just tough talk and pushiness. Sure, they have muscles, but they talk about their arm meat so much that it seems they have more ego than strength. A lot of other kids are strong too, but they’re not always bragging about it.

It’s great to have muscles, and if you’ve got ’em—or you’re getting them—good for you. Just remember that it takes more than boasts and brawn to succeed at important stuff in life. If you want to do great things, physical strength just isn’t enough. You also need to walk with God.

You may not be as strong as Esau or Jacob, but you can use your muscles to do good stuff. Oh yeah ... and don’t applaud yourself.
Motivated to Work Genesis 49:15 “When he sees ... how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden.”: X
Thousands of years ago a guy named Jacob had twelve sons. When Jacob blessed his sons, he compared his son Issachar (Issa-car) to a donkey. A donkey is a strong beast that—if it is motivated—can work hard and carry heavy saddlebags. Issachar liked to lie around resting as much as the next guy, but when he caught the vision of how good life could be if he worked, he put out.

It’s the same today. A newspaper route is hard work. You can’t sit at home watching TV if it’s time to walk the block delivering papers. So what motivates you to get off the couch, strap on your skates, and pull your cart full of papers down the street? Money, and the good stuff it can buy, makes it worth it.

Hard work is just that—hard work—but it’s worth it. Maybe your parents and grandparents give you stuff now, but the older you get the more you have to start earning your own way. And in the world out there, you don’t get something for nothing. Maybe you’d rather play on the Xbox than mow the lawn, but unless you find a way to raise cash, you won’t be able to buy the new game when you’ve defeated every level in the old one.

Do you need cash to buy some cool stuff? Then find some paying jobs and “bend your shoulder to the burden.”
Turn the other Cheek Matthew 5:39 “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”: X
Jesus said that if someone strikes you on the cheek, don’t start fighting. In fact, offer him your other cheek too. Now, many Christians think this means that if someone starts slugging you, you’re supposed to let him keep punching your teeth in. Even if he’s beating you to a pulp, you’re not supposed to defend yourself. Wrong! When Jesus said strike, he used the Greek word rhapizein, which means “to slap”. You don’t usually get hurt from a slap. It’s more of an insult than anything.

If you’re hotheaded and someone insults you, you probably start screaming insults back. If you lose your temper easily, other kids may have fun provoking you into shouting matches and fights. Don’t let them. That bozo with a big mouth isn’t taking anything away from you. Don’t let him egg you into fights.

If someone’s insulting you, it’s a reflection of his bad attitude. He may act that way because he has low self-esteem and is trying to feel better about himself at your expense. Letting it pass is a sign of strength. But if someone actually starts slugging you, don’t hesitate to defend yourself by telling an adult. Assault (attacking someone) is a crime; it’s against the law.

Be patient toward immature kids and show them God’s love. That is called “turning the other cheek.” But make sure they understand that they can’t just walk all over you.
Helmets and Shin Guards 2 Samuel 23:20 He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.: X
What is this guy doing? Talk about risk takers! Okay, so Benaiah, one of King David’s greatest warriors, needed to kill this lion for some reason, but couldn’t he find a rock to drop on its head?

Did he really have to jump into the pit and wrestle it? This is definitely one of those don’t-try-this-at-home stunts. Benaiah killed the lion, but try something like that, and it’ll be you getting killed.

Probably when your dad was a boy, there were no laws stating that kids had to wear helmets when they rode a bicycle or skateboard. Back then when kids went off a bike ramp and came down head first, serious injuries happened. So now we have the helmet rule.

Ever feel it’s too much trouble to strap on your helmet, elbow-guards, and knee-guards? It’s not. Look at the bumps on your dad’s head. (Juuust kidding.) You’ll face enough dangers in your life that you can’t avoid, so no need to rush into danger you can avoid. Crack your skull by riding without a helmet, and you won’t be there when you need to save some kid’s life. For what it’s worth, Benaiah was probably wearing a helmet when he jumped into the lion pit—an army helmet, that is.

Sometimes you simply have to take risks that can’t be avoided. But in the meantime, strap on the helmet and wear protective padding.
Defeat Your Giants! Joshua 14:12 “You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there ... but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out.”: X
When the Israelites left Egypt for Canaan, Moses sent twelve spies ahead to check things out. Those guys came back shakin’, saying that there were giants in the land—Anakites! No way could they conquer them! Only Caleb and Joshua believed they could. The unbelieving Israelites had to wander in the desert for forty years until a new generation was ready to invade Canaan. The giants were still waiting, but Caleb believed that—with God’s help – he could tromp them. And he did.

Are there giants in your life stopping you from entering your promised land? Do huge doubts make you afraid to try out for a sports team? Are you afraid to be downstairs alone? Do you worry that some giant monster is hiding in a closet? Does it seem like way too much work to finish your science project?

Listen. If God wants you to do something, then you can overcome the giants in the way—no matter how big they are. Whether you’re staring at a nine-foot-tall Anakite or facing your worst fears, God can help you. You can jerk open that closet door or try out for that team or put together a huge science display—whatever.

God helped Caleb defeat the giants when others didn’t have the faith for it. Your problem may be too gigantic for you alone, but it’s not too big for you and God together.
Content with Winning 2 Kings 14:10 “You have indeed defeated Edom and now you are arrogant. Glory in your victory, but stay at home! Why ask for trouble?”: X
King Amaziah of Judah had just finished defeating ten thousand Edomites. Way to go! But after that huge victory, he became so proud that he got the idea that he was the original Terminator. That’s when he decided to pick a fight with King Jehoash of Israel. Jehoash tried to talk him out of it, but Amaziah wouldn’t listen and attacked ... and Jehoash tromped him. For the next ten years, Amaziah cooled his heels in an Israelite prison.

Some kids win an arm-wrestling match and begin to think that nothing can stop them. They swagger around, picking fights. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose; but more often than not a teacher breaks it up, and they end up in detention or suspended from school. If they keep doing that when they’re older, they’ll end up in prison—like Amaziah.

If you win a wrestling competition, advance to the next level in karate—or whatever – stick the trophy on a shelf, hang the ribbon on your wall, show it to family and friends, and be content with that. Use your strength for good, and you’re a hero. But use your strength to push others around, and you’re just an ordinary bully.

Jehoash’s advice was smart: “Glory in your victory, but stay at home!” If you’re strong—great! Just don’t look for trouble by trying to prove how tough you are.