Take Time to "Be Still"

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

I wish I were able to count the number of times I told my children to, “Be still.” Most children have a surplus of energy. At times, no matter where they are, it seems to have no limit.

When parents issue the command to “be still,” it usually comes at a time when the energy level has reached a fever pitch, or when the surplus energy is not conducive to the activity, like riding in the car or sitting in a church service. Let’s be honest here, getting a child to be still just by saying the words is often wasted energy; sometimes more drastic measures are required. 

We are “children of God” and it seems to me that, at times, we are not so different. We have a tendency to fill our lives with “busyness” and “activities”, which have few boundaries. Perhaps the only difference is that we don’t have an adult telling us to, “Be still.” Or do we!

We have a heavenly Father who also tells us to “be still.” You’ll find it Psalm 46. What I find interesting is the Hebrew word rapa, which means, cease. The Psalmist didn’t specify what we are to cease from, but it seems the underlying meaning is to cease striving; cease filling our time with so much activity that there isn’t any time left for God. In other words, don’t put anything above God, including our energy level and activities.

With tongue in cheek, I have said many times that my favorite theological word is “RELAX.” Let’s take God seriously and not put anything before Him. We can do it if we follow the advice of the Psalmist:

“Be still [cease striving] and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10).

Are You Weary

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

I have a question for you; Do you ever feel like giving up? Be honest now. I think most of us would have to admit that we’ve had those kinds of feeelings or thoughts at certain times in our Christian experience. That’s why I find Paul’s letters so helpful. Over and over he says to persevere, to run with endurance, to not lose heart. He experienced trials and suffering and knew first hand how hard it can be to keep at it day in and day out. 

Furthermore, our enemy will use every trick up his sleeve to discourage us from going forward. His job is to get us to throw in the towel—to give up. It’s only natural to do so unless we stay in God’s Word and renew our minds through it. Yes, there will be times when we become weary and feel that we are about to sink, but that is the exact time to turn to the Lord for strength and encouragement. Do not give up! If we hang in there, victory will be ours in Christ. 

Maybe this Scripture will help you as it has helped me over the years. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:9)

To Pray or Not to Pray; That is the Question

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

One of my former pastors was fond of saying that prayer was the last thing a Christian did when all of his/her own efforts failed. He probably wasn’t far from the truth. I’m certainly convinced that prayer is the weakest discipline of most professing Christians. 

R. A. Torrey, a great preacher from the past century, once wrote ten powerful reasons why believers should pray: 

· There is a devil and prayer is the God-appointed means of resisting him. 

· Prayer is God's way for us to obtain what we need from Him. 

· The apostles, whom God set forth to be a pattern for us, considered prayer to be the most important business of their lives. 

· Prayer occupied a prominent place and played a very important part in the earthly life of our Lord.

· Prayer is the most important part of the present ministry of our Lord, since He is now interceding for us. 

· Prayer is the means God has appointed for our receiving mercy from Him and obtaining grace to help in time of need. 

· Prayer is the means of obtaining the fullness of God's joy. 

· Prayer with thanksgiving is the means of obtaining freedom from anxiety, and in anxiety's place is peace, which passes understanding. 

· Prayer is the means by which we are to keep watchful and be alert at Christ's return. 

· Prayer is used by God to promote our spiritual growth, bring power into our work, lead others to faith in Christ, and bring all other blessings to Christ's church. 

That is a great list, but it is not exhaustive. And what it does for me is to remind me that I cannot have a vital relationship with God apart from prayer. It is how I communicate with Him, and then He, in turn, communicates with me through His Word. 

I’m reminded of the disciples who wanted to be like their Teacher, Jesus. They were witnesses of His effective prayer life, and desired to be like Him. One day they came to Him and asked a profound thing of Him. “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1) They didn’t ask that He teach them HOW to pray, but TO pray! 

We would do well not to make prayer a “last resort” kind of thing. It isn’t the last thing—IT’S THE BEST THING! 

God is listening…I hope you are praying!

Light Afflictions

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

There are times when the only thing I can do is shake my head in wonder at the difficulties some people have experienced because of their faith in Christ. Paul is one of them. No one can accuse Him of being and “arm-chair” Christian!

His resume reads like this:

Five different times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea…I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food. Often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. (2 Corinthians 11:24-27)

When I read that, I think, “That guy was really put through the ringer.” How do you read it? Furthermore, how would you describe these things to others if they had happened to you? Would you complain about it? Would you accuse God of not being faithful to you? Would you invoke sympathy from your hearers?

Here’s how Paul, the guy who endured all these things, describes them:

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory… (2 Corinthians 4:17)

“Our light affliction,” you’ve got to be kidding! We would call those afflictions anything but “light.” But when those words come from the person who experienced all those things (let’s call him an authority on affliction), then there must be a different way to see the trials and difficulties we face in life.

