GOD DOES NOT LEAVE US EMPTY-HANDED
“For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away” (Matt. 25:29).
It is a common struggle to look at our lives and feel we have very little to offer the Kingdom of God. We easily fall into the trap of comparing ourselves with others and conclude that our contribution is too small to matter. Yet God never measures the value of your service by the size of your gift. Instead, He looks directly at the eagerness of your heart. Scripture reminds us that “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7b). When we give from a joyful, willing heart, our actions mirror the heart of God!
Recently, I awoke several times in the night with a specific passage on my mind: the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-29. In this well-known story, a wealthy master gives his servants different amounts of money before going on a long journey—one receives five talents, another two, and another just one. The thought that came to mind was that God will never send us out empty-handed. God always equips us for the task we have been given. The two-talent servant is not expected to produce the same output as the five-talent servant. You are never expected to be someone you are not or to do something God has not equipped you to do.
The master gave according to the servants’ abilities. If you are given less, that does not diminish your importance in God’s kingdom. In fact, the world needs two-talent leaders as much, if not more, than it does five-talent leaders. For example, consider the church landscape. The average U.S. church has fewer than 65 people attending Sunday morning worship. The five-talent leader would likely struggle to lead a relational, rural small church when equipped to serve a megachurch, leaving both the congregation and the pastor frustrated.
In his leadership books, John Maxwell discusses the law of the lid, which sets a limit on leadership ability. But having a leadership lid, or being a two-talent leader, is no less important. I prefer to call it being uniquely designed for a specific God-given assignment. Keep in mind that the reward for faithfulness is the same for the five-talent and two-talent servant (ref. Matt. 25:21 & 23).
The sad commentary in this story is the one-talent servant. His failure didn’t happen because his portion was small; it happened because of what he chose to do with it. Paralyzed by fear of failure and perhaps convinced that his small asset didn’t matter, he hid it in the ground. When we look at our own lives and claim we don’t have enough talent, time, or money to make a difference, we are essentially saying that God failed to equip us properly. His master called him “wicked and lazy.”
Your hands are not empty. “Little is much when God is in it!” Whatever God has placed in your care today, find an immediate way to use it for His glory. It may require stepping completely out of your comfort zone, sacrificing your personal time, or giving well beyond your current comfort level. Trust His infinite provision, step out in faith, and remember that, no matter how small it may feel, your hands are full of God’s potential!
Thank you for your faithfulness!
WRITE
“Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel, saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.’” (Jeremiah 30:2 NKJV)
I remember sitting in class in the fourth grade; thinking writing was a waste of time. In elementary school, we were made to keep a journal. I confused journaling with keeping a diary, an activity that I had heard that girls, not boys, do. So, I never liked it as a kid.
They say confession is good for the soul. As I grew up, I admit that I tried and failed many times to keep a journal, especially in my young adult years. Like I suspect many of you may also have, I still have several journals in my possession where only a couple of the first pages have been written on, and many more that have no writing. In fact, if I had ten dollars for every journal I’ve purchased and not really used, I could probably buy myself a nice gift.
It was only later in my ministry years that I became more persistent in journaling. Now, with time, journaling has become an invaluable tool that helps me greatly in my walk of faith. Among many other things, it has become a tool that helps me process the goings-on of my heart and remember experiences I would otherwise forget.
In Psalm 103:2, the Psalmist challenges us not to forget all of God’s benefits. Journaling is one practical way we can do that. When I journal, I’m taking this challenge to heart and remembering God’s benefits by literally writing them down, whether it’s deeper theological reflections from Scripture or simple, heartfelt things like the benefit of time with family or the benefit of belonging to my church family; or the benefit of attending a recent event where I was encouraged, etc.
Journaling may not be for everyone. But I do wholeheartedly encourage everyone to try, at least for a month, not missing a single day. I believe most people will find it beneficial—yes, you too—if you can just make the time for it. It will also give your family and future generations something to read from your heart after you’re long gone. That’s priceless.
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind while you make up your mind about journaling:
First, journaling gets easier the more you do it. The more you write, the better you write. Journaling even helps you communicate better outside of writing. On top of that, journaling also helps you discover what matters most to you as you communicate back and forth between your spirit and God’s Spirit, your heart and God’s heart, your mind and God’s thoughts.
Second, no one communicates like you do. No one will write or process quite like you will. So be yourself when you journal. Consider the Bible as an example. The 66 God-breathed books of our Bible are divided between at least 35 human authors, which means we get to learn about God while also enjoying the unique writing styles of a multitude of very different personalities. In a way, much of what’s written in Scripture is something like a Spirit-inspired journal of what has happened between God and his people in the past.
Third, always date and organize your journal. Dating your journal entries creates a kind of memory highway that stretches through time. Having such a highway enables you later on to take memory strolls that help you see and reflect on how God has blessed and moved in your life through the months and years. A digital journal will automatically date entries for you. In terms of organization, another perk to keeping a digital journal is the ability to quickly search and find keywords that help you retrieve comments about places and people scattered across many journal entries on your memory highway. For example, when I visit and preach at a church, I am sure to list the name of the church and the message I preached. Sometimes, I include the names of people I met as well.
Fourth, reserve your journal for the heart and the mind, not for the business and logistics of life. If you need to document certain things that happen in your life for more business-like purposes, I suggest recording such things outside your spiritual journal. Find an alternative place where you can write down—as Sgt. Joe Friday, in the 1960s TV drama Dragnet, would say—“just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.” Save your personal journal for your spirit and the Holy Spirit to share things together.
Finally, don’t overthink it, and don’t be legalistic towards yourself. Just like the clothes I wear may not represent everyone else’s style, I recognize that just because journaling works well for me, it may not be something that fits well with where you feel “you’re currently at” in life. That’s fine. No pressure. Consider this just a sincere invitation from a fellow journeyer and journaler to try out something that might just be helpful—as well as an honest encouragement that if you do decide to try journaling out, you should also try to keep it up for at least a month before quitting. Give it time to sink and settle in before you make up your mind about it.
Either way, journal or no journal, I believe you will enjoy this humble devotional book the Lord inspired my heart to write (but I will leave that for you to decide). Hopefully, each week, you will be encouraged, challenged, and invited to draw nearer to the Lord, encountering certain thoughts and words along the way that may feel just important enough to put to pen and paper. So, keep a pen and paper close by…just in case.
Most of all, I simply want to say thank you in advance. Thanks for taking this journey with me for the next 52 weeks. Through it, my prayer is that you see and remember God’s many benefits to you, for you, around you, and through you.
May God richly bless you as we journey (and possibly journal) together.
Daily Inspiration: “A journal helps you face where you are, so you can get to where you need to be.” (David Jeremiah)
Weekly Challenge: Each week, this devotional will include a practical challenge. Think of it as an invitation and encouragement to find ways you can live in the real world what is discussed in these pages.
Leaders’ Corner: For all those who wish to glean from the world of leadership, the Leaders’ Corner section will include an additional challenge tailored to those serving in positions of ministry leadership. However, please bear in mind that the Leaders’ Corner is inclusive, not exclusive. All of us are leaders in some form or fashion since all of us have an influence on the lives of others in some form or fashion. That said, the Leaders’ Corner will often (if not always) feature a challenge that would be profitable to anyone’s life—regardless of what official title you may or may not go by.
Praying Scripture: This section is self-explanatory. It includes a Scripture and a short prayer inspired by it. For this week, read and pray with me:
“Let this be recorded for future generations, so that a people not yet born will praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18)
Lord, during these next 52 weeks, help me to write the things that will give you the most praise, if not on paper, then at least on my heart and mind. While traveling on this devotional journey, I pray that the Holy Spirit will inspire me with thoughts both in and beyond what I read that will help me each day. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
FINISH
“Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have.” (2 Corinthians 8:11)
Have you ever started something you soon wanted to quit? Like a thousand-piece puzzle, you realized it was more challenging than you’d imagined, so you put the pieces back in the box for another day (which usually never comes). Or, like a furniture refinishing project you soon wanted to abandon when you realized getting the old stain off was harder than putting the new stain on.
My bookshelf is home to many half-read books and half-written journals. Interest simmers and interruptions happen, and my mission is often abandoned soon after starting. Great ideas and good intentions are often assassinated by difficulty, distraction, and disinterest.
The early church at Corinth struggled with this issue. Some of their congregation members were spiritual babies, while others seemed more grown in their faith. Yet they all shared one thing in common: failing to finish. They started with great enthusiasm. However, their interest had diminished, and what was once a promise had become a “perhaps.”
Does this hit close to home for you? Are there promises you’ve not kept? God-given assignments you’ve neglected? Good things left undone? If so, Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church may just inspire you to keep going.
Here is my advice: It would be good for you to finish what you started a year ago. Last year, you were the first who wanted to give, and you were the first to begin doing it. Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. (2 Corinthians 8:10,11)
Eugene Peterson paraphrases the same passage this way: “Finish what you started last year, and [don’t] let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart’s been in the right place all along. You’ve got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it.”
While the situational context for Paul’s words specifically had to do with the Corinthian church’s financial giving, we can discern a few faith principles that extend beyond just the realm of tithes and gifts:
- Finish well – It can often feel more exciting or easier to just start something new rather than finish something old. The temptation is to underappreciate how starting and finishing are intimately related to one another. Finishing one thing well helps you start the next thing better (and the opposite is also true). This means each is equally as important as the other and, more than that, also dramatically affected by the other.
- Finish eagerly – Paul encourages the Corinthians to finish with the same zeal they had when they first made their promise. This isn’t Paul telling them to always feel happy about it. Zeal is something chosen and doesn’t always overlap with our emotions. Serving the Lord eagerly is a concrete faithfulness in our hearts, not a subjective matter of our emotions, which come and go, rise and fall. While feelings matter, faithfulness is the real prize.
- Do what you can, not what you can’t – Have you ever heard anyone say, “Lord, if I had more, I would give more.” Not likely. What you don’t give now because of an excuse, you likely won’t give later because of another excuse. Furthermore, it’s important to remember that God doesn’t count size; he counts sincerity. In other words, God doesn’t expect you to give from what you don’t have but from what you do have. Today, ask God to help you do what you can, not worrying about what you can’t.
So, reflect. What’s left unfinished? What’s waiting for you? Or maybe it’s a who that’s waiting for you? Today, lay your cards on God’s table. Withhold no honesty from Him and receive grace from Him. Ask God to help you complete what He’s given you to do, remembering all the while who He is and the good promise He made to you. As Eugene Peterson paraphrases Philippians 1:6, “There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.”
In other words, God is completely committed to you. Let that sink in for a moment. Let the assurance of God’s ongoing commitment to you enliven your ongoing commitment to Him. Let the promise of God’s great finishing work drive you ever toward and through your finish lines. Don’t give up. Press on. Keep going. You’ve got what it takes. Finish.
Daily Inspiration: “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’” (Erma Bombeck)
Weekly Challenge: In your journal this week, write down a few things you started but still need to complete. You may want to write down a few promises you made to God or to others that are still incomplete as well. Then, ask God to show you where to devote your time and effort. You have what it takes to finish!
Leaders’ Corner: Do you know someone who started with great intentions but whose excitement has since cooled off? Consider having a loving conversation with them about unfinished assignments. Then, be ready to help them to decide which tasks and decisions are most important. If appropriate,offer to come alongside them as they complete their assignment. The assignment may be more significant than they can handle alone. A little help will go a long way!
Praying Scripture: “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6)
Lord, I know that you desire to complete what you have started within me. Please help me stay on course, complete the assignments, and finish well. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
LOVE
“Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy.” (Philippians 1:3,4)
I can’t explain it! Recently, I experienced an overflow of love for other people I’ve had a hard time explaining. Several times, I’ve sat down to write this devotion, only to then find myself at a loss for words to describe the feeling. Of course, Carissa and I have always loved those we serve, but this is different. Somehow, just a few days ago, a profound love for others began to swell up within me. Something I certainly couldn’t manufacture in myself. So, I turned to Scripture to help put language to this fresh outpouring of love.
There are several places I could have looked, but the one that most caught my attention is the story of the Apostle Paul’s transformation in Acts. We first meet Paul when his name is still “Saul” and when his job is to persecute and eliminate Christians. Then, almost before we can blink, Saul becomes Paul, and Paul becomes a builder of the very thing he once sought to destroy. The self-righteous murderer who once breathed out threats has become a humble man whose words now gush with love.
How can this be? The answer is simple, yet the power behind it is profound.
Paul met Jesus.
Specifically, Paul met the glorified Jesus. A Jesus, no longer in weakness but now in power, risen from the dead and seated in heaven at his Father’s right hand, having been revealed as the very embodiment and final fulfillment of God’s righteous, everlasting love for the world. And, in view of that, what happened to Paul is what happens to all of us when we are struck with awe at the risen Lord of Life:
He was dramatically, radically, permanently changed.
As the story goes in Acts 9, while traveling on the Damascus road a bright light shone down from heaven and enveloped the ground where Paul and his companions were traveling in fearsome, blinding glory. Naturally, Paul fell to the ground. In the dust, he heard a voice calling his name and asking him a convicting question.
“Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
From this overwhelming experience, Paul’s heart and mind would never be the same. He could never be Saul again, for he had seen Christ’s glory. He could only ever, from this point forward, be Paul: a humble servant and impassioned lover of the Lord of glory he’d just met.
Later in his ministry, Paul found himself sitting in prison one day, possibly in Rome around 62 A.D., thinking about the believers he had so come to love, and he felt his heart burst forth with what I felt mine did the other day. It was a profound and joyous thanksgiving. “Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy.” (Philippians 1:3,4)
I imagine those around Paul had difficulty understanding why he was so happy and grateful, especially considering his current imprisonment. But like my own recent experience, this wasn’t something Paul manufactured within himself on his own merit. It was surely because Paul held in his heart the same glory he had seen on the Damascus Road. Because of this, God’s people stayed perpetually on his mind.
So, he spent time praying for those he loved and did so with joy. Who might you be praying for this week?
Later in this same letter, Paul writes, “So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart….” (Philippians 1:7a) As I read this verse aloud, I can’t imagine Paul not also speaking aloud what he was writing, voicing with great emotion how special a place in his heart God’s beloved people held. He adds, “God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:8).
Paul was experiencing what God also intends for you to experience, namely, the spill-over effect of Jesus’ glory.
