Category: Daily Devotionals

Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul. I cry to you, O LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.  Psalm 142:4-5

If we do something wrong and disappoint those close to us, we can try to right the wrong by doing something to make it up to them.  The offense will be erased as we create a better memory within the relationship.  But what of the times when we are the disappointment?  How can we ever know peace within our own heart?

Perhaps this already touches the place of your deepest wound. You could tell me your story in many ways. 

“I am the wrong gender because my parents wanted a boy.”

“My parents didn’t want children.  My arrival was a disappointment.”

“I’m a scientist but my parents wanted an artist.”

“I’m emotional, my parents are rational, and they don’t understand me.”

“I’m an obstacle because my birth stood in the way of a parent’s career.”

You might reason that if the people you love, and look up to, reject you, you must be worthless.  This is emotionally crippling until Jesus offers a way of escape. The cure is to be the object of His desire.  He says, “I want you.  I love you.  Be mine.”   He, alone, heals the wound of disappointment.

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”  C.S. Lewis

Whatever Your hand fashions, You call ‘good’.  I am Your creation.  If You didn’t want me, You wouldn’t have made me.  And You gave Your life for mine because You wanted me with you that much.  Amen

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! Psalm 78:40

For the past week, I’ve been wondering how much I care about the passions of God’s heart.  He wants to advance the kingdom.  Do I feel the same passion?  He also grieved about some things.  Do I discern and take part in what He might be feeling?  Does His pain move me? 

God sent Jesus to birth many children into the kingdom. We are the adopted offspring and are being re-parented to maturity.  But the result is catastrophic if we don’t submit to His parenting.  We languish where we were meant to thrive, and God’s dreams for us are thwarted.  Then God grieves.

• Last Sunday, someone needed to come to the altar to repent of his sin.  The chains holding him captive could have been broken but the pastor didn’t listen to the Spirit about making an altar call.
• Last Sunday, a woman who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer attended church.  God prompted someone to pray for her healing, but that person was too nervous to approach her and dismissed the nudging.
• Last Sunday, a couple was hanging onto their marriage by a thread.  They decided to file for divorce on Monday morning.  God had a saving word for them, but the sermon that should have been preached was never birthed.

While I should be heartbroken for the people who missed opportunities for healing, (through no fault of their own,) I should be even more saddened for the Father who dreamt of blessing His children but saw sinful humanity fail to cooperate. 

I’m asking God to help me understand, more deeply, His heart and His passion.  Perhaps it’s possible for me, and you, to comfort the heart of a grieving Father.

It’s not about what I want.  It’s all about what You want, about me embarking on Your dreams.  I’m here.  Amen

My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.  Psalm 131:1-2

One of my all-time favorite songs is Be Born In Me.  It’s sung by Francesca Basttistelli.  This lyric arrests me.  Did you wrap yourself inside the unexpected – so we would know that love would go that far?    Yes, He sure did.  Because when unexpected events come, my love for God can be stretched.  I wonder if my love will go as far as my fears.

The unexpected can encompass something I fear might come true.  Worried, I keep entrusting my misgivings to God and then I rest because I believe He will take care of i.  But if God doesn’t spare me, will He no longer be a refuge?  Will resting no longer be possible?

It takes effort to disentangle myself from the conflict of my soul and to go home as a ‘weaned child rests against his mother.’  (Psalm 131) Consider it from Eugene Peterson’s, THE MESSAGE. God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain, I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans. I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart, like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby who is content.  

God told us throughout scripture that we are in a war and we are not home yet.  Resting lets me catch my breath in God’s arms while the wind blows.  Resting lets me settle my soul in His embrace. Resting lets me collect my thoughts for my next steps.  Resting reminds me that, even in the worst of things, He will have the last word.  Resting helps me remember to cling to the Victor when it appears Satan is winning.  Resting facilitates focus in chaos.   

I rest in the character of God, not in the expectation that He will deliver me from all pain. Peace is found in the security of One all-knowing and wise.  He sees what I cannot, and as it was for Jesus, God’s plan is redemptive even when a plot line appears senseless.  My life is hidden in Christ and is destined for glory no matter how things look on this calendar day.