So far in my life, the afflictions that I have encountered are extremely light in comparison to Paul’s “light” afflictions. I’m neither dismissing them nor ignoring them, but rather desiring to see them as Paul did; when compared to the reality of eternity, to the unending state of blessedness that awaits God’s people there, it’s practically nothing.

Our affliction is always light in light of eternity!

A Walk in the Park

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

My devotional reading today was in the book of Zechariah. It is one of my favorite books in what is known as the Minor Prophets. The term minor neither refers to a prospector, nor a less important prophet. Some suggest they are minor because of the length of their prophecies, or how short the books are, or the extent of their prophetic ministries. That’s not the main point of this eDevotion, so I’ll move on.

Zechariah was a “post-exilic” prophet who ministered to the Jewish people when they returned from their 70-year exile in Babylon. Zechariah, along with the prophet Haggai, was called and used by God to motivate the people to complete the rebuilding of the Temple, which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. In a series of eight visions, four messages and two burdens, Zechariah challenged and encouraged his contemporaries to continue the work of the Lord because great blessings were planned for the restored nation—both in Zechariah’s day and in the future.

The work needed to do this would not be easy, but what an accomplishment it was. For example, Nehemiah worked on rebuilding the walls around the city of Jerusalem, which he finished in just 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15). And they did it with one-hand-tied-behind-their-back, so to speak. (Nehemiah 4:17 says the builders carried materials in one hand and a weapon to protect themselves in the other).

The main point of these testimonies is that they invoked God and His help to complete the task before them, and He helped them! What seemed to be difficult—or even impossible—is merely the ordinary with God!

To that end, I hope your God has not become too small. Do you see Him at work in you? In the lives of your friends? In your church family? No matter what difficulties, problems, or opposition we face, God is able to work in and through us to accomplish the tasks He wants us to do. Of course the ultimate end is that He receives the glory for the work that is done.

There is a Scripture that comes to mind here. With men it is impossible, but not with God. With God, all things are possible (Mark 10:27).

One of my Bible College professors was fond of saying, “What seems like a big deal to us is just a walk in the park for the Lord!”

Surely, He Was the Son of God

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

Matthew 27:50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.  52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.  53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. 54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

SURELY: from the Greek alethes; truly, certainly, really. Surely is about real vs. unreal; truth vs. non-truth. It is not a question; it is an affirmation. Confronted with the experience that afternoon, the centurion and those with him were certain.

What about people in the 21^st century? Not so much. They may read those words as though they were followed by a question mark; “Really! He the son of God?” For some, it becomes a suggestion that people might think about rather than a statement of faith.

To share the words of the centurion and declare, ‘SURELY He was the Son of God,’ demands that we make a leap of faith, that we see the crucifixion as a cosmic event; that we see this death as a moment that forever changed everything.

To the world, SURELY is unreasonable. SURELY is irrational. But to people of faith, SURELY is to decide that the centurion and his companions were right.

There are a lot of other things in the life of Jesus that we must say SURELY to as well—the virgin birth, feeding the 5,000, walking on water, the Ascension, just to mention a few. SURELY demands a belief in these and much more. There is little room for fudging or compromise here. The Christian faith is one of the supernatural and miraculous. 

Therefore, SURELY asks us what we believe about the Man hanging on the cross in the darkness of that Friday afternoon. Was He the Son of God or simply a wandering Galilean preacher with delusions of grandeur?

“If he’s the Son of God, let him save himself and us,” the thieves said of Him. Others mocked and ridiculed Him. “He trusted in God that He should deliver Him. If He abides in God, let God deliver Him.”

SURELY asks us if we believe that the crucifixion was a world-changing event or a deceitful hoax—concocted by the worst charlatans in history.

Matthew 27:62-64 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”  

Could the disciples have pulled off such a feat? Would they have the ingenuity and wherewithal to do that? Most likely not. But that didn’t stop the religious leaders from spreading the rumor.

Matthew 28:11-15 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.  When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

I would submit to you that this event was not a hoax, but rather a world-changing event.

SURELY asks us if everything ended on that Friday afternoon or if there is the hope of Sunday to come.

When Jesus said, “It is finished,” did that end it all? Or was it just the beginning?

SURELY challenges our beliefs and makes us confess that in God, all things in Scripture become possible.

That doesn’t mean that we will be able to jump over a 20-foot wall. But it does mean that anything God wants us to do can be accomplished. “I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME.”

SURELY demands a change in our lives. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

‘Surely he was the Son of God!’ The words come to us down through the centuries; a statement of faith in the darkest of moments.

SURELY. The word asks us to think. Each time we come to church, each time we say a prayer, each time we sing a hymn, each time we recite a Scripture, each time we break bread, we are asked to think: are we sure?