Devotions

Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.” [NLT]

Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” [NKJV]

No matter how you say it, good advice.

Let’s be aware that we are never going to get to that place where we outgrow temptation. We won’t become so “spiritually mature” that the devil gives up on us and doesn’t tempt us ever again. Jesus was the most spiritually mature and perfect person that ever walked this earth, and the devil was constantly on His heels.  After the temptation in the wilderness (Matt 4, Luke 4), Luke ends with this comment: “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” [Luke 4:13]

The devil was always looking for opportunities to tempt Jesus. He’s always looking for opportunities to tempt us. So, we must guard our hearts. Temptation, remember, is an inside job. The devil cannot COMPEL us to sin … no such thing as “the devil made me do it!”

But the devil can LURE us, appeal to our hearts if they are left unguarded, and we then make the decision to grab on to that temptation.

If we allow the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to take root in our hearts, we are going to welcome temptation. If, however, we fill our hearts with the Word of God, with the desire to be more like our Savior, with the power of the Holy Spirit, then our hearts will reject the enemy’s enticements.

Above all else … keep your heart with all diligence. It’s going to affect everything you do, every choice you make!

When Moses knew that he would be not be allowed to enter the Promised Land because of his disobedience in not honoring the LORD before the people, He asked God to appoint a successor so that the people would not be like “sheep without a shepherd.” The Lord’s choice for Moses’ successor was the younger man, Joshua.

Numbers 27:18-21: “So the LORD said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him….At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.’” [NIV]

Joshua had been at Moses’ side from the very beginning. He had been the commander during their various military engagements. He had been on the mountain with Moses, but the thing I like most about Joshua is found in a statement about him in Exodus 33.

Moses pitched a tent in the wilderness called the “tent of meeting.” When he would go out to the tent, the people would watch as the cloud of the Lord’s Presence would descend upon that tent and Moses and the Lord would talk.  Joshua would accompany Moses into the tent, and we are told that when Moses would depart, his young aide, “Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting.” [v11 NLT]

That simple statement speaks to me of the piousness of the young man Joshua. It tells me he had a heart for God. Joshua remained behind to soak up as much of the glory of the Lord as he could. He would need every bit of it because, while he didn’t know it at the time, he would be the one to take Israel into the Promised Land.

What Joshua learned from Moses and from the LORD God would carry him through. Toward the end of his life he would challenge the people to remain faithful to God – “Choose this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” [Joshua 24:14-15]

Joshua’s challenge is still relevant – choose this day.

I love this man, Moses. He is right beside the Promised Land, but not able to enter it because of his act of disobedience. He had failed to honor God before the people, instead reacting in anger and frustration. Forty years in the wilderness with that bunch of murmurers and complainers would more than likely make any of us angry enough to whack a rock!

But even though Moses will not be allowed to lead the people into the Promised Land, his heart is still burdened with them. Despite all the times they complained and rebelled, Moses still loved them. He interceded for them constantly in the wilderness and he does it here, on the border of the Promised Land, one more time.

Numbers 27:15-17: “Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘O Lord, you are the God who gives breath to all creatures. Please appoint a new man as leader for the community. Give them someone who will guide them wherever they go and will lead them into battle, so the community of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd.’” [NLT]

I’m not sure my heart is as big as Moses’. I’m pretty sure I’d be thinking, “well, just go it alone without me and see how well you do!” Instead, Moses asks God to appoint a new leader, one to take his place and lead God’s people. He asked God for another Shepherd … knowing how helpless sheep are without one.

God gave His people a new shepherd to lead them into the Promised Land … his name was Joshua (Jehovah Saves).  And one day, in the fullness of times, God gave His people an eternal Shepherd to lead them into His Presence forever … His name is Jesus (Greek), Joshua/Yeshua (Jehovah Saves).

Thank you, Father, for our Shepherd, Jesus the Christ.

To be oh so close and not get in.  “One day the Lord said to Moses, ‘Climb one of the mountains east of the river and look out over the land I have given the people of Israel. After you have seen it, you will die like your brother, Aaron, for you both rebelled against my instructions in the wilderness of Zin. When the people of Israel rebelled, you failed to demonstrate my holiness to them at the waters.’ (These are the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)” [Numbers 27:12-14 NLT]

Poor Moses, excluded from the Promised Land for his act of disobedience. God told him to speak to the rock and bring forth water and Moses was so angry, he whacked it instead. I can understand his frustration and what drove him to whack the rock. He’d spent 40 years in the wilderness with a bunch of ungrateful, stiff-necked, complaining, muttering people. They were enough to try anyone’s patience. [Numbers 20]

But God expected more from his leaders than frustration and anger. God expected Moses and his brother Aaron to honor Him as holy. Instead of being the example of the Holy Lord God Jehovah, Moses and his brother Aaron acted just like the people. They were frustrated and responded with anger.

James says it this way, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.” [1:19-20 NLT]

We are to speak to our world about the love of God, His righteousness and truth. That’s what we are called to do – to go into all the world and make disciples and teach them the things of the LORD. We are called to honor God as holy before them. We are not called to strike out in anger and frustration. May we be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Amen.

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that we would be blessed and rewarded when persecution and ridicule comes our way because of our faith in God.  [Matt 5:11-12]

A little further on in that sermon, He added: “But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.” [vs 44-45 NLT]

We have a responsibility to pray for those who set themselves up as our enemies to persecute us. It is vitally important that we do so. Personally, I’d like to pray Psalm 109 over a lot of people.  It is one of those imprecatory songs, “may his days be few … may a creditor seize all he has … may no one extend kindness to him,” but I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind.

