Latest / Bible Chat Devotional / March 11 - Strength in Character
Transcript
- 0:02Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
- 0:06rooted in scripture and relevant for today, March 11th.
- 0:11Strength in character. Life has a way of revealing who
- 0:14we really are. Not always in the big public
- 0:17moments, but in the quiet choices no one claps for.
- 0:21In the way we speak when we are frustrated, in the way we treat
- 0:24people who cannot do anything for us.
- 0:27In the decisions we make, when it would be easier to cut
- 0:30corners, stay silent, or just go along with everyone else.
- 0:34Character is not built in comfort, it is built in choices.
- 0:39Proverbs chapter 12 verse 4 says an excellent wife is the crown
- 0:43of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness
- 0:47in his bones. That picture is powerful because
- 0:51it shows us that character does not stay private.
- 0:54It affects the people around us. It can bring strength, honor,
- 0:57and peace, or it can bring pain and damage.
- 1:01Then in Job chapter 22, verses 5 to 7, we hear a sobering
- 1:05description of wickedness, where people take from others, ignore
- 1:09the needy, and leave the vulnerable crushed.
- 1:12In Job chapter 24, verse 13 reminds us that those who choose
- 1:16darkness lose sight of hope. That is still true now.
- 1:20A selfish attitude can wound a friendship.
- 1:23A careless word can stay with someone for years.
- 1:26A habit of dishonesty can slowly weaken trust at home, at school,
- 1:30at work, and in relationships. But the opposite is also true.
- 1:35Integrity strengthens people. Kindness heals.
- 1:38Courage protects. Faithfulness makes life better
- 1:41for others. You may not control everything
- 1:45happening around you, and sometimes the unfairness of life
- 1:48feels exhausting. But with God's help, you can
- 1:51choose the kind of character that brings life instead of
- 1:54harm. You can be honest when lying
- 1:57seems easier. You can be kind when others are
- 1:59cruel. You can stand for what is right
- 2:01when it is unpopular. Those choices matter more than
- 2:04you know. They shape your future, and they
- 2:07become a witness to the people watching your life.
- 2:10Real strength is not just power. Real strength is character
- 2:13formed in the presence of God. Let's pray.
- 2:17Heavenly Father, thank you for caring about the kind of person
- 2:20I am becoming. Help me to choose integrity,
- 2:23kindness and courage in my daily life.
- 2:27Guard my heart from selfishness, dishonesty and carelessness.
- 2:30Make my life a blessing to others and teach me to reflect
- 2:33Your goodness in every choice I make in Jesus name, Amen.
- 2:38What if the most important question in your life deserves
- 2:41more than a shallow answer? Does God Exist Is a powerful,
- 2:45thought provoking series that explores reality, meaning, and
- 2:48truth through reason, evidence, human experience, and scripture
- 2:53without preaching pressure or assumptions.
- 2:56Book 1, Something from Nothing, confronts the mystery of
- 2:58existence itself and asks why anything exists at all.
- 3:02Book 2, The Cause behind the Cosmos, examines the origin of
- 3:06the universe and whether it points beyond itself.
- 3:09Book 3, Design or Accident, wrestles with order and
- 3:12complexity. Are they products of chance or
- 3:14intelligence? Book 4, The Moral Signature,
- 3:17explores why objective right and wrong may require a source
- 3:20beyond human opinion. Book 5, The God We Cannot
- 3:24Escape, considers conscience, longing, and humanity's
- 3:27persistent awareness of God. Book 6, From Reason to
- 3:30Revelation, asks whether the God who exists would also speak.
- 3:34And Book 7, Denying God, examines the internal tensions
- 3:38of unbelief and the deeper implications of rejecting the
- 3:40divine. Written in clear, accessible
- 3:43language for seekers, skeptics, students, and curious minds,
- 3:47this series invites honest reflection and careful thinking.
- 3:50If you're ready to explore the question seriously, Order Does
- 3:53God Exist? On Amazon or visit
- 3:56prayerscripts.org today. Now I invite you to spend time
- 4:00with God in today's three-year Bible reading plan.
- 4:04Proverbs Chapter 12, Verse 4 World English Bible A worthy
- 4:09woman is the crown of her husband, but a disgraceful wife
- 4:12is as rottenness in his bones. Job Chapters 22 to 24 World
- 4:17English Bible Then Alyphus the Temenite answered, Can a man be
- 4:21profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is
- 4:24profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the
- 4:27Almighty that you are righteous, or does it benefit him that you
- 4:30make your ways perfect? Is it for your piety that he
- 4:33reproves you, that he enters with you into judgement?
- 4:36Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your
- 4:39iniquities, For you have taken pledges from your brother for
- 4:42nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.
- 4:45You haven't given water to the weary to drink, and you have
- 4:48withheld bread from the hungry. But As for the mighty man, he
- 4:51had the earth, the honorable man, he lived in it.
- 4:54You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless
- 4:57have been broken. Therefore snares are around you,
- 5:01sudden fear troubles you, or darkness so that you cannot see,
- 5:05and floods of waters cover you. Isn't God in the heights of
- 5:07heaven? See the height of the stars, how
- 5:10high they are? You say, What does God know?
- 5:12Can He judge through the thick darkness?
