Devotions

I had a big surprise and a big laugh early Tuesday morning. When I last saw my primary, she referred me to an orthopedist for evaluation of my suspected PMR. The ortho instead made two referrals, one for an injection in my neck (which I’m still waiting to hear about) and the other for physical therapy (PT) on my neck. I got a call from the regional health system about the PT; then it referred me to the rehab office closest to me.

When I arrived Tuesday morning I was given a tablet, which was supposed to contain the information about my neck. After logging on, I found that they wanted information on my hips and left shoulder. I questioned that immediately since I’m not having any problems with my hips or left shoulder. The receptionist looked it up only to find that the “referral” came from an OB-GYN that I had not seen in seven years. I asked her how often OB-GYNs made referrals for hip and shoulder problems. She said this was a first. We both laughed and eventually it was straightened out and I had my first neck rehab.

I’m still chuckling about my mixed-up referrals. The primary wanted an evaluation on my PMR. The ortho wanted to just deal with the neck for the time being. A referral for the neck was made, but somehow along the route to the rehab office something got horribly twisted and ended up for my hips and left shoulder from a doctor I no longer see. It reminded me of a game of “Gossip.”

It also made me treasure the words of the LORD to Jeremiah for God’s beloved Israel. ”For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” [Jer 29:11 NIV]

God’s plans don’t get mixed up, they don’t lose anything in the translation or become confused along the way. They are secure, they are true, they will be accomplished because the Creator God of All Things bases them on His Absolute authority and foreknowledge.

Man may get things horribly confused; God never does. God’s promise to His beloved Israel holds true for the LORD’s beloved bride also – to prosper us, not harm us, to give us hope and a future. Praise His Glorious Name, Amen!

There is one word in Psalm 98 that we looked at yesterday that had me grinning. It comes in verse 4. In the KJV it reads, “make a loud noise.” In the NKJV it’s translated, “break forth in song,” and in the NIV it’s rendered, “burst into jubilant song with music.”

The Hebrew word is patsach, and it means to break out in joyful sound, to break forth into joy, or to make a loud noise. I guess all three translations got it right.

The reason I’m grinning is that it reminded me of my worship walks. I walk, not as far now as I used to, but with the same purpose. I walk for my health, and I worship for my spiritual health while I walk. I’ve been known to “burst into jubilant song” somewhere along the way. I love singing aloud and raising my arms to praise my LORD. I’m sure I look odd to most who see me when they can’t hear the music I’m singing with on my MP3 player.

When you think about the mighty work God has done for you, and the wonderful work He continues to do in you, don’t you want to just raise your hands and give out a shout to Him in praise and thanksgiving? No matter where you are!

The love of God often overwhelms me. That He would even consider me, let alone love me and call me for His purpose is beyond amazing. What joy floods my soul and the more I think about the LORD and express my joy, the more amazed I become and the more I want to praise Him.

I mean very little to this world, easily overlooked by it. But I live in the knowledge and awareness that I am not overlooked by the LORD of all Creation, in fact, I’m regarded as His own, a child of the King. You are too! Doesn’t that just make you want to “burst into jubilant song with music.”

Amen & Amen!

This past Sunday our worship music seemed to focus on overcoming fear by seeing the greatness of God. I loved how God put the music together through our worship leader … “There’s Power in the Blood,” “I Believe,” “You Make Me Brave,” “No Longer a Slave to Fear,” and “How Great Thou Art.”

As I traveled home from church, I thought about how the world works overtime to install fear in all of us, including Christians. First, we’re told a low-fat diet, oh, no wait, it’s now a high protein-high fat diet. Of course, we should also worry about cholesterol clogging our arteries from all the fat, no, wait, it’s really the high sugar that’s the problem. But we can always take medication, can’t we … oh, no, wait, the medication isn’t good for us either. All those medications and pesticides which were supposed to help us are now killing us

If we aren’t fearful about our health, the world will try to make us fearful about our politics … the left says we’re in trouble if we vote conservative …. The right says if we vote liberal, we’ll suffer ….

And of course, if it isn’t our health or our politics that make us fearful, we can always worry about our money (stock market crashes/recessions/layoffs) or be fearful about terrorism or recalls of our food, or cars, or …. Will it never stop?

It must be significant that there are so many references to “Fear not,” in some form in the Bible. I’ve read that there are 365 such. If that’s true, there’s a “fear not” for every day of the year—for every fear in every day of the year. Perhaps my favorite is found in Luke 12:32 when Jesus promised, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” [NKJV]

Our Father, who is All Powerful, All Knowing, and Always with us, loves us and is delighted to welcome us into His flock. It’s His good pleasure to give us the kingdom … knowing that, what do we have to fear?

If you spend any time at all online, you’ll notice that if you do a search on a topic, you’ll find offers for what you’ve searched appearing as ads on your Facebook, Instagram and other online presences. Recently I was searching for vacation ideas. I checked out locations and means of travel, such as by car, air, ship, train, etc. Suddenly, I’m now seeing ads for cruises, vacation packages, train tours to a lot of different places every time I go online.

The one that really made me laugh appeared on my Facebook page this week. “For $2,500 per month, choose from spacious ‘IxxxxxxxA’ vacation homes, five-star hotels, and one-of-a-kind experiences.”

