Study from God’s Word… 2nd Samuel 12: 18 – 32; 2nd Sam. 12: 26-31 [1st Chron. 20: 1-3]; 2nd Sam. 8: 2 [1st Chron. 18: 2]; 2nd Sam. 8: 3,4,7,8 [2nd Chron. 18: 3,4,7,8]; 2nd Sam. 8: 5-6 [1st Chron. 18: 5-6]; 2nd Sam. 8: 13-14 [1st Chron. 18: 12-13]; 2nd Sam. 8: 9-10 [1st Chron. 18: 9-10]; 2nd Sam. 8: 11-12 [1st Chron. 18: 11]; 1st Chron. 18: 10; 2nd Sam. 23: 8 [1st Chron. 11: 11]; 2nd Sam. 23: 9-10 [1st Chron. 11: 12-14]; 2nd Sam. 23: 11-12; 2nd Sam. 23: 13-17 [1st Chron. 11: 15-19]; 2nd Sam. 23: 18-19 [1st Chron. 11: 20-21]; 2nd Sam. 23: 20-23 [1st Chron. 11: 22-25]; 2nd Sam. 23: 24-39 [1st Chron. 11: 26-47] … Passage for Reflection: 2nd Samuel 12: 22-23 … NIV 22 He [David] answered, "While the child [the child David conceived with Bathsheba ] was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, 'Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.' 23 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me."
My Journal for Today: God knows best! … Do we really believe that? … David did; and it was tested severely when the child, born by Bathsheba was taken from them by God. And when the child became ill, after Nathan’s prophesy of the babe’s death, David fasted, prayed for God to spare the child; and he wept – deeply wept – as the child passed from this earth into heaven. [BTW, this passage is one of the few proof texts in Scripture applying to the truth that children, before the age of accountability, are taken into heaven.]
But after the child does die, in today’s highlight passage, David seems almost blasé, doesn’t he? Were all those crocodile tears before the child’s death merely show for his people and God? … NO, with David, what you see in his actions is who the “man after God’s own heart” is in life. When David is joyful, he dances with delight. When he’s sad, he weeps deeply. And when he recognizes God’s will, our David is resigned in faith and, like a child, he surrenders his own will to that of God. And that, my friends, is what true faith – a heart which totally trusts God – is all about.
The child died. David knew, from his deep and intimate relationship with God, that God knew what was best for David, for Bathsheba, for the world, and for that child. David knew, in his heart that, though he would not be able to have this child in his life on this earth, he [David] would be with the child in heaven. We see that in 2nd Sam. 12: 23b, which reads, ” … I [David] will go to him [his son], but he will not return to me.”
Dr. Smith, in his devotional for today, points out that we rarely have our faith really tested unless some deep, personal tragedy or challenge transpires in our life. In instances, like the one illustrated by the passage today, can we – and do we – resign ourselves to God’s will and move on with life, clinging to our relationship with God and trusting that the LORD has nothing but our best when He allows or engineers those life challenges? David knew that he couldn’t go back and have a “do over” with regard to his sin with Bathsheba. He knew that the boy was not going to be with him in life; and He knew – and trusted – that God had what was best for the boy in heaven. So, David sucked it up; and moved on, trusting in his LORD.
How about it? Are we able to trust in God that way? As Smith writes for our perusal this morning, ”Is there some bitter disappointment in my life that I need to turn completely over to God this very day?” You, like me, will need to answer that question and let it test our faith in God.
My Prayer for Today: LORD, in my head I trust You; but help it become my heart if/when I’m tested. Amen
Showing posts with label humble faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humble faith. Show all posts
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
2010 – April 7 – Making Sense of Seeming Unfairness
Study from God’s Word…2nd Sam 5: 6 – 8 [1st Chron. 11: 4-5]; 2nd Sam. 5: 9-10 [1st Chron. 11: 6-9]; 2nd Sam. 5: 11-12 [1st Chron. 14; 1-2]; 2nd Sam. 6: 1-5 [1st Chron. 13: 1-8]; 2nd Sam. 6: 6-11 [1st Chron. 13: 9-14]; 2nd Sam. 5: 17-25 [1st Chron. 14: 8-17]; 2nd Sam. 22: 1-51 [Psalm 18] … Passage for Reflection: 1st Chronicles 13: 9 – 10 … NIV 9 When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. 10 The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah, and He struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.
