Daily Devotionals

A devotional is a religious practice, often involving readings, prayers, or meditations, intended to foster a deeper connection with God. It can be a daily activity or a more structured ritual, and it's a way for individuals to express their faith and seek spiritual growth.

What it is:

Religious Practice:

Devotionals are a form of religious practice focused on honoring, venerating, or connecting with a higher power.

Variety of Forms:

They can take many forms, including Bible reading plans, meditations, liturgical exercises, or daily selections of verses with accompanying reflections.

Spiritual Growth:

Devotionals are a way to deepen one's faith, express devotion, and experience a sense of community.

Examples:

Daily Devotionals:

These are often found in books or online and provide a specific reading for each day of the calendar year.

Specific Practices:

Devotionals can include prayer, readings, and Bible study material.

In Essence:

Devotionals are a way to integrate faith into daily life, whether through structured practices or personal reflection.

Mom Heart Moments #242

I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6

THE LEAVES ARE STARTING TO turn from various shades of green to vibrant oranges, golds, and reds. Crisp morning air greets us as we close the bedroom windows before heading downstairs to brew a hot cup of tea. A fresh, new season is just around the corner! As many families prepare to go “back to school,” our hearts wonder what God has in store for us next. What classes has He enrolled us in? Is it “Patience 101” again?! Will I learn more about His love? Grace? Discipline?

Fall has always felt to me like the real new year, and I have great anticipation to begin with a clean slate, with (as Anne of Green Gables said) no mistakes in it yet, just all new possibilities. So it is exciting to see how the schedule will come together and what we will pursue in the way of commitments and activities.

It is also a strategic time to reflect on our children’s character and our own. One filter that helps me determine which commitments to make is ensuring that my calendar is not so crammed with activities and lessons that the only time I have with Joy is in the car.

Fall is a reflective season in which to take some time to pray over each of my children, asking the Lord for wisdom in how to help each child grow in their faith—those who are in my house and those who are far away. I ask God to show me their potential, their gifts, their temptations, the areas in which they need to grow. Wisdom comes from the Holy Spirit, who has access to my children’s hearts, minds, and souls.

What’s on your agenda this fall? Ask God what’s on His agenda for your family before you make many plans!

31 Days of Wisdom - Proverbs 23

Reflection on Proverbs 23:17–18

The writer of Psalm 73 was alarmed that the wicked seemed to be having a great time in life and the righteous seemed to be suffering. That didn’t fit the picture of God’s justice—until the psalmist came into God’s presence and got an eternal perspective (see Psalm 73:17). He realized that in the long run, the pleasures of the wicked will pass into pain and the pain of those who love God will give way to pleasures in his presence forever. The momentary view was deceptive.

That’s why Proverbs strongly warns us here and elsewhere (see Proverbs 3:31; 24:1–2, 19–20) against envying those who are not living for God. At times it may look like they are having all the fun, but their lives will ultimately be unfulfilling unless they forsake evil and follow God’s paths. Because we are confident in our hope, we can be zealous for God and refuse to envy sinners. We are rich in God’s goodness not only now but also in the future. We will never regret the hard choices we make for him.

Saying 7

1 When you sit to dine with a ruler,

note well what is before you,

2 and put a knife to your throat

if you are given to gluttony.

3 Do not crave his delicacies,

for that food is deceptive.

Saying 8

4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich;

do not trust your own cleverness.

5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,

for they will surely sprout wings

and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Saying 9

6 Do not eat the food of a begrudging host,

do not crave his delicacies;

7 for he is the kind of person

who is always thinking about the cost.

“Eat and drink,” he says to you,

but his heart is not with you.

8 You will vomit up the little you have eaten

and will have wasted your compliments.

Saying 10

9 Do not speak to fools,

for they will scorn your prudent words.

Saying 11

10 Do not move an ancient boundary stone

or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

11 for their Defender is strong;

he will take up their case against you.

Saying 12

12 Apply your heart to instruction

and your ears to words of knowledge.

Saying 13

13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;

if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.

14 Punish them with the rod

and save them from death.

Saying 14

15 My son, if your heart is wise,

then my heart will be glad indeed;

16 my inmost being will rejoice

when your lips speak what is right.

Saying 15

17 Do not let your heart envy sinners,

but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.

18 There is surely a future hope for you,

and your hope will not be cut off.

Saying 16

19 Listen, my son, and be wise,

and set your heart on the right path:

20 Do not join those who drink too much wine

or gorge themselves on meat,

21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor,

and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

Saying 17

22 Listen to your father, who gave you life,

and do not despise your mother when she is old.

23 Buy the truth and do not sell it—

wisdom, instruction and insight as well.

24 The father of a righteous child has great joy;

a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.