Glory never stays locked up. By its very nature, glory must break out. It insists on spilling over the edges of the vessel containing it. And when Christ’s glory spills over the edges of who we are, it generates an overflow of Christ’s love that fills, first, our hearts and then our lives. It is an internal and external flood of abundance. It is God bearing the fruit of love from the seeds of glory.
Today, I pray that Jesus’ love will grow from Jesus’ glory in you. I pray it would fill you to the brim and then spill over the edges of your heart, splashing into the world around you. But don’t just let me pray that over you. Ask for it yourself.
Ask God, as Paul says in Philippians 1:9, that “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.” Ask God to let you feel his love for people. Ask him to help you pray for them. And ask that your prayers for them would begin to feel the way Paul’s did for his people. Like the profound joy and thankfulness, he describes in another letter he sent to another group of people he loved dearly, the Colossians:
“Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgiving. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you!” (Colossians 1:3 MSG).
Daily Inspiration:“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?” (Bob Hope)
Weekly Challenge:
Is there someone that you are having a difficult time loving? Ask God to help you to love others more, including and especially the ones you may love the least.
Leaders’ Corner: People may not remember what you say or do, but they will often remember how you expressed your love to them. Ask God to help you love those you serve.
Praying Scripture: “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Lord, thank you for faith, hope, and love. Help me to love others as you love me. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
DARKNESS
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4 NKJV)
Over the years, I have walked through dark seasons with so many individuals and so many families. I’ve sat in hospital rooms and hospice homes with people as they struggled for their last breath. I’ve watched families gather around the bed of a dying loved one, weeping as they clung to the final fleeting moments of life. I have comforted families when brothers, sisters, parents, children, or other loved ones were killed suddenly in car accidents.
Fortunately, we know such tragedy is not the end of the story. Death is merely a sad semi-colon before Christ’s eventual exclamation point. In Christ, we have the certainty of healing and life beyond suffering and death. But even that hope doesn’t always make it easier. Knowing dawn is on the way does not always make the darkness of night feel less threatening.
David knew this well. He compares such painful moments in life to “dark valleys” (or “valleys of the shadow of death,” depending on your Bible translation). As a man himself well acquainted with grief, David helps us navigate our own dark valleys by reminding us of that which he found to be true in his own pain: namely, that in such times, trust is better than strength.
Rather than trying to force ourselves toward self-made peace, we instead simply grab hold of the supernatural peace God offers us. Rather than pretending nothing’s wrong, we are to reach toward the God who sees and cares. Rather than relying on our own willpower, we are to rest in the all-powerful, all-present One who creates, heals, redeems, renews, and, ultimately, resurrects.
Solomon also points us to this Lord of life when he teaches about life in Proverbs 3:6 NKJV. “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” This call to acknowledge God in our ways and the ensuing promise that the Lord will, in turn, direct our paths applies to even (and perhaps especially) those particularly dark moments through which we all must sometimes walk.
Solomon gives this instruction and promise, knowing fully that for every step we take in our darkest moments, another set of steps is forming right alongside our own. Our Master is walking with us, holding and leading us. And our Good Shepherd is not just present to watch us in our distress from a distance. He is there to protect and comfort us.
We are not alone. God is close.
David adds another layer to this comforting promise when he writes, “Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.” As a young shepherd, his staff and rod were David’s go-to, must-have tools of the trade. On the old television program, MacGyver always seemed to have a roll of duct tape in his back pocket. Like MacGyver with his duct tape, so was David with his rod and his staff.
David’s rod would often be used to defend his father’s flock from the attack of vicious wild animals. His staff was a multi-task tool, used to lead the sheep in the right direction, to help untangle a sheep caught in a bush, or to lift one to safety that had fallen into a hole, or sometimes just to lean on when he himself became weary.
What David is saying in Psalm 23 is what Jesus says of Himself in John 10—that our Lord is like a Good Shepherd. David saw God doing for him what he tried to do for his own sheep. And it’s what God still does for us today.
He is comforting. He is guiding. He is protecting. He is loving. For you are his sheep, and he will move heaven and earth to lead you toward his green pastures and quiet waters.
Perhaps you’ve walked through a dark moment recently. Or maybe someone you love has. Or, if not now, perhaps you’re anxious something dark may happen in the future.
Let the words of Psalm 23:4 steady your soul and bring hope to your heart: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
Daily Inspiration: “Has the world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.” (C. S. Lewis)
Weekly Challenge: Alongside Psalm 23, I also encourage you to read Psalm 27 every morning this week. Meditate upon the encouraging truth that “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?” And upon how, “The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid.” Let Psalm 27 be like a rod and staff for you, giving you comfort and helping you fight off the enemy’s vicious attack.
Find comfort in the last verse of Psalm 27 when David writes, “Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say on the Lord!“
Leaders’ Challenge:As a leader, whether you hold an official title or not, you will have opportunities to walk through difficult times alongside others. I have often been found at a loss for words in times like these, but simply being there for the family and the person speaks volumes. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you know when to speak, what to say, and also when to share love by simply saying nothing. People need to know that you care and are willing to walk through this time with them.
Praying Scripture: “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.” (Romans 8:26)
Sometimes, Lord, I don’t know what to pray when individuals and families go through difficult days. Sometimes, I am at a loss for words. Yet, I know the Holy Spirit will help in times like this. Holy Spirit, pray through me what you desire to pray in times like this. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
LEGACY
“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.” (Proverbs 13:22 NKJV)
I was asked once by some very close peers in a leadership meeting, “What legacy would you like to leave behind? What do you want to accomplish that people will remember you by?” I am thankful for this question. It has lingered with me for the past several years, and I have occasionally asked myself the same thing.
What does God desire for you to do in life that will leave a lasting mark on others?
Solomon tells us, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children….” As we read these words, it’s important to remember that for Solomon, good equals godly. When Solomon speaks about “a good man,” he is speaking of someone who is wholeheartedly committed to the things of God in this lifetime. When we live in God’s ways, we, too, will lay a godly foundation upon which our children and grandchildren can keep building.
Think about it like this: the future doors to success for our children will hinge (in part) on our current obedience to God. If we follow God wholeheartedly, though we’re imperfect, the excellent and godly example we give to our grandchildren through our current obedience will live on forever.
While most of my grandparents passed away when I was young, I remember certain things about them that live on. Like the prayers at night, my grandmother prayed when we visited them in South Georgia. Or like the godly examples of my mother’s parents, whom we had the opportunity to live behind on the other side of their creek. Neither set of grandparents had much financial wealth. But the wealth of spiritual wisdom and valuable lessons I learned from them are invaluable and live on today.
There are plenty of characters in the Bible who left such a legacy. People like Abraham, Joseph, Ruth, Esther, and Daniel:
- Abraham left behind a reputation for being a friend of God.
- Joseph showed us that we can move from prison to palace when we are people of integrity who exercise self-control and compassion and navigate both the best and worst moments in life with an unshakeable sense of divine purpose.
- Ruth was a prime example of a woman with a motivated work ethic and a faithful love for God.
- Esther showed us how being faithful, courageous, and obedient all at the same time can help us find favor with God and others. She also shows us that, no matter when we live, we were born for such a time as this.
- Job leaves behind the legacy of a man who trusted God, no matter what.
- Last but not least, Daniel left behind the legacy of a man who prayed. A man who would go upstairs to his room, open the windows of his house, and pray so that the windows of heaven opened up. God blessed Daniel abundantly.
But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to God.” (Daniel 6:10)
One of the best definitions of legacy I’ve read is this: “Something that you set in motion and pass down to make someone else’s life easier or to help them have a better starting point than you did.”
So, what are you setting in motion and passing down to make your future generation’s lives easier? What will your children’s children remember you for?
It is never too late or too early to begin focusing on what you hope to leave behind and how you desire to lift up the generations coming after you.
Daily Inspiration: “If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that cannot be erased.” (Author Unknown)
Weekly Challenge: This week, in your journal, write down three things you desire to be remembered by. You may be tempted to generalize this list, but consider drilling down to specifics. For example, one of mine is to “finish well.” It sounds good to “finish well,” but how? What is a good mile marker that will help indicate whether you are going in the right direction toward finishing well?
If you are not sure or haven’t ever given this any thought, take time to ask God to show you what it is that you need to leave behind.
Leaders’ Corner: Every good leader leaves something behind. What leadership traits do you have that will help inspire the next person who serves in your place of leadership? What do you do now that your successor can build on?
Be deliberate. Be purposeful about this. Leave an intentional legacy for others to follow.
Praying Scripture: “When they came to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away.’ And Elisha replied, ‘Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor.” (2 Kings 2:9)
Lord, I sincerely desire that my grandchildren would be blessed and that they could inherit a legacy from me that will help them achieve their goals in life. And that they, too, will leave a legacy behind that will bless their grandchildren.
For those who follow me in leadership, help me lay a foundation that they can build on. I want to see the kingdom of God continue to grow. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen!
FORGIVENESS
“Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.” (Psalm 51:1, 2)
Has your fellowship with God ever felt broken, strained, or interrupted? Does sin sometimes stand in the way of you developing a closer relationship with your heavenly Father? None of us is perfect (me included). Like the rest of us, I sometimes mess up either by doing something I shouldn’t or, as the apostle James describes in James 4:17, by not doing something I should. In moments like these, the sorrow I feel often compels me to borrow David’s pained words in Psalm 51 and speak them as my own personal prayer. Especially the part where he cries out, “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.”
I remember the words I prayed to God as I was being rolled on a stretcher to receive a heart catheterization while experiencing a heart attack not so long ago. I was unsure whether I would make it through the day or not. I wanted to make certain my spiritual heart was good, regardless of the trauma my physical heart was going through at the moment. Like David, I wanted God to “Create in me a clean heart” and to “Renew a loyal spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)
The context to Psalm 51’s pained prayer is King David’s experience with the grief of his own sin. As the story goes, at a later point in his kingly career—after having experienced much success and favor—King David made an unwise decision that put him in the wrong place at the wrong time. As he remained behind from his responsibilities, lounging at home while his men were at war, he saw something he shouldn’t have. He laid eyes on a beautiful woman, Bathsheba, while she bathed. Lust seized him, and King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, first in his heart and then in person.
David’s sin went from bad to worse when he then tried to hide his offense by engineering the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, in battle. Things tend to get worse when we willingly sin and then hide it from God, don’t they? Days and weeks passed. David may have begun thinking he had successfully hidden his sin and dodged consequence. But eventually, the prophet Nathan came along and blew his cover, pointing at David and declaring with the kind of fiery accuracy only a prophet has: “You are the man!”
Tragic. God had done so many things for David and would have done so many more if David had just asked. God had chosen and anointed David as king of Israel over his elder brothers and given him success and good things. Apparently, this was not enough. David ignored God’s Word and, in this bad sequence, did one terrible deed after another, leading to a broken fellowship with God and a marred reputation in history ever since.
Yet David’s tragedy shows us something else we must not forget. We see not only David’s sin and its painful consequences but also God’s rich mercy and abundant forgiveness. We are reminded that even in our worst moments, we are never without somewhere to turn. Never too far gone, never too hopeless, the mercy of God will always be right by our side, eager to receive us and ready to renew us.
Today, read Psalm 51 and meditate on three things:
- Forgiveness is the very nature of God. He wants to forgive. Because of this, David finds the confidence to ask for total release from his guilt. “Wash me clean from my guilt.”
- God not only forgives, he also forgets. He doesn’t hold your mistakes over your head. Because of this, David has hope for being made pure again. “Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”
- God not only forgives and forgets, but he also restores. He doesn’t want you to carry on wallowing in shame and self-pity. He wants you back in action and restored in intimacy. Because of this, David felt the courage to ask God to, “Give me back my joy again… Then I will teach sinners your ways.”
Be encouraged and instructed by David’s prayer of repentance. Let it guide you in your own prayers of repentance. More than that, let it bring to your memory the kind of God you serve. How good He is, in that his forgiveness always comes with his promise to forget, renew, and restore. How good He is that his mercy, compassion, and unfailing love—three things we always need—are three things always in endless supply.
Daily Inspiration: “When God forgives, He at once restores.” (Theodore Epp)
Weekly Challenge: None of us like admitting we need Psalm 51. Many of us would rather skip this chapter, but it is there for our benefit. I am glad this is my “go-to” chapter for forgiveness.
Currently, are you experiencing close fellowship with God, or has it been interrupted because of sin? Write in your journal anything you know you have done against God’s Word—but make sure to use a pencil for this exercise. Pray and ask God’s forgiveness. Once you have prayed, erase what you wrote.
As surely as you have erased those sins from your journal, so surely has God erased them from his own mind. “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).
Leader’s Corner: As a leader, Psalm 51 is a great chapter to memorize. If you cannot remember all of it, work on a few verses that will help you as you witness to others. It is also an excellent prayer for leaders to pray as well.
Praying Scripture: “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:10)
Lord, create within me a clean heart. Renew a loyal spirit within me and restore my fellowship with You. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
RUN
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
As a junior in high school, I participated in the wrestling program. We would run four miles a day and up and down the gym bleachers several times before beginning practice. I thought I was in physically good shape and ran a good portion of the summer before starting training, but I quickly found out that I was not ready for the amount of running required. Over half of the guys dropped out after the first two weeks. It wasn’t easy.
At the start of the season, I wrestled in the 138-pound weight class, but after Christmas, we were required to drop one weight class. For me, that meant dropping to the 132-pound weight class. “What’s six pounds?” I thought. Six pounds isn’t much—unless you already don’t have much to lose, and you have to scrounge looking for any possible extra weight to cut. It was more difficult than I imagined, but the purpose was important: eliminating excess weight would help prevent me from being slowed down or tripped up.
God often compares our life to a race. Like my old wrestling days, in Hebrews 12:1, the writer compares the Christian to a runner needing to strip off, remove, and lay down excess weight that could slow us down or trip us up. This spiritual weight comes in all sizes and forms and is often well-hidden in areas we rarely think to look. Unpleasant attitudes, unwanted habits, and uninvited fear are all ways Satan disguises extra weight in our lives. His aim is to cause you to stop running hard or, better yet, drag you down altogether.
What are some things that have slowed you down or tripped you up while running your spiritual race? And how do you usually address these unpleasant, unwanted, and uninvited burdens in your life?
The Bible tells us to lay them aside, to strip them off, and to remove them. Sounds straightforward enough. But overcoming these things does not happen automatically. It takes courageous, purposeful effort on our end. First, we must identify the weight. Then, we must choose to remove it.