My Journal for Today: This study today, especially the highlighted passage and devotional, points to how we can be confused and perplexed, seeing “acts of God” being carried out in our times or in history when those events seem so unfair or inexplicable.
That was the way it was for Uzzah, David’s loyal servant and soldier who was just doing what David had commanded by bringing the Ark back to the new City of David; and in the process, Uzzah reacted instinctively when the Arc began to fall precariously, touching the Ark of the Covenant in the process, something that no one was to do but the prescribed Levites. And ZAP, God struck him down … dead! Wow! Why would God do such a thing? And this is an example of other things in our lives when a complex set of circumstances, some of which are totally out of our purview, might cause an event or occurrence which is out of the realm of our human explanation.
Dr. Smith this morning used the analogy of a plane crash which may have been labeled to take place because of “pilot error;” but if the examiners had all the information available they may have discovered a lot of factors which led to the pilot’s decision which led to the accident. But in the case of God taking action against Uzzah, on the surface it seems like a capricious action on God’s part to take his life just because this man instinctively tried to keep the Arc from falling. But, as Dr. Smith points out in today’s devotional, what if David, remembering God’s prescribed way of transporting the Ark had done what God said should be done to move the Ark, having the Levites carry it on their shoulders. So, perhaps it was David’s fault that Uzzah took the rap and died for the incident in question.
I just don’t know; and I’ve come to realize, as it says in Isaiah 55: 8-9, that there will always be things which God does which I cannot, or will not ever, explain. And so, like the recent earthquake in Haiti, I just have faith that God knows what HE is doing and why HE is doing it … especially when I don’t understand it when HE does it.
And so, when God takes a life, like Uzzah, where the circumstances seem unfair; or He wreaks havoc on a people as He did in Haiti; or there are things in my life which just don’t seem right, by my understanding, I’m coming to the place in my life where I realize that I must believe and accept the truth of Romans 8: 28 (I hope you know that one by heart), and move on, … trusting God, as His word also says in Prov. 3: 5-6; and letting Him do what He must do to guide my life.
I hope and I will pray today that you join me in this step of faith in our discipleship.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help all who read here, and certainly myself, to recognize that You are God and You love Your children no matter what we may see happening in our lives which is not explainable by finite minds such as my own. Amen
My Journal for Today: This study today, especially the highlighted passage and devotional, points to how we can be confused and perplexed, seeing “acts of God” being carried out in our times or in history when those events seem so unfair or inexplicable.
That was the way it was for Uzzah, David’s loyal servant and soldier who was just doing what David had commanded by bringing the Ark back to the new City of David; and in the process, Uzzah reacted instinctively when the Arc began to fall precariously, touching the Ark of the Covenant in the process, something that no one was to do but the prescribed Levites. And ZAP, God struck him down … dead! Wow! Why would God do such a thing? And this is an example of other things in our lives when a complex set of circumstances, some of which are totally out of our purview, might cause an event or occurrence which is out of the realm of our human explanation.
Dr. Smith this morning used the analogy of a plane crash which may have been labeled to take place because of “pilot error;” but if the examiners had all the information available they may have discovered a lot of factors which led to the pilot’s decision which led to the accident. But in the case of God taking action against Uzzah, on the surface it seems like a capricious action on God’s part to take his life just because this man instinctively tried to keep the Arc from falling. But, as Dr. Smith points out in today’s devotional, what if David, remembering God’s prescribed way of transporting the Ark had done what God said should be done to move the Ark, having the Levites carry it on their shoulders. So, perhaps it was David’s fault that Uzzah took the rap and died for the incident in question.
