Category: Daily Devotionals

Wild, Yet Wonderful

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God is wild and wonderful.  He is also unpredictable.  He exalts the likes of Judah, the treacherous son of Jacob.  He blesses adulterers like King David.  He forgives betrayers like Peter.  He saves persecutors and murderers like Paul.  Judah, at the end of his life, offered to give his own for the life of another brother.  His father, Jacob, lived long enough to see Judah choose righteousness. The common thread in all of these stories was a heart of repentance.  God’s forgiveness was, and is, so radical that an entire past is put under His atoning blood.

No family is perfect. In the past few days, I’ve heard from more than a few who say that they have not seen their grandchildren in years. They grieve over that and feel embarrassed in public when others ask if they have children and grandchildren. Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ relevant to them? Is it relevant to us in the very places we long to see the righteousness of God revealed in the lives of our family members? Oh yes.

This Christmas, as we hear the Christmas story and are tempted to zone out at the reading of the lineage of Jesus, let’s wake up and sit on the edge of our seat.  When Judah’s name is mentioned, we can rejoice that God works in family messes.  No one is out of His reach.  We should never stop praying for forthcoming repentance.  God is good for every promise He has made.

For every family ‘Joseph’, there are tears of joy.  For every family ‘Judah’, there are tears of faith.  You are God over every family drama that is brought to your feet in prayer.  Amen

With Both Hands

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I will lift up my hands toward our commandment, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.  Psalm 119:48

When I lift up both hands toward heaven, I am paying honor to God.  The psalmist lifts both hands towards God’s Word.  He pays homage to it because he loves it.

The Word is old.  It is tested.  It is deep and layered.  It softens the heart of the most hardened person.  It strengthens the most feeble.  It brings a solution, like an arrow, to my deepest dilemma. It comforts like the cooing of a mother.  It changes the heart of a person where that person has simply remained unchangeable through many self-renovations.  Is there any reason why any man or woman shouldn’t raise hands toward this Word?  In doing so, we raise our hands to Jesus.  Logos.

What has caused me to drop my hands?   Discouragement?  There is a Word for me.  Sick?  There is a Word.  Weary in prayer?  There is a Word.  Betrayed?  Ah, there is a Word.  My prayer this morning is, no matter what has caused a slack in my hands, “Strengthen me to raise my hands, just one more time, Lord.” God will be faithful and another Word will come to my rescue.

Like Amos, I consume Your Word, hungrily.  Amen

When I’m Out Of Steam

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Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Romans 12:11

 Spiritual steam, the kind that propels a train up a mountain is hard to know how to come by.  Does reading more of my Bible give it to me?

I can learn something about WWII history, get excited, and share it passionately with others.  But that’s one piece of history and it doesn’t sustain my soul for a lifetime.  Bible study (apart from the reality of Jesus revealing Himself to my heart) is this way as well.  I can discover something in scripture, love what I find, but the excitement that facts sometimes bring will dissipate with time.  When I’m hurting, interesting facts from the book of I Samuel won’t give me spiritual fervor.

The steam needed for the long haul comes from something childlike.  Love.  When I’m tired from service, I need to go home to be loved.   When I’m beaten up by life, I need to go home to be loved.  When I’m physically weak from the pace of meeting so many needs, I need to go home to be loved.  The strongest saint retreats, comes to their Father with childlike faith and says, ‘Feed me, love me, hold me, and teach me.’  These elementary expressions of need fuel the saints we would describe as having mature faith.  Unlike what we might believe, their fuel does not come from some intellectual study of Calvinism verses Arminianism.

Deep weariness can send me to the line of total abdication.  I teeter on the edge of just giving up.  One small demand can send me over the limit.  My body won’t cooperate anymore in spite of my ‘drill-sergeant-kind-of-self-talk.  It revolts.  My heart doesn’t listen to one more internal speech to keep myself going.  Quitting seems to be the only answer.  I am afraid though that if I sink into an abyss of emotional and physical exhaustion, I won’t ever get out.  Oh, I have been there and I didn’t know what was wrong or how to heal.

God showed me.  Mature faith begins and ends with the recognition that my fuel is the love of God. And here’s the thing ~ it will foster the spiritual curiosity for my study of the scriptures.

Your love resurrected me from the pit.  I had given up, had no energy or joy, but I had not experienced Your love.  Thank you for the joy of serving You now with a fervent spirit.  Amen

Tied Down When I Should Fly

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Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.  Psalm 91:3

A fowler is someone who hunts any fowl.  The snare he sets catches a bird by its feet and traps it, rendering the poor thing unable to fly. 

That they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 2 Tim. 2:26

Satan also delights in making captives, tying me to the ground when I was meant to soar on eagle’s wings. Knowing how I am ensnared and how I am to soar must be understood.   