God’s Word—the Holy Spirit’s sword and shining light—is crucial in this endeavor. Reading and meditating on God’s Word shines light on these excess weights (exposing them) and also provides us the instruction and power to help throw them off (directing and encouraging us). With the truth and power of God’s Word regularly pouring into your spirit, the Holy Spirit works to purify you and to help you run your race with endurance.
Endurance is a key word we’re quick to overlook. In a society that worships comfort and convenience and speed, this word can feel discomforting and inconvenient and frustratingly slow. Running with endurance means running ready for the long haul. It implies running when things are going well and when they are not, when life feels like a demanding uphill, as well as when life feels like an easy downhill. It means we stay fit to run in all circumstances.
But to do that, even though courageous effort and purposeful action are certainly required on our end, developing long-haul endurance can never become solely about our effort. You and I are simply not strong enough or good enough. We need a better source of hope than the person we see looking back at us in the mirror.
Our hope must always be Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. His grace must remain the power by which we start, endure, and complete the race set before us. We must continually encourage ourselves to keep taking each step by remembering that Jesus himself, through His Spirit, is running in step with us from the beginning and will be there in step with us all the way through to the end. His presence is our hope. His love is our strength. His words are our True North, showing us where to plant each next step and where the good finish line will be.
Keep your eyes fixed, not on yourself or your efforts, but on Him. Your Champion and your Author. Only then can you run with the kind of patient endurance required to stick it out over the long haul. Jesus has already charted the course and gone before you. Now will never be the time to quit. So shake off the excess weight and run your race well.
Receive this encouragement as though the Lord’s Spirit himself were speaking to you right now:
Keep on running. You can make it. Quitting is not the answer. Stay in the race!
Daily Inspiration: “The harder the hill, the steeper the climb, the better the view from the finishing line.” (Paul Newman)
Weekly Challenge: From time to time, I have to be reminded that I am carrying around excessive weight. This week, ask God to show you if there is anything in your life that may be slowing you down or causing you to fall short of the finish line. Instead of writing this in your journal, find somewhere that can act like an altar in your home and place your burdens there. Remember, Jesus is sitting on the right side of the Father, praying for you.
Leaders’ Challenge: To be a leader for Christ, we must first know how to be a follower of Christ. Examine your heart and ask God to help you identify any weight or sin in your life that may not be acceptable to God. Then, ask God to help you lay it aside and follow him so others may follow your example.
Praying Scripture: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Psalm 139:23,24)
Lord, search me and know my heart. Point out anything in me that offends you and leads me along the path of everlasting life. I pray in this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
[1] Winstonmedical.org, Winston Medical Center, Human Brain Facts
[2] Northwestern Medicine, “11 Fun Facts About Your Brain,” https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/11-fun-facts-about-your-brainspiritual nourishment than his love, which we should always desire.” (John Owen)
PRAYER
“Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is the will of God for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (I Thessalonians 5:16,17,18)
At an early age I learned how to pray at night. This simple nighttime prayer is what many of us learned as children, “Down to lay me, down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep… God bless mommy, daddy, etc.” Sometimes, I would try to name off extended family members to give me more time before falling asleep.
At mealtimes, we would pray, “God is great, God is good, thank you for this food. Amen!” I prayed this prayer at a much different speed than my nighttime prayer. Unlike slowing down my nighttime prayer by naming off extended family members so I could stay awake longer, I would pray the meal prayer as fast as possible to get to the food quicker. So quickly sometimes that my parents would tell me, “Timothy, slow down and repeat it.”
I’ve grown and changed, but praying has remained a significant and vital part of my life. I cannot imagine going through life without praying. Today, sadly, this is commonly not true for many people. How sad it is that many children are growing up in homes that never pray.
My own home was just the beginning of my learning to pray. In our youth services on Sunday nights, we always concluded the service by praying Psalm 19:14 (KJV) – “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” I learned also in our regular Church services. In my church culture, our services always included several different prayers. At a minimum, we prayed at the beginning, during the offering, for the sick, and at the end of the service—and even more prayers would often fill in the gaps between songs and preaching as well.
Today, when visiting the sick, I am always glad for the opportunity to pray. In the days when semi-private hospital rooms were more common in my culture, I would not only pray for the person I was visiting but would find out the names of others in the room and pray for them, too. There is something about slowing ourselves and stopping to pray. God’s power and presence is there.
Which, unsurprisingly, is why Paul makes such a big deal of prayer. In his letter to the Philippians, while sitting in a prison cell surrounded by guards and wondering what would happen to him next, Paul encouraged the church at Philippi to worry about nothing and instead pray about everything. Elsewhere, to the Thessalonians, Paul says to pray without ceasing.
Springboarding off Paul’s example and encouragement, Rick Renner instructs us not to pray fretful prayers but faith-filled prayers when we pray. In other words, when we pray, we are not to focus on our problem, what we don’t have, or what’s going differently than it should be going. Instead, we are to stir our hearts to instead focus on the God who can supply our needs according to his riches in glory!
Practically speaking, one of the most helpful prayer disciplines is praying the scriptures. Fortunately for us, there is a true abundance of passages in the Bible that can be used directly as inspiration and content for prayer. In fact, an article I recently read stated that there are some 650 prayers recorded in the Bible. That’s plenty of material to get us started and keep us going. With that amount of help, we can truly pray like Paul encouraged the Philippians and Thessalonians to pray—about everything and without stopping!
Below are just a few of my favorite Bible passages to voice while praying:
- Daily Prayer – Matthew 6:9-13
- Prayer for Forgiveness – Psalm 51
- Prayer for Family – Numbers 6:24-26
- Prayer for Friends – 3 John 1:2
- Prayer for Protection – Psalm 91
- Prayer for Healing – James 5:14, 15
- Prayer for Speech – Psalm 19:14
Sometimes, life is easy. Often, it’s difficult. But whether easy or difficult, we need to stop what we are doing, take a deep breath, and pray daily! Let us determine that, if we fail to do anything else, we will be a people determined to pray!
Daily Inspiration: “The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray.” (E.M. Bounds)
Weekly Challenge: Above are seven places of scripture for prayer. Take one a day for the next week and meditate on these verses. Take time to write the names of different people from different groups (family, friends, co-workers, etc.) for each day. Allow the Holy Spirit to direct your prayers as you pray.
Leaders’ Corner: As a leader, consider starting and finishing all meetings with prayer. Consider asking different participants ahead of time if they would lead in prayer. Other times, you will need to be the one who prays.
Praying Scripture: “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:9-13)
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” (Philippians 4:6)
GLORY
“O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens!” (Psalm 8:1)
Recently, I’ve been thinking about the glory of the Lord, weighing its measurelessness in my mind again and again, over and over. Psalm 8, specifically, has weighed heavily on my heart and mind the past few days. This morning at 4 a.m. I walked out on my back porch, looked up, and gazed out into the vast handiwork of God. Waiting for me, there was a full moon and thousands of stars. I was awestruck and wished I had a telescope.
Thousands of years earlier, a shepherd boy named David lay awake at night doing the same thing I did. He, too, was struck with awe by the same moon and stars God long ago set in place for both of us to marvel at. David said, “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” (Psalm 8:3,4) Looking at the magnificent heavens God created leaves one with an appropriate feeling of smallness and the honest question: Why would God bother with little ol’ me? David felt this, too.
But then David’s tune changed. Picking up his stringed instrument, he began to sing his surprise at God’s goodness toward little ol’ us. “Yet you made them (mere mortals) only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:5) God crowns us with glory and honor. How could this be?
The Hebrew word for crowned, atar, means to show honor and authority. Turns out, God desires that we would live with authority and honor, reflecting His glory.
Having been made in God’s own image, we have been given authority over “the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean current.” (Psalm 8:7,8) When I go fishing, I sometimes remind God, even though he doesn’t need reminding, that the fish in the lake should be subject to me and not me to them.
But it is more than just authority over fish and animals. God desires us to live in dominion over the counterfeit so-called “gods” of this world. Paul says: Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? (Galatians 4:8,9)
Eugene Peterson calls these lifeless things that compete with God’s glory in us “tin gods.” These tin gods, these flimsy things, cannot outright control us, but we can foolishly choose to become their servants, subjecting ourselves to their bondage. They offer us a cheap knock-off of what we have in Christ. Because of this, Paul begs us to remember how much better life is in Christ. We were once enslaved to the gods of this world, he cries, but no longer. We have been set free by the blood of Jesus. We now live, not gnawing on table scraps, but passing continually from glory to glory in Christ.
“So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
You were made to reflect and know God’s glory. To walk in His honor and authority as you “live and move and exist” within Him, as Paul says in Acts 17:28. You were made to taste and see the rich, unbridled beauty of God in the world and in your own life.
But sometimes, even while following Christ, life doesn’t feel glorious. Sometimes, when we look at our struggling selves in the mirror, what we see is less than glamorous. But God calls us not to judge the way a broken human would, but rather to see ourselves as He does. To look by faith through eyes illumined by His glory.
While you (and other people, too) may often place yourself under a microscope in order to magnify faults in your life, God takes the opposite approach. As though peering through a telescope, God sees the bigger picture being drawn in us by his own grace. Because of His own Son’s righteousness, God overlooks our flaws and traces out the greater work of glory, progressively unfolding and filling our lives as His Spirit lives, breathes, and moves within us.
And the Father is filled with joy at what He sees unfolding in his children. In you, his dear son or daughter.
So let your conclusion be today that which David’s was when he weighed his own weak frame against God’s infinite glory: “O Lord, our Lord your majestic name fills the earth!” (Psalm 8:9)
Daily Inspiration: “It was the greatest honor God did to man that he made man in the image of God: but it is the greatest dishonor man has done to God that he has made God in the image of man.” (Matthew Henry)
Weekly Challenge: What do you think about the truth that you’ve been made in the image of God? Spend time looking in the Bible this week and asking God to reveal how you best reflect his image. Remember that you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Spend time this week thanking God for his grace in your life and ask him to help you look more like Jesus daily.
Leaders’ Corner: This week, in your journal, write down a verse each day about God’s glory. Learning more about his glory will help you understand how to reflect his glory better.
Praying Scripture: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
From the very beginning, Lord, we have been made in your image. Help us to reflect your image so that others will see Christ through our lives. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
FAVOR
“Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck” as a reminder. Write them deep within your hearts. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation.” (Proverbs 3:3,4)
Have you ever heard anyone say, “I don’t care what people think about me.”? That statement is probably untrue for most of us. In fact, there are certain things I do every morning that are motivated by “what others will think.” If we’re honest, we all want to be liked and accepted.
Think about our clothing choices. How often do we pick our clothes, not for comfort, but for style? In the early 1980s, men’s footwear literally stepped up to a new height when men started wearing dress shoes with heels. They were formally called platform shoes, but I always called them clodhoppers (though Google doesn’t seem to recognize that name).
In a single day, I went from being 5’10” to over 6 feet tall when I purchased my own first pair of clodhoppers. Immediately, I added nearly three inches to my height. The shoes themselves were uncomfortable, but they were the latest style, and I wanted to wear the latest. I traded comfort for discomfort because I preferred style over common sense. The extra height didn’t hurt either.
Thankfully, this style for men was short-lived. Admittedly, the older I get, the less style is important to me. Finding favor with God and man has become less about how I look and much more about who I am.
Favor is important. Actually, in a manner of speaking, it’s essential. Indeed, God often uses favor with others to help us achieve our purpose and mission with Him. In Proverbs 3:3,4, Solomon shows us how we can find favor with others through loyalty and kindness.
What does Solomon say we should do with loyalty and kindness? We should tie them around our necks, not as a decorative necklace, but as a reminder. Solomon’s point? This is about action, not sentiment. Tying loyalty and kindness around our necks means living in such a way that they become a significant part of what we do daily. Actions always speak louder than words, and what Solomon means to say is that loyalty and kindness should become much more than nice Christian conversation topics. They should become habits. Through kind and loyal habits, you will find favor with God and curry favor with others.
But more than external action is required. It isn’t enough to merely wear them around our neck. Solomon takes his metaphor further and tells us that we are to also write, or etch, loyalty and kindness deep into our hearts. Why? So that you become a person who does loyal and kind things not merely for the external rewards they bring but because you—to the very core—are becoming a genuinely loyal and kind person. In other words, loyalty and kindness should sink so permanently and so deeply into your heart that neither can be erased from your identity or blocked from your life.
Heart with no action is a lie. Action with no heart is a performance. Actions and heart are called upon here. Solomon states that through this kind of loyalty and kindness—as we act good from a good heart—we will earn a good reputation.
Reputation takes time to build. Nevertheless, as the preacher writes in Ecclesiastes 7:1, it is, “More valuable than costly perfume.” Keep being loyal and kind to God and people. As you do, rest in the promise God’s Word gives, that these things produce the fruit of favor in the world, and that favor produces fruitfulness for Christ’s Kingdom in your daily life.
When God’s favor is on a person, family, business, or church, good things happen. That, at least, has been my experience. It is my prayer that you will find such favor with God and others.
Daily Inspiration: “God takes what the enemy meant for your bad and turns it for your good! It wasn’t a setback but a setup! Wait and see what God is getting ready to do for you!” (Paula White)
Weekly Challenge: Each morning, consider how you dress. Not externally, but internally. It’s not about the shirt or blouse you wear, but what you are wearing today on the inside of your heart. Ask God to help you put on loyalty and kindness. Wear both around your neck as a reminder and engrave both deep into your heart.
There may be other areas that you want to address as well. How is your love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Take time to write down the area you need to work on the most and ask God to help you.
I recently identified one of my struggling areas with a dear friend and asked him to pray with me about it. You may want to do the same.
Leaders’ Corner: As a leader, which of these areas, loyalty or kindness, do you struggle with the most? To be an effective leader, we need favor with God and people. If people do not like you, they will be less likely to do much with you or for you. Finding favor with God, to me, is rather straightforward (though not necessarily easy). People are less consistent than God is, and finding favor with them takes time. We often have to earn their trust. So be patient and don’t quit.
Instead, ask God to help you gain the favor of others. It is often through the favor of friendships and partnerships with others that we grow to lead more effectively.