I just don’t know; and I’ve come to realize, as it says in Isaiah 55: 8-9, that there will always be things which God does which I cannot, or will not ever, explain. And so, like the recent earthquake in Haiti, I just have faith that God knows what HE is doing and why HE is doing it … especially when I don’t understand it when HE does it.
And so, when God takes a life, like Uzzah, where the circumstances seem unfair; or He wreaks havoc on a people as He did in Haiti; or there are things in my life which just don’t seem right, by my understanding, I’m coming to the place in my life where I realize that I must believe and accept the truth of Romans 8: 28 (I hope you know that one by heart), and move on, … trusting God, as His word also says in Prov. 3: 5-6; and letting Him do what He must do to guide my life.
I hope and I will pray today that you join me in this step of faith in our discipleship.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help all who read here, and certainly myself, to recognize that You are God and You love Your children no matter what we may see happening in our lives which is not explainable by finite minds such as my own. Amen
Sunday, December 13, 2009
2009 – Day 346.Dec 13 – Anchor of Reality
Passage for Study: Acts 27: 39 - 44 … Acts 27 linked for study …
My Journal for Today: Pastor Swindoll is absolutely right as he writes in today’s devotional, "The best plan for surviving a storm is preparation.” A ship’s captain would never launch his vessel onto the open seas without going over the navigation charts and – these days – checking out the weather forecasts. If you’ve ever been on a cruise vessel, the first thing the crew goes over with the passengers are the emergency procedures. Think about those boring instructions which every flight crew goes over with the passengers on an airplane before the plane gets into the air; and I hope you pay attention to them before that plane takes off: because, though no plane or ship captain would ever want to go through what that pilot did by landing his plane in the Hudson River last year, he was well prepared for the emergency and all of his passengers survived because of his training and his pre-flight preparation. Because that pilot was so well trained and he knew exactly where to land that plane, those passengers all survived.
Today’s title for this devotional is the “Anchor of Reality;” and reality is an anchor as long as we, as Christians, carry that anchor into the reality of our future. As Swindoll points out, ”Passivity is faith’s enemy.” And to that I’d add a Pollyanna attitude that nothing bad will ever happen because we’re in Christ. No, the Boy Scouts have it right in their motto, which takes the anchor of reality into account as it declares … BE PREPARED!
My friend, what are you doing right now to prepare for a potential shipwreck or turbulent flight? When you get on a flight, are you lulled into passivity, apathy, and lack of attention as the crew instructs you on how to prepare for an emergency? Do you know where the nearest emergency exit is? Are you briefed and ready if the ship goes down in water to know where the flotation devices are; and do you know how to use them? Or have you been lulled into that “nothing bad will ever happen to me” attitude, which the enemy will use against you if/when a bad storm develops and the ship goes down.
That crew of that ship Paul was in all made it to shore because of the preparation they had taken just before ship broke up to surrender their leadership to Paul and to join him in prayer to the God of Abraham. My dear friend, what are you doing now, during the calm of life to prepare and make sure that you have the anchor of reality covered in the event your ship of life runs into a really bad storm? And if you’re in the storm right now, you may find, as Swindoll writes, that you’re having to use the pre-planning (or as we call it in our ministry – the “battle planning”) which you had done in the calm of life to deal with the storm.
Maybe you’re now having to find out that you have to humble yourself and find help from a competent Christian counselor to make it through a marital storm. Perhaps, you now recognize that those bad choices you made in the past, when you believed you could get away with some sin, have now come crashing down around you; and you have to take serious emergency procedures to save your marriage, your church, or your very life. That is why it’s best to humble yourself now and take preparatory actions to avoid the storms or to be prepared BEFORE they come your way. As my mentor used to tell me, ”Humble yourself now in your day-to-day worship of God, or He will humble you later when you’ve let pride take you down.”
And so, we need to ask ourselves …
• Am I taking decisive action to avoid the storms by having a disciplined DAILY devotional life and by having a written battle plan to avoid the potential pitfalls of life?
• Is my prayer life going deep to keep me humble and to deepen my relationship with Christ?