- 5:14Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn't see.
- 5:18He walks on the vault of the sky.
- 5:20Will you keep the old way? Which wicked men of trodden, who
- 5:22were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was
- 5:25poured out as a stream? Who said to God, depart from us?
- 5:29And what can the Almighty do for us?
- 5:31Yet He filled their houses with good things.
- 5:33But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
- 5:36The righteous see it and are glad.
- 5:38The innocent ridicule them, saying, Surely those who rose up
- 5:41against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their
- 5:44remnant. Acquaint yourself with Him now,
- 5:47and be at peace by it. Goodwill come to you.
- 5:50Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words
- 5:53in your heart. If you return to the Almighty,
- 5:55you will be built up. If you put away unrighteousness
- 5:58far from your tents, lay your treasure in the dust, the gold
- 6:02of ofer among the stones of the brooks.
- 6:04The Almighty will be your treasure and precious silver to
- 6:07you. For then you will delight
- 6:08yourself in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God.
- 6:11You will make your prayer to Him and He will hear you.
- 6:14You will pay your vows. You will also decree a thing and
- 6:17it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways.
- 6:21When they cast down, you will say be lifted up.
- 6:24He will save the humble person. He will even deliver him who is
- 6:27not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered
- 6:30through the cleanness of your hands.
- 6:32Then Job answered. Even today my complaint is
- 6:34rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my
- 6:37groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might
- 6:39find him, that I might come even to a seat.
- 6:42I would set my cause in order before him and fill my mouth
- 6:45with arguments. I would know the words which he
- 6:48would answer me, and understand what he would tell me.
- 6:51Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
- 6:53No, but he would listen to me, though the upright might reason
- 6:56with him. So I should be delivered forever
- 6:58from my judge. If I go E he is not there.
- 7:02If I go West, I can't find him. He works to the north, but I
- 7:05can't see him. He turns S but I can't catch a
- 7:08glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I
- 7:10take. When he has tried me, I will
- 7:12come out like gold. My foot has held fast to his
- 7:15steps. I have kept his way and not
- 7:18turned away. I haven't gone back from the
- 7:20commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of
- 7:23His mouth more than my necessary food, but He stands alone, and
- 7:27who can oppose Him? What is soul desires even that
- 7:30He does, for He performs that which is appointed for me.
- 7:33Many such things are with Him. Therefore I am terrified at His
- 7:37presence. When I consider I am afraid of
- 7:39Him, for God has made my heart faint.
- 7:42The Almighty has terrified me because I was not cut off before
- 7:46the darkness, neither did He cover the thick darkness from my
- 7:49face. Why aren't times laid up by the
- 7:51Almighty? Why don't those who know Him see
- 7:53His days? There are people who remove the
- 7:56landmarks. They violently take away flocks
- 7:58and feed them. They drive away the donkey of
- 8:01the fatherless, and they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
- 8:04They turn the needy out of the way.
- 8:06The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
- 8:08Behold as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their
- 8:12work, seeking diligently for food.
- 8:14The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
- 8:17They cut their food in the field.
- 8:19They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
- 8:21They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering
- 8:24in the cold. They are wet with the showers of
- 8:27the mountains and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
- 8:30There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast and
- 8:33take a pledge of the poor, so that they go around naked
- 8:35without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the
- 8:38sheaves. They make oil within the walls
- 8:40of these men. They tread wine presses and
- 8:43suffer thirst from out of the populous city.
- 8:46Men groan. The soul of the wounded cries
- 8:48out, yet God doesn't regard the folly.
- 8:51These are of those who rebel against the light.
- 8:53They don't know its ways nor stay in its paths.
- 8:56The murderer rises with the light.
- 8:58He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
- 9:02The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying,
- 9:05No, I will see me. He disguises his face in the
- 9:08dark. They dig through houses, they
- 9:10shut themselves up in the daytime.
- 9:12They don't know the light, for the morning is to all of them
- 9:15like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick
- 9:18darkness. They are foam on the surface of
- 9:20the waters. Their portion is cursed in the
- 9:23earth. They don't turn into the way of
- 9:25the vineyards. Drought and heat consume the
- 9:27snow waters. So does she all those who have
- 9:29sinned. The womb will forget him.
- 9:32The worm will feed sweetly on him.
- 9:34He will be no more remembered. Unrighteousness will be broken.
- 9:37As a tree He devours the Baron who don't bear.
- 9:40He shows no kindness to the widow.
- 9:42Yet God preserves the mighty by his power.
- 9:45He rises up who has no assurance of life.
- 9:48God gives them security and they rest in it.
- 9:51His eyes are on their ways. They are exalted.
- 9:53Yet a little while and they are gone.
- 9:56Yes, they are brought low. They are taken out of the way as
- 9:59all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
- 10:02If it isn't so now, who will prove me a liar and make my
- 10:05speech worth nothing? Thanks for joining us on Bible
- 10:09Chat, where Scripture meets everyday life.
- 10:13If today's devotional encouraged you, share it with a friend and
- 10:16be sure to follow the podcast so you won't miss the next
- 10:19conversation. Until next time, stay rooted in
- 10:22truth, anchored in hope, and walking daily with Jesus.