25 May your father and mother rejoice;

may she who gave you birth be joyful!

Saying 18

26 My son, give me your heart

and let your eyes delight in my ways,

27 for an adulterous woman is a deep pit,

and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

28 Like a bandit she lies in wait

and multiplies the unfaithful among men.

Saying 19

29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?

Who has strife? Who has complaints?

Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

30 Those who linger over wine,

who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.

31 Do not gaze at wine when it is red,

when it sparkles in the cup,

when it goes down smoothly!

32 In the end it bites like a snake

and poisons like a viper.

33 Your eyes will see strange sights,

and your mind will imagine confusing things.

34 You will be like one sleeping on the high seas,

lying on top of the rigging.

35 “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt!

They beat me, but I don’t feel it!

When will I wake up

so I can find another drink?”

Praise

How can praise become a natural response to the presence of God in my life?

As [Jesus] rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. . . . All of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

Luke 19:36-37

Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise! He is to be feared above all gods. The gods of other nations are mere idols, but the LORD made the heavens!

1 Chronicles 16:25-26

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?

Psalm 8:3-4

GOD IS THE CREATOR of the universe. He fashioned the heavens, placing the planets and stars in motion; carved out the canyons, valleys, and mountains; and breathed life into every human being. How amazing is it that this same God desires a personal relationship with us and even provides a way for us to live forever with him in heaven? As the creator and sustainer of life, he is worthy of our highest praise. Before you come into prayer or worship, take a few moments to think about God’s awesome power and greatness. As you meditate on his unlimited and unconditional love for you personally, despite your limitations, you will begin to find yourself responding to him with more adoration, joy, and praise.

Prayer Prompts

Lord, I confess that I often forget to praise you for . . .

Your Word reminds me you are worthy of praise because . . .

The Barrenness of Busyness

TO READ: Luke 10:38–11:13

The Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are so upset over all these details! There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it—and I won’t take it away from her.”

Luke 10:41-42

There’s danger in being idle. As Isaac Watts wrote:

For Satan finds some mischief still

For idle hands to do. a

Good honest work, quite apart from exercising muscles and putting food on the table, also acts as a deterrent against the temptations that cluster around an idle life. But if busyness is the antidote to idleness, we should be aware that there’s a sting in the tail of busyness, too.

Martha, the friend of Jesus, is a great example. No one can fault the lady for being busy when she found that Jesus and his hungry disciples had arrived for lunch. And her frustration with her sister who sat around talking when she could have been doing kitchen duty is perfectly understandable. But when Martha remonstrated with Jesus and suggested that he “tell her to come and help” (Luke 10:40), he replied that Mary had grasped something that Martha had overlooked. But what was it?

Martha is the patron saint of all those who are so busy that they don’t have time to care for the nourishment of their own souls. What they are doing is necessary, important, helpful—but ultimately destructive! As they expend physical and emotional energy, they neglect the infusion of spiritual power.

Mary knew better than to let this happen with her. She took an opportunity that was all too scarce for women in those days: to sit “at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught” (10:39).

Put in the simplest of terms, busyness leads to barrenness. Busyness keeps us away from taking the time to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest God’s Word. Being nourished by God’s Word is like a conversation between two friends who listen and respond to each other and are encouraged by the encounter. Spiritual nourishment flows to the life of the man who regularly takes time to listen to the Lord in his Word and then responds in prayer to what the Lord has said.

Of course, prayer that is based on God’s Word is more likely to be close to the mind of the Lord than prayer that comes purely from the self-interest of the one praying. This is clear from the prayer Jesus taught his disciples (11:1-4). This prayer is concerned first that the Lord’s “name be honored,” then that his “Kingdom come soon.” Then, and only then, prayer turns to legitimate matters of personal concern—such as “our food day by day,” relationships where we sin and others sin “against us,” and spiritual issues such as “temptation.”

It is true that the cure for idleness is busyness. But beware the barrenness of busyness that ignores the secret of blessedness.

a Isaac Watts, Diving Songs.

Wounds of Truth

Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

Proverbs 27:6

Help your children find friends who will be honest with them — friends who are willing to go through some pain with them or even cause some pain to make them better people. At first your children might want to run from an individual who makes them face the truth and own up to their behavior, but in the end that is the person who will love them the most.

An enemy, as suggested in Proverbs 27:6, is someone who lets you get away with things and therefore seems easier to have as a friend. Unfortunately, while they are letting you slide in your behavior (only supplying you with “kisses”) they are also setting you up and only multiplying your problems. Your children will not see this as clearly as you will. They might refuse to listen to you when you warn them and encourage them to end one of their friendships. But your words will eventually prove true, and after your children have experienced the true kiss of the enemy, your credibility will grow.