• Am I getting to know my God by studying Him through His word?
• Am I worshipping my God everyday by the choices I make, the people I serve, and the actions I use to honor our Lord?
Answers to these questions, by our life choices, will show whether we are carrying the anchors I written about in the last few days, the anchors of STABILITY, UNITY, RENEWAL, and then today, the anchor of REALITY.
If you’re ready for any storm of life because of the daily battle plan or preparation you’re making now to build your faith (i.e., your anchor), then you will not fear any storm which may be brewing ahead for which you cannot plan. And like the ship did when the storm hit Paul and his compatriots, you’ll be able to survive even a shipwreck because you had all the anchors you needed to keep you afloat or to allow you to swim ashore safely.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, when the winds of life blow calm now, keep me humble and ready for any storm ahead by the planning and actions I take now – everyday – to be ready for any storm which might come. Amen
My Journal for Today: Pastor Swindoll is absolutely right as he writes in today’s devotional, "The best plan for surviving a storm is preparation.” A ship’s captain would never launch his vessel onto the open seas without going over the navigation charts and – these days – checking out the weather forecasts. If you’ve ever been on a cruise vessel, the first thing the crew goes over with the passengers are the emergency procedures. Think about those boring instructions which every flight crew goes over with the passengers on an airplane before the plane gets into the air; and I hope you pay attention to them before that plane takes off: because, though no plane or ship captain would ever want to go through what that pilot did by landing his plane in the Hudson River last year, he was well prepared for the emergency and all of his passengers survived because of his training and his pre-flight preparation. Because that pilot was so well trained and he knew exactly where to land that plane, those passengers all survived.
Today’s title for this devotional is the “Anchor of Reality;” and reality is an anchor as long as we, as Christians, carry that anchor into the reality of our future. As Swindoll points out, ”Passivity is faith’s enemy.” And to that I’d add a Pollyanna attitude that nothing bad will ever happen because we’re in Christ. No, the Boy Scouts have it right in their motto, which takes the anchor of reality into account as it declares … BE PREPARED!
My friend, what are you doing right now to prepare for a potential shipwreck or turbulent flight? When you get on a flight, are you lulled into passivity, apathy, and lack of attention as the crew instructs you on how to prepare for an emergency? Do you know where the nearest emergency exit is? Are you briefed and ready if the ship goes down in water to know where the flotation devices are; and do you know how to use them? Or have you been lulled into that “nothing bad will ever happen to me” attitude, which the enemy will use against you if/when a bad storm develops and the ship goes down.
That crew of that ship Paul was in all made it to shore because of the preparation they had taken just before ship broke up to surrender their leadership to Paul and to join him in prayer to the God of Abraham. My dear friend, what are you doing now, during the calm of life to prepare and make sure that you have the anchor of reality covered in the event your ship of life runs into a really bad storm? And if you’re in the storm right now, you may find, as Swindoll writes, that you’re having to use the pre-planning (or as we call it in our ministry – the “battle planning”) which you had done in the calm of life to deal with the storm.
Maybe you’re now having to find out that you have to humble yourself and find help from a competent Christian counselor to make it through a marital storm. Perhaps, you now recognize that those bad choices you made in the past, when you believed you could get away with some sin, have now come crashing down around you; and you have to take serious emergency procedures to save your marriage, your church, or your very life. That is why it’s best to humble yourself now and take preparatory actions to avoid the storms or to be prepared BEFORE they come your way. As my mentor used to tell me, ”Humble yourself now in your day-to-day worship of God, or He will humble you later when you’ve let pride take you down.”
And so, we need to ask ourselves …
• Am I taking decisive action to avoid the storms by having a disciplined DAILY devotional life and by having a written battle plan to avoid the potential pitfalls of life?
• Is my prayer life going deep to keep me humble and to deepen my relationship with Christ?
• Am I getting to know my God by studying Him through His word?
• Am I worshipping my God everyday by the choices I make, the people I serve, and the actions I use to honor our Lord?
