Past Devotions

My long-time friend, Patty, died Sunday. I have known Patty for decades. She and another friend, Vaunda, are the sisters I never had and always wanted.

I am the oldest, Patty was the youngest (by about a decade) and Vaunda is in between. I always figured that I would be the first “to go.” Shortly before she died, Patty said, “It’s not fair that the youngest should go first,” and I agreed with her.

I still agree with her days later. But I also know that Patty lived all the days that were “recorded in [God’s] book.”

“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” [Psalm 139:16 NLT]

And she lived her days well, touching many lives with her humor, her enthusiasm and her compassion. She loved her Savior, she loved her family, she loved her friends. She loved life.

And now, I will begin the work of mourning. Every time I want to tell her something, or call her to laugh or cry, I will mourn.

Each of us who loved her will mourn our loss, but we will rejoice in her gain – to be present with the LORD she loved so much.

A.A. Milne wrote: “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

I would revise that a bit, “How blessed I am to have someone that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

October is the month where I feel like I have a split personality. It is my favorite month of the year weatherwise. It is my least favorite month of the year atmosphere-wise.

I love the cooler days, the changing colors of the trees. I love the fragrance of fallen leaves. I love wearing sweaters and sweats. I love switching from grilling to soups and stews. Ah, and then there are the apples and other fall fruits and vegetables to enjoy. I love being able to walk just about anytime of the day I want.

At the same time, as I walk, I am confronted with Halloween decorations, which I hate. (I know hate is a strong word, but I have a strong reaction to the decorations of witches and ghosts and ghouls and skeletons and blood and gore and … well, you get my drift!)

I do not want my mind pulled away to the dark things of life. I want to live in Philippians 4:8: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” [NLT]

True. Honorable. Right. Pure. Lovely. Admirable. Excellent. Worthy. I like the sound of those things. I want to spend my time searching for those things. I want my thoughts centered on those things.

I may live in a dark world. But I certainly don’t want the dark world to live in me!

My daily Bible verse last Friday was a very familiar one from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” [Matthew 6:33 NLT]

That verse is SO familiar I read it and then “dismissed” it. As the morning progressed, however, I kept thinking about that verse. I started wondering what it means to “Seek.”

The Greek word is zeteo, a verb, and it means simply to seek, search for, desire, require, demand. As I looked at the meaning, HELP-Word-studies added: to seek by inquiring; to investigate to reach a binding resolution, to search, “getting to the bottom of the matter.”

When I look at words like inquire, investigate, search, and get to the bottom of the matter, I am reminded that seeking the Kingdom of God is not a half-hearted matter. It is not just going to church on Sunday and getting fed a message from someone else who did the heavy inquiring and investigating.

It requires so much more—things like studying and searching the Scriptures, praying and then praying some more. It requires fellowship with others also engaged in “seeking.” It requires living a righteous life in Christ.

Seeking “first” also speaks to me of priority. Too much of my energy and time is often devoted to the “everything else” I need. I must make sure that seeking the Kingdom is my number one priority—all the time.

Help me, O LORD, to have a mindset that “seeks” You, “first” and always. Amen

I’ve dieted most of my life.  I’ve had an ongoing battle with weight since junior high. Sometimes I win; sometimes I lose. More often than not, I lose the battle, not the weight. I’ve also battled a great many other things in my life besides weight. Sometimes I won; sometimes I lost.

If it depended solely on my will power, my strength, or my abilities to keep me standing in Christ year in and year out, sometimes I’d win and sometimes I’d lose. More often than not, I’d lose. I can barely control what I eat, let alone my attitudes, the forces of my own will, the enemy of my soul or the world’s attempts to conform me to its patterns.

But it doesn’t depend solely on me. Paul writes, “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.  He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” [2 Corinthians 1:21-22]

It is God who knew me in my mother’s womb and knew every day of my life before it happened. It is God who invited me to know Christ. It is God who forgave my sins and made me whole. It is God who translated me out of the realm of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son.

Now it is God who makes both you and me “stand firm in Christ.” The New King James says it this way: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ . . . is God.” 