Praying Scripture: “Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.” (Proverbs 22:1)
Lord, as I look in the mirror each morning, remind me to tie loyalty and kindness around my neck and to write them in my heart. As I live my day today, please help me to earn a good reputation so that others may see You through me. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
DAYS
“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalm 139:16)
Imagine! God wrote about you before you were ever born. Even our wildest imagination struggles to fathom how this could be. How is it possible? Only eternity can tell. There is more in God’s book for us than we’ll probably ever realize. Isn’t it amazing that God looks past our rough, sinful exteriors and continually sees us in terms of His own potential—which is limitless—and His own Son’s righteousness—which is flawless!
Isn’t it amazing, in other words, being able to say and genuinely trust that God has a plan for your life? “What might God do with me?” should be the great question our lives set out to answer.
God not only saw you before you were born, He knew you. The Lord told Jeremiah, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” Over 100 verses in Scripture speak of God knowing us before we were born. Reflect on that today: before the beginning of time, God knew you! But it gets better.
God not only knew you, but He also meticulously designed you for a specific purpose. Scripture declares that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, approved, and accepted by God. And you weren’t just made for nothing; you were made for something. There are good works out there God has prepared in advance for you to do. Sometimes, through disobedience or mistakes, we can slow or complicate God’s process of getting us there. But God’s meticulously designed purpose for you remains.
He always has a plan. He is always working it out.
Imagine pulling a book off the shelf with God’s plans for us recorded in it. What would a book like that be like?
First, I think God’s great book of plans for you would be enormous, so huge you could not possibly lift it. David references God’s thoughts toward us as being numberless—so many that they outnumber the grains of sand on all earth’s shores! God has been thinking about you for a long time, and no doubt, in his book, he has written quite a lot about you.
Second, God’s book would be organized and precise. God is not scattered. He is not lost inside his own complexity. He is attentive to the details. God gave serious thought to you and me before even a day of our lives had passed. I love reading 1 Peter 5:7 out loud – “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” – with special emphasis on the word all. The Amplified version of 1 Peter 5:7 reads: Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on him, for he cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. God has a detailed plan for you.
Finally, God’s book would be written in the form of an inspiring story. A story in which every day counts and every moment matters. In God’s great plan for your life, there will be days of labor and days of rest. Some days will look much the same as the one before, while others will look different. Some days, we will know what to expect, while other days will be filled with surprises.
But through it all in this inspiring story, we are learning to trust the Author. We take a day at a time, knowing God has planned our day. We live one moment at a time, knowing God never misses a moment.
We entrust our lives to God for a lifetime, knowing our stories are being written by the greatest and most creative and most capable Author of all. And He does not fail.
Daily Inspiration:“God says, ‘Don’t worry about your future.’ He is the author of your story, and He’s already written the final chapter.” (Max Lucado)
Weekly Challenge: Have you been writing in your journal lately? Sometimes, I have to go back and catch up on a few days (or weeks) I missed. Don’t fret! I caught up a few days this morning myself. Those days, I usually just go back and write something briefly, sometimes as simple as “I worked from home today.” Or, I was off today, etc.
Writing in your journal does not have to be complicated; it just needs to be consistent. There will be some days you feel more inspired to write than others, and that is perfectly okay. Keep going. Keep writing.
Leaders’ Corner: As a leader, do you often find yourself being unintentionally interrupted? I discovered that one of the best ways to make my days count was to plan my days. Scheduling appointments and blocking time to work on certain things are always helpful to me.
Search for tools that will help you work more efficiently. A day planner or an electronic calendar that syncs between your electronic devices is helpful. A handy journal to make notes. These kinds of things can help. Find what works best for you and stick to a plan.
You are always young enough to start planning your days.
Praying Scripture: “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12 NKJV)
Lord, help us to realize the value of numbering our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
BIBLE
“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
One of the first songs we Christian baby boomers learned to sing as children in church was “The B.I.B.L.E, yes, that’s the book for me.” Today, those lyrics may feel somewhat dated (and potentially cheesy, depending on whom you ask), but their message remains timelessly true and exceptionally relevant to the modern world.
I still have the first Bible given to me as a kid on Christmas one year. Many years later, that Bible is still the best gift I ever found under a Christmas tree on any Christmas morning.
Opening it for the first time sent me on a lifelong reading journey that continues to this day. I have read many other good books since then. But what I read in this book remains forever applicable to what’s happening today. This book gives me insight and direction, comfort and correction. It is a book I keep on my coffee table next to my chair, where I do my devotion each morning. I honestly do not know what I would do without it. The Bible continues to be the book for me!
Right before the turn of the century, I traveled on my first mission trip to Haiti. That Sunday morning, I noticed some congregation members carried only a page or two of the Bible. The missionary I was with shared how the Bible was scarce in their language and how the members would often “share” just a few individual pages at a time. It was difficult for me to imagine not having easy access to the Bible as I’d always been blessed to have, but the reverence and devotion of these people to God’s Word—even just single pages of it—reminded me of the precious power our psalmist speaks about.
In Psalm 119:105, the Psalmist writes that God’s Word is like a lamp. Lamps today are different than they were in Bible times. Currently, beside my chair is a lamp I can turn on or off with the effortless flip of a switch. Lamps in the psalmist’s day, however, were entirely different and much less convenient, requiring more materials and effort to maintain. They were often made out of pottery, had a linen wick that had to be replaced and kept trimmed, and required oil to burn.
A convicting question worth pondering is perhaps: Has our modern world’s effortless access to the Bible promoted malaise in reading it? Has the convenience of our world caused us to treasure the Bible less than we should?
When we read God’s Word, we hold the very wisdom, truth, and story of God in our hands. We have a lamp that will light our way through a dark world. We have a weapon that will expose and overpower the dark schemes of Satan. May we never forget how precious a gift this is!
Let us, therefore, decide to carry our lamp with us everywhere we go. Though today we have the privilege of easy access to God’s word on our bookshelves and phones, we are still charged to carry God’s word in our hearts. To do that is not an exercise in effortless convenience but requires great love and investment. We must love God’s Word for the treasure it is. We must cling to it the way a person stumbling through darkness would cling to their lamp. We must maintain our connection to its truths the way an ancient person would maintain their lamp’s wick and oil supply so that their lamp would work for them as it was designed to.
The promise of God’s Spirit to you is this: as you do these things, you will see.
God’s words are filled with light because “God is light.” God’s words contain no darkness at all because “in Him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) As you treasure and consume the whole beautiful story of Scripture, the light of God’s truth will fill you more and more, guiding and comforting, providing insight into tomorrow before tomorrow comes, bringing relief from the pain of yesterday, abolishing former hurts and shame.
Yes, the B.I.B.L.E. is still the book for me—and for all of us all the time! God’s Word is a lamp. Let us carry that lamp with us everywhere we go, both in hand and in heart, and take joy in watching it light our way.
Daily Inspiration: “I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated through this Book.” (Abraham Lincoln)
Weekly Challenge: If you are not actively reading the Bible daily, I encourage you to find time each morning to read from God’s Word. Try taking a chapter a day. Read it and ask God to speak to your heart through His Word.
Lately, I have been writing down one verse of Scripture in my journal each morning that spoke to me the most during my devotional time. Do this and then think about this verse throughout the day.
Leaders’ Corner: Meditate on God’s Word daily. Ask God to help you know which scriptures to share with someone whom you might either encourage or offer a word of direction. In other words, use God’s Word for your and their advantage. There are messages in God’s Word we can share that will make a difference in the lives of others.
Praying Scripture: “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11)
Lord, help me to hide your Word in my heart so that when the enemy, Satan, tempts me, your Word rises up immediately within me. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
WORSHIP
“My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!” (Psalm 42:4 NLT)
Many in my generation talk about how things “used to be” when we went to the house of God. We like to reminisce. And sometimes, when we do, our hearts break, remembering the freedom we experienced in our worship, in our generation, in our day. Those were the beautiful, glorious days that used to be.
But have we looked around? Have we seen what’s happening? Or is the used-to-be keeping us from seeing the current?
Right now, a generation of people love to worship God! A generation of young believers is setting the bar high, making worship essential in their relationship with God. Even better, worship for the emerging generations is not just what happens on Sundays. They instinctively feel worship to be something that, in order to be real, should carry through the other six days each week as well.
For example, Carissa and I have been attending an event in the Tennessee mountains in January for the past ten years with a few thousand teenagers and youth leaders from hundreds of churches. With snow often on the ground and temperatures below freezing, a small multitude travels from across the United States to attend this event. It may be frigid outside, but inside the services, the Holy Spirit stirs up warm fires in worship. The joy and power of it is often indescribable.
When I’m there, I find myself no longer just reminiscing about how God used to inhabit our praise. I find myself also celebrating that He still does what He used to do. (Psalm 22:3)
And these fires of worship are burning in other places, too. Not just in the big, exciting venues with crowds of thousands, well-known speakers, and professional musicians.
As part of my ministry, Carissa and I visit a different local church almost weekly and have the opportunity to worship in many different settings. Sometimes, there are only a few people in the room. Other times, the church building is bursting at the seams. We worship with a variety of cultures and people groups throughout the year. From week to week, the worship may be packaged differently, but the consistent thread running through them all is that we always find what we hope to find:
A heart for worship still beating in God’s people!
Unfortunately, the psalmist in our Scripture this week seems as though he was having trouble finding such a heart still beating in his own people in his own day. So he laments and cries, “My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be.” With pain, he remembers his former days of worshiping, leading the crowd, joyfully singing and giving thanks among like-minded people. He recalls how powerful it felt hearing the sound of celebration eclipse all other noises—noises buzzing and distracting, discouraging and disconnecting his people from God’s awesome presence.
Psalm 42:3 is an honest prayer from a discouraged saint living on a diet of tears. Perhaps you can relate to the hurt and pain in his words.
Years ago, as a teenage stock clerk, I was speaking with one of our store’s cookie vendors and began to witness to him about Jesus. He could have written this song! With tears in his eyes, he shared with me how it used to be for him. He used to serve as a missionary preaching the gospel but was now no longer serving the Lord. Like the heartbroken psalmist, this man was living on a diet of tears. It was painful for him to reminisce about his past. I left this man praying for restoration in his life that day.
What about you? How is your worship currently? Is it marked by freedom? Or are you living in a constant, pained reminiscing of how it used to be?
There is good news: God still does what He used to do. He still renews and restores. The Holy Spirit always longs to renew and restore your worship. The question is—do you long for him to do it?
“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1) God’s desire is that each of us would long for Him the way a parched animal longs for water in the wilderness. No matter where we are, what our days used to look like, and what our days look like right now, God is listening out, waiting for you to call on Him. He is the loving Lord of Life who loves to renew your worship and quench your soul’s thirst.
Pray this today: Do it again for me, Lord!
Daily Inspiration: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” (Augustine)
Weekly Challenge: This week, look for a variety of ways to worship God—ways you’re used to and ways you’re not. Sometimes, I take a walk around the block with my headphones in my ears and my mind focused on God. Other times, I sit quietly in my living room in the early hours of the morning, with worship music softly playing as I praise.
Whatever it looks like for you, I encourage you to make worship part of your daily connection with God. Now, before doing anything else, is a great time to get started.
Leaders’ Corner: We lead by example. That includes our personal worship. In church services, people are often more responsive when they see their leaders worshipping. As the songwriter mentions in Psalm 42, you can lead the procession of worshippers to the house of the Lord and find the joy of hearing a sound of celebration all around you. Let’s worship!
Praying Scripture: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.” (Psalm 100:4)
Lord, help me to enter your gates with thanksgiving and your courts with praise. Today, I give thanks to you and praise your name. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
RESPONSE
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.” (Job 13:15 NKJV)
Several years ago, I was awakened in the middle of the night and was forced to respond quickly to sudden, unexpected company in my home. As I sat straight up in bed, I heard the footsteps of grown men running through my house, screaming. Am I dreaming? No, this is for real! My mind was in a fog as I heard the men shouting, seemingly without drawing a breath, with no commas, periods, or spaces between their words. Thankfully, Carissa wasn’t home, and I was alone. The intruders repeated the same words over and over again. Am I dreaming? For the second time, no! This is for real!
Finally, I hear them, and it clicks. They are saying, “This is (name of sherff’s department). Unlock the door and come out with your hands raised!” My first thought at that moment was that they must have mistakenly raided my home. But it didn’t matter. They were now inside my house, standing on the other side of my bedroom door, demanding me to open it. By the authoritative sound in their voices, they were only seconds away from forcefully entering my bedroom. Someone had to defuse this situation!
I jumped up out of bed, and as I approached the door, I had the following very brief and direct conversation.
Me: “Is my house on fire?”
Officers: “No, this is… unlock the door and come out with your hands raised.”
Me: “Who did you say you are with?”
Officers: “This is… unlock the door and come out with your hands raised.”
Me: “I am walking to the door.”
Officers: “This is… unlock the door and come out with your hands raised.”
Me: “I am unlocking the door.”
Officers: “This is… unlock the door and come out with your hands raised.”
Me: “Now, I am coming out with my hands raised. DON’T SHOOT ME!”
As I opened the door, hands raised, I immediately found myself staring down the pistol barrels of three sheriff’s deputies. I lost it! No longer was I calm. I began breathing so heavily that after asking, “You live here?” one of the deputies said, “You just need to calm down.” Right! In a few minutes, I was able to regain my composure and thanked them for their service. Seriously. Evidently, I had not shut the front door of my home tightly enough, and the wind blew it open during the night, triggering a chain of reactions between the security system company and the local authorities. When the deputies arrived and saw my front door open, they assumed a home invasion had occurred and expected to find a thief inside my house.
Put yourself in my place as the homeowner. How would you have responded to this crisis? Some people have shared with me that they would have grabbed the pistol I had in my nightstand. Others have said they would not have opened the door until the deputies proved they were who they said they were. Maybe so, and maybe I didn’t make the wisest decisions that night. But I have to admit I am glad I didn’t grab my 9mm or delay opening the bedroom door. What already wasn’t good could have turned even worse!
Unlike me, Job didn’t have anyone invade his home, but he did have someone invade his life. By all appearances, God said to Satan, “There is none like Job on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.” Yet precisely because of his glowing character, Job was then targeted by that invader, Satan, who robbed him of his wealth, his health, and his family, assuming this would cause Job to curse God. Put yourself in Job’s place. How would you have responded to this crisis?
