Category: Daily Devotionals

Living As A Daughter Of Promise

Published on by Christine WyrtzenLeave a comment

Jesus is a lovely and beautiful Savior. He is full of glory and this upcoming series is to make so much of Him that there is no doubt in our minds that the only One who transforms orphans into sons and daughters is Him. Orphans are of the earth. Children are begotten of God and are made in heaven.

Our emotional wells are deep and living on this earth leaves gaping holes that only God can fill. It takes us a long time to learn how to hear Him speak to us. Until then, we hide from Him. We blame Him. We search for Him in wrong places. We mis-perceive Him and judge Him. But ah, when we find Him, everything changes. This glorious God becomes our new Father, through Christ, but what it looks like to be raised by an invisible God can be somewhat confusing. We call ourselves His children, but do we live and thrive with all the privileges of fully adopted children? Do we function, consciously, as children who are being parented by God?

And that is the reason for this series. Personally, I am not whole yet. But I am not crippled anymore. I often limp but I’ve found my legs and I feel God’s wind behind me. The healing journey of fully living as God’s child will take me a lifetime but I’m grateful for what He’s taught me so far. Each piece of instruction has felt like the golden whispered secrets spoken between two who love each other and can’t stop talking late into the night.

It is this journey which I long to share with you. God knows my heart for you. I’ve seen your faces in my dreams; curious, tentative, even a little hopeful that God’s love is for real and His power is available to you in all the places where powerlessness has snuffed out the promise of an abundant life. My prayer today is that God will prepare your heart; prepare to break through the fog of pain and misunderstanding that obscures Him so that you may see His glory and hear Your call to live.

It is time to consider coming out of the shadows to live life loved. On Monday, we’ll begin exploring the ways we are invited to partake in a holy Father/daughter relationship. Each principle is a privilege but each is also activated by an act of faith. It’s the call to put down the sword against those who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, give us what we needed. Instead, it’s the call of the Father to raise our eyes to the One who can be everything to us as He walks us, step by step, to our home with Him in heaven.

“Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given to you made your beauty perfect,” declares the Sovereign Lord.   Ezekiel 16:14

The Right Way To Handle Failure

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There is a right way to handle failure. Giants of the faith did it well and most of them came out with their faith in tact. Every patriarch struggled with failure. So did King David, King Solomon, and the Apostle Peter. Proverbs says, “The righteous may fall seven times but still get up, but the wicked will stumble into trouble.” For reasons such as overestimating or underestimating sin, the unrighteous can’t move past his mistakes. He carries them over his shoulder and the weight grows heavier as they accumulate over a lifetime.

What can I learn from my spiritual ancestors about the right way to handle failure?

See It As God Sees It. 

He will tell me how bad it was. No more, no less. He will pass on to me a spirit of repentance so that I may feel the gravity of it – one that matches His own but He will also pass on the joy of forgiveness and the expectation of a restored relationship. The apostle Peter was, for a short time, crippled by his sin of denying Christ. I’m sure he felt that he had disqualified himself from ever serving God again. Yet, Jesus orchestrated a moment on a beach when confession, repentance, and restoration became personal. They sat inches apart and Peter struggled through with the dynamics of a severed friendship; failure to hold eye contact, fear of rejection, fear of never knowing forgiveness but then fearing he wouldn’t be able to accept it if offered. Not until he accepted full forgiveness could he press in to explore redemption. And what a redemption it was!

The one who teaches me most about how to handle failure is King David. Many today struggle with the favor God continued to bestow on David.  God called him, in spite of such utter moral failure, ‘a man after my own heart.’ Didn’t God think David’s sin was serious? The label God gave David was not related to whether or not he sinned. It was related to his response to sin. The prophet Nathan was sent to confront, to bring conviction and judgment. When faced with the truth, David immediately owned what he did. No excuses or blame shifting. The next act recorded was David’s prayer of repentance.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Psalm 51:1-3

God didn’t refer to David as ‘the king who disappointed me.’ David was not Saul! The gravity of Saul’s sin was not that his sin disqualified him from God’s favor. It was the refusal to see it, repent, learn from it, and shun evil.

You can be a woman or man after God’s own heart if you treasure Jesus more than sin, more than your reputation, more than being right. I must ask for the courage to see myself, and my sin, the way He does. Then, trust in His unfailing love to forgive and wash away shame. The joy of restoration is so much better than the pain of self-inflicted self-condemnation.

What’s Coming This Year?

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Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].  2 Cor. 5:17 Amplified Version

A scripture verse takes on all new meaning when reading it in a different translation. What does it mean to be ‘in Christ’? It might be hard for any child of God to explain it apart from the more general context of what it means to ‘become a believer’. So what does it mean to be grafted in?