For $2500 a month … can’t you just hear the “only” in there…for “only” $2500 a month, I have my choice of vacations. I’m not a math genius but that’s $30,000 a year! If I had an extra $30,000 in my bank account every year, I’m sure I could find much better uses for it than vacationing in villas, five-star hotels or experiencing one-of-a kind adventures.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” [Hebrews 13:5]

Being content isn’t easy, especially in a society which loves to raise discontent levels to new heights. It has to, it’s built on consumerism. We certainly aren’t going to buy more if we are content with what we have. God reminds, however, that it is not money, nor things that will bring peace and satisfaction. It’s His presence with us. In Him, we can find the highest contentment (not complacency, but contentment … there’s a difference).

Teach us LORD, to find our satisfaction in You. Amen

I got curious with the Academy Awards coming up in February about the number of awards shows that have to do with the film industry. It seems like I see one every week. I did some research and found a 2019-2020 calendar that started in October and ended with the Oscars in February. In those five months, there are 63 award shows. Not all of these award shows are broadcast, of course, but still—63?

How many awards do these Hollywood types need? I’m certain they don’t need 63 in the span of five months. I don’t know of any industry that is as self-congratulatory as the film industry. From the likes of some of the films produced lately I’m wondering how they can congratulate themselves at all.

Awards, rewards, I suppose are great motivators. Credit card companies, banks, restaurants, retailers, airlines all use rewards as motivation to use their products.

The Bible is also not without its promise of rewards either. In the Old Testament, 1 Samuel 26:23 promises that “The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness,” and in the New Testament we read also of rewards in Hebrews 11:6: “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

I am not unaware that there are rewards for those who serve the LORD well. I look forward to seeing those crowns given out to the faithful ones. But rewards, crowns, are not what should persuade us to serve … there is a much deeper motivation to live not for ourselves but for the One who made us alive in Him. That motivation is love.

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all … that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” [2 Cor 5:14-15]

While I waited in the doctor’s office last week I became captivated by the program on televisions placed around the room. The show being broadcast was something about finding beachfront properties for people.

The episode was of a couple looking at a beachfront apartment, 800SF with a balcony from which they could see the ocean. They were quite thrilled with the apartment because it was only $450K; they had anticipated spending much more. They did lament, however, that there was only one sink in the master bath and would have to share it.

Now please know, I’m not knocking any of you who have two (or more) sinks in your master bath. I’ve never had more than one, and while I’ve had to share a bathroom for 53 years, we’ve seldom shared it at the same time. I have not really experienced the need nor the joy of having two sinks.

Still. It made me think about those who have no master baths, or perhaps no bathrooms at all. It made me wonder about those who must haul water manually from distant places in order to have something clean to drink, and about those who have no clean drinking water from any distance.

I remember when we had seven young men from around the world staying with us one summer. One said that his people back home could not understand the concept of garages … that our cars “lived in houses” while they had many generations living in one room.

As a nation we are truly blessed with abundance. There is nothing wrong in that, but we need to be so careful that our abundance doesn’t morph into greed and covetousness. If we are blessed, I truly believe God’s purpose in that is that we use our abundance to also bless others.

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” [Matt 25:35-36]

This week NBC News sent me an article about a study being conducted on aging. (Like I really needed that, but if you do, there’s a link at the bottom of this devotion.)

Study author Michael Snyder, a professor and the chair of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine said, “As people get older, they start to be very concerned about aging.” Ok, I must admit that sentence made me laugh out loud. I wanted to say something really snarky, like, “Ya think?”

Of course, as we get older we start to think about getting older, aging. There is something about the aging process that makes its presence known whether we want it to or not. Psalm 39 is a song of David and it’s titled in some translations as a “Prayer for Wisdom and Thanksgiving.” In the song David cries out, “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.” [v4 NIV]

Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians to “walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time.” [5:15-16a NKJV]

We only have so much time in this life, only so many opportunities before we reach the end. The wise person makes the most of every moment and every occasion to do good and serve the LORD. It may not seem that way when we have more days in front than behind, but when we cross that invisible line (aging), and we have more days behind than in front, it becomes quite clear.

Teach us LORD, to redeem our time for You.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/aging/there-are-least-4-different-ways-aging-scientists-say-n1112796?cid=eml_nbn_20200113

We sing a song in church titled, “I Will Trust in You,” written by Lauren Daigle, Paul Marbury, Michael Farren. (There’s a link at the bottom of the devotion if you’d like to listen.)

The song talks about how we stay strong when God doesn’t move the mountains or part the sea or give us the kind of answers we expect or want. How do we handle trudging over that mountain? How do we continue when we have to walk through the floods? What kind of heart attitude must we bear when the answers to our prayers don’t rescue us from situations, illnesses or circumstances of life?

The song says that it is then we must trust. “I will trust, I will trust in You.”

That’s not a new thought. David in the midst of trouble said, “I trust in you, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands.” [Psalm 31:14-15 NIV]

Jesus told us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” [John 14:1 NIV]

We commit our spiritual well-being to God. No matter what we see with our natural eyes, or what we must go through, endure, or overcome in this life, our belief in God and in His Christ holds us steady. The mountains may loom, but God will give us hinds-feet for high places. The sea may seem to overwhelm, but Jesus can quiet our soul. And the answers to our prayers may be different than expected, but He will never leave us, nor forsake us. I will trust, I can trust, in Him.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=i+will+trust+in+you+lauren+daigle&form=EDNTHT&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&msnews=1&rec_search=1&plvar=0&refig=53807e47e8c946d6a42a11bbbaace0e2&sp=1&qs=HS&sk=PRES1&sc=8-0&cvid=53807e47e8c946d6a42a11bbbaace0e2&cc=US&setlang=en-US