Hopefully in the end you will have also become a true friend to your child. PARENTING PRINCIPLE

The wounds of truth are better than the kisses of death.

POINTS TO PONDER

What have you noticed in your child’s friendship choices so far?
How are you helping them develop good friendships?
What are you doing to build a long-term friendship with your child?

A New Song of Redemption

And they sang a new song saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll,

And to open its seals;

For You were slain,

And have redeemed us to God by Your blood

Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

Revelation 5:9

Our limited minds can scarcely grasp the thought that Christ redeemed us with the purchase price of His own blood. The writer of Hebrews reminded us that it is “not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (9:12). Simon Peter elaborated on the point, saying, “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19).

It is no wonder we will be singing this “new song” in heaven. Jesus alone is worthy to be the object of our worship. He is the only One who was slain and who redeemed us by His own blood. This verse reveals to us the hope of redemption as well as the scope of redemption.

THE HOPE OF REDEMPTION

Our hope of being redeemed is found in Christ and in Christ alone. As Paul said, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Redemption is the scarlet thread that is woven throughout the entire Bible. The word redemption comes from agora, the Greek word for “the marketplace.” In its verb form in Revelation 5:9, the word indicates that Jesus Christ entered the marketplace and purchased us out of the market to be His very own. How much do you think you are worth to Him? What would He pay for you? Our redemption had a large price tag affixed. The cost was Christ’s own blood.

In this fifth chapter of Revelation, we come upon one of the great worship experiences of all time. What is it that gives us access to Christ’s presence in worship? Is it the observance of certain religious rituals, the adoration of certain images or icons? The Bible is explicit: it is the blood of the Lord Jesus that gives us access to His throne of worship, not only in the unfolding scene in Revelation, but also in our own private devotional time. Our only hope of redemption is in Christ and His shed blood.

THE SCOPE OF REDEMPTION

Who is covered by this purchase price? Is it only for those on one end of the economic or social spectrum? Is it only for those who look like we look and act like we act? The new song of heaven declares that the scope of God’s redemption extends to “every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” Jesus reaches out to those in the most remote tribal regions of our world. His redemption knows no language barrier. It is for every tongue. And, yes, it is for every people and every nation.

I remember vividly the first time I ever saw this word redemption. I was about eight years of age, and I desperately wanted a new baseball glove. This was in the day before we used credit cards to the extent they are used today. Most of us use those plastic cards in order to earn points so that we can acquire certain goods or services without actually having to pay cash for them. Back in the “olden days,” we had what was called “S&H Green Stamps.” They served the same purpose. One day while browsing through my mother’s catalog, I saw a genuine leather baseball glove that could be mine with two and a half books of Green Stamps. Thus, I persuaded my mom to let me have the Green Stamps she received from grocery shopping, gasoline servicing, and the like. Finally, after a few months, I had licked and stuck enough Green Stamps into my books to acquire my glove.

One Saturday, my dad drove me to the southside of Fort Worth. We pulled into a parking lot adjacent to a large, white concrete block building. As we were walking into the building, I noted over the door the words “S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center.” I had never seen that word redemption before and had no idea what it meant. Upon entering the building, I approached the counter and laid out my two and a half books of Green Stamps along with the page of the catalog with the picture of the baseball glove. The lady began thumbing through each page. My heart started fluttering. What if I had skipped a page? Next, she disappeared into a back room. Minutes later she returned with a square box. She shoved it across the counter in my direction. I opened it and, sure enough, there was a genuine leather baseball glove inside.

I put it on my hand and started patting the pocket with my other fist. I did this all the way home. A teenager up the street had told me that I should put some linseed oil in the pocket, wrap a ball inside, and tie it off with a large rubber band at night to form the pocket. I think I actually slept with that glove the first several nights I had it. I redeemed that glove with two and a half books of S&H Green Stamps.

And so our dear Lord one day stepped up to redemption’s counter . . . for you. His Father sent Him. So down He came, past solar systems and constellations and through measureless space. Down still farther to become a helpless seed planted in the womb of a young virgin to grow for nine months. Down yet farther, to be born in the dung and filth of a Bethlehem stable. Then down even farther, to go about doing good, only to be beaten and mocked, spit upon and scorned, and to finally walk up to redemption’s counter. There He put down His own blood to redeem you. Why? So He could take you home with Him!

This is the message of the gospel. This is why we will one day join that celestial choir in singing a new song, “You are worthy . . . for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

As you memorize this verse, meditate on the tremendous price our Lord paid to purchase you out of the marketplace and take you home with Him.

Truth Versus Feelings

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Mark 13:31

Your heart may insist that God created you and loves you, but that doesn’t stop your mind from punching away with thoughts like, What’s wrong with me? I never seem to do anything right!

It’s an age-old war—of truth versus feelings—but there can be peace!