I think our prayers are to be more along the lines of how Paul prayed in his letters. “May the eyes of their hearts be enlightened … may they receive the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge.”  [Ephesians 1]

We need to pray that those who oppose us see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. We need to pray that the god of this age no longer has the power to blind their minds. [2 Corinthians 4]

There are many who are in the Body of Christ who were once enemies of her. Paul, himself, was her persecutor and then became her greatest missionary.  If it can happen to Paul, it can happen to our present-day enemies.

I am still thinking about that well-worn saying, “God won’t give you any more than you can handle.”

Yesterday, I thought about re-phrasing that saying, “God won’t give you any more than you can handle in Him.”

This morning, I am considering how we grow in character and maturity. If I look back on my life, my character has been shaped and I matured by facing “more than I could handle.”

When our babies are born, we are constantly ‘encouraging’ them to handle more. They learn to hold their head up, sit up, crawl, walk, run. They learn to master a spoon, then a fork, and hold a cup.

As they go to school, they are constantly confronted with problems to solve, relationships to establish, physical agility in sports. We sometimes even “challenge” them with new experiences and things they don’t want to do. (Always with us by their side!)

God did the same with me! The greatest periods of growth in my life were usually facing the times of greatest adversity. Many were things over which I had no control and I had to learn how to turn those things over to God’s control. In some things I needed His wisdom. Other things were the consequences of my own stupidity!

All were things I could not handle on my own. Yet I would not trade those experiences for anything! I am who I am now because of them. (And I continue to grow and mature because He is still with me as I experience new “more than I can handle” on my own situations.)

Philippians 4:13: “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”

The other day I overhead a couple people talking about some of the difficulties they were experiencing in their lives. They ended with the well-worn saying that “God won’t give you any more than you can handle.”

You won’t find that statement anywhere in the Bible. Some think it is a paraphrase of 1 Corinthian 10:13: “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” [NLT]

This scripture is a wonderful promise that God will not allow difficulties in our life that we cannot overcome in the power of Christ Jesus. With the test, God will faithfully provide a way to endure the test. We can be obedient to God in all circumstances. Sin does not have to rule us.

But, this promise does not mean we will be immune from trouble. Jesus Himself said that in this world we will “have trouble.” [John 16:33a]

But, as Jesus also promises we can “take heart! [He has] overcome the world.” [John 16:33b]

Maybe we would be clearer if we said it this way. “God won’t give [us] any more than [we] can handle IN HIM.”

This past week the City of Middleton held its grand 4^th of July parade. It is one of the best parades in the Treasure Valley and is always well attended. This year our church, CFC Middleton, had both a float in the parade and a booth at the park.

Many volunteers showed up to decorate and ride the float, and to man the booth and pray for people. I would have loved to have been part of all that … and in times past I would have been! But, the body will no longer cooperate with those types of events. I sure would have loved to be included.

There are many things that I can no longer do. I politely decline, sometimes explain, all the while my heart desires to be there. Maybe that is why when reading in Colossians Chapter 1 this week, I was so touched by Paul’s passage that describes God’s reconciliation with everything in heaven and on earth.

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” [Colossians 1:19-22 NLT]

See that little phrase?  “This includes you who were once far from God.”

I may “age out” of a lot of things on this earth. But I, once an enemy of God and separated from him by my evil thoughts and actions, am now included in the reconciliation He Himself accomplished through Christ Jesus. I will never age out of that. Amen! Hallelujah!

I am having a great time leisurely strolling through that first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Colossian church. In a few short verses he expounds on so much of what we have in Christ—knowledge, wisdom, understanding, strength, endurance, patience. We live in the light. We have freedom anchored in the very Person of the Living God!

After Paul gives us that glorious portrait of our Savior Christ Jesus as Preeminent over all Creation, he adds something deeply personal to each of us.

“Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.” [Colossians 1: 18 NLT]

Christ is the head of the church, and, the church is His body. Isn’t that amazing? Together we are the corporate body of Christ. We move and minister as a complete body, following the direction given by the Head.

But, we are also individual members of His body as He explained to the Roman church. “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.” [Romans 12:4-6a NLT]

Our Father God doesn’t view us as just a “corporate” body, He views us as “individuals.” We each have different gifts, different experiences, different talents to offer. He knows us by name.

He KNOWS us by OUR NAME! That is even more amazing!

Yesterday we commemorated this nation’s freedom. We do so every year on July 4, the anniversary of the publication of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Our national freedoms are anchored in that Declaration, and in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. When our freedoms are threatened, we return to those documents. They provide the security for our national and individual freedom.

In Colossians, Chapter 1, Paul also spoke of freedom for those who have placed their faith in Christ Jesus our LORD. He says our freedoms are anchored in Christ, God’s “dear Son [Jesus], who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.”

And to prove how secure that freedom is, Paul begins in the next verses the most glorious description of the Preeminence of Christ found in Scriptures. Listen to just the first part.

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.” [1:15-17 NLT]

Our nation’s freedoms are anchored in the words of documents and our resolve to uphold and protect them.

Our spiritual freedom is anchored in a Supreme Person, our Creator and Redeemer, who cannot be overthrown or conquered. Amen & Amen!