Category: Daily Devotionals

I’M EXPECTED TO DO SOMETHING I CAN’T!

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” Genesis 30:1-2

         Jacob is in a tough spot. He has been tricked by Laban, the father of Rachel and Leah, his wives. The one he loves more is barren while the other has borne him three sons in order to win his favor. There is no part of this story that is working well for anyone. (Except for Laban who benefitted monetarily from Jacob’s work.)

         Rachel is pleading with him to do something about her barrenness. “Give me children, or I shall die!” Is there anything more tormenting than to be expected to provide something when you have no control over it? People look to others to give what is only supernaturally possible. The one who feels the pressure to play God is the one who can feel the most helpless.

         I’ve been put in the place of God more times than I can count. The one who demanded a solution was probably not aware that they were doing that. They were expressing their distress to someone who loved them but I carried their pain and wrung my hands over their plight.

         Are you between a rock and hard place today?For many years, I was unaware that I had the freedom to say ‘no’ to what was asked of me. As a performer, I agreed to do all that was expected. Most of it was asked with no regard of what was appropriate for the maturation level of a teenager or young adult. My self-talk sounded like this. “I have to do this ~ but I can’t! But I have to do this ~ but I can’t!” The torment escalated as performance time approached. When my name was announced, I flipped a switch, went out, and just did it. In my 30’s, I assessed the damage. If I had it to do over again, I would have revealed my limits.

         Are others looking to you to do what is humanly impossible? This is the perfect opportunity to make your relationship with them about prayer. There’s nothing more freeing than to say, “I can’t do what you’re asking but God can. Let’s stop and pray about it.” This does two things. 1.) It gives you a chance to say out loud that you’re human. And, 2.) It points them to the One who is the source. It trains them to look up and to pray for themselves. Your freedom from another’s demands requires your willingness to abdicate playing the part of God.

Praying with others, Lord, has given me my freedom but also the joy of bringing them to you for their miracle. And how You’ve loved them! Amen

Journal Question: Your freedom can begin today. What solution to someone’s problem are you feeling the pressure for? Make a plan to meet with them today, even by phone, to direct them to God. Write out your prayer ahead of time so you don’t lose your courage.

GOD EXALTS THE ONE OTHERS DESPISE

When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Genesis 29:31

         How Leah suffered when she was given to Jacob in marriage! She was allowed no vote in the decision. She was simply a pawn in her father’s greedy scheme. Yes, she got to become the wife to the husband her sister loved. That might seem like a victory but was it really? Think of the week of wedding feasts and festivities where everyone celebrated her marriage. Her husband was in mourning because he woke up to find her as his wife. To add to the agony, she will have to endure another week of wedding festivities when Jacob finally marries Rachel and truly rejoices. There will be no way to block out the sounds of this future celebration.

         “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.” Acts 4:11 God sees the ones others despise and he exalts them. The verse for today says that God ‘saw’ that Leah was hated. The word for ‘saw’ is the same word Scripture often uses before God intervenes for the oppressed. He ‘saw’ His people just before He liberated them from slavery. And how God blessed her. She gave birth to sons who would become the twelve tribes of Israel. And the most notable was Judah – whose greatest Son was Jesus Himself.

         Are you the least of your siblings? The least in the lineup of in-laws? The least remembered in your family’s inheritance?  Is there anyone who truly celebrates you? Or, do you feel tolerated, perhaps even invisible? Life can seem long and bitterness is always nipping at your heels. The idea that there could be joy is laughable ~ yet is that not the same ‘laugh’ that erupted out of Sarah after a lifetime of barrenness? God saw her, remembered her, and this divine affection made her heart burst for joy.

         God is the God of the underdog. If every Leah can live – learning to look up for her affection and blessing – she can know a joy that surpasses anything that people of this earth offer.

For every one who needs to know they are beautiful to You, show them today, Lord.

Journal Question: How does Leah’s story speak to your own story? Have you laid aside bitterness in exchange for the anticipation of God’s blessing? Will you open your heart to entertain the possibility that favor and joy can be yours?

WHEN I FEAR I’VE WASTED YEARS

And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” Laban said, “It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Genesis 29:25-26

         I don’t know if you have ever felt like Jacob or not. He fell in love with Rachel, asked her father Laban for her hand in marriage and was told that he could purchase her dowry for seven years of labor. There was no reason to doubt Laban’s word. He was family and seemed sincere.