When there is a fight between your heart and your head, the best thing to do is read God’s Word and remind yourself of who God says you are. Soaking in the promises of His love, acceptance, and delight in you will slowly quiet those condemning voices—and renew your mind. Those negative blows can give you an overwhelming sense of worthlessness and rejection, because that is what the lies of the Enemy do to us. They beat us down and try to knock us out.

It’s God who will always lift us up. It’s always God who will help you get it all right!

I am God’s child (1 Peter 1:23).

I am God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10).

I am the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

I am a doer of the Word and blessed in my actions (James 1:22, 25).

I am firmly rooted, built up, established in my faith, and overflowing with gratitude (Colossians 2:7).

Jesus, when my feelings assail me, please draw me back into Your love. Imprint Your Word on my heart, and keep me coming back to it again and again. Amen.

Perfect Delivery

Read Proverbs 25

Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket.

Proverbs 25:11

Timing is almost as important as truth when it comes to advice. Hindsight may have the reputation for perfect vision, but it arrives too late to prevent a disaster. Even the best advice, given at the wrong time, may not be recognized. Timely advice is a lovely package with contents that we really need.

Effective counsel arrives at the right time. It is neither so early that it is forgotten when needed nor too late to be useful. The timing of advice is as much the evidence of wisdom as the contents of advice. Anyone can say, “Be careful,” after their friend has already stubbed his toe. Timely advice says, “The last time I traveled this path, there were some roots that tripped me up. Let’s be careful.” Both statements are good advice, but timing makes the second one lovely.

A WORD FOR TODAY

Accept God’s timing.

Dear Lord, I know that learning your wisdom is my responsibility, but I want to consciously depend on you for timing when I share it with anyone else.

A Prayer about Victory

Meeting opposition

HOLY SPIRIT,

Today I celebrate the overwhelming victory that is mine through Christ. Many forces have aligned against me, accusing, pressuring, and harming. These enemies include aggressive atheists who want to remove any mention of God from society (even my speech), people who label sins as normal behavior and oppose anyone who thinks otherwise, and false prophets such as those alluded to in today’s verse who preach another gospel and want me to turn from Jesus. All of these and more are caused or used by “the spirit who lives in the world,” Satan, the great deceiver. But you, Holy Spirit, are greater and have already won the victory. And you are in me, empowering me to live victoriously. Thank you for reminding me of this profound truth this morning and for giving me confidence and boldness to act for you as I face opposition and anything these enemies may use against me. Victory means rejecting temptation, embracing and declaring the truth about Jesus, choosing to love, and living with hope and joy.

You belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 1 John 4:4

A Prayer about Purpose

When I want to discover what God has created me to do:

Heavenly Father,

I am so busy—sometimes downright frenzied. At the end of another frantic day, I fall into bed and ask myself, What did I do today? Did I make any difference? My life often seems to lack a compelling purpose, a purpose worthy of my being created in your image. This aimlessness can lead me to apathy or even despair. This is not where I want to be, Lord. I believe that you have a purpose for my life. You have given me spiritual gifts, and you want me to use them to contribute to those around me. You call me to partner with you in your great redemptive plan for the world. What a privilege! May this call fuel my energy and ignite my dreams. As I use my gifts to help you fulfill this purpose, may I grow in my understanding of what is truly important for me to accomplish each day. Renew my work with a deeper sense of meaning so that I may labor for you wholeheartedly.

My dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. 1 Corinthians 15:58

He is with Us

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.

John 16:33

Heather was a brand-new Christian, and she was excited about Jesus. She had just begun reading the Bible, and I was privileged to mentor her. One morning she stopped by after dropping off her kids at school. Before I had a chance to turn off the TV in the family room, she noticed a news clip about a devastating earthquake in another country. People were still looking for survivors in the rubble.

“How awful. I’m sure glad we won’t have to suffer like that,” Heather said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, we’re Christians. God doesn’t want us to suffer.”

“Heather, God doesn’t enjoy seeing us go through hard times, but Jesus does say that we will have suffering in this world.”

“Really? If God is good and He loves us, why would He allow us to suffer?” she asked.

“When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by disobeying God, that changed things,” I said. “Now we live in a fallen world, and sin, death, violence, natural disasters, wars, and disease are all part of it. Just because we’re Christians doesn’t mean we’re immune to suffering. But in spite of all the things we may have to go through in our lives, God loves us and promises to be with us in the midst of our pain.”

Some people have the mistaken impression that Christians don’t have to go through difficult times. Especially in the United States, where we have so much, it can be hard to imagine the living conditions among the poorest of the poor. We don’t like to think about the fact that tens of thousands of people die every day from hunger or that natural disasters can affect countless people.

But God has promised to be there with us. Isaiah 43:2 says, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.”