It is God who establishes us, who makes us stand. The Greek word means simply to make firm, to establish, to make secure or stable. We can’t establish ourselves in Christ. We can’t make ourselves secure, or firm, or stable. My goodness, I can’t even establish myself on a diet! What makes me think I’m strong enough to establish myself in God.

“Now it is God” who makes us secure in Christ by His promises, by His strength, and for His glory. When the world or the devil or even our own flesh seeks to undermine that stability, it is God’s promises that He has overcome the world, that He has defeated the devil, and that He has made a way for us out of all temptation that keep us going!  Hallelujah!  Amen.

Ever feel like everything is out of control?  Ever feel as if no matter how hard you try you just can’t get all the loose ends together?

I remember taking my grandson Carter to a game center once. It had all those fancy video games, small bowling lanes and other interesting things for little ones (and not so little ones) to spend their quarters on.  There was one game that got him squealing. The “Whack a Mole.”

It had a flat surface, and a soft mallet chained to it. There were holes in the surface and little things would pop out of the holes randomly. The way you scored was to whack those little things as they emerged from the holes. The problem: you never knew where the next one would pop out. By the time you got an aim on one, it would tuck away and a different one would emerge, and the pace kept getting faster and faster.

Sounds like life at times. I’ve got my little mallet and I’m keeping watch and every now and then I get a good pop at one when it rears up, but I can never get them all, and when I finally seem to get in a rhythm, the pace quickens. I need a bigger mallet, or fewer problems, or a slower pace. I need to get control, I shout!!! Or do I?  Am I the one that is supposed to have control of my life? Is it even possible?

“Our citizenship is in heaven. We eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”  [Philippians 3:20-21]

See that wonderful little phrase shouting from the middle of those verses …“by the power that enables HIM to bring everything under his control.”  Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one with the power, the power that enables Him to control everything, not us.

Where’s the power?  In Him. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  [Galatians 2:20]

The only control we have is to surrender our lives by faith to the Son of God. Everything else about our lives is in His control. We don’t need a bigger mallet; we need to surrender to the Lord.

I am not a crier. Well, let me qualify that. I cry when I pray for others. I cry for the people I love. I cry when I worship. Sometimes I cry just sitting and seeing the glory of God’s creation or thinking about God’s love. So maybe I am a crier. I just don’t cry much about myself or my needs or circumstances or situations.

I spent the first 23 years of my life in self-pity. When my first child was born with birth defects and struggled through her first year, my self-pity began to wane. My child’s needs became the most important thing at that time.

When I surrendered my life to the LORD a few years later, self-pity moved to the rearview mirror. Instead of asking “why me?” I began to try to find what I could learn in each situation and how I could grow in each choice. I’m not saying I am perfect, I’m not. I run to God A LOT! Often in repentance and godly sorrow.

But last Monday, I sat and cried … not over anything life threatening or life altering, but over my insurance company’s refusal to renew my prescription for my diabetic continuous glucose monitor! I depend on that monitor to keep my diabetes in control, but since I’ve been doing such a good job of that, I no longer met the qualifications for one. That didn’t even make sense to me.

So I had my moment of self-pity. I sat in my chair and whined for about an hour. I told God that I don’t ask much (which I’m sure is not true) and cried a bit. Then I just let it go.

An hour later I got a call, and the insurance company decided it would cover my sensors after all. I don’t think it was my self-pity-party that changed its mind. I think it was my LORD, who loved me despite my pitiful reaction. Only He could move an insurance company that fast!

“He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and he will rescue them.” [Psalm 72:13 NLT]

Sunday afternoon, as I was writing the devotion I sent out yesterday, I looked up Psalm 51 because I wanted to use one of the verses in the devotion. David wrote that song about the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. David came face to face with his sin and realized that not only had he sin against Bethsheba and her husband Uriah (by having him sent to the front lines to be killed in battle), but he sinned against God.

He admitted his sin before God “Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.” [Psalm 51:4 NLT]

As I usually do, I read the quote in context. Then I came to David’s plea for restoration. “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you.” [vs 10-12 NLT]

I had asked God that very morning in church to cleanse my heart. I wasn’t paying attention during worship, but instead my eyes were roaming the room, and my focus was far from worship. I was singing but paying little attention to the words … and far less attention to my LORD.