Weaknesses are Satan’s catalysts for entrapment.  Personal triggers are accessed to incapacitate me, leaving me compromised and unable to function.  Fear, shame, and discouragement…. are fodder for the fowler.  The way out is re-aligning my thoughts through exercised faith, ending the inertia by audibly re-asserting my faith in Jesus.  The robust proclamation of the scriptures opens the fowler’s traps. 

What is it to soar on eagles’ wings?  Is it a fulfilling job, pleasant circumstances, or satisfying friendships?  These do not comprise the concept.  It is to soar on the currents of the wind of the Spirit because I am enfolded in the life of Christ Himself.  It is to see numbness shattered and wonder return, seeing the veil of apathy toward the scriptures disappear. 

Oh Jesus, break open the fowler’s traps and set Your children free.  Show them heights only seen on eagle’s wings.  Amen

The Voice of Our Future

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It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’  And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’  Isaiah 44:28

At the time of this writing, Cyrus had not even been born. It would be another 200 years before he arrived to do precisely what God had promised: deliver God’s people from exile after their defeat, capture, and captivity.  

God is still fulfilling prophecy regarding future events. His prediction of Cyrus comforts us when our lives take an unwelcome turn and our immediate future is uncertain.  God knows the nature of our exiles and deliverances.  The names of those who will shape our future are already pre-chosen. All is on schedule to lead us to glory.  

Isaiah brings us this comfort today.  God has foreknowledge of every detail that constitutes our lives.  He spoke our name long before we existed, called us by name at the moment of our spiritual adoption, and will speak our name again when He welcomes us home.  Not one step (though uncertain as it may seem for us) causes Him to worry about us.  

He is the God who dismantles and the God who rebuilds.  He is the God who wounds and the God who comforts.  He is the God of the faithful and the God of the exiles.  These days, when anger and fear make up our global emotional climate, we trust a Father who whispers, “Don’t be afraid.”  Our life does not begin and end with deliberate, even erratic actions, of influential people.  God’s scepter of justice holds them in check.  

Your people are written prophetically into these days.  Let us rise to carry out the work of ambassadors with confidence and joy.  Amen

Romans 8:39

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For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:39

The love of those closest to us is a powerful force.  When we’re in trouble, they’ll come.  When we’re sick, they’ll sit with us.  When we’re in danger, they go with us if they can.  But there are limits to where they can go.  When I’m going in for life-threatening surgery, they must leave me at the door. When my soul is hurting, there also comes a point of separation.  They must sleep, go to work, attend to their own lives, and if it’s a friend, they must go home. 

When Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and spent three days in his belly, God was right there with him.  No friend could have done that.  When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, God was right there with him.  When he faced the dangers of re-entry back into our atmosphere and could have quickly bounced off and headed forever into space, God would have been there with him too.

What comprises the goodness of God today?  His promise of love, the assurance of His prayers, and the comfort of His presence no matter what I face.  No surgery room keeps Him out.  No maximum security prison locks Him out.  If I travel to the remotest part of our planet, He is there, in me and around me.

There is no place I can go on earth or in heaven that You are not with me, not out of duty but out of love and desire.  Goodness like this I cannot comprehend.  Thank you.  Amen

When I’m Stingy

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Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.  The one who contributes, let him give generously.  Romans 12:8

 There was an old man in the small town where I grew up who was quite wealthy.  His life’s goal was to amass a fortune and he didn’t care how he did it.  Was he driven by greed?  Not always.  Fear was also his taskmaster.  He had lived through the depression with his mother and several siblings.  For the family’s survival, he went to work at seven years old to deliver papers so there would be food on the table.  He made a vow never to be poor and his entire life would be shaped by those words.

Paul describes a believer as one who is never stingy.  He loves to give and just can’t help himself.  Perhaps you’re thinking ~  “I don’t give like this.  In fact, far from it.  What’s my problem?”

Like the man who was afraid of having nothing, there are many reasons why we don’t give generously.  Fear of deprivation, fear of giving away something that we’re attached to, fear that it won’t be received, fear that we will get nothing back.  Greed is not always at the center of why we withhold.

The cure is found in Paul’s words.  You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.  2 Corinthians 9:11  God promises, through Christ, to make us so rich that we’ll have no problem giving it away – confident that He will more than compensate.  This morning, perhaps we’ve only just begun to realize what is ours in Christ.

Show me where I’m rich in You.  Amen

What Happens In The Womb

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The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”   Genesis 25:22-23

Rebekah is pregnant with twins.  She wouldn’t be the first to feel the angst of a child in her womb.  Much transpires there that shapes the future, both for the good and the bad.  I am naïve to think that I was not affected somehow by what happened around me while being carried to term in my own mother’s womb.  An unborn baby assimilates environments outside of its mother.  Kindness, violence, acceptance, and rejection ~ are all keenly felt.  They shape a child’s view of himself, and the world, before he takes his first breath.   