Rest Assured

God, You are my “refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” Therefore, I will not be afraid (Psalm 46:1-2).

Rest in Him: John 16:25-33

A Prayer for Understanding: Following Jesus

A prayer for Understanding - Following Jesus

MY SAVIOR,

I am so like your disciples in today’s passage, hearing you but not really understanding. I remember reading how, time after time, they didn’t comprehend what you were talking about. Often they were distracted by what they wanted to accomplish because of their association with you, so they kept asking about when you would come into your Kingdom. At other times, they were confused by your words and asked for explanations. But when you spoke clearly (for the third time) about being betrayed, dying, and rising from the dead, they not only didn’t understand but were “afraid to ask” the meaning. And I wondered how that could happen, especially after they had lived so close to you for three years. Yet I do the same. We have walked together for a while now, and I’ve read your words in Scripture and have spoken with you, like now, in prayer. Sometimes I, too, struggle to grasp what you are saying. Give me wisdom and clarity to understand your words to me.

[Jesus] said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.” They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant. Mark 9:31-32

An Open Invitation

Learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the LORD sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him.

1 Chronicles 28:9

Remember that God is with you all day, every day, so talk to him about everything that comes up at home, at work, or in any area of your life. Share your thoughts, needs, and concerns with him. As you practice acknowledging his presence, you’ll begin to gain the intimacy you desire.

Cycling Grace

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Isaiah 6:3

In an endless cycle of grace He gives us gifts to serve the world. This is how to make a life great and eucharisteo embarks us on the path: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave” (Matthew 20:26 – 27).

Outside my window, the whole of creation chooses just this. The leaves of the maple tree freely unfurl oxygen, clouds overhead grow pregnant with rain to bless, the soil of our fields offer up yield. All His created world throbs with the joy in eucharisteo: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

This is the way Jesus Himself chose. “That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served — and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage” (Matthew 20:28 MSG).

It’s the astonishing truth that while I serve Christ, it is He who serves me. Jesus Christ still lives with a towel around His waist, bent in service to His people … in service to me as I serve, that I need never serve in my own strength. Jesus Christ, who came into this world “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), will one day come again and “put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat!” (Luke 12:37 NLT), and even this very day He faithfully serves that we might say, “The Lord is my helper” (Hebrews 13:6).

Every day for a month we as a family read together Isaiah 58, and we can’t get over it and we come to know it in the marrow and the fiber:

Feed the hungry,

and help those in trouble.

Then your light will shine out from the darkness,

and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.

The Lord will guide you continually,

giving you water when you are dry

and restoring your strength.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like an ever-flowing spring.

Isaiah 58:10 – 11 NLT

It’s the fundamental, lavish, radical nature of the upside-down economy of God.

Empty to fill.

While the Deceiver jockeys to dupe us into thinking otherwise, we who are made in the image of God, being formed into Christ’s likeness, our happiness comes too, not in the having, but in the handing over. Give your life away in exchange for many lives, give away your blessings to multiply blessings, give away so that many might increase — and do it all for the love of God. I can bless, pour out, be broken and given in our home and the larger world and never fear that there won’t be enough to give.

Eucharisteo has taught me to trust that there is always enough God.

He has no end. He calls us to serve, and it is Him whom we serve, but He, very God, kneels down to serve us as we serve. The servant-hearted never serve alone. Spend the whole of your one wild and beautiful life investing in many lives, and God simply will not be outdone.

God extravagantly pays back everything we give away and exactly in the currency that is not of this world but of the one we yearn for: joy in Him.

Father God, the glorious God from whom and through whom and to whom are all things, You reign and You rain down blessings, that my life may become a blessing. Lord God, please — pour me out in this place, my life used up in Your endless cycle of grace.

God's Son, God's Daughter

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”