Job was subjected to a situation he didn’t choose and forced to respond to criticism he didn’t deserve—from his wife and friends, no less. A lot of people were telling Job what “they would have done in his situation.” But in the face of their criticism and his own tragedy, Job responded with words that have taken the breath away from countless Christians throughout the ages and across the world: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” We know how Job’s story ends. We know, in the end, God blesses Job even more in his latter days than He had in his former. God’s ways are indeed mysterious, but we can be sure that Job’s ability to suffer faithfully through his pain and find a blessed outcome from God’s hand in the end is directly related to Job’s incredible faith in God. Regardless of the invader of his soul and the invasion of his life, Job trusted.
Do you feel that Satan has invaded your life? Do you feel that you have been forced to entertain unwelcome visitors or unwelcome circumstances lately? There are times that all we can do is take Job’s posture in our pain and speak over ourselves and over our loved ones that—come what may, whatever we face in life—we will yet trust God.
Today is a good day to trust Him.
Daily Inspiration: “Neer be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie Ten Boom
Weekly Challenge: How do you typically respond to unexpected and unwanted situations
in your life? This week, take inventory. How have you responded (or reacted) to an unexpected situation recently? Could you have responded differently? Are there things you can revisit and respond to differently?
Leaders’ Corner: Whether in the business or church world, we all face unwanted situations. How do you respond when those times come? Can you respond differently to a problem you’re currently facing, perhaps with greater trust in God? How might that change your situation?
Praying Scripture: “But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?” (Psalm 56:3,4)
Holy Spirit flood my soul with peace when I sense fear rising up in my heart. Help me to trust God and His promises. Help me to be reminded that I do not have to be afraid. After all, “What can mere mortals do to me?” I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
ANGELS
“In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” (Luke 15:10)
Recently, for example, my insurance agent asked if he could meet with me, not to talk about insurance, but to talk about his spiritual concerns. We met in my home the next week, and he and I prayed together for his salvation. The following week, I baptized him. As my insurance agent and I prayed together in my home for his salvation, I believe in heaven; there was great rejoicing among the hosts of God’s angels.
Angels have been around since the beginning of time. Genesis 2:1 confirms this when it says, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” (KJV) I love Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of this verse: “Heaven and Earth were finished, down to the last detail.” Those details included the creation of angels.
According to scripture, when a person is saved, and the news hits the headlines of heaven, there is an immediate rejoicing that takes place among the angels. I read recently that an average of 68,500 people are saved daily (25 million yearly) worldwide. Every second, people are being led to Christ on this side of heaven, meaning that on the other side of heaven, angels must be continually rejoicing.
Apparently, one of the main responsibilities of God’s angels is to throw a salvation party when a sinner is saved. If this is true, then one of our main responsibilities is to keep supplying those angels with more and more reasons to keep their salvation party going. God uses angels to celebrate salvation, while He uses people to share His salvation.
What kind of people? People like us, people of all kinds: farmers, fishermen, builders, and physicians.
Imagine heaven’s salvation scene with me for a moment. Imagine we were in heaven now, taking a stroll on golden streets, and along our way, we pick up a newspaper or tune into the latest heavenly news outlet. What might those heavenly headlines say? Perhaps something like…
• Farmer plants (Bible) seed; man saved.
• Fisherman cast (salvation) net; man saved.
• Builder shared (God’s) blueprints; man saved.
• Physician prescribes (God’s) medicine; man saved.
Were I a journalist in heaven, I would have perhaps added creative subtitles:
• Farmer plants seed; God gives the increase.
• Fisherman catches largemouth bass; Jesus catches bigmouth sinner.
• Builder builds house; God builds people.
• Physician prescribes heart medicine; Jesus performs heart transplant.
The insurance agent I mentioned above helped me with a financial loss due to hail damage. I am thankful I could help him with hell’s damage. Perhaps his heavenly headline read:
• Policy paid in full; man gets saved!
• Declaration page reveals our coverage; the Bible declares our future.
• Property insurance protects our earthly home; Jesus prepares our heavenly home.
This week, the angels are rejoicing each time someone is saved. Let’s not only join them in celebrating but also ask God to use us in sharing His message of salvation so they never have reason to stop.
Daily Inspiration:
“Angels live in the breathtaking presence of God and regularly see His wonders that are beyond our imagination. Yet they are so thrilled about a person who repents that they rejoice with great joy.”16 (Rick Renner)
Weekly Challenge:
One of the greatest joys is winning someone to Christ. Is there someone you interact with personally or professionally whom you could be a witness to this week? Ask God to help you identify the person or people you can witness to, those who may not yet be followers of Christ. Write down their names and begin to pray for them daily, asking God to give you the right opportunity to share about God’s saving grace.
Additionally, today, stop for a moment to rejoice. Thank God for your own salvation and for the salvation of others you know. Name people you know who recently gave their hearts to Christ and rejoice with the angels in heaven over them.
Leaders’ Corner: If you have not already done so, write down scriptures that will help you become a better witness. I recently wrote down several scriptures from Romans and gave them to a friend. I am planting the seed knowing someone else may water and trusting that, ultimately, God will give the increase.
Praying Scripture:
“And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’” (Luke 15:9)
Lord, help me not to be complacent in soul-winning. And help me to celebrate with those who are soul winners. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Renner.org, March 29 Rejoicing in Heaven Over One Sinner Who Repents
LEFTOVERS
“When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward? Twelve, they said.” (Mark 8:19)
I come from a large family. My mom had eleven siblings, ten of whom lived to adulthood and had families of their own. It was not uncommon in my childhood for our many related families to gather for special occasions at my grandparents’ house; uncles, aunts, and cousins all squeezed together inside the very modest home. Since my grandmother had been in a wheelchair most of my mom’s life, my grandfather—who appeared to be less than 5 feet tall—did most of the cooking, along with the help of my aunts, who brought over their own dishes as well. On those days, we would all gather on the long front porch and other places throughout the house and enjoy a vast meal together.
After the large meal (or “spread” as we sometimes called it), certain items would be put away in the ice box (or “refrigerator” as we today know it) while other items would remain on the table with a large tablecloth draped over the food. The tablecloth covering ensured we could enjoy the leftovers for supper later in the day without the danger of unwanted guests (flies) helping themselves to the food before we made it back to the table. I’m not sure what we did without the convenience of microwaves back then, but I am sure we enjoyed the leftovers as much as we did the fresh first round.
Leftovers weren’t first introduced at my grandparent’s home, however. Leftovers have been around since the days of Moses. In Exodus 16:24, for example, we read about the leftovers of manna and quail that the children of Israel put aside to be eaten the following Sabbath day. I love this scripture because it tells us that the next morning, the leftovers were still good, with no maggots or odor. “So they put some aside until morning, just as Moses had commanded. And in the morning the leftover food was wholesome and good, without maggots or order.” Amazing! God had not only provided. He had also preserved.
Interestingly, in the New Testament, the story of the feeding of the 5,000 places as much emphasis on the leftovers as it does on the miraculous multiplication of the original five loaves of bread and two fish. In Mark 8, when Jesus was later talking to his disciples after the miraculous feeding, he specifically took time to ask them how much food had been left over after they had fed the multitudes. His purpose in asking that question was to highlight how—just like with the manna and quail in the Old Testament wilderness—God had provided enough for the need at hand and then some. The leftovers testified to God’s rich abundance. Today, they remind us of yet another reason we can trust God, especially when things seem beyond natural possibility or human hope.
What happened to the leftovers that day after Jesus’ miracle is unclear. Perhaps the little boy took them home to his family, giving his parents tangible evidence that when we generously give to others, God generously gives back to us, often more than we had to begin with. Or, perhaps the twelve disciples each took one basket home to their families as a timely reminder of God’s sovereignty and compassion. Regardless of what happened to them, Jesus’ ability to send people home with leftovers was as significant in revealing who He was as his ability to meet the crowd’s initial need in the first place.
God’s leftovers are no accident. They are not an overshoot or some divine miscalculation, as though Jesus merely overestimated what was needed for the crowds. Rather, these leftovers were a well-calculated declaration of who he is—the God of enough and more than enough. And just as God gave the children of Israel enough and more than enough in Exodus, and just like Jesus gave the multitudes enough and more than enough, he will do the same for you.
And this is not just in terms of our physical needs, like real food on real tables, either. God’s abundant provision is for your whole self: your spirit, mind, and body, and every part of your life. Sometimes, God blesses us internally in our spirit so much on one day that we wake up still rejoicing the day after. Have you ever been in a Sunday service where God ministered to you so powerfully that on Monday and Tuesday, you were still rejoicing off the spiritual leftovers of that rich encounter? God gave you enough and more than enough. And He will continually do so.
So, today, don’t fret. God’s provision is not the kind that barely scrapes by. His is a provision of abundance. Of enough, and more than enough. And when you need more, God will be right on time.
Daily Inspiration: “What you have may seem scarce, but we serve a God who has more than enough.” Shala W. Graham
Weekly Challenge: This week, you may want to return to the front of the book and take another glance at the titles of the chapters you’ve already read. Is there one chapter that particularly speaks to where you are today? Is there one devotion you previously read that’s still lingering on your heart and mind? If so, I encourage you to go back and enjoy that devotion again sometime, maybe about the middle of the week. Sometimes, the leftovers are even better the second time around. As you do, record any inspirational thoughts the Spirit gives you in your journal.
Leaders’ Corner: As a leader, it is always encouraging when someone quotes something I have said while preaching or teaching. In fact, there are certain things I say often more than once, because it really captures who I am and what I believe. For example, I have frequently said while serving in denominational leadership that “if we don’t know how to serve people, we really don’t know how to serve God.” In a sense, this is a leftover, something I hope the people I’m leading and serving will return to more than once. What are some of your own examples? Take time this week to write down one or two things that seem to be your life or ministry motto. Share those things with others.
Praying Scripture: “There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah.” (1 Kings 17:16)
Lord, there are times I feel that I am going through a spiritual drought. During these dry times, help me trust that there is an abundant supply of what I need in your spiritual pantry. Help me to open those pantry doors through prayer and receive from your abundant riches what is good for my soul with an open heart. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
DISTRACTIONS
“So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.” (1 Peter 1:13)
Have you ever felt distracted?
Distraction is one of Satan’s go-to tactics that he often uses to pull us off course and cause us to lose focus on our goal. This has happened to me many times in my life. It is in those times that I have to heed the Apostle Peter’s instruction and gird up the loins of my mind—or, as the New Living Translation says, “Exercise self-control.”
In ancient times, men wore long robes, and when they traveled on a long journey or ran in a race, they would pick up the loins (or ends) of their robes and tuck them up under their belt. This helped keep them from becoming tangled up in the ends of their robe, causing them to fall while traveling or running.
Peter is not speaking about our clothes but about our minds. Often, I have to secure the loose ends of my thinking and emotions so that as I run my race, I won’t get tangled and trip over the multitude of distractions life throws in my face each day.
So, how do we think clearly as we run our race? In the next few verses, Peter tells us not to slip back into the old way of life but to live holy. Living less than holy and returning to old ways often happens when we have failed to tie up the loose ends of our thinking.
Are there any loose ends in your thinking you need to bring under control today? Perhaps fear? Read Isaiah 41:10. “Don’t be afraid for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
• Maybe worry? Read 1 Peter 5:7. “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”
• Do you feel overwhelmed? Psalm 143:4,6 (NKJV). “Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is distressed… I spread out my hands to You; My soul longs for You like a thirsty land.” Or is there perhaps some sin lingering unaddressed in your heart? Read 1 John 1:9. “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
As you read and reflect upon God’s Word, lay all your distractions down before Him. Turn them all over. Allow the Holy Spirit to help you eachday this week to run your race undistracted and to remain focused on your God-given identity, your Christcentered purpose, and your SpirIt-inspired dreams.
Daily Inspiration: “Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought of the first word belong to him to whom our whole life belongs.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Weekly Challenge: One of the reasons to encourage yourself to journal is that journalinghelps your days not be so controlled and overrun by distraction. If you take time each morning or evening to write in your journal at least once, you can be intentional with your thoughts at the beginning or end of your day.
If you are using a digital journal, this exercise is easier, but it is possible with a written journal as well. Using a digital journal, you can often build your own template, naming the specific items you want to write about on each page of your journal.
If you are using a hand-written journal, this exercise is a little more time-consuming but not impossible. At the front of your journal, write down the five areas you would like to write about each day. For example, in my journal, some of the areas I write about are Scripture or Word Study for today, Prayers, Thoughts and Ideas, Plans, and Reflections from today (or from the previous day if you are writing in the morning.)
Leaders’ Corner: As a leader, the people you lead will often become distracted. Lead by example. If you are constantly distracted by the vibration of your phone, checking social media, multi-tasking, and never focusing on just one project or person, you probably are not leading by example when it comes to being distracted. Instead, listen closely when you are speaking with people. Lay yourphone aside. Try working on one thing at a time. You may find you willbe a greater communicator (who also shows that you care when you listen) and accomplish more with fewer errors. For me, when I am speaking to someone in my office, I intentionally put my phone on vibrate and lay it upside down on my desk. It’s a way I can say to that person that what they are saying to me is much more important than anything else at that moment.
Praying Scripture: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this word, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
Lord, today I submit my emotions and my mind to you. Help me to identify distractions in my life, to pick up the loose ends of my thinking, and tuck them away so I can run this race well. I confess your Word today and refuse to allow Satan to distract me. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen!
WEARY
“But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
Years ago, while visiting with my oldest sister, I felt impressed to share this verse of scripture with her. At a young age, she had battled cancer for some time, and her body had been weakened to the point of being confined to a wheelchair. That night, I sat beside her chair as I opened my Bible and read this verse from Isaiah. There was just me, my sister, and the Lord in the room. It was this verse, and others like it, that gave my sister and our family strength during this most difficult time.
Over 36 years later, as I sit and journal about God’s Word and praying with my sister, tears still well up in my eyes, as they always seem to do when I remember that summer evening. Each time I think of this verse, I think of her. For many years after she died, on the anniversary of her passing, I would spend the day praying to God in honor of her faithful- ness to Him. I admit that on those days, I often asked God, “Why?”
We all have stories like this. Stories of loved ones passing, struggling with sickness, and family misfortunes. Times where all we could do was wait. Times when it seemed like the whole earth slowed to a halt and became just one big waiting room in a doctor’s office, packed with people, not one of whom was—or indeed, even could be—in a hurry to get some- where. For where could any of us go? In hard times, where can we really take ourselves by our own strength?
Can we be our own hope?
Deep down, we know we cannot. So, in hard and hurt times, we sit in life’s waiting room, searching and looking and wondering whether there’s hope to be found. Whether someone might open a door for us and take us somewhere, we can breathe in new life and find new strength.
