Past Devotions

My backyard is alive and full of joy!  It is spring and all the little birds that take up residence in our cedar trees during the winter months are making their nests.  They are flying in and out of the trees with sticks and pieces of fluff—anything they can find to prepare for new life.

While they are in the trees, they are singing their hearts out. I like to think they are praising their Creator when they do that and are inviting me to join them! Join them I shall. How could I not?

I have the ability today to choose how I face what this day, May 10, 2022, holds. I can bemoan growing older, curse the aches and pains that often accompany my day. I can dwell on the insecurity of my income amid rising inflation. I can choose to complain about the everyday difficulties. I can become depressed or anxious. I can … but I won’t.

Not today. Today I will join the little birds in my backyard, and I will praise my Creator and Savior and LORD. Today I will be grateful. Today I will sing, and maybe even shout a bit about how wonderful my God is. I will smile and be joyful.

“The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.” [Exodus 15:2 HSB]

“I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.” [Psalm 7:17 HCSB]

“I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.” [Psalm 27:6b HCSB]

“Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!” [Psalm 103:1 HCSB]

Today I sing!  I sing joyfully to my Savior. I praise His beautiful name. My joyful voice joins the little birds as they praise our Creator!

Every now and then I come across a list of “laws.”  Laws such as: The Law of Mechanical Repair: “After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will start to itch,” or The Variation Law: “If you change lines or traffic lanes, the one you were in will start to move faster than the one you are in now.” And this one: The Law of the Last Word: “Hey, watch this!”

Most of the ‘laws’ make me laugh.  Recently, one really made me think.  It is the Law of Location: “No matter where you go, there you are.”

The writer of Chronicles tells us where we can find the circumstances or events of David’s reign.  “As for the events of King David’s reign, from beginning to end, note that they are written in the Events of Samuel the Seer, the Events of Nathan the Prophet, and the Events of Gad the Seer, along with all his reign, his might, and the incidents [circumstances] that affected him” [1 Chronicles 29:29-30 HCSB]

But when Paul peached at Pisidian Antioch, he could have talked about all the events and circumstances that David experienced. Instead, he tells us about David’s heart — how God testified “I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart who will do all My will.” [Acts 13:22 HCSB]

Too often, we are more concerned with the circumstances we find ourselves in than we are about the condition of our hearts. We keep praying for God to take us out of our circumstances, but even if God does take us out of our present circumstances, unless we change, nothing changes — “no matter where [we] go, there [we] are.”

Our hearts must change; we must change.  We must have hearts after God’s own heart just as David had.  Then it won’t matter our circumstances.

A list of problems.  A list of things for which he could give thanks.  That is what Robinson Crusoe did after he was shipwrecked.  He took inventory of his life and was surprised at the size of the list of his assets. Perhaps we should do that on a regular basis—make a list of our problems and a list of things for which we can give thanks.

The one thing we learn about the Apostle Paul by reading his letters to the churches is that he did the same thing.  He often cited the things that were against him, but he never dwelled there.  He acknowledged all He suffered, but then went on to show all the things for which he gave thanks.

“For we don’t want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction that took place in Asia: we were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life.  Indeed, we personally had a death sentence within ourselves…. But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”  [2 Corinthians 1:8-9, 2:14 HCSB]

That, “but thanks be to God” should be the heading of the list of things for which we can give thanks. Whatever we put in the list of problems, we can always begin the second with, “but, thanks be to God….”

For example, if our problem is fear, “but, thanks be to God” we have God’s promise that He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. [2 Tim 1:7]

If our problem is financial, “but, thanks be to God” we have God’s promise that He shall supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. [Phil 4:19]

It really doesn’t matter what we put on that first problem list, there is always a “but, thanks be to God” promise from God on the second.

Father, You have provided everything we need, even our very breath.  I know my “Thanks be to God” list far outweighs any problems I might face in this life.  Thank you, Father, for Your abundance in my life.  Keep me ever aware that you are Good, Good, Father.  Amen

I always enjoy reading the first paragraph of Romans 5, verses 1-5.  Listen to some of the truths found in those verses reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

We have been 1) declared righteous by faith…have peace with God…obtained access into this grace in which we now stand, 2) rejoice in the hope of the glory of God…rejoice in our afflictions (sufferings), 3) affliction (suffering) produces…hope will not disappoint, and 4) God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Wow, could Paul pack more punch in one paragraph than he did here?  I love the contrasts.  We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God; we rejoice in our sufferings.  

 I also am captivated by the two outcomes that follow each other.  Suffering produces; hope does not disappoint.

 Suffering produces – what it produces depends upon how we approach it. I remember friends of my parents.  Their first child was born right after Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, she died shortly after birth.  Then they had another girl, raised to adulthood.  Their third child, a boy died of a brain tumor at age eight.  Shortly after he died, they had another boy, raised to adulthood.  Their fifth child, a boy had Down’s Syndrome.  This was at a time when that condition was viewed quite differently than it is today.

Many people looked on this couple and expected to find bitter people, instead they found people who were joyful and loved the Lord.  They were patient, kind, wonderful people. Suffering produced much good in them.

Suffering produces – what it produces depends on if we approach it with God or against God.

 Take a moment today and read Romans 5:1-5.  What do you find there?

Life is not fair.  I remember a book written years ago by Robert Schuller with the title, “Life is Not Fair, But God is Good.”  I never read the book, but I always liked the title.

That life is not fair was brought home recently when I met with a young woman whose husband died in his 40’s. Working hospice and pastoring always reminds that some people live to old age, some die young.  Some people are healthy most of their lives, while others battle physical or mental problems.

No matter how much we try to make life fair, it never will be.  We can try to level out salaries/incomes. We can try to level the playing field for different groups or peoples.  Still, something in life will remain unfair. There is probably not a single person who could say that throughout their life on earth everything has been fair.

When I think of fair and unfair, I am driven to think of the cross of Christ Jesus my LORD. It is the greatest act of unfairness in history.  Paul explains it this way, “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” [1 Corinthians 5:21 HCSB]

He had no sin. I had no righteousness. At the cross. He became my sin. I became His righteousness before God.

But I also find the greatest “fairness” of all at the foot of His cross because no one has any advantage when we come to Him, no one has anything to offer but surrender.  We bring nothing to the cross. There is no class there, no wealth, no education. There is only absolute helplessness.

We all enter God’s family the same way, through the sacrifice of our Savior and Lord. Yes, life is not fair, but our amazing God is so, so good.