In this 5‑minute devotional, M.t. Clark opens by sharing an August sunset photo and expressing gratitude for the end of the work week. He announces the free Deeper Walk International Resilience Conference featuring John Eldredge, emphasizing the need for emotional, mental, and spiritual resilience after the pandemic. Clark then teaches a practical "5‑minute quieting break" that combines box breathing, light movement, singing, self‑hugging, and reflective memory questions to help listeners reset and build resilience. He moves into a personal confession about pursuing "quantum leap" blessings—praying for unlikely, irrational outcomes such as a viral ministry or a specific romantic partner—explaining how those hopes left him disappointed and highlighting the biblical principle that true blessing comes from trusting God, not speculative wishes. He anchors the reflection with Jeremiah 17:7 and John 14:27, underscoring confidence and peace in the Lord. Clark briefly introduces A.W. Pink’s The Sovereignty of God (chapter 5 on Reprobation) and encourages daily discipleship practices, promoting resources like Freedom in Christ, Victory Over the Darkness, and a weekly Bible study with the Sincottis. The devotional concludes with a heartfelt prayer for listeners, the suffering, and for divine guidance, reaffirming the call to live a life rooted in Christ’s hope and confidence.
Chapters
To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of an August sunset falling into the horizon from the shore of an undisclosed location comes to us from a friend who shared this scene on social media back on August 23rd, 2020. I'm cleaning out my phone's photo archive closet, so So I don't know the location or the friend who shared this back in the year of COVID-19, so if it is you, let me know and I'll update the blog to give credit where credit is due. Well, it's Friday again, so let's all give credit where credit is due by thanking God for delivering us to what is, for most of us, the end of another work week. I, of course, have had Wednesday off and have to work tomorrow. But I am thankful all the same, as it is— as it will only be one more day until I am reunited with my wife at our countryside home. And I am looking forward to attending Deeper Walk International's free Resilience Conference later this evening. The event will be featuring Christian counselor and author John Eldredge, who will be discussing practices to strengthen our emotional, mental, and spiritual resilience. It is also free, so if you'd like to attend, just follow the link that I am sharing on the blog today. The global pandemic has, uh, has had far-reaching effects, and many people are still dealing with the effects of the trauma that happened when the world changed in 2020. Eldridge and the people at, at, uh, at Deeper Walk International have recognized that we can benefit greatly from taking a break from time to time to recharge our batteries with practices that are proven to assist in building emotional resilience. One such practice highlighted in Marcus Warner and Stephanie Hinman's book Building Bounce is the 5-minute quieting break, which utilizes box breathing. Or breathing in a square, and other practices designed to give, uh, to help us return to joy, to relax. I am currently enrolled in Deeper Walk International School, uh, School of Prayer Ministry, and the cohort that I am in meets on Thursday evenings. Last night, as part of our meeting, we did the 5-minute quieting break. Mike, and I found it to be quite relaxing. I did, I really did. I found it to be quite relaxing, um, and so I'm including the instructions on the blog today. The instructions read: Take a 5-minute quieting break. 1. Breathe in a square. Inhale deeply as you count to 4 in your head. Hold your breath for a count of 4. Slowly exhale as you count to 4 again. Hold your breath for a 4-count before going around the square 2 more times. 2. Bounce. Do jumping jacks, deep knee bends, or a little jig. Whatever gets your body moving. Count to 10 while you do this, then pause and do it again. 3. Sing. Sing Joy to the World or Happy Birthday. Singing helps activate both sides of your brain, and happy— and happy or silly songs can make you smile. 4. Rub your arms while breathing deeply. Place your hands on your shoulders and run them down to your elbows 10 times while inhaling and exhaling deeply. Give yourself a little hug. 5, breathe in a square. Repeat step 1. And then 6, sit quietly and think about something you enjoy. Think of a memory that makes you happy. Here are some questions that may help you engage with the memory: Where were you? What was the weather like? What do you remember about the way you felt? What sensations did you feel in your body? Who else was there? What happened? How does it feel to go back and relive the experience? And so they, they give you these instructions to take a 5-minute quieting break. In our modern lives, we don't often take a moment to take a break as our lives are filled with activity of work and family life. And even in our quiet moments, we tend to busy ourselves with social media, email, or texting. So I invite you to give the 5-minute quieting break a try and to consider doing it regularly to help build your emotional resilience. As much as I love to ask God what's next as I try to abide in His presence and walk in the Spirit, that question can be a source of stress if we're asking the world to answer it. What's next? Uh, so seek to find some quiet in this noisy world and and to take the Lord with you as you go through the day today and into the weekend beyond. Jesus said in John 14:27, 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' So it is my prayer that you will continue to seek the Lord and his peace, and that you will find it. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Jeremiah 17:7, and it says, but blessed, blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. Today's Bible verse reminds us that we are blessed when we hope, when we put our hope and confidence in the Lord. I have a confession to make. Recently, I was inundated with some quantum leap wishful thinking that something good was coming my way that, while possible, was rather irrational and improbable. As I anticipated this good thing that just might happen, I prayed for it to magically come to pass with the hopes that the Lord would be working behind the scenes in the spirit realm to influence and change the hearts and minds of the people who could bless me. Theoretically, it was possible. God can call us to do stuff, so why not call some people who are able to bless me? I have to shamefully admit that I've been a-hoping and a-praying for God to move in the hearts and minds of other people in the past too. When I was single, I set my eyes and heart on a woman at my local church and thought and hoped and prayed that we would come together and become a Christian power couple at our local church. I imagined getting married to her and doing ministry with her and obsessively hoped and prayed that it would happen. But my aim was off. I was to receive all I hoped for in my wife, Tammy Lynn, but I had to wait for God to bring her into my life. So I I was hoping and praying for the wrong woman. It's God's or this woman's will that we would, you know, it wasn't God's, it was not God's will or this woman's will that we would become