         Jacob worked joyfully and anticipated the day he could marry Rachel. He expressed that the labor and effort he sustained for seven years were ‘as one day’ ~ so great was his love for his bride-to-be. Then the plot takes a sickening turn. Laban deceives Jacob. Underneath the wedding veil is not Rachel but her sister. He has been tricked and seven years of his life is gone. Is God the redeemer of lost years? That is the question.

         Have you ever signed up for something that would be of great cost to you – only to find out later that information was withheld? You might have made a different decision entirely. Some marry under false pretenses.Some make business decisions under a shroud of deception and lose everything. Some bare their soul to a confidant and later find out that the information has been used against them. These stories involve great losses, one of which is time.

         Jacob was forty when he went on his journey to meet Rachel. Hardly a young groom. To lose seven years must have seemed depressing but there is no indication that he plummets into despair. He loves Rachel enough to jump into another seven years of labor for the joy of finally having her as his wife.

         Hindsight into Jacob’s story offers us golden insight into the plans of God for people’s lives. His blessing on Jacob wasn’t thwarted in the least by Laban’s deception. When I’m the child of the great Redeemer, what seem to be lost years aren’t even a problem for God. When others sin against me and steal from me, it is spiritual futility to fall into bitterness. The energy and despair (and the strongholds that result) are really what’s wasted. Don’t I know the power of the One whose child I am? For three years, I despaired over 22 lost years, only to discover that they weren’t lost at all. They were teachers for the great redemption to come!

I’ve also learned that joy in You confounds and frustrates the one who sinned against me. Is there any greater victory and testimony? Amen

Journal Question: What losses are you counting today? Money, time, youth? Does it appear that your offender has won because of what was stolen? What does faith look like today? Would you stretch your spiritual eyesight to include a redemptive turn in your storyline?

THE FUEL LOVE PROVIDES

            So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her. Genesis 29:20

            This is one of the rare moments in the Bible where sentiments about romantic love are expressed. Does love at first sight exist? Yes. Is there such a thing as people just ‘clicking’ when they meet? I believe so. It happens in friendship. Why not romantic love!

            Jacob so loved Rachel that working for seven years to acquire her as his wife was hardly a sacrifice. If we were to ask Jacob about it in today’s vernacular, he might reply, “It was nothing!” And we know what he means. When I love to do something, the time that expires as I engage in the activity is irrelevant. Hours go by as if they were minutes. This is how I feel as I do many things; record in the studio, engage in the graphic design of new marketing materials, organize drawers and closets, even explore colors, textures, and fabrics.

            There are people that I love deeply and serving them also seems effortless. I wouldn’t think twice about sacrificing in some way for them. I love to see them happy no matter what it costs me.

            What is Jesus asking you to do today that seems steep? There is a cost. He said there would be. It is cross-shaped. Paul said that it was love that constrained him to endure hardship. It is lack of love that causes many to abandon their faith. When things get difficult, there is no relationship to sustain them. Knowledge of God without experience does not build emotional and physical endurance in Christian service.

            I’ve been engaged in something very difficult related to ministry. The cost has been steep but nothing compared to the ways other believers are suffering throughout the world. Nonetheless, I’ve been asking myself if Jesus is worth it. There is no question for me. I love Him and can’t keep quiet about the things He’s taught me. I love the truths, believe in them, and have learned them at such a high price. We’ve come too far together to stop now.

            There are days each of us lose perspective. They are related to the moments Jesus spent in the garden asking His Father if He might be spared the cross. But one day, no matter what we’ve suffered, I believe we will all say something similar. “I loved Him so it was easy to spend my life.”

Internal pep talks fizzle out quickly, Lord. It is Your voice and the memories of our time together that give me supernatural strength. Amen

Journal Question: Have you lost your way? Are others guilting you into more service? Seek God’s heart and get a fresh word. It is the only experience that revives the dead.

DOES LOVE AUTOMATICALLY RUN IN THE FAMILY?