Anyone looking at me would have thought I was totally engaged. Unfortunately, God wasn’t too impressed with my outward engagement, He was looking at my heart and it was anything but engaged. And suddenly, I knew that. So I prayed, “LORD, create in me a pure heart!” And I turned my attention fully to Him. Oh the blessings of godly sorrow.

“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted.” [2Corinthians 7:10 NKJV]

Have you ever been asked why you are a Christian? I have, many times. Looking back, I know what brought me to God in the beginning, 51 years ago. I was miserable, in pain, confused, hopeless. The circumstances in my life demanded a change.

What I thought I needed was comfort and peace and security and a host of other things – things that only God can truly and securely provide. But if I could have gotten those things without getting God, I would have done so. Unfortunately (or FORTUNATELY) you can’t get what God provides without getting God Himself. It’s a package deal.

And as part of that package, we must come face to face with ourselves – just as Peter did in the courtyard of the high priest when Jesus was arrested and Peter denied his LORD three time … and what Isaiah did when he saw the LORD high and lifted up and found himself undone … and as David did when he cried out to God “Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.” [Psalm 51:4 NLT]

For us to remain strong and steady with God across the years takes more than the initial things that drove us to God in the beginning.  Somewhere, sometime in our walk, we must see God’s justice as it relates to us and understand what we truly deserve.

Only then can we truly appreciate God’s grace that is granted to us.

Only then will we look past the “gifts” and see with awesome wonder the Glorious Giver of All Things.

Only then will we bow down in worship before Him not expecting anything in return.

He is Enough!

I love Peter. He was bold, brash, and fiercely loyal to Jesus, until he wasn’t.  In other words, Peter was human. Brave one moment, cowardly the next. Saying the most profound truth in one breath, and something really dumb with the next.

One day Jesus was standing by the Sea of Galilee talking to the crowd that had gathered around him. Being pressed by the crowd, he got into the boat belonging to Peter. When he finished speaking to the crowd, he told Peter to “Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.” [5:4]

Jesus was a carpenter, and Peter was the fisherman who had been out all night and hadn’t caught a thing. But with a cocky attitude he does what Jesus tells him to do and ends up catching so many fish they were in danger of sinking. “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’”    

In one moment over a catch of fish, Peter saw Jesus, and in that glimpse of the Holiness of God in this itinerant preacher, Peter recognized his own ungodliness. There would be another time, even more devastating.

Jesus had warned Peter that Satan wanted to sift him like wheat and that before the night was over Peter would deny even knowing Him. Peter denied that would happen, but before the night was over, standing in the courtyard of the high priest after Jesus was arrested, Peter did exactly as Jesus told him he would. Just as he was speaking his last denial of his master, the rooster crowed and “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.” 

I can only begin to imagine what that one look from the Lord did to Peter’s heart. In that one look, Peter saw himself no longer as the big brave fisherman, the right-hand man of his master, but as a sinner deserving absolutely nothing from God except justice.

Peter, undone, unraveled, cursing his own sinful heart, would soon discover the amazing grace God so wanted to shower upon him.

If you are reading Psalm 95, the first thing you might notice is that little invitation “come.” The song begins with that invitation.

“Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him” [vs 1-2 NLT]

Then the psalmist goes on to tell us why we should sing, shout, praise and thank him. “For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too.” [vs 3-5 NLT]

Yes, our God is the Great God and King. All creation belongs to Him alone. Suddenly, though, the psalmist extends another invitation to “come.”  And this time it is because he remembers that it isn’t only the physical creation that belongs to God, it is us.

“Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care.” [vs 6-7 NLT]

When we worship, bow down, and kneel before the LORD, we surrender our lives to Him. He is our Creator and God, but suddenly with that surrender He is also our Great Shepherd. We enter that people “He watches over,” and become part of that “flock under his care.”

What JOY(!) to know Him not only as Creator, but also as Jesus, our Great Shepherd!