When Rebekah felt the striving between her twins, she was wise when she asked the Lord about it.  God prophesied that this spiritual rub between the twins would be historical.  The small amount of wrestling in the womb would escalate to involve nations at war in the future.  One child would prevail over the other because only one was destined by God to rule.

How did things turn out for the twins?  God’s prophecy prevailed.  One nation was born ~ from the child God blessed, and it ruled over the other nation for years to come.  In 2 Samuel, King David (the blessed twin’s line) conquered the Edomites (the 2nd twin’s line) and they remained under his control for 130 years.  Nothing could transpire, whether in the womb, as toddlers, as adolescents, or as grown men, that could change what God decreed to Rebekah on that day.

God’s Word always prevails.

I learned the hard way that I am not exempt from what You have blessed and cursed.  Your Words rule over my life, but rule with power and love.  I’m so glad I stopped fighting.  Amen

Yes, He’s Going With You

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When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.  Isaiah 43:2

The power of this promise makes little sense if I fail to understand the sinister nature of water in scripture.  It’s hard to see the sea as something negative if I love the beach and the sound of waves lapping up on shore.  But to the ancient Jew, the sea meant something else entirely.  It was a symbol of something ominous and life-threatening. In Semitic mythology, a sea monster was synonymous with chaos and evil.  These verses provide a more complete picture.

  • Isaiah said that the wicked were like a tossing sea. Isaiah 57:20
  • A psalmist said that God divided the sea by His might and broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. Psalm 74:13-14
  • David said that God’s vicious waves had swept over him like an angry ocean. Psalm 42:7
  • And in John’s revelation, it’s most interesting that the Beast rises from the sea. (Revelation 13)

When God promises to accompany me through the waters, it is clear that He goes with me into the deepest chaos, evil, turbulence, and even death.  God doesn’t promise to take me around the sea, to keep me on dry land.  Just like the days we are living now; we find ourselves in deep waters.  The darkness is thick, life-threatening, and it’s comforting to be assured that we’re not alone.

Think about it.  How very fitting that Jesus walked on water!  The symbol of that is not lost on me.  He was not overcome by evil, not knocked around by the chaos of the waves, not swallowed up by the deep.  In the worst of storms, he walked on the waves.  Calmly, with no need to yell, He spoke to His disciples.  His voice penetrated the roar of the storm.

It makes me think of Ephesians 1 and I Corinthians 15.  “And He put all things under His feet.”   There is no evil He has not conquered.  There is no virus He cannot heal.  There is no chaos He can not order.  There is no life, for a saint, that will not triumph in life – and in death.  Everything, no matter how ominous, is subject to His authority.

You are Lord over all the elements, and I am never out of Your care.  Amen

A Picture of Father God

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Every day he (Mordecai) walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. Esther 2:11

Esther had gone to the palace along with many other young virgins. She had been uprooted from the safety of her home and separated from the faces she knew. Can you imagine Mordecai’s anxiety? How was she being treated? Was the king an honorable man with women? Were the people who worked for him trustworthy with impressionable young girls? Such were the fears of an adoptive father who paced back and forth near the courtyard of the palace, hoping to hear any word at all on the girl he raised and loved like his own.

This picture gives us a snapshot of an invisible God. Mordecai was consumed with the welfare of the child he had raised. So is God. Mordecai gave up his life to adopt an orphan. So did God. Mordecai invested himself fully to teach Esther that which would allow her soul to prosper. So does God. Mordecai positioned himself in her vicinity, just in case she might need anything of him. So does God. He knocks at the door of my heart. The sound is soft, but discernible if I’m listening for it.

“How are you?” he asks. “I never stop thinking about you. Do you need anything?”

Often, His arrival can seem more like a disruption. “I don’t have time to talk”, I’ve been guilty of answering. But still He lingers, waits a while, and then knocks again.

By the time I hear his voice the second time, life has begun to unravel. “Things aren’t going as I’d hoped. I’m getting tired.”

He’s not surprised. How could he be! ”I’m here. I am rest for your soul and wisdom for your decisions.” Now, I’m aware of my need and stop to include Him in my day.

If only I’d stopped the first time I sensed Him knocking to spend time with Him. I’d have been prepared for my day ahead, before the circumstances unfolded. Now, I’m in crisis mode. Undone. Disquieted. Dull of hearing. However, despite my earlier disinterest, He didn’t leave me. He didn’t even scold me for waiting so long. He knows I’ll put those thoughts together. When I do, I’m humbled. Mordecai is a picture of God’s steadfastness and enduring patience.

I simply cannot say today that nobody in the world cares about me. Your care has no limits. What a Father You are! In Jesus’ name, Amen.