As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month. Genesis 29:13-14

         Jacob announced who he was to his uncle as Laban threw his arms around Jacob, confirmed that he was his own flesh and blood, and feigned a depth of affection that wouldn’t materialize when tested. Did Jacob let his guard down when he was embraced? Probably so. That’s what we tend to do when we are among family. It will turn out that Laban is generous with Jacob but only in a way that is self-serving.

         In this fallen world, love is just flawed. No one loves perfectly. Family relationships are messy and sinful human nature acts out constantly. What makes the road so treacherous is that love can exist one minute and disappear the next when it requires something in the relationship that is too steep. A generous person becomes stingy in a moment over the right issue.Unless you know them well, you might not know the limits of their fidelity and at what point they will serve themselves instead of you. Jacob will find out the hard way about the heart of Laban and suffer under his selfish scheming. But then again, hadn’t Jacob just done the same thing to his own family? He schemed to extort a blessing from his father. What he has sown, he will reap.

         How should I function in a normal family? I don’t want to live suspicious of everyone but I also don’t want to be naïve and trust indiscriminately. I will err on either side if I try to live by my own gut. Sometimes I’ll get it right but there will be just as many times I am taken in by another’s ability to deceive. “My brother, we’re family!” goes a long way to melt a misgiving that might be warranted.

         God promises wisdom to all who ask and who seek it like gold. God will guide me right as I navigate relationships with others who share my bloodline. I will get it wrong sometimes. That’s life. And when I do, I can’t get bogged down in the mire of resentment and revenge. I’ll grieve my losses, forgive, embrace the lessons I’ve learned about the hearts of people, and move on to love with my eyes wide open.

Continue to heal my fear of people. Amen

Journal Question: Do you need to make a course correction in your approach to family? Do you err toward caution instead of openness? Or trust instead of wisdom? Ask God for the wisdom to walk in balance.

EVIL AND THE GLORY OF GOD

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.  Romans 9:17-18

         The Egyptians oppressed the people of God for 400 years.  Great evil was perpetrated upon them.  The Hebrew people were beaten, suffered injustice, and everything else that makes up the stuff of slavery.  Rage and hopelessness simmered beneath the surface of every soul.  They took on the mindset of a slave and just accepted whatever came their way.

         Can God be glorified when suffering exists?  Are those who perpetrate such evil subject to the sovereign hand of God?  The comforting answer to both questions is “Yes!”  Continue reading “Evil and The Glory Of God” →

PAIN IS NOT THE ENEMY 

Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word.  Psalm 119:67

            Afflictions come in many shapes and sizes.  The prodigal son’s pain brought him home to his father with humility.  Paul’s thorn in the flesh fostered humility and dependence on God.  Prodigal affliction brings God’s children home; sanctified affliction deepens the faith of the saints. Continue reading “PAIN IS NOT THE ENEMY” →

COINCIDENCE OR NOT?

Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. Genesis 29:1

         Jacob is about to meet the woman he will marry. And, it will happen at a well. So many significant spiritual moments happen at wells in the Bible. Divine appointments occur there. Treaties are made there. Revelations of God are discovered there. And it was there that Jesus disclosed His identity as the Messiah to a Samaritan woman.

         The people who came to a well never knew they were entering a divine moment. It seemed so normal to each of them. Scripture often says, “He happened upon a well…” yet God had woven circumstances together to make that moment pivotal to that person’s future.

         There are no coincidences in the life of God’s child. None. The steps of a righteous man and woman are ordered by the Lord. God describes His sovereignty in terms of steps, not miles. Every step is under His providence.

         I’m often asked a question that begins with, “Do you think it’s significant that…..?” My answer is always yes. Events are connected. A meeting with a stranger is loaded with implications because it was planned by God. When I chalk something up to coincidence and fail to prayerfully explore the meaning behind a seemingly common event, I am missing out.

         How many planes have I missed but later understood that I got to meet someone I wouldn’t have otherwise met. Or, I crossed paths with four people from Houston in the course of a week and then asked God if I was to be praying for a ministry opportunity in Houston. Some would say this is reading too much into everything but I’ve lived long enough to have disproved that. I’ve arrived at a life principle from my experiences with God. Without prayerful exploration of something that turns my head in wonderment, I miss kingdom .