Answers to these questions, by our life choices, will show whether we are carrying the anchors I written about in the last few days, the anchors of STABILITY, UNITY, RENEWAL, and then today, the anchor of REALITY.
If you’re ready for any storm of life because of the daily battle plan or preparation you’re making now to build your faith (i.e., your anchor), then you will not fear any storm which may be brewing ahead for which you cannot plan. And like the ship did when the storm hit Paul and his compatriots, you’ll be able to survive even a shipwreck because you had all the anchors you needed to keep you afloat or to allow you to swim ashore safely.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, when the winds of life blow calm now, keep me humble and ready for any storm ahead by the planning and actions I take now – everyday – to be ready for any storm which might come. Amen
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
2009 – Day 299.Oct 27 – A Thorn in the Flesh
Passage for Study: 2nd Corinthians 12: 1 – 10 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: I’m glad Swindoll is revisiting this passage in his exposé on Saul, who became Paul. I personally think we could park and preach here for many days; and I just looked ahead in Swindoll’s book; and that’s exactly what Pastor Chuck will be doing as we close out the month of October. So, get ready as we park here for a while.
And I love the word picture Swindoll uses to start his discussion about this thorn in the flesh, which became a storm of pain in Paul’s life. Swindoll writes, and it’s true, that on the high seas, especially in Paul’s times, a sailor knew to tie himself down on deck during a storm. He would secure himself to something solid with a rope so the raging waves could not wash him into the ocean. To do that, the sailor had to have learned that he was not strong enough to weather the storm. He had to set aside pride and humble himself to use the strength of something much more solid than himself. And here was Paul in the midst of a storm of pain, which God had allowed Satan to bring into his life.
And when I was first learning about this passage, I couldn’t help but think about Job, who strapped himself to God when Satan was allowed by God to bring all that pain into his life. Job’s Rock for his anchor was God, wasn’t it? And here was the Apostle Paul, who, by the way, had just experienced some extreme spiritual high after getting a vision of God’s glory in some way; and God allows Satan to brings this physical “thorn,” whatever it was, into Paul’s life. And you see what Paul does. He immediately goes to the One Whom he knows is capable of helping him deal with the pain. Yes, Paul, who was once Saul who had rejected Christ, now cries out to The Lord as the only One Who can help him deal with this storm. He anchors himself to The Rock in his storm of pain. Yes, with his anchor of faith, Paul anchors himself to God for help.
God, … being God, knew that Paul needed to learn – or relearn – the lesson that only in humility could Paul receive and use the grace that He, God, would freely offer Paul to anchor himself in this storm of pain. And so over and over and over again, Paul attaches himself to God with his anchor of faith in prayer; because Paul had learned, by this stage in his discipleship, that the grace of Christ was the only place to attach his tether of faith.
In fact, if you have a red-letter Bible, Paul quotes Christ directly, which is the only red-letter quote you will find in all of the Pauline epistles. You find it in that great line in 2nd Cor.. 12: 9, in which somewhere/sometime Christ had told Paul personally, “My grace is sufficient for you; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” And experiencing Satan’s storm of pain, Paul apparently learned the lesson that this storm of thorns was apparently necessary in his life so that he could deal with the pain. Job learned that lesson after faithfully going to God over and over again; and so Paul.
But now the question for us is, “Have we learned this lesson?”
My friend, when we have a storm of thorns come into our life, what do we do? Do we go the “Why me” questions first; or do we, in faith, strap our anchor to the Rock so that we can ride out the pain, praying to God saying, “What are You teaching me here, Lord?” Do we ask God what we can learn from the thorns, rather than why we’re going through the storm? I’m afraid all too often my default question is “WHY,” rather than “WHAT.” But here we see Paul had learned that God’s enabling grace is only released when we can set pride aside and come to our Lord, humbly, asking God WHAT we need to gather from the thorns of life.