Valuable relationships are usually described as ones that enjoy a special connection. Those connections can’t be made without forming a relationship. The same is true when considering moving closer to Jesus. To be in Him, grafted, and connected to Him, there must be a relationship and He spells out what will open the door for that to happen. You and I must be joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior. It’s not enough to believe that He is a Savior. (Many are banking on that as evidence for their supposed salvation.) I must have faith in Him as my Savior. A world of difference between the two.

To look for a Savior means that I have come to realize that I am powerless to save myself. I do not have the skills, talents, innate goodness, to bring about the forgiveness of my sins. I am powerless to facilitate an intimate connection with God because I need a Savior to take care of my sin problem. I’m terminally ill, spiritually, with the disease of sin. Only a Savior, Jesus, can forgive, cleanse, justify, and change me into a person who can be reconciled to God. Without a Savior, I am disconnected and I am God’s enemy.

This year – devotionals will only make sense to the ones who have been reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit. I will be teaching through my repertoire of seminar topics, in small chunks, all year long. Each is a primer on how to live as one who is grafted into Christ. Each provides a piece of the manual on how to live as a daughter of promise. I’ve come to realize that I’ll never visit all churches, speak to all women’s groups, but the message can go out through this daily devotional to reach the 34,000 women who receive it. They, in turn, often forward it on to their small groups and bible study partners.

Jesus loved women. He elevated them in value. They funded His ministry ventures and were pivotal in early church leadership. Nothing has changed. He is invested in this ministry and in you ~ as you embark on this brand new year. Together, we will step onto the pathway that is reserved for the chosen ones. Though narrow, it is blessed. Though steep, it is graced with His presence and favor.

We are your daughters, grafted into You. We are reborn, restored, and renewed to follow You. This year, teach us how to live as your children, not orphans. Amen

Manger Preparation

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.  Isaiah 30:15

I was thinking this morning about the power of repentance.  Without repentance, my heart is dull and unreceptive to Jesus.   Repentance has become a ‘turn-off’ for many because society associates it with some red-faced pastors who yell about it.  The message God wants us to hear today is ~ repentance is our friend!

So, thoughtfully and slowly, I take in these truths.

God wants to bless me.

He longs to love me and watch me blossom under the umbrella of His affection.

He wants to share Himself with me and make my soul tremble with wonder.

What stands in the way for any of that to happen is unconfessed sin.  Sin clouds His voice, distorts my thinking, and damages my chances of living in blessing.  The most powerful thing I can do at the beginning of any day is pray ~ “Oh God, I don’t want to live distant from You today.  Show me my sin and the power of Your love and forgiveness.”

What does any of this have to do with Christmas?  I’m preparing for the coming of the Christ-child.  How did John the Baptist prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry?  By preaching repentance. “Repent – for the kingdom of God is at hand.”  To appreciate the arrival of a Savior, there must be an awareness of need.

The one who sees Jesus as beautiful is the one who knows they need Him.   A Savior is only embraced by those who know they need saving.  Repentance produces that.

The tender, holy God who asks me to repent is the one who knows that when I do, He’s finally free to give me everything He planned from before my conception.  I don’t want to become an old woman and have missed it.  So, why would I ever want to be defensive and self-deceived? Pathetic self-defenses are my enemy.

God, bring this message home. Prepare my heart for the manger scene!   In Jesus name, Amen

Journal Question:  The scripture says, “In repentance and rest is your salvation.”  How do you think the two postures help each other?  Ask God to show you what resting means and if anything in you is resistant to this quiet and composure.

It’s A Love Story

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen3 Comments

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

The Gospel is the grandest love story of all time.  And who doesn’t love a love story?How much better does it get than Mr. Darcy coming across the moors one misty morning to proclaim his love to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.   It is heart stopping; just exquisite.

My favorite love scene of all is from the Sound of Music.  Maria, never thinking she would be a candidate for love, is approached in the garden by Captain Von Trapp.  The setting is a blue-green, surreal world at dusk ~ captured in soft focus in the movie. He approaches her tentatively, so as not to overwhelm her.  He speaks to her with a bit of a light hand.  “I thought I might just find you here!”  His playfulness disarms her and the rest is history.  As a young girl, I remember pretending I was her.  I had a lump in my throat and a knot in my stomach as their true feelings were revealed.

No matter who we are, we want to be the object of someone’s love.  We want to be the main character in the love story.  We long for a lover who will risk it all for us, who will throw reservation to the wind and go to great lengths to win our heart.  Most never know that it is Jesus they are longing for.

He gave up everything to come to us so that He could proclaim His love and rescue us from what would be impending doom.