Isaiah 49:15–16 ONE DAY IN PRAYER I SENSED THAT GOD WAS TELLING ME VERY DIRECTLY THAT Lisa wasn’t just my wife; she’s also his daughter, and I was to treat her accordingly. This was a moment of revelation for me, and the force of this insight grew once I had kids of my own. If you want to get on my “good side,” just be good to one of my kids. A wonderful young woman at our church became Allison’s “big sister,” taking her out to Starbucks or for ice cream and being a positive influence. And my wife and I will love Amy for the rest of our lives. Why? She was generous and kind to one of our children. Conversely, if you really want to make me angry, pick on my kids. Be mean to them. Bully them. You’ll fire up my righteous anger faster than anything you could possibly do to me. So when I realized I am married to God’s daughter—and women are married to God’s sons—everything about how I view marriage changed overnight. It was no longer about just me and one other person; it was very much a relationship with a passionately interested third partner. We have been encouraged to contemplate the Fatherhood of God, a wonderful and true doctrine. But if you want to change your marriage, extend this analogy and spend some time thinking about God as Father-in-Law. Because he is! When I fail to respect my wife—when I demean her or trouble her, when I’m condescending toward her or mistreat her in any way—I am courting trouble with the heavenly Father, who feels passionately about my spouse’s welfare. Most of us fail to grasp just how fully God loves the person we married. Even if you were to spend ten years thinking about it, you’d still fall short of how much God truly cares about your spouse. He designed and created the person to whom you are married. He wooed him or her to regeneration. He adores and feels passionately about him or her. If any doubt remains as to his care and concern, consider this: he sent his Son to die on his or her behalf. As the human father of three children, I fervently pray that each one of my children will marry a spouse who will love him or her generously and respect and enjoy him or her. I realize each of my children has certain quirks or limitations that might test a future spouse, but I pray that their spouses will be kind in these areas rather than use them to belittle my children or make them feel smaller. I hope with all my heart they’ll find partners who will encourage them with a gracious spirit. I pray they won’t marry someone who will be stingy or selfish or who might abuse them. I know my kids aren’t perfect—but I want them to have spouses who will love them despite their imperfections. God is fully aware of our spouses’ limitations—and he is just as eager for us to be kind and generous with these faults. In the same way, God is fully aware of our spouses’ limitations—and he is just as eager for us to be kind and generous with these faults as we are for our kids’ future spouses to be kind to them. Think about how you treated your husband or wife this past week. Is that how you want your son or daughter to be treated by his or her spouse? Never forget: you didn’t just marry a man or a woman; you married God’s son or God’s daughter. Treat him, treat her, accordingly.

Author: Anonymous

Is God Happy?

God . . . in eternal felicity alone holds sway. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. 1 Timothy 6:15, NEB

Where others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the soul of God shouting for joy. WILLIAM BLAKE

WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR Christians not experiencing the happiness and joy the Bible so often speaks of? I’m convinced a central reason—perhaps the central reason—is that many people who believe in God do not believe that God himself is happy. And how could anyone expect that knowing and serving an unhappy God would bring us happiness?

In the movie Chariots of Fire, Olympic hopeful and eventual gold medalist Eric Liddell is challenged by his sister, Jennie, about his decision to train for the Olympics. He plans to leave for the mission field but delays so he can attempt to qualify in the 400-meter race. In doing so, Jennie thinks he’s putting God second. But Eric sees things differently. He explains, “God . . . made me fast, and when I run I feel his pleasure.” a

Eric and Jennie believe in the same God . . . yet they don’t. Both fear and love God. Both are committed to serving Christ. But Eric, who smiles warmly and signs autographs while his sister looks on disapprovingly, has something she lacks: a relaxed, heartfelt awareness of God’s happiness—in his creation, in his people, and in all of life, including sports and competition.

Eric wants to serve God as much as his sister does, but he senses God’s delight and purpose in making him a fast runner. If God finds pleasure in the majesty of a horse (see Job 39:19-25), surely he finds even greater pleasure in Eric’s running for the pure joy of it. Because of the God-centered joy this gift brings him, Eric tells Jennie that giving up running “would be to hold [God] in contempt.” b

Both Eric and his sister want to reach the world with the gospel. But Eric’s good news is far better news. Why? Because it’s about more than deliverance from Hell—he understands that God’s mind and heart are delightfully engaged in all he has created, not just church and ministry. Liddell’s belief in a happy God makes his life profoundly attractive.

When we think of God as happy, we see how his happiness overflows in all he does. If your grumpy neighbor asks, “What are you up to?” you’ll see it as a suspicious, condemning question. But if your cheerful neighbor asks the same thing, you’ll smile and talk about your plans. We interpret people’s words according to how we perceive their character and outlook. So it is with our view of God.

If we think God is unhappy, we will interpret his words in Scripture accordingly. When he tells us not to do certain things, we’ll think he’s trying to keep us from happiness. But if we know God to be happy, we will understand that he tells us to avoid things because, like a loving parent who tells a child to stay away from the highway, he wants us to be safe and happy.

To be godly is to resemble God. If God is unhappy, we’d need to pursue unhappiness, which is as likely as developing an appetite for gravel. If following Jesus means having to turn away from happiness, and we’re wired to want happiness, then we can only fail as Christians. The wonderful news is that when we look at Scripture carefully, we find a happy God who desires us to draw happiness from him. Yet how many Christians have ever heard a sermon, read a book, had a discussion about, or meditated on God’s happiness?

You may be thinking, But does the Bible really say God is happy? The answer is yes—it does! Many times Scripture states that God experiences delight and pleasure. Other times when it affirms God’s happiness, readers of English Bibles don’t understand what the original language was communicating.

