Devotions

Peter begins his second letter telling us that God has given us “everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” [2 Peter 1:2]

That word for godliness is EUSEBEIA (yoo-seb’-i-ah); which simply means godliness or holiness. God has provided everything we need to live a holy life, a godly life.  Everything.  It’s all there.  Waiting … waiting for us to appropriate it.

I remember a story about John D. Rockefeller.  He saw a painting in a catalog that he really liked and wanted. He sent his assistants scouring the world to see who possessed it so that he could acquire it.  They found it in his own collection.  He possessed it all along and didn’t even know it.

Are we like that with the things of God?  Are we scouring around trying to find things we already possess?  God has given us everything.  That means He has held back nothing.  Do we need peace, comfort, strength, joy?  It’s already ours.  Do we need forgiveness, wisdom, provision, grace?  We have it.

 Peter ends his letter with one important admonition that we are to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  [2 Peter 3:18]

Why the reminder to GROW in knowledge?  Because everything we need for life and godliness is given us THROUGH the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The more we know of Jesus, the more we realize just what is in our storehouse.  We won’t be scurrying around trying to find something we already possess.  We’ll know what we have, and we’ll know how to appropriate and appreciate it!

The phrase, “what joy shall fill my heart” was running through my mind this morning and then I recognized where it comes from.  It is found in the final verse in a beloved old hymn, How Great Thou Art.

 When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.  Then I shall bow in humble adoration, and proclaim, my God, how great thou art!

Have we lost some of our admiration of the greatness of our God?  Do we fail to see our God displayed in the universe, in the stars or rolling thunder as the song says?  Do we not hear Him any longer in the song of the birds or the rushing brooks or feel Him on the breezes? Have we become so jaded that we are no longer rendered breathless when we think about the cross?

There is another verse to that song that should leave us speechless with awe, overpowered by God’s abundant mercy and grace.

 And when I think that God, his Son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin.

We must return to the greatness of God. We must come back to the cross where God’s Son was not spared.  We must be struck again by God’s majesty.  We must see ourselves in the light of God’s holiness.  We can no longer see our God the way the world sees Him, we must see Him as He is.

 Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee: How great thou art! How great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee: How great thou art! How great thou art!

I was reading in Ecclesiastes yesterday.  The book opens with “’Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher; ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’”

The Preacher was Solomon, the richest of all kings who had everything and anything a person could want.  And when he looked it all over, when he experienced everything possible, to him it was all vanity, a thought which he repeats through the book.

Vanity, hebel, means emptiness, transitory and unsatisfactory.

There is one thought, however, that always intrigues me in Solomon’s discourse on vanity. It comes in Chapter 3:11, when Solomon says that God has set eternity in the hearts of men.

Paul also talks about that heartfelt longing for eternity. “For we know that if our temporary, earthly dwelling is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this body, desiring to put on our dwelling from heaven.” [2 Cor 5:1-2 HCSB]

Meanwhile we groan.  Boy, do we groan.  We groan when we face separations.  We groan when we face sin and its consequences.  We groan when we grow tired or sick or old or lonely or unsatisfied.  We groan, longing for heaven [our home], for the presence of God [our Father], and for our loved ones there.

God has placed a longing in our hearts for heaven (eternity) that cannot be filled by anything in this life.  There is something inside us that knows that our life in this world is not complete, not enough.

Deep within all of us is a knowledge that this is not our home.

“From the altars of our hearts Oh God, let flames of worship rise.”

That is a line from a Matt Redmond song called “Flames.”

“The fire on the altar is to be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest will burn wood on the fire. He is to arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat portions from the fellowship offerings on it. Fire must be kept burning on the altar continually; it must not go out.” [Lev 6:12-13 HCSB]

“Keep the altar of private prayer burning. This is the very life of all piety,” Charles Spurgeon wrote.  He added, “God loves to see the hearts of His people glowing towards Himself.”

Sometime my heart is burning, glowing in prayer and in praise and in worship to God, but other times my heart has seemed lukewarm, cold even.  With the pull of this world upon us, busy schedules, problems, aging or health issues, relationship failures, or financial troubles, it can be difficult to keep our hearts burning.  Too often the flames of worship become little more than cooling embers.

The key to keeping those flames burning brightly is in God’s instructions to the priests above.  They were not to wait until the fire died and then re-start it, but every morning the priests were to refuel the altar.  The fire burned continuously because it was constantly and consistently fueled.  It was one of the priests’ most important tasks.

Our prayer and worship are some of our most important tasks.  We need to be consistent and constant in our private prayer – that is what will keep the flames of worship rising continuously from hearts that are on fire for the Lord.

I used to have a step tracker that required me to manually upload the previous day’s steps to my computer.  The computer application would track my steps each day, giving me overall totals and averages.  It would also set the new day’s goals.  I remember the day that it told me that I had walked One Million Steps since I started keeping track. One Million Steps.  Wow!

One Million Steps was a great milestone – except I’d actually gone nowhere.  Most of those steps had been roundtrips around the neighborhood and from room to room at home or at work.   There were a few on vacation with the grandsons, but mainly my One Million Steps had been achieved within a few miles of my house.

My step tracking devices don’t care about where or how I walk. Their only demand is that I keep moving and get my steps in every day.

Not so with God.  Paul reminds us that God expects a worthy walk, a walk that matches the high calling we have in Christ Jesus.  “Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received.” [Eph 4:1 HCSB]

God doesn’t just want us moving.  He’s not into counting our steps.  Our God cares where we are going in this walk with Him.  He wants us on the narrow path, not the wide road.  He wants us walking in the light of His Son.  He wants us walking in gentleness, faithfulness, peace, and unity.  He wants our walk every day to become more like the walk of our Lord Jesus.

My step trackers can celebrate One Million Steps – God, however, is concerned with what I’ve done with those One Million Steps.