Then, like a good doctor who sees our pain and knows just what we need, the Spirit of God opens a door and invites us to stand up from our chair in the waiting room and follow him. With the words of God, the Spirit leads us into another room that feels quite different than where we’d first been sitting. It’s a place where the promises of renewed life, like those we see in the 40th chapter of Isaiah, are spoken over us. And there, with the Spirit, those promises begin to heal our weariness, enabling us to endure whatever other waiting rooms remain for us in life, not in despair or frailty, but in the renewed vigor that comes from a promised future hope.
A hope that is ours right now.
This hope, Isaiah imagines, feels something like an eagle’s strength. What God promises to do for us in our hard and hurt times—those stormy hours of waiting and asking why—is perhaps best symbolized by an eagle leaping out in strength, defying earth’s downward pull, and soaring on the heights as the power of the wind carries them along.
Some of you are sitting in the middle of a storm. Some of you feel weary. Today, take Isaiah’s hope—the very words of God to his people—as your personal promise.
Whatever storm or battle you are facing, whatever waiting room you’re still sitting in, don’t make victory about forcing yourself to feel strong enough or be strong enough. Self-sufficiency has never been God’s plan for you.
Instead, listen for God’s voice. Lean into God’s words the way an eagle leans into the currents of wind under its wings. Trust in the Lord. Lay down dependence on your own strength, and you will find new strength you didn’t have before.
In that renewed strength, you will run and not grow weary.
You will walk and not faint.
Daily Inspiration: “Don’t be a pigeon if you were born to be an eagle. Experience God’s altitude for your life.” (Myles Munroe)
Weekly Challenge: In my personal life, there are hard moments I can never forget – sick- ness, death, and other struggles. In each storm, I found strength, not in myself, but in the Lord. What about you? What storms have you faced? What are you facing now? Take time this week to write in your journal about a few of those moments. Reflect on how God strengthens you during these times, perhaps through his Word or through people who bring you comfort.
Leaders’ Corner: Shortly after my sister passed away, I was at a ministry conference. A minister came up to me at the altar, placed his arm around me, and said, “The Holy Spirit told me to come and put my arm around you and tell you that he has you in his arms.” I was broken, and the minister did not know it. Oh, how I needed that encouragement that night.
As a leader, is there someone you can encourage this week? Maybe some- one you know who is broken and needs comfort? Seek opportunities to be the arms of Jesus around them.
Praying Scripture: Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and staff protect and comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)
Lord, I know some people feel weary right now. Some are going through a hard time. Help me identify the person or people I can encourage or help. Give me words to share that might make a lasting impact on their situation. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Sunday Table: 52 Weekly DevotionsNote: The previous devotion, “Weary,” is in memory of my oldest sister, Theresa. One day in heaven, we will sit down and talk more about Isaiah 40:31. Until then, soar on the heights and go rest on the mountains of God.
FRUIT
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” (Galatians 5:22, 23).
One of Carissa’s favorite hobbies is making homemade jelly, jams, and preserves. Jelly is usually made mostly from the juice of the fruit, while jam has a smidge more of the real fruit in it, like seeds and small bits.
But what about preserves? Until recently, I had just thought that pre- serves were another name for jelly or jam. But, as many already know, preserves are actually different. Preserves usually have larger chunks and sometimes whole sections of the actual fruit itself inside the jar. In other words, preserves have noticeable substance to them.
The Holy Spirit desires to produce something akin to spiritual preserves in your life, rather than just spiritual jelly or jam—the less robust versions of his fruit—God desires to fill us with all the ingredients of His Spirit’s character. He wants us to taste the full substance of His goodness—not just a few drops of juice or tiny bits of throwaway fruit.
Taking a closer look at Galatians 5:22-23a, it is the Holy Spirit that pro- duces this kind of substantive fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
These nine spiritual fruits should characterize who we are as Christians, and—while some may be in more abundant supply than others at different times in our lives—they should all function in unison. Without the unison of all nine fruits of the Spirit budding and growing and ripening simultaneously in us, it won’t be possible to fully become who we are called to become and experience the rich life of God as we’re designed to experience it.
For example, is it possible to be at peace and not also have joy in our hearts? Or, how can a person possibly be gentle if they are not also kind? And does real love not also evoke faithfulness while demanding self-con- trol and oozing goodness?
The point is that, like each of us, none of the fruits of the Spirit are de- signed to stand alone—call it mixed fruit if you like! Regardless of their many possible combinations, all nine fruits of the Spirit are interconnect- ed and equally important.
Today, take inventory of the fruits of the Spirit in you. Consider how they are (or perhaps are not) currently operating in your life. Which fruits need greater attention or tending today? Which are ripe and abun- dant; which feel withered on the vine? You may find that you need to “place an order” with the Spirit through prayer for an increased supply of certain fruits over others. Maybe it’s time to restock on the Spirit’s joy, or peace, or kindness, or self-control.
As you take inventory, consider how each of the fruits work together to help the others, starting with the key fruit, love.
The Apostle Paul teaches us that without love, everything else we do is useless. This unconditional love is the kind of love that keeps going even when things are not going well for us. It is this love that also helps us to love God and to love others without expecting anything in return.
If we experience God’s love in our hearts, then joy will overflow when least expected. We may not always be happy, but we can always be joyful. This is because of God’s own love and joy.
With love and joy comes peace. We find immeasurable peace that comes from above and is not of the things on this earth. Peace that will calm our storms and will also increase our love for others and our joy in the Lord.
Through love, joy, and peace, patience grows in our hearts. It is through patience that we learn to show kindness to others. Our kindness to others results from the genuine goodness, or the integrity, in our hearts.
Gentleness, too, does not stand alone but grows alongside the others. As the other spiritual fruits produce a godly character, goodness helps us learn to be patient, to show compassion, and to have a gentle and humble spirit toward others. Knowing how to rightly apply gentleness is not a sign of weakness, as some believe, but of strength.
Lastly, when the other fruits of the Spirit manifest in our life, the other eight help us to do number nine – self-control. There are certain temp- tations, whether gluttony or coveting or anything else, wherein we must exercise restraint. It is exceedingly difficult (and potentially leads to fruit- less efforts) to merely restrain yourself from sin and the many disordered desires of your flesh when you are not also experiencing their godly op- posites: the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness of Christ.
Ultimately, the fruit of the Spirit is not about what we do but what Christ has done for us and who we are in Him. Let us, therefore, embody the vibrant life of Christ on the outside by allowing his Spirit to bear these fruits in abundance on the inside.
Daily Inspiration: “And perhaps, exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit may be our very best defense against a materialist view of mankind here on earth.” (Phillip Yancey)
Weekly Challenge: This may take a few extra minutes, but this week, journal about all nine fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22. Think about how each one applies to your life. Which are in abundance? Of which do you need a greater supply? Most of us will find that there’s room for growth in each area.
Leaders’ Corner: Whether you lead a church or hold a position in your workplace, all of us lead. This week, study select scriptures and look up quotes about the different fruits of the Spirit. Then, look for opportunities to share those words with someone this week in a meaningful, appreciated way. This can be done individually in conversation, while speaking to a group, or simply through a text or social media post. Be intentional in speaking words of encouragement.
Praying Scripture: “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
Lord, it is my desire to abide in you and for you to abide in me. Help me to produce much fruit. I realize without you I am nothing. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen!
THOUGHTS
“Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.” (Colossians 3:2)
What are you thinking?
Has anyone ever asked you that question? As a child, I remember someone telling me, “I’ll give you a penny for your thoughts.” The saying implied that I was either just really quiet or really deep in thought. (I am sure it was the former, not the latter.)
Today, offering me a penny for my thoughts is not nearly as appealing as it once was. Nowadays, most people will walk right past a penny on the ground, not thinking twice about it. Not me. Call me old-fashioned, but a penny still catches my eye. I still religiously stop to scoop up each one I find.
While they may have lost much of their former financial power, a penny’s cultural value remains timeless. Consider, for example, how often pennies show up in famous quotes:
- “A penny saved is a penny earned.” (Benjamin Franklin)
- “A penny saved is of more value than a penny paid out.” (MartinLuther)
- “If you look after the pennies, the dollars will look after themselves.” (J. Paul Getty)
- “If you can be kind and considerate for one day, then you can be for another. It won’t cost you a penny in the world. Begin today.” (Dale Carnegie)
- “Some day, you will have to give an account for every penny you spend.” (Billy Graham)
In Mark 12, we read of a poor widow who gave her “two cents ’ worth.” Technically, the amount she gave, according to a Samford University article, would have been worth only about 1\64 of a denarius (i.e., an ancient day’s wages) or about 1\8 of a modern penny.14 The bottom line, as Jesus reflects in the story, is this. This dear woman gave out of her poverty, putting in all she had— an amount she technically could not afford to give.
Why would this woman do such a foolish thing? Some may say she wasn’t thinking. But I think she was. I think her thoughts simply weren’t stuck inside the natural world, like ours often are, but were instead fixed on things above it. Had she been thinking of the natural, the way we often do, she probably would have thought it best to save her two-pence rather than give it away. After all, as Benjamin Franklin suggests, if a penny saved is a penny earned, then two would be doubly so! Why not avoid the risk and invest in her own future by holding onto what little money she had? But this woman was looking at heaven, not earth. As she threw in her two mites, she saw more than the collection box in front of her.
Such perspective freed her to give beyond what naturally made sense. That’s the principle: heavenly perspective brings earthly freedom. This is why the Apostle Paul encouraged the saints in the church of Colossae to set their affections (thoughts) on things above and not on the things of this world or its systems. When we set our affections on the things above, it becomes much easier to do things like that widow did. To give sacrificially out of our lack and not just conveniently out of our abundance. So, where are your thoughts anchored: heaven or earth?
Are you struggling with worry? Are you living in frustration? Or maybe regret? What are you thinking about? Satan would love to distract and shackle you with worry, frustration, and regret. He knows that when we dwell on these things, we tend to lose our heavenly focus.
So, resist the devil by choosing to focus on heavenly things.
Look beyond the temporary. Remember that this world is not our home; we are just passing through. Determine to think, as the Apostle Paul teaches, on good things: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8)
And understand that thinking on these heavenly things isn’t just about a far-off glory for a distant future. It’s also about here-and-now freedom in an all-around-us present. Freedom to be, think, give, and live as Christ did. Freedom to act out the truth that our real life is hidden somewhere better and held by someone better.
“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3)
Daily Inspiration: God never said that the journey would be easy, but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile.” Max Lucado
Weekly Challenge: Consider writing in your journal what you think heaven will be like. We only know, in part, what heaven is going to really be like, but it’s okay to dream! See 1 Corinthians 2:9 for example. Then, write about how the hope of heaven influences the way you think on earth.
Leaders’ Corner: As leaders, we must help others become more heavenly-minded. Find ways to remind people of their treasures above. Be creative in posting scripture on social media. After all, some people following you on social media may never pick up the Bible. They might, however, scroll past something you post.
Praying Scripture: “And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15)
Lord, help me not to be so distracted, discouraged, or disgruntled with what is happening around me that I fail to look up and see what is happening above me. Help me to allow peace to rule in my heart and to always be thankful. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
14 Samford University, University Library, The Widow’s Mite, Jennifer Taylor
DISCIPLES
“The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, ‘Look! There is the Lamb of God!’ When John’s two disciples heard this, they fol- lowed Jesus.” (John 1:35-37)
I recently purchased an electronic game for an illustration called “Si- mon.” The game is simple: it lights up, and you press the button that’s lit. Failure to do this quickly will cause you to lose the game.
As a child, I used to play another game called “Simon Says.” Similar name, similar concept. But unlike the newer Simon, the old Simon Says was not electronic and required other people to play. I had a lot of cous- ins, mostly older than me, and we would gather at our grandparent’s home in the back room and play this silly game. If you failed to do what Simon said, you would end up at the back of the line. But if you made it to the front of the line first by obeying the commands, you would be- come the new Simon, taking charge of the group’s commands. It was a child’s game that taught the grownup value of following a leader.
Following a leader is not always easy. But that’s what discipleship is— following someone. It’s difficult because it requires submitting your will, your agenda, and your way to another’s. Many people fail at this task because they’re more interested in going their own way and doing their own thing, and they often wind up losing ground and sometimes starting all over because of it.
John the Baptist was a perfect counter-example of this. John was a leader himself with his disciples. But when John recognized his “turn” as the leader had come to an end and that he and those he led must now be- come followers of someone else, someone greater, he didn’t hesitate to lay it all down.
One day, Jesus passed by John the Baptist. Seeing Him, John exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Later, John would go on to make the remark- ably humble statement that “He [Jesus] must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” (John 3:30)
John the Baptist was a good disciple because, at his core, even while he was a leader, he was a follower. When he recognized Jesus’ “turn” had come, he willingly moved out of the way, fell in line, and encouraged his own disciples to do the same.
There are certain rules and guidelines shared between the game Simon Says and the life of a disciple of Christ. While winning at Simon Says is not all that important in the grand scheme of things, being a good disci- ple of Jesus, the Lamb of God, is.
Here are three simple guidelines I find helpful in following our leader, Jesus:
- Be a good listener – Isaiah 28:23 says, “Listen to me; listen and pay close attention.” In “Simon Says,” if you don’t listen well, you might miss a few details and wind up at the back of the line. What is it God is saying to you? What are the details? Are you paying close attention? Are you listening well?
- Be obedient – Genesis 6:22 says, “So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.” It is not enough just to listen. Lis- teners only truly become followers when they apply what they hear. Anything else is just spectating. The old song still rings true: “Trust and obey; there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.”
- Be faithful – Matthew 25:23 says, “His lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” One of the fruits of our faithfulness is God’s rebounded blessing. Years ago, serving a very small congregation as a pastor, I was complaining to the Lord about the few people I had in my church. “Lord, if I had more people, I could….” I remember that prayer as if it was yesterday. God spoke to me and said, “If you will be faithful over the few people I have given you, I will bless you with more.” This proved to be true. Faithfulness is a key that un- locks the door to many other opportunities and blessings in life.
Are you a follower of Christ? Are you following well? Are you listening, obeying, and staying faithful?
As you follow, let the same desire be in you that was in John the Baptist: that Jesus would become greater and greater, while I become less and less.