The apostle Paul wrote of “the gospel of the glory of the blessed [makarios] God with which I have been entrusted” (1 Timothy 1:11). Later in the same book, he refers to God as “he who is the blessed [makarios] and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (6:15). In 1611, when King James translators chose the word blessed in verses like these, it meant “happy”! In fact, the 1828 edition of Noah Webster’s dictionary still defined blessed as, “Made happy or prosperous; extolled; pronounced happy. . . . Happy . . . enjoying spiritual happiness and the favor of God; enjoying heavenly felicity.” c

Likewise, Webster defined blessedly as “happily” and blessedness as “happiness.” So, two hundred years after the KJV was translated, people still understood blessed to mean “happy.”

In contrast, a poll I did of more than one thousand people, mostly Christians, indicated that only 12 percent of them associate blessed with happy. Most others think of blessed not as a happiness word but as a holiness word. Hence, while “blessed” was a good translation four hundred years ago and still good two hundred years ago, it is no longer a good translation, because it fails to convey the happiness connotations of the original word. The fact is that 1 Timothy 1:11 and 6:15 actually speak of the gospel of the “happy God” and the God “who is the happy and only Sovereign.”

I’m convinced that in the new universe—called in Scripture the New Heaven and the New Earth—the attribute of God’s happiness will be apparent everywhere. Upon their deaths, Christ-followers won’t hear, “Go and submit to your master’s harshness” but “Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21, NIV). Anticipating those amazing words can sustain us through every heartbreak and challenge in our present lives.

Father, thank you that you have revealed yourself to us in your Word as the happy God. Jesus, thank you for being our example of God’s triune happiness. You loved and laughed and lived—and still do—as the Son with whom the Father is well pleased. Help us grow up to be just like you!

a Chariots of Fire, directed by Hugh Hudson (Twentieth Century Fox, 1981).

b Ibid.

c Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, vol. 1 (New York: S. Converse, 1828), 273.

Contentment

Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the Lord God had made. “Really?” he asked the woman. “Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?” “Of course we may eat it,” the woman told him. “It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die.”

Genesis 3:1-3

How content are we—with our children, with our abilities, with our financial situations? How do we measure contentment, anyway? Contentment is the state of being satisfied and not desiring more than we already have. Ouch! It hurts just to hear those words because I realize that discontent is something I experience too often.

In the newspaper I read about a prominent builder of upscale homes who said that one of his keys to success is always having a fabulously decorated model home to show to his customers. He said he wants them to walk away feeling terribly dissatisfied with what they already have.

Those feelings of dissatisfaction come straight from the enemy. When Satan came to Eve in the Garden of Eden, he did not remind her of all the wonderful things God had provided for her, but rather he focused on the one restriction. This is typical of Satan’s behavior—he focuses on the thing we don’t have instead of reminding us of all God has given us to enjoy.

God wants us to come to him with thanks for all the things that he has blessed us with. Giving heed to the “if onlys” is an awful trap, and it only causes increased dissatisfaction. When I thank God for all he has given me, I quickly gain a renewed perspective. A grateful person is usually a contented person.

God,

Please forgive us for the times we get a bad case of the “if onlys.” Thank you for your many provisions. May we remember them often. Amen.

Morning by Morning #220

The upright love Thee.

Song of Songs 1:4 KJV

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

True believers love Jesus with a deeper affection than they dare give any other being. They would rather lose their father or mother than part with Christ. They hold all earthly comforts loosely in their hands but carry Him securely locked in their hearts. They voluntarily deny themselves for His sake, but they are not to be led to ever deny Him. Love is shallow if the fires of persecution can dry it up, for the true believer’s love is a deeper stream than this. Enemies have diligently worked to separate the faithful from their Master, but their attempts have been fruitless in every period of history. Neither crowns of honor nor frowns of anger have been able to untie this bond that is stronger than a Gordian knot. [Editor’s note: A legend from the mid-sixteenth century says that the king of Gordium (a city in Asia Minor, now northwestern Turkey) tied an intricate knot, prophesying that whoever untied it would become ruler of Asia. The legend further has it that Alexander the Great severed it with his sword.] This attachment is no common bond that the world’s power can dissolve even over a great length of time. The Devil himself, nor any man, has been able to find a key to open this lock. Never has the craftiness of Satan been more useless than when he has used it seeking to sever the union of two divinely welded hearts.

The Scriptures say, “The upright love Thee,” and nothing will blot out that sentence. The intensity of the upright’s love, however, should not be judged as much by what we see of it but by their inner longings. It should be our daily lament that we do not love enough, yearning that our hearts were capable of more love and could be reaching further. Like Samuel Rutherford (Scottish Presbyterian theologian, 1600? – 1661), we cry, “Oh, for enough love to encircle the earth and rise above heaven—yes, even over the heaven of heavens and ten thousand worlds—that I may place it all upon my beautiful Christ—and only Christ.”