a couple. So all those thoughts and prayers and dreams, while in the realm of possibility, turned out to be misplaced and admittedly a little irrational and and obsessive. So you would think I would understand about not putting my hopes in some other thing, person, or situation that, while possible, was also irrational and improbable. You would think that I wouldn't try to use my prayers to push God's hands to bless me, but I did, because I could imagine a blessing. I took any and all signs that my blessing could happen as a sign that my blessing would happen. Needless to say, the very good possible unlikely thing didn't happen. In essence, the very good thing was the spiritual equivalent of winning the lottery. For example, my YouTube channel and podcast could go viral and I get rich as an international ministry just blossoms overnight. Or someone in ministry invites me to become a part of their lucrative and successful ministry providing me with a purpose and the funding to not only do the Lord's work, but to consolidate my wife and I into one household almost overnight. While we can pray for things like these to happen, we can run into trouble when we trust in these dreams rather than trusting in the Lord, when we put our hope and confidence in these quantum leap super blessing miracles rather than having a living hope and confidence in God alone through our relationship with him. So, so, uh, when the impossible dream didn't materialize earlier this week, I was humbled. I would say I was a little disappointed, but because the dream was so irrational, it's hard to stay upset when it doesn't come to pass. It's like finding out you didn't win the lottery. The odds were stacked against us. It wasn't likely we would win, and I shouldn't have put my hope in winning. I should put my hope in God. So, just like today's verse tells us, we are blessed when we trust in God and put our hope and confidence in Him alone. In Christ, we have the hope and confidence of eternal life with God, and we shouldn't put our focus on material or situational blessings— to the point we will become discontented with what the Lord has provided us with, and to the point we forget about the abundant life we have with God. So, pray for good things, but try to keep grounded in reality by remembering that you are already blessed because of who you are in Christ, and that although God is moving all things together for good for those that love Him, we don't know what those things are. So keep walking and talking with God and put your hope and confidence in him. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God, and today we enter into chapter 5 The Sovereignty of God in Reprobation. So if you want to know what that means, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll be able to check out the beginning of chapter 5 from A.W. Pink's book at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship. What's that mean? That means living with and for God every day. And how do we do that? Well, by developing a spiritual practice every day, by praying to God conversationally throughout your day, by going to the Word of God to get wisdom, and by trying to do the good works that God has prepared you, by trying to represent the Kingdom of God in the way you behave and the things you do, and to repent when you discover that you've gone off track. And that's it. And it's a dynamic life of faith that doesn't have to be too complicated, but it sure is, it sure is, you know, interactive. It sure is pragmatic. It sure is dynamic. This is the life in the Spirit where you listen for guidance, where you pray for things to happen, but you have to be careful because you can try to— you'd be hoping and praying for something that just sort of, uh, like winning the lottery. I was hoping and praying to win the lottery and it didn't happen. Um, there's nothing wrong with doing that except for if it makes you discontented with where you are in life. That's a temptation of the devil. You know, you got— you know, you're lacking something. Um, it would be better life if you had this, so let's focus on this thing. And not focus on the Lord, um, and who we are in Christ. So we have to be careful. And so if you want to learn about your freedom in Christ or who you are in Christ, we invite you to check out our teachings that we've done from our discipleship classes we taught in 2021 at our local church, uh, and podcasted. They are on our podcast and our YouTube channel. The teachings we gave were for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all based on the Word of God and the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson, and they're transformative. And, and, and, you know, if you have faith and use them to repent and to renew your mind. So we invite you to check those out if you haven't already. We also invite you to, you know, have a personal Bible study every day where you ask the Lord to reveal what he wants to show you. From the word of God. And we encourage that by providing our own little Bible study that we do with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti each week. It's called Bible Study with the Sincottis, and you'll find those programs on the podcast and the YouTube channel as well. Well, it is Friday. I do have to work, and so let's, uh, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank God it's Friday. Uh, we, we think— we're very thankful that it's the end of the work week for many of us, and that, uh, we'll be rejoicing at the end of the day as we get a couple days rest, or, um, you know, or we have other things that we can anticipate that are good. Um, but Lord, let us focus on you because you're the good thing in our life. You're the thing that gave us life, and you're the one who brings us um, the confidence and hope that we have a life with you in the future, um, beyond this mortal coil. So, Lord, we just thank you for all that you do for us and who you made us to be in Christ. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading this message, uh, Lord, that you would bless them, uh, that you would come alongside them and their prayer requests and to build up their faith, uh, so they know that they already blessed and in the current circumstances, no matter what they're facing, because of who they are in Christ. Lord, we pray for, uh, the people who are suffering, uh, in our lives. We have people suffering from medical issues and, uh, losses. And, and, um, you know, talk about reprobation, um, uh, people walking away from the faith and entering lifestyles of sin. We have a lot of things happening, and our weakest are surrounding, uh, things. And we pray for the people who are suffering, Lord, that you come alongside them and, and cause them to remember who they are in Christ. And no matter what situations that surround us, uh, we can, we can rest and take joy and peace from that alone, our relationship with you. So, Lord, we pray for you to go before us today. Um, you're sovereign, so we know you call the shots and You set things up for us to walk into. And so we just pray for you to open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead our feet into the things you want us to walk into, Lord. Because all we want to do is represent you here on the earth and do the good works that you prepared for us. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