         This is one of the reasons Jesus said to pray without ceasing. He also said that He did nothing without God’s nudging. That tells me that Jesus was talking about every single day’s event with His Father. He thought nothing was coincidence.

The day is in front of me. With You orchestrating my life, no day is without significance to my future. Amen

Journal Question: Would you be willing to pray for God to re-invent the opportunities you missed? Things you wrote off as insignificant?

 

Turn toward me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name.  Psalm 119:132

 

One of the most uncomfortable things an insecure woman experiences is the anticipation of walking into a room full of acquaintances and not knowing whether she will be welcomed.  Will they even see her enter to receive her warmly?  Or, will the group turn their backs to her and leave her to figure out how to enter their conversation?  All these dynamics make a woman’s palms sweat.  The fear of it may cause her to stay home altogether.

I don’t know how confident you are in Jesus’ love.  Perhaps you fear that you are at the bottom of His priority list.  You believe that He’d rather be with anyone but you.  Would you consider this scene?

You enter a room full of high profile Christians.  Jesus is there and He is moving among the people in the room, greeting some, holding meaningful conversations with a few at a time.  You wonder if He even knows you arrived but as you begin to move into the crowd, you feel a pair of eyes on you.  He watches you and reads your fears.  He excuses Himself from those with whom He converses and turns in your direction.  He walks over to you and reaches out to graciously embrace you.  You feel His excitement over seeing you.  He senses how important this moment is to you, how much you’ve looked forward to it and, at the same time, how much you dreaded that it might not play out as you dreamed.  He speaks to you in low tones, inviting you to engage Him as intimately as you feel comfortable.  He does not push but the invitation is on the table to read into the many implications of His words and actions.

David asks for grace so many times throughout this Psalm.  His cries and pleas seem like worn out clichés.  But not to David ~ and not to me if I have experienced the dailyness of my trials and a desperate need for God to turn graciously toward me no matter how many times I’ve entered the throneroom.  The only pre-requisite is desire and a love for His name.

Today, His eyes search the crowd, watching for my first inclination of interest.  When I seek Him, He turns and I hold my breath for the wonders of our engagement.

I am never lost in a crowd.  Never.  Your eyes are ever on me and when I am invisible to most everyone else, I am connected to You.  Amen

 

Journal Question: Was the scene described above desirable to you?  If not, figure out why.  Fear, disinterest, unbelief?  The joy of salvation totally depends on a healthy relationship with Jesus.  Are you willing to push through the barriers of discomfort?

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. Genesis 28:20-21

         Any part of me that has yet to experience God can impair my relationship with God. A wound, a deep fear, my inexperience with Him relationally; all of these can make me skittish to trust Him. Internally, the stakes feel high and I’m not quite sure He’s going to come through for me. The only promises my heart knows I can count on the ones that I’ve already experienced. The others require faith.

         Just so I can learn from Jacob’s story, how was he impaired? He had just had a dream where he saw the heavens opened and angels were coming and going. God spoke to him and introduced Himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac. God never added, “And I am the God of Jacob.” The relationship hadn’t become personal and real yet. Jacob’s heart was nervous, I believe. He might have rehearsed, “Just because God loved my father doesn’t mean He loves me!” Jacob needs to know where he stands with God and so makes this bargain. ‘If you will be with me, preserve me, provide for me, and bring me home again to the family I just injured beyond repair, then I’ll know that you’re my God.’

         I cannot exist on second hand faith either. Coasting on another’s encounter with God doesn’t change my personal life. I tried it for 40+ years. I surrounded myself with iconic men of God. I heard their stories of spiritual conquest. I read biographies of spiritual giants and admired God from afar. Though I knew a lot and had seen a lot (just like Jacob who grew up in the house of a patriarch), God had never been put to the test in my faithless life. I was always the mute in the company of those who gave testimonies.

         God needed to intersect my story at my places of fear and failure. God began to bring crises that would cast me into powerlessness in order to give me the opportunity to put Him to the test. He is a kind Father and does not want me live with impaired faith. Every promise is meant to be mine but it must be tested where I am broken if God is to become real.

Ah, but I have a testimony now. I’m so glad my heart is spilling over. Amen

Journal Question: Are you bored with God? Would you describe your Christian as disappointing, or at the very least, dull? Connect the dots, prayerfully, with today’s devotional.