I pray that we can lean that humility is the key to unlocking God’s strength when we don’t have the strength to weather the storms of life. Because only when we can do that will we be able to capture God’s strength from His grace to cover our human weakness.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, when the thorn storms come, may I be faithfully tethered to The Rock. Amen
My Journal for Today: I’m glad Swindoll is revisiting this passage in his exposé on Saul, who became Paul. I personally think we could park and preach here for many days; and I just looked ahead in Swindoll’s book; and that’s exactly what Pastor Chuck will be doing as we close out the month of October. So, get ready as we park here for a while.
And I love the word picture Swindoll uses to start his discussion about this thorn in the flesh, which became a storm of pain in Paul’s life. Swindoll writes, and it’s true, that on the high seas, especially in Paul’s times, a sailor knew to tie himself down on deck during a storm. He would secure himself to something solid with a rope so the raging waves could not wash him into the ocean. To do that, the sailor had to have learned that he was not strong enough to weather the storm. He had to set aside pride and humble himself to use the strength of something much more solid than himself. And here was Paul in the midst of a storm of pain, which God had allowed Satan to bring into his life.
And when I was first learning about this passage, I couldn’t help but think about Job, who strapped himself to God when Satan was allowed by God to bring all that pain into his life. Job’s Rock for his anchor was God, wasn’t it? And here was the Apostle Paul, who, by the way, had just experienced some extreme spiritual high after getting a vision of God’s glory in some way; and God allows Satan to brings this physical “thorn,” whatever it was, into Paul’s life. And you see what Paul does. He immediately goes to the One Whom he knows is capable of helping him deal with the pain. Yes, Paul, who was once Saul who had rejected Christ, now cries out to The Lord as the only One Who can help him deal with this storm. He anchors himself to The Rock in his storm of pain. Yes, with his anchor of faith, Paul anchors himself to God for help.
God, … being God, knew that Paul needed to learn – or relearn – the lesson that only in humility could Paul receive and use the grace that He, God, would freely offer Paul to anchor himself in this storm of pain. And so over and over and over again, Paul attaches himself to God with his anchor of faith in prayer; because Paul had learned, by this stage in his discipleship, that the grace of Christ was the only place to attach his tether of faith.
In fact, if you have a red-letter Bible, Paul quotes Christ directly, which is the only red-letter quote you will find in all of the Pauline epistles. You find it in that great line in 2nd Cor.. 12: 9, in which somewhere/sometime Christ had told Paul personally, “My grace is sufficient for you; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” And experiencing Satan’s storm of pain, Paul apparently learned the lesson that this storm of thorns was apparently necessary in his life so that he could deal with the pain. Job learned that lesson after faithfully going to God over and over again; and so Paul.
But now the question for us is, “Have we learned this lesson?”
My friend, when we have a storm of thorns come into our life, what do we do? Do we go the “Why me” questions first; or do we, in faith, strap our anchor to the Rock so that we can ride out the pain, praying to God saying, “What are You teaching me here, Lord?” Do we ask God what we can learn from the thorns, rather than why we’re going through the storm? I’m afraid all too often my default question is “WHY,” rather than “WHAT.” But here we see Paul had learned that God’s enabling grace is only released when we can set pride aside and come to our Lord, humbly, asking God WHAT we need to gather from the thorns of life.
I pray that we can lean that humility is the key to unlocking God’s strength when we don’t have the strength to weather the storms of life. Because only when we can do that will we be able to capture God’s strength from His grace to cover our human weakness.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, when the thorn storms come, may I be faithfully tethered to The Rock. Amen
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
2009 – Day 223.Aug 12 – Hold Everything Loosely
Passage of the Day: Focus on Job 1: 21 … 20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said: “ Naked I came from my mother’s womb, … And naked shall I return there. …The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; … Blessed be the name of the LORD.” 22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
My Journal for Today: Chuck Swindoll indicated that the title he used for today’s devotional, Hold Everything Loosely, could be a summary title for the entire first chapter of the book of Job. As I have studied this chapter with Swindoll these past days, I have been asking and challenging myself with the question, “How would I react if I lost everything, … including our daughters and their families?” Would my kneejerk response be to worship my God, … the One Who has given me all the blessings of this life I lead?