Daily Inspiration: “If I am to wholly follow the Lord Jesus Christ, I must forsake everything that is contrary to Him.” (A.W. Tozer)
Weekly Challenge: Is there something God has been speaking to you about that will enable you to become a better follower of Christ? If so, journal about it. Find a scripture or two that reinforces what you need to do and read them daily as a prayer.
Leaders’ Corner: The greatest attribute you can have as a leader is to empower others to ac- complish their goals. Who do you have influence over? Write down their name(s). Have a conversation and ask them what their goals are. Look for ways you can help those who follow you reach their greatest potential.
Also, take time this week to encourage other leaders around you. Leaders need encouragement, too. Find people whom you can encourage, em- power, embrace, and equip.
Praying Scripture: “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12)
Lord, help me be a good leader for people to follow. Help me to follow the leaders you have placed in my life, recognizing their authority over me. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
BREVITY
“Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10)
Some time ago, I read of someone at the age of 60 who numbered their days with a jar of marbles. They kept a jar of marbles in a common place in their home, and each week they would remove one marble as a reminder of the brevity of life. They had just enough marbles that when they turned 70 they would remove the final marble from the jar. After the last marble was gone, they commented that they would be living on borrowed time.
The truth is that we can’t really borrow time any more than we can bor- row life. Our days on earth are numbered. Regardless of whether we live 70 or 90 years, all of us can agree that life is brief. How many times have you heard someone make the statement, “Only yesterday I was….”
James also reminds us of the brevity of our days when he compares life to a fog, a passing vapor in the air, something here for a moment, and then it vanishes away (James 4:14). For the past several mornings in my quiet place with God, I have been reminded of my own brevity and each morning, the thought has passed through my mind to “Make each day count!”
How do we make each day count? Your list will look different than mine, and that’s okay. We all have different priorities, and those often change as the seasons of our lives change. But here are a few trustworthy starters for making each day count from my own list for you to consider:
- Taking time with God – This is the single most important time of my day. I have a set time early each morning to get alone with just God and me. If I am late, it is okay because when I arrive, God is still there.
- Taking time with family – Depending on who you ask in your family, you may do this well or not so well. Decide what works best for you and your family in the season of life you all are in.
- Planning my day – If I fail to plan my day, usually, something or someone else plans my day for me. Having a “to-do list” works for me, but maybe not you. I’m also okay if all of the “to-do list” does not get done (most of the time, it seems not to). But it does always help me stay focused.
- Working from a schedule – I have certain days for certain tasks. Most likely, you do, too, regardless of whether you write it down on a calendar or not. What day do you normally buy groceries, mow your lawn, pay your bills, or go to the beautician? Maybe your schedule includes none of these things and looks quite dif- ferent. Either way, I encourage you to expand your list of certain things done on certain days. You may find the clarity and consis- tency helpful, as I do.
- Knowing my goals – What goals do you have for this week, this month, this year? Most of us have unwritten goals, and only a few of us actually take time to write down our goals. For many of us, our goals are only easier things we know we can accomplish. Consider setting goals that stretch you. Write down a few goals and pin them somewhere your eyes will often see as a reminder and motivator to keep you going.
- Having a servant’s heart – For the past 30 years in denomina- tional leadership, I have said, “If you do not know how to serve peo- ple, you do not know how to serve God.” I still believe this to be true today. I have never felt that I am here to be served but rather to serve God and serve others. If we love people the way we should, this will come naturally.
To have a complete list of seven, consider writing a number 7 with some- thing that you do that I failed to mention. What do you feel you need to do to make today count?
Life is short. Let’s make the best of it.
Daily Inspiration: “What you do this week matters. You have 52 shots. Make each one count.”(Unknown)
Weekly Challenge: Take a few minutes to write down seven of the most important things for you to do each day. For the next seven days, look back and read each one aloud. Make any adjustments necessary as you journey through the week. Find what works best for you.
Leaders’ Corner: As a leader, you will influence people in different seasons of their lives. It is important that we help people understand the brevity of life. Look for ways to have this conversation with others.
Praying Scripture: “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)
Lord, my confession is that I have wasted days, weeks, and months of my life. Help me in this season to make each day count. More than ever, I realize the shortness of life and desire to make the best of all of my days and not just some of my days. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
HEALING
“And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal Him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Step forward.’” (Mark 3:1-3 NKJV)
Years ago, while serving as a pastor in Carrollton, Georgia, on the front porch of a home with neighbors watching from across the street, I asked an elderly lady in a wheelchair if I could kneel down and pray for her. She said yes, so I asked the Lord to heal her so that she could walk again. When I finished the prayer, before I could even get up off the floor from kneeling, she said to me, “Brother Lamb, I believe I can walk.”
Before I could respond, this dear lady had already stood up from her wheelchair and was walking across that front porch unassisted by either me or her husband. In reflection on that powerful moment, I feel strongly that the miraculous outcome she enjoyed had more to do with her level of faith in acting than it did my own level of faith in praying—though both mattered. A few years later, I saw the lady again one day, still walking, and she reminded me of the miracle she experienced on her porch.
One day at the synagogue, Jesus encountered a man with a withered hand. The man had likely been to that same synagogue and left with the same withered hand many times before, but on this particular day, things would go very differently. On this particular day, Jesus was in the house, and he was about to call this man’s faith to action.
Turning his attention to the man, Jesus gave two instructions: first, for the man to step forward and then, to stretch out his hand. Both actions required faith. Like the woman who stood up from her wheelchair and walked across the porch after we prayed for her, the man’s healing required his faith to respond with action.
He trusted Jesus. He obeyed Jesus. Then, he was healed by Jesus.
Some of you may be struggling with health issues. Know that God is able to restore you to good health. Today could be the day you receive a supernatural touch from God. Like this man with the withered hand and the woman I met on the porch, you too can have an encounter with God that brings healing. I encourage you to go through your day today and to attend your regular place of worship this Sunday, expecting something good to happen!
But be ready for action. It isn’t always enough to just be where Jesus is. We must also be ready to do what Jesus asks us to do. We see this pattern in many biblical stories:
- The man with the withered hand was instructed to step forward and stretch out his hand.
- God told the leper, Naaman, to go wash in the Jordan River seven times, and he would be healed.
- Jesus told a crippled man to rise up, pick up his bed, and walk.
- The woman with the issue of blood felt that if she touched Jesus’ garment, she would be made whole.
- Jesus told his dear dead friend, Lazarus, to “come forth!” Obediently, the dead man came out, his hands, feet, and face still bound in graveclothes. Interestingly, Lazarus’s healing also called into action the faith of others near him. Jesus told Lazarus to come forth. Then, he also instructed Lazarus’s loved ones to assist in the process by unwrapping him and letting him go!
Circumstances vary. But in every situation, the call to faith in action remains the same. We pray. Then, what Jesus makes clear we should do, we must do. Then, we trust God to answer our prayers and complete his process in his own way.
Perhaps yours is not a physical need but a spiritual one. Maybe the healing you are seeking is not for a broken bone but a shattered heart. Or maybe a hurting mind or a fractured relationship.
Take heart: God is not limited in what he can and will heal. He is able to mend your shattered heart, your hurting mind, and your broken relationships and make them whole again.
Whatever your need may be, God desires to bring healing and good health—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So be like the woman who grabbed the hem of Jesus’s garment. Reach out and touch the Lord as he passes by you today!
Ready your faith for action.
Daily Inspiration: “Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.” (Max Lucado)
Weekly Challenge: Many of you face physical challenges. I encourage you to take time this week to read some of the Bible stories I mentioned or others where Jesus heals someone. The Apostle Paul says that faith comes to us by hearing and hearing through the Word of God. When you receive a healing for a physical need, be sure to tell your pastor or someone close to you of the miracle you received.
Or, if possible, send me a message on my website at http://www.timlamb.me. Or, if you have a prayer need, send this as well, and Carissa and I will include you on our prayer list.
Leaders’ Corner: In every hospital visit and in many home visits through my more than 44 years of pastoral and denominational leadership, I have always asked before leaving, “Can I pray for you?” On only one occasion has someone ever said, “I’d rather you not.” Don’t be afraid to ask to pray. And don’t be afraid to be specific in your asking. What specifically can you pray over? Be sure to write down their need so that you can pray over it again later as well.
Praying Scripture: “Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.” (Psalm 6:2)
Lord, as I think about my own physical and spiritual needs, as well as those of my family and friends, I pray for healing and strength. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
HEAVEN
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1,2,3 NKJV)
I have used John 14:1-3 in funeral and memorial services more than any other scripture in the Bible. It is one of my favorites! Recently, I was reminded of the importance of thinking about my heavenly home and was encouraged to spend some time each morning thinking about heaven.
I grew up in a generation where many of the songs in our hymn book were about heaven. That generation and the local church I attended just seemed to enjoy singing about heaven. Songs like “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder” and “What a Day That Will Be” are two of my favorites. As a toddler, I can remember standing in the choir singing these and many other songs about our future heavenly dwelling.
Jesus thought about heaven, too. And for his disciples’ (and our) sake, he shared about his Father’s house just days before his own departure from earth. In John’s gospel, Jesus gives us a glimpse of heaven by describing it as a place with “many mansions.” Other Bible translations describe it as a dwelling place with many rooms. Either way, I imagine Jesus telling his disciples about this amazing new heavenly home to which he will one day welcome both us and them with a spirit of excitement. What good news, that Jesus’s good plans for me and you are already prepared – “I go to prepare a place for you.” And what a place that will be!
But before we arrive at that wonderful place, we face a world of hardship and unrest.
On the one hand, despite the promise of everlasting life, there is still the curse of death. Unless Christ returns prior, death will come for us all before we reach our heavenly home. And as someone once said, “I am looking forward to going there [to heaven] but prefer not to catch the bus today.” Death itself causes us unrest.
On the other hand, there is also the reality of worldly opposition. Jesus’s words in John 14, for instance, came during a time of great unrest for his disciples. That same night, Jesus warned them that one of his own followers would soon betray him. He then shared that, after some three years of spending each day with them, he would be soon leaving and that where he was going, they couldn’t yet come. Place yourself in those first disciples’ shoes. Jesus betrayed? Jesus leaving? For them, hearing of their Lord’s betrayal and departure was more than enough to make them feel anxious.
Yet it is precisely in the face of this anxiety that Jesus tells them to believe in Him the same way they believe in God. And in their belief in Him, to not to be troubled.
Today, Jesus’s call to us is the same. To believe in Him and to trust Him, and to not be too troubled by the world’s unrest.
Billy Graham once said, “My home is in heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.” None of us know how far or near heaven may be for us, but we do know how to arrive there prepared. Heaven is a real place for real people who really desire to go there—through Christ. If you are not prepared in Christ, I encourage you to prepare now for this place He is preparing for you. You can do that by praying the following prayer with me:
“Lord, I admit that I am a sinner. Forgive me and come into my heart today. I accept you as Lord of my life. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.”
If you prayed that prayer just now for the first time, spend some time talking with God about the decision you just made and let a fellow Christian know as well. If you made a commitment to Christ, message me on my website at http://www.timlamb.me. I would love to hear and rejoice with you.
If you’ve already made this decision in the past, spend some time praying over people you know who have not. Pray for them to meet and fall in love with the same Jesus you know. Do whatever you can to help them meet the One who has prepared a place in heaven for you and who would also like to prepare a place in heaven for them.
Heaven is not far. The timing of our departures we do not know. So, let us prepare and help others do the same.
Daily Inspiration: “How sweet is rest after fatigue! How sweet will heaven be when our journey is ended.” (George Whitefield)
Weekly Challenge: Devote some time today to thinking about heaven. Write down in your journal your favorite scripture and song about heaven. After all, this is our future home!
Leaders’ Corner: Not everyone is going to agree about heaven. Study scripture that will help you better understand what God’s Word says about it. Find talking points that are not controversial in nature but ones we can all think and talk about peacefully. Talking about heaven can bring encouragement to others during difficult times.
Praying Scripture. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10 NKJV)
Lord, one day, I will enjoy the blessings of heaven. But until then, help me not to be so heavenly-minded that I am no earthly good. Help me to have a good balance of thinking about heaven while living on earth. Thank you for the promise of heaven while here on earth. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
COMMITMENT
“But Jesus told him, ‘Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.’” (Luke 9:62)
Several years ago, in springtime, I tried to plant a garden. I learned quickly that if I looked back after putting my hand to the plow, my rows would no longer be in a straight line and would instead look like a winding road in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.
One day, Jesus was speaking to a group of people from all walks of life who were making excuses for not following Him. One of them must have been a farmer or at least had some farming experience, as Jesus told Him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Jesus would often use illustrations that related to the daily lives of his audience. In this farming illustration, Jesus is stressing that following Him costs a high level of commitment.
Being a committed follower of Christ involves staying focused on Him. This is what Jesus is trying to help us understand when he warns us about the danger of looking back. I have had many people tell me they wish they had become a follower of Jesus earlier in life. No one has ever said, “I wish I had waited until later in life to get saved.” However, even after beginning to walk in our salvation with Jesus, we still feel tempted to occasionally glance back. But committed followers keep their eyes ahead.
Being a committed follower of Christ also involves holding on to Him. Lots of people give Jesus a trial run. It’s easy enough to place your hand on the plow Jesus offers. Only a few, however, find the perseverance to hold on once the initial excitement wears off and the going gets tough. It takes real strength to grip the kingdom plow and not let go through the rough terrain of life. This is a kind of strength we don’t naturally have in our flesh and must instead find by the Spirit within the grace and mercy of daily intimacy with Christ. Committed followers hold on to the plow by the Spirit!
Every follower of Christ will always have something behind them to go back to. Your past will always be right where you left it. One of Satan’s oldest tricks is to get you looking backward at what you left behind. He does this because he knows how frail and frivolous our human hearts are. He knows that when we look back, we’re also at risk of letting go. And if he can loosen our grip on the present by having us staring back at our past, he knows he can spoil our experience of Christ’s goodness and grace for the future.
But this we know for certain. If you have tasted the goodness and grace of new life in Jesus, whatever is behind you is not worth the journey back. It never will be.
Of course, none of us do this flawlessly. At times, we stumble. At times, we glance back. But let it not become the pattern you live constantly stuck within. Always rise up and run back to the mercy of the One who calls you to the plow, for you are not alone. Christ’s yoke is easy, and the burden is light because he is yoked to you and shouldering the burden with you. Thus, no matter how many times we stumble or fall, Christ’s grace remains forever sufficient, and mercies new every morning!
“Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!’” (Lamentations 3:23)
As a wise farmer goes to the field and places his hands on the plow to push forward, not looking back, so do we. Hold on and press on!
Daily Inspiration: “Just because the past taps you on the shoulder doesn’t mean you have to look back.” (Author Unknown)
Weekly Challenge: Have you ever taken your hands off the plow and your eyes off Jesus? This week, practice staying focused on Christ. Make time to sit at His table each morning. Spend time with Him in prayer and in His Word.
Leaders’ Corner: Today, my heart is heavy for the people I know who once had their hand on the plow but looked back. Today, they are no longer following Christ. My heart is broken.
This week, I made a list of the people I know who are backslidden. Do you know anyone like this? If so, I encourage you to put them on your prayer list.
Years ago, as a teenager, I heard about an evangelist who had taken his hand off the plow and looked back. I prayed for him often and later heard he took up plowing the kingdom fields for the gospel once again. Prayer for the lost and the backslidden works!
Praying Scripture: “I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. But let them not return to their foolish ways.” (Psalm 85:8)
“Lord, help me not to return to my foolish ways but to serve you with everything within me. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
FOOLS
“Only fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good.” (Psalm 14:1)
In the “Bible Belt” of America, I grew up in a generation where it was very unusual to hear someone say that they didn’t believe in God, regardless of whether or not they actively served Him.
Recently, I asked someone if they believed in the power of prayer, and their response to me was, “Not really—I don’t pray to a god like you do. I pray to nature.” When I asked this question, I was in the middle of being rushed to the hospital, lying on my back in the rear of an ambulance, experiencing a heart attack. For the next 35 minutes, I shared my faith with the gentleman, explaining why I believed in and prayed to God.
A Gallup poll from a couple of years ago states that 17% of Americans say that they do not believe in God. This is a difficult truth and a drastic change. In the 1960s, when I was a child, a firm 98% of Americans believed in God, and in 2011 they reported 92% still believed.[1]
So, what happened? Why has the decline of belief and rise of disbelief in our nation accelerated?
I read several articles on this. Some of the primary reasons mentioned for the decline of belief in God point to the faults of the church. From sexual abuse to church hurt, to not being adequately taught why we believe in God—all these and more are reasons people are believing in God less than ever before. But the Church cannot possibly take all the blame, or can we? Many people today have not been taught correctly about God by their mentors.
Where does the blame lie?
The truth is, we’re all too good at trying to figure out who’s at fault and less good at doing something about it. The question we must tackle is not only, “Who’s fault is this?” but “What can the Church do today to help correct the problem?”
What can I, as a believer, do differently?
Here are a few suggestions:
- Familiarize yourself with your own faith. We can no longer expect people to believe in God just because we say they should. On the contrary, we must be able to describe who God is compellingly and accurately. Prepare yourself for this by familiarizing yourself with God’s Word daily. Also, consider the many valuable resources provided for us by Christian scholars who study and answer the hardest questions asked of our faith as a profession.
- Be the evidence someone is looking for. Many have said, “There is no evidence God exists.” That is a false statement for many reasons. For one reason, start by looking in the mirror. You yourself are part of the evidence for a God who exists. Live in a way that others will see the evidence of Christ in you.
- Be the church you want to see. Going to church is not enough! The Church today has received a bad reputation in modern eyes because of its many problems, past and present. If we are going to convince people that going to church is important and worthwhile, we must show them that the Church is beneficial, not harmful. So whether you’re a pastor or not, quit bickering and lead. Develop integrity. As you do that, graciously cultivate integrity in others who can lead alongside you, too. As you do that, keep the main focus the main focus.
Those are only a few suggestions. There are certainly other things we can all be doing to help someone believe. Challenge yourself today with these questions:
- What loving thing can I do for my neighbors?
- How might I be the church Jesus would want to see?
- Is the way I’m living making the gospel harder or easier to believe in the eyes of people outside the Church?
Let us pour our hearts into this. Let us be living testimonies. Let us walk by the Spirit and become by grace the compelling and winsome witnesses of God’s truth and goodness the unbelieving world needs to see.
Most of all, let us remember why Christ came. It is not God’s desire that any should perish but that all would have everlasting life. Time is running short. Let’s do all we can to tell others about Christ and show others to Him.
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV)
Daily Inspiration: “To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in this world.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Weekly Challenge: Because of the trending disbelief all around us, chances are high that you will see and speak to someone in the next few days who does not believe in God. Be spiritually prepared to minister and represent the Lord to this person as the Holy Spirit leads. Be the hands and feet of Jesus!
Leaders’ Corner: Get back to the basics. If you’re leading in the Church or in any ministry and have the opportunity, you may need to teach on the topic of “why we believe what we do.” This can be done from the classroom or the pulpit, in person or online. Multiply your efforts in witnessing to the world by teaching your disciples!
Praying Scripture: “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.” (1 Chronicles 4:10 NKJV)
Today, Lord, help me interact with others, following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. When I speak to someone who doesn’t know or believe in You, help me to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
- Belief in God in U.S. Dips to 81@, a New Low, Jeffrey M. Jones
SABBATH
“On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:2)
Lance Witt, founder of Replenish Ministries, writes about his experience learning to ride a bike. As a novice rider, when it was time to stop, Lance could only figure out one way to break his momentum, and that was to run into the car with his bike.[1] Effective, but not necessarily healthy.
Spiritually speaking, many of us struggle with a similar problem: knowing when and how to stop. Like Lance’s harsh learning curve on his bicycle, when we haven’t learned how to perform a healthy “stop,” we often end up taking drastic measures that lead to severe consequences.
During my lifetime, I have often taken short sabbaticals. The word “sabbatical” is drawn from another word, “Sabbath,” which we find in the Ten Commandments when God says, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.” Sabbath is a regular time we, as God’s people, are called to intentionally set aside for rest and renewal in God’s presence so that we can return to our daily life replenished.
As a pastor, I normally found this time to be on Fridays when I would spend the day in the sanctuary or church guest house[2], just sitting quietly, praying, and meditating before God. These days were my forms of consistent weekly sabbatical, but I would also find additional times to get away for longer—a few days or a week or two—on a less frequent but still consistent basis each year. Currently, I have the privilege of working from home, and some days, it’s just me and God sitting alone together, having a conversation. Sometimes, I’m talking; other times, I’m listening as God whispers to my heart through His Word and prayer.
We often blame our lack of Sabbath on an impossible schedule. As mentioned in an earlier devotion, in the first twelve years of ministry, I was co-vocational and served as lead pastor. Like Lance Witt, I knew how to “ride the bike,” but stopping was always difficult. With all the demands, I felt it was impossible to take time away.
My vacations from my “other job” is when I normally scheduled church events. Once, I scheduled a barbecue place sale, a church revival, and paved the church parking lot during a few days off from my other job. I thought I knew how to navigate secular work and church ministry, but this wasn’t entirely accurate. In most cases, I have found that my missed Sabbaths were not so much the fruit of what I couldn’t do but rather what I didn’t choose to do.
The truth is that we must be creative and disciplined if we are going to remember the Sabbath day and keep it pure before God. We must make time for what matters.
Take Jesus, for example. Our Lord would often find hidden time early in his mornings or late into his nights to get alone with God and pray. He didn’t choose to take time away from his disciples and ministry just because he was physically tired but because he knew he needed time alone with the Father. The world demanded much of Jesus. In response, Jesus made time to intentionally pause from meeting the world’s demands and find a personal Sabbath.
We, too, must prioritize this kind of Christlike balance. There will be days when the world demands that we go overboard interacting with others and working. This is unavoidable. To balance them out, we must also build in days where we tip the scales back toward spiritual health by “going overboard” in time spent with God. We must learn to Sabbath without crashing. For many of us, this will be more art than science and will be learned and fine-tuned over the course of a lifetime.
In Genesis 1:31, we read that “Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.”
As you make time to rest, also take time to reflect. Reflect on all God has done for you. Thank Him for His goodness. Don’t be afraid to build a resume describing what God has done in your past before you, then move on to focus on what He promises to do in your present and future.
Take Sabbath seriously, receiving it as an instruction from the Lord, not as a suggestion. If God himself rested from all His work (Gen. 2:2) and then made imitating his rest into a formal command that we are to keep holy, regularly finding Sabbath cannot be permitted to sit unattended on our spiritual back burner. It must be a discipline.
Whether it’s on Sunday as you worship together with other believers or at other times during the week you set aside, make sure you faithfully and eagerly attend to your Sabbath each week. Prioritize it as though your health and balance in life depended on it. Keep it holy. Make the time you need to retreat with God. Learn to stop without crashing.
Rest, reflect, and be renewed so that you can return replenished.
Daily Inspiration: “Sabbath isn’t about resting in an imperfect world but resting in the arms of the One who is perfect.” (Author Unknown)
Weekly Challenge: In your journal, write down what day you will use as your Sabbath. Taking sabbaticals often requires doing something different than what you do the other six days of your week. A change of pace sometimes requires a change of scenery. Write about how you plan to spend your Sabbath. Are there ways to improve or fine-tune what you do during this time? Does the way you spend your Sabbath give you time to rest, reflect, and be renewed?
Leaders’ Corner: Whether you’re in ministry full-time or serving part-time, all of us need ample time alone with God.
Make sure you regularly take time to be alone with God. And leaders: form a team of people who can lead in your absence. I have been blessed recently to take a three-week sabbatical. Being able to mentally and spiritually pull away from ministry responsibility was only made possible because I knew there were capable, trustworthy people taking care of the ministry while I was gone. Having a team you can depend on to get things done without you around will help facilitate your much-needed rest.[JC1] I am blessed with a great team surrounding me.
Praying Scripture: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8 NKJV)
Lord, help me to not neglect taking a sabbath each week. Help me to reserve this day for time spent sitting quietly and listening to You. In Jesus’s name, I pray, Amen!
[1] Replenish Ministries, The Gift of Being Unproductive, Lance Witt, March 21, 2023
[2] More commonly known as “little white house“; a sabbatical place for missionaries, pastors, and visiting speakers for the church.
MEMORY
“Obey my commands and live! Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes. Tie them on your fingers as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.” (Proverbs 7:2,3)
Our brains are a mystery. Look up a few interesting facts about the human brain, and you’ll see the little three-pound organ sitting between your ears is a powerhouse of wonder. It can read and process up to 1,000 words per minute. Its concentration improves in cold weather.[1] Its storage capacity is virtually unlimited due to its 86 billion neurons that are constantly sending and receiving information via electrical impulses that travel at 268 miles per hour.[2] Amazing!
Still, for all that power, our brains are quite capable of something else most of us are less thrilled with: forgetting.
I laughed at myself recently when I called a friend with whom I pray every Wednesday. As it is each Wednesday, our time in prayer was wonderful and encouraging. The only irregular thing about our regular Wednesday prayer time this particular week was that it wasn’t actually happening on Wednesday. My friend was gracious and didn’t let me know I had called him an entire day early, but I felt a little embarrassed when we concluded our regular “Wednesday prayer time,” and I returned to my regular Tuesday activities. Oops.
I don’t know that there is a surefire remedy for forgetfulness on this side of heaven, but I believe something that can help is focused memorization of God’s Word. The wisest man on earth in his day, Solomon, challenged us to write God’s commands and instructions deep within our hearts. Memorizing God’s Word is one practical and powerful form of activating Solomon’s teaching.
Of course, memorizing requires effort, and it comes easier to some than others of us. But, like most valuable things in life, the effort enhances the reward.
The first obstacle many of us must overcome is belief. Reverse self-defeating mental narratives. Tell yourself a more encouraging story. What if the story you told yourself was, “I can do this,” not “this is too hard.” We routinely remember song lyrics, people’s names, phone numbers, addresses, important dates, and places, so why not Scripture? Often, the truth is that we remember what we want to remember and forget what is least important to us.
The second obstacle we must overcome is investment. Only you can decide whether writing God’s Word “deep within your heart” through memorization is something you wish to be a priority. Is it worth your time? It certainly is! But you must be the one who acknowledges its worthwhileness. And be encouraged: the reward of God’s Word being etched in your heart far outweighs the cost of getting it there. I have never heard anyone say, “I wish I hadn’t spent so much time memorizing Scripture.”
The final obstacle to overcome is simply starting. If memorizing is to become a priority for you, then tie a reminder around your finger—whether figuratively or literally! Find a way to remind yourself to take five minutes (or more) to practice memorizing. Whatever it takes, your priorities must make their way to the top of your “to-do” list.
To help, find the memorization process that works for you. Here are a few suggestions:
- Pick your preferred Bible translation.
- Take bite sizes.
- Write the passage down.
- Read aloud.
- Pray and meditate on the Scripture daily.
- Have a realistic “finish date” in mind.
As you step forward, hold yourself accountable but avoid legalism. Allowing the Spirit to lead means that, at times, your emphasis on memorization may shift toward a different spiritual discipline. This is okay. Life is unpredictable and has a way of getting busy. It’s okay for your spiritual discipline priorities to change—as long as you are consistently pursuing the presence and knowledge of God!
Through it all, trust the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is not a grumpy teacher waiting for you to fail but is with you and for you like a good Shepherd with his beloved sheep. As you trust him, watch how the Spirit will, at key moments and in hours of great need, bring to remembrance the words of God you have written deep into your heart.
Daily Inspiration: “The Bible in the memory is better than the Bible in the bookcase.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Weekly Challenge: As you work out your memorization process, avoid the need to impress anyone, especially God. The moment your memorization becomes a performance, it loses its value. It’s essential to be humble, and it’s okay to be needy. Ask God to help you write his words deep within your heart. He will help you. So, why not start today?
Leaders Corner: For a long time, I feared quoting scripture in front of others. I was afraid of misquoting, forgetting the words I was saying in the middle of saying them, or worse, coming across as someone who was simply bragging. But don’t be afraid to quote Scripture publicly. Begin by quoting privately with just you and God. Then allow your prayer life, in private and in public, to become a place for quoting Scripture as the Spirit directs. With the right heart, you will be modeling a spiritual discipline for others, not showing off. You can then challenge your people to take up this spiritual discipline with you! Leading is easiest and most effective when you’ve already been where you want to take someone else.
Praying Scripture: “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” (John 14:26)
Lord, I invite the Holy Spirit to show me and remind me of everything that I have been told through Your Word. May the Holy Spirit bring back to my remembrance the things I have read and memorized at the perfect time when needed the most. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!