You are my firm foundation in confusion, my rock of refuge in sinking sand.  Amen

The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7

Suppose an intruder came to your house and wanted to vandalize. They emptied every kitchen cabinet and left piles all over the floor. Then they opened flour, sugar, and spices – and just dumped the contents. What chaos. Would you walk away and just leave it all, live life like nothing happened, or would you put everything back in order?  Seems like an elementary question but I’m always surprised by the level of chaos, externally and internally, that has taken a person over and become their way of life.

God introduced confusion as a judgment. The peoples of the earth had come together to build a tower for their own gain.  There was order and unity but for an unholy agenda. To cripple their efforts, God separated them by many languages. If they couldn’t understand one another, they wouldn’t be able to work together.

I find that chaos and chaotic thinking are still signs of evil. One who is in the grip of the evil one devises a logic that weaves webs. No matter how much you try to understand them and their behavior, the more tormented you become. You just can’t ever get to the bottom of the issue. The best thing anyone can do is stop trying to make sense of what is senseless.

I heard someone say that at Babel, God pronounced judgment on evil by using many languages to confuse. At Pentecost, He brought blessing and kingdom advancement by taking many languages and creating order.

Anytime I am swirling in the midst of confusion and think God is the author, I have attributed something to God that is not His. He is simple yet deep, profound, clear, and concise. The kingdom is well-ordered. His statutes are written in pristine legal language.

Help me step above the chaos to the serenity of Your order. Amen

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres.  For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”  How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?  Psalm 137:1-4

Not all Psalms were written by David.  This one was written by a Jewish exile living in Babylon.  Having seen his homeland destroyed and having been taken as a captive into the foreign culture of the Babylonian Empire, he struggled to find his voice and get his spiritual bearings. 

His new homeland was corrupt and excessive.  The people of God stuck out like sore thumbs.  They were invited to sing their simple songs of faith to the taunts of the crowd, not unlike the Jews who were made to perform in the camps for the military tyrants who despised them. 

In another year, our song will be rendered just as peculiar against the backdrop of the next presidential election. I’m holding my breath for what will come, but that is a carnal and short-sighted response.  God is encouraging each of us to breathe, to breathe in the oxygen of His Holy Spirit.  Grace will enable us to stand and sing the songs of the exiles. The lyrics will reflect our allegiance to the King of Kings, His kingdom, and its culture of holiness. 

Though we are made to feel like outsiders, and though we bear the brunt of society’s scorn, our voices must not be silenced.  The noise of evil must not prevail over the praises of God’s people. It’s not time to close the piano lid or retire the pen of the poet. Never has the music of faith been more important, and never are songs sweeter than when saints raise their joyful voices with tear-stained faces. 

Let my hope sing. Amen

But you will not go out in haste, nor will you go as fugitives; for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.  Isaiah 52:12

You know the feeling of being blindsided, don’t you?  It is to be caught unaware, to be provoked from an unexpected position.  Your adrenalin surges and there’s hardly time to collect your thoughts. 

God promises that we need never suffer the mindset of someone who went out in haste.  If you’ve ever left your house in a hurry, you know that you ended up not having what you needed.  Had there been deliberate planning, provisions would have been at your fingertips. Today, you and I are not fugitives on the run, scavenging to get our needs met.  We stop to breathe in the Spirit.  We look toward heaven and ask God to still our wildly beating hearts.  We ask Him to clothe us with the mind of Christ.  We look to His Word to illumine our next steps, to jump off the page with precise application.  If fragile emotionally, financially, and in any other way, Christ is gathering us from behind and keeping us together as His protected bride.  We are on course and are living for such a time as this.  

Oh, it’s possible to turn elsewhere for advice. King Saul, when under pressure, didn’t consult God and turned to a medium for guidance.  It was careless, sinful, and brought about his death. This is the time for each of us to press into the God of the Ages for instruction.  Isaiah also said, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way.  Walk in it.”’ 

Never have I been safer and more loved, Jesus.  Amen