I know what it says in 1st Thes. 5: 18 and Eph. 5: 20 … that we are exhorted by God’s own word to thank our Lord in all things. But honestly, … I don’t know if I’m mature enough as a Christian to thank my Savior if He chose to take our children suddenly and without any apparently earthly or humanly understandable reason … as He did with Job. I’m afraid my flesh would react by crying out to God, saying something like, “Why, God?! It’s so unfair!!!”
But here I am safely able to read of Job and his worshipful reaction to all this horror brought upon him by Satan and allowed by God; and I can safely see that Job’s response was and is the model of our faith and trust in God. As Swindoll alludes, one can just imagine Satan seeing Job’s response to all the calamity he had wrought upon Job and having to admit to God, “Well, You were right, this man Job was more dedicated to You than I thought he would be.” So, without realizing it, Job’s response to all the horrible things which transpired was an “in your face” statement to Satan about the sovereignty of our God.
Job honestly and reactively was saying to anyone who observed his witness, “God is in control. He brought us into the world; and only He has the right to take us from it.” As Swindoll very aptly points out, and in his words, "We enter this world with our tiny fists clenched, screaming; but we always leave the world with hands open on our silent chests.” … Wow! What a word picture reminding us of the need to learn in life the ability to hold the valued things loosely, allowing God’s ownership and control to be acknowledged and exercised.
I hope we can all see from this first chapter in Job’s story, that God owns it all; and He can use it for His glory in any way He so chooses. … Hold it loosely, my friends.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You are God. You gave it to me; and You can take it away. Help me to remember and live by that truth. Amen
My Journal for Today: Chuck Swindoll indicated that the title he used for today’s devotional, Hold Everything Loosely, could be a summary title for the entire first chapter of the book of Job. As I have studied this chapter with Swindoll these past days, I have been asking and challenging myself with the question, “How would I react if I lost everything, … including our daughters and their families?” Would my kneejerk response be to worship my God, … the One Who has given me all the blessings of this life I lead?
I know what it says in 1st Thes. 5: 18 and Eph. 5: 20 … that we are exhorted by God’s own word to thank our Lord in all things. But honestly, … I don’t know if I’m mature enough as a Christian to thank my Savior if He chose to take our children suddenly and without any apparently earthly or humanly understandable reason … as He did with Job. I’m afraid my flesh would react by crying out to God, saying something like, “Why, God?! It’s so unfair!!!”
But here I am safely able to read of Job and his worshipful reaction to all this horror brought upon him by Satan and allowed by God; and I can safely see that Job’s response was and is the model of our faith and trust in God. As Swindoll alludes, one can just imagine Satan seeing Job’s response to all the calamity he had wrought upon Job and having to admit to God, “Well, You were right, this man Job was more dedicated to You than I thought he would be.” So, without realizing it, Job’s response to all the horrible things which transpired was an “in your face” statement to Satan about the sovereignty of our God.
Job honestly and reactively was saying to anyone who observed his witness, “God is in control. He brought us into the world; and only He has the right to take us from it.” As Swindoll very aptly points out, and in his words, "We enter this world with our tiny fists clenched, screaming; but we always leave the world with hands open on our silent chests.” … Wow! What a word picture reminding us of the need to learn in life the ability to hold the valued things loosely, allowing God’s ownership and control to be acknowledged and exercised.
I hope we can all see from this first chapter in Job’s story, that God owns it all; and He can use it for His glory in any way He so chooses. … Hold it loosely, my friends.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You are God. You gave it to me; and You can take it away. Help me to remember and live by that truth. Amen
Monday, June 22, 2009
2009 – Day 172.June 22 – The Big Leagues
2009 – Day 172.June 22 – The Big Leagues
Passage of the Day: 1st Kings 18: 41 – 46 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: You know, it’s pretty easy to read or study this passage Swindoll has had me look at for these last two days and get the impression that Elijah was some sort of superman of the faith. After all he stared down and executed 450 prophets of Baal. He had the faith to know that God was bringing rain again when he saw one little cloud. And somehow he was able to run faster than a chariot quite a distance (some commentaries say it was miles). Wow! What a guy! How could I be like an Elijah?