Someone once said, “We come to the cross long enough to get saved but not long enough to get loved.”  The greatest tragedy is that churches are full of God’s children who have no idea how much they are cherished.

I used to wonder why I didn’t feel more love for Jesus.  Obedience was absolute drudgery.  God showed me that it was because I didn’t know how much He loved me!  I hadn’t opened my heart to receive everything He wanted to give to me.  And here’s the thing ~ God created me to be a responder.  “We love him because He first loved us.”  Once my heart is captivated by the love of God for me, I will spend it all on Him.  No price will be too steep.

Melt my reservations.  Every one.  Amen

Journal Question:  Jesus is approaching you.  He softly calls your name.  What is your reaction?  Run and hide?  Look up for only a moment before losing your nerve and looking away?  What is it you’re afraid of?  Tell Him.  He already knows.

A New Disclosure of the Face of God

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There is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might. Jeremiah 10:6

Until the birth of Jesus, people only knew God in part. Jesus’ arrival, however, gave new disclosure of His Father. New names, names only hinted of in the Old Testament, took center stage and God was understood in a whole new way.

Names for God prior to the birth of Jesus were ones that befitted an all knowing and powerful God. He was called the God Who Sees, God Is My Banner, The God Who Hears, and many others. These were enough to give His people comfort and strength.

With the birth of Jesus, however, came new understanding. It was a knowledge of God born of new names. Immediately after His birth, the shepherds were told that He was Savior and Emmanuel. As He grew, He revealed Himself as the Bread of Life, the Shepherd, the Son of God, the Vine, the Lamb of God, the Lord of Glory, the Last Adam, and the Precious Cornerstone. Each one gave believers new eyesight into the complex and unfathomable depths of God. They experienced Him through His names because there was a new dynamic in their relationship. Intimacy.

The names of God that are the most precious to me are the names I’ve had to embrace out of great need. I’ve ‘grown into them’ experientially. There are still so many that I know in my head but I am not fluent about them yet. They are not as precious to me because I’ve not needed them like I’ve needed others. Isn’t it true that God is most valued where I’ve needed Him the most? Spiritual need is everything.

Jesus came and shook up the way people related to God. Someone who kept God at arms length had to adjust as they encountered God in the flesh. A face to face experience with the God-Man never left one neutral. There was a repelling or an attraction. For each who embraced Him, stunning revelations ensued. The names of God, old and new, had a deeper power and influence over their lives.

This morning, I’m making a list of God’s names and after the ones I’ve come to love the most, I’ll jot down the memory associated with it that made God more dear to me.

Thank you for every thing that has driven me to You.  Amen

Spiritual DNA

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…being made in human likeness.  Philippians 2:7

When children are born, parents quickly look for familiar features.  “She has my eyes!  Look, her mouth curves just like Grandpa’s.”  Children are made in the likeness of those whose love created them.  It doesn’t take too many years for us to also recognize that a child has our temper, our strong will, our sensitive spirit, or a bent toward the artistic.

If a DNA test had been done on the baby Jesus, what would it have revealed?  One thing is certain.  Jesus’ spiritual DNA was unlike anyone born before or since.  He was God.  He was perfect.  There were no temper tantrums and no sulking in the corner until he got his way.  Though he might have cried when he scraped his knee, or ached from the loneliness of adolescent rejection, or even felt heartbroken when he chose to overturn tables in a temple that had become commercialized, he never sinned.

We, who have been spiritually adopted into his family, are undergoing a metamorphosis.  We are being fashioned into the likeness of Jesus.  Our insecurities are being healed in His embrace.  Our shame is disappearing beneath the robe he placed around our shoulders.  Tempers are melting in the presence of the One we can trust to rule righteously.

We are learning to cry but not manipulate, feel angry but take no revenge, and ask for others’ companionship without becoming codependent.  Jesus is our brother.  He made His Father ~ our Father.  His royal blood is beginning to course through our veins and change the very nature of who we are.  Our spiritual DNA is transforming us in such a way as to transcend family traits and likenesses.

I want my spiritual adoption to change me in every way.  I want to act, think, and feel more like You.  Amen

Life-Saving Wounds

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See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand. Deut. 32:39

What exactly is a life-saving wound?  A life-saving wound is a wound with an intended loving purpose. A wound that is given by a friend – not an enemy. A wound inflicted that, when redeemed, will bring ten-fold joy in comparison to the agony once suffered.

The tragedy is that so few children of God recognize the wounds of their past as life-saving wounds. They define them as tragedies. ‘Victim’ becomes their permanent label. Deprivation creates their defeated mindset. God, who was, and is, sovereign over their past, is viewed as an adversary rather than a friend. They reason that only an enemy would inflict a wound. True, enemies strike in order to kill. But God wounds in order to save and bless. Never do I suffer anything that is not an installment to something glorious.