But fortunately from God’s word – His absolute truth – we also have a New Testament account which recounts this portion in the life of Elijah and puts it into proper perspective. James, the brother of Jesus, in the book by his authorship (see James 5: 16b – 18) does not picture Elijah as anyone other than the man he was. It says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…” And in those words we can come to the realization, thousands of years after Elijah’s confrontation with Ahab, we can pray to the same God to Whom Elijah prayed; and we can know that God loves our humility just as much as he loved the humble nature of His prophet. We can know that Elijah put on his tunic the same way we put on our clothes every day – covering the body of a sinner who was surrendered to his God. And as we read in 1st Kings, reinforced by the book of James, we can see that God can use any man (or woman) for His will and purpose as long as that one, like Elijah, is surrendered and humble before the Lord.
As Swindoll writes, ”No wonder Elijah is the kind of man we admire. Isn’t it exciting to know we serve the same God he served? Isn’t it thrilling to think we can trust the same God he trusted? … And what kind of God is that? He’s the God who makes promises and keeps them?”
I hope that anyone who’s reading me write this is as convicted and uplifted by that truth as am I. So, what is going on in your life right now to prevent you from going to the same God who brought the rains defeating drought for Elijah; … the same God who turned water into wine for Jesus; … the same God who raised His Son from the dead? My dear one, we’re in the big leagues of prayer. We can go to God’s throne of grace today and seek help or guidance or even victory over some fear-striking event in our life; but like Elijah we’ve got to look for the clouds on the horizon; and we’ve got to believe – and yes, I mean really BELIEVE - that the rains are on the way.
My Prayer for Today: I believe, Lord. Amen
Passage of the Day: 1st Kings 18: 41 – 46 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: You know, it’s pretty easy to read or study this passage Swindoll has had me look at for these last two days and get the impression that Elijah was some sort of superman of the faith. After all he stared down and executed 450 prophets of Baal. He had the faith to know that God was bringing rain again when he saw one little cloud. And somehow he was able to run faster than a chariot quite a distance (some commentaries say it was miles). Wow! What a guy! How could I be like an Elijah?
But fortunately from God’s word – His absolute truth – we also have a New Testament account which recounts this portion in the life of Elijah and puts it into proper perspective. James, the brother of Jesus, in the book by his authorship (see James 5: 16b – 18) does not picture Elijah as anyone other than the man he was. It says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours…” And in those words we can come to the realization, thousands of years after Elijah’s confrontation with Ahab, we can pray to the same God to Whom Elijah prayed; and we can know that God loves our humility just as much as he loved the humble nature of His prophet. We can know that Elijah put on his tunic the same way we put on our clothes every day – covering the body of a sinner who was surrendered to his God. And as we read in 1st Kings, reinforced by the book of James, we can see that God can use any man (or woman) for His will and purpose as long as that one, like Elijah, is surrendered and humble before the Lord.
As Swindoll writes, ”No wonder Elijah is the kind of man we admire. Isn’t it exciting to know we serve the same God he served? Isn’t it thrilling to think we can trust the same God he trusted? … And what kind of God is that? He’s the God who makes promises and keeps them?”
I hope that anyone who’s reading me write this is as convicted and uplifted by that truth as am I. So, what is going on in your life right now to prevent you from going to the same God who brought the rains defeating drought for Elijah; … the same God who turned water into wine for Jesus; … the same God who raised His Son from the dead? My dear one, we’re in the big leagues of prayer. We can go to God’s throne of grace today and seek help or guidance or even victory over some fear-striking event in our life; but like Elijah we’ve got to look for the clouds on the horizon; and we’ve got to believe – and yes, I mean really BELIEVE - that the rains are on the way.
My Prayer for Today: I believe, Lord. Amen
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