Children of God would struggle to admit this but in the dark places of the soul, in the places of their deepest pain, they are distrustful of God. They have backed up, unsure of Him, shy of His gaze. Because a theology of suffering is absent, some never come out of the corner to believe Him for their salvation, redemption, and restoration. They choose to live in the middle of their plotline ~ without hope ~ failing to believe God for a glorious outcome. How does this work, exactly?

  • A child who is never the object of someone’s affection grows up to bear the spirit of rejection. But the wound is life-saving when they discover that God is a seeking God. He woos them to the cross in order to adopt them into a place of favor.
  • A teenager who has been bullied because he is different grows up unsure of himself. He doesn’t realize that his uniqueness is really the mark of leadership. But the wound is life-saving when he discovers that God set him apart to think differently in order to lead a cause for the kingdom.
  • A woman who has, unexpectedly, been served divorce papers, feels torn apart on the inside. She does not feel she will ever recover from the betrayal. But the wound is life-saving when, driven to God, she experiences Him as her Bridegroom. Daily, He loves, whispers comforts, and provide

The foundation of every life-saving discovery does not begin and end with an understanding of theology but culminates in a childlike relationship with God. In faith, I must believe His proclamations of love and I must believe every promise He made to me.

What is the nature of your unhealed wound? And what is the need that rages as a result? Are you willing to consider that the need you’ve just isolated is life-saving if it takes you into the arms of a sovereign God who waits eagerly to redeem what was stolen from you? Look up. Believe. Live in the promises.

When I don’t believe, it is Your Word and Your Spirit that revives me. Amen

 

Imagine

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Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Romans 6:13

I know that heaven awaits but Jesus came to announce that the kingdom is here now.  I am to spend my life asking the question, “What would heaven’s response look like in this situation?” That answer, determined by scripture, is my guideline for how to pray.  Specifically, this is what it looks like for me.

  • If Jesus were my husband, what would He say about this?
  • If Jesus could come in person today and talk to me about my child, what might He say?
  • If Jesus were to come and pastor our church, what might His first steps be?

These answers give me a glimpse into the prayer life of Jesus when He taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

To take this even further, which is what Paul is getting at in today’s scripture; I consider all the things a human body can accomplish.  What will my hands be doing when I get to heaven?  What kinds of things will my mouth say?  How will I reign with Christ and what does that leadership look like?  In a glorified body, I will be using all my members for righteousness.  As I imagine that (and I can because of all the pictures scriptures paint), I begin to see how I am to live now.

The kingdom is here now and I can begin to live in it as I will live in it – through the power of the Spirit.

Direct my imagination toward holy dreams.  I am yours. Amen

Praying the Lord’s Prayer

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen2 Comments

If Jesus, when asked to teach His disciples how to pray, composed this prayer out of the perfection of His holiness, is this not a perfect prayer?  Perfect in content, perfect in composition, even perfect in length?

How does it look for me to use this prayer as a template – expanding it as the Spirit leads me?  Today, it is this ~

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. I bow low, prostrate before Your throne.  You are my Father, holy, and perfect. I am nothing.  You are everything.  Unless You enter my world today, it will be of no value.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I see my need right now, Lord.  I see my family’s needs.  Your kingdom needs to come down to our little place on earth.  In Your kingdom, there is righteousness.  Thy kingdom come to us.  In Your kingdom, there is peace.  Thy kingdom come to us.  In Your kingdom, there is structure and order.  Thy kingdom come to us.  May Your will be done here, in every way, just as it is done in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. Give me hidden manna, Lord.  I embrace Your Word to my heart.  Open the eyes of my heart to see Your Word and understand it. Give me the grace to apply it.  May every member of my family today hunger for your daily bread.  Feed them so that they might live in Your abundance.  May we be a family who feasts on daily manna.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. I stand in the flow of Calvary.  Wash me clean, make me holy, that we may fellowship together without restriction.  I forgive those who will wrong me in any way today.  I put on Your forgiving Spirit as I live out my day.  I pray for every member of my family.  Mold each of them into a child of Yours who walks in Jesus’ lifestyle of forgiveness.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. I stand on Your promise that you will not give me more than I can bear.  The challenges, the sicknesses, the trials have all passed through Your sovereign hand.  Wherever I am assaulted, deliver me from evil.  Fight for me while I sleep, while I trust, while I do Your kingdom work.  Battle the unseen forces that I can’t see.  Make me battle ready to take every thought captive today, to put on the armor and stand in the victory You won for me at Calvary.

For Thine is the power, and the kingdom, and the glory forever, Amen.