Alas, our longest reach is only a span of love, and our affection is but a drop in the bucket compared to what He deserves. Yet if our love were measured by our intentions, it would be great indeed, so we trust our Lord to be its judge. Oh, that we could give all the love in our hearts in one great bundle—a massive gathering of all believers’ love—to Him who is “altogether lovely” (Song 5:16).

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Many professing Christians only look to Jesus for “fire insurance,” thinking it saves them from the fires of hell. Yet a true relationship with Jesus is just that—a relationship—not an insurance contract. And one of the major evidences of that relationship is love—love for God and others, especially other believers.

From the beginning we have been commanded: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5), and Jesus added: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). This love is not to be simply an external love, but a deep inner love, for Peter wrote, “Love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22).

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands” (1 John 5:2).

Friendship in Heaven

Excerpted from “A Prepared Place for a Prepared People” Sermon #2751, May 25, 1879

The Bible is clear that there will not be marriage in Heaven, but what about friendship? In this text, Spurgeon argues that we will continue the close relationships we’ve had on Earth and that these bonds will only grow stronger throughout eternity.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:23-26

SPURGEON • I do not know what better world, in many respects, there could be than this, so far as material nature is concerned. It is so full of the beauty and loveliness that God pours upon it on every side. It is a wonderful world.

But I could not reconcile myself to the idea that this world would be Heaven. It will do well enough for the thousand years of glory, if it shall literally be that we shall reign with Christ upon it during the millennial age. But it is a drossy thing, and if it is ever to be the scene of the new heavens and the New Earth, it must first pass through the fire. The very smell of sin is upon it, and God will not use this globe as a vessel unto honor until he has purified it with fire as he once did with water.

Do you not think, dear friends, that our Lord Jesus Christ prepares Heaven for his people by going there? Supposing you were to be lifted up to a state which was supposedly Heaven but that Jesus was not there. It would be no Heaven to you. But wherever I may go, when I do go, if Jesus is already there, I do not care where it is! Wherever he is shall be my Heaven. For that is our very first and last thought about Heaven: to be with Christ where he is. To be with Christ is far better than to be anywhere else.

The first thing that Christ had to do in order to prepare Heaven for his people was to go to Heaven, for that made it Heaven. Oh, how I long to see him in his glory! I would part with all the joys of time and sense to gaze upon him seated upon his throne. Oh, what will it be to see him? You have seen how painters have failed when they have tried to depict him. The bravest artist may well tremble and the brightest colors fade when anyone tries to paint him even in his humiliation. There is no other face so marred as his face was. But what will it be in Heaven when it is marred no more? No tear in his eye! No spittle running down his cheeks! But, oh, the glory of humanity perfected and allied with deity! “The king in his beauty!” (Isaiah 33:17).

It struck me as I turned this subject over in my mind that our Lord Jesus Christ knew that there was a place to be prepared for each one of his people. It may be—I cannot tell—that in some part of the society of Heaven, one spirit will be happier than it might have been in another part. You know that, even though you love all the brothers and sisters, you cannot help feeling most at home with some of them.

Our blessed Lord and Master had no sinful favoritism, yet he did love twelve men better than all the rest of his disciples. And out of the twelve, he loved three whom he introduced into mysteries from which he excluded the other nine. And even out of the three, there was one, you know, who was that disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23). Now everybody here has his likings. I do not know if we shall carry anything of that spirit to Heaven. If we do, Christ has so prepared a place for us that you shall be nearest, in your position and occupation, to those who would contribute most to your happiness.

You shall be where you can most honor God and most enjoy God. But depend upon it: if there be any association—any more intimate connection—between some saints than among others, Jesus Christ will so beautifully arrange it that we shall all be in the happiest places.

If you were to give a dinner party and you had a number of friends there, you would like to pick the seats for them. You would say, “Now, there is So-and-so. I know that he would like to sit next to So-and-so,” and you would try so to arrange it. Well, in that grand wedding feast above, our Savior has so prepared a place for us that he will find us each the right position.

We know that there have been bonds of spirit that may still continue. I sometimes think that if I could have any choice as to those I should live near in Heaven, I should like to live in the region of such distinctive folk as Rowland Hill and John Berridge. a I think I would get on best with them, for we could talk together of the way God led us and how he brought souls to Christ by us. Though some said that we were a good deal too merry when we were down below and that the people laughed when they listened to us, and some spoke as if that were a great sin, we will make them laugh up yonder, I warrant you, as we tell again the wonders of redeeming love and of the grace of God—their mouths shall be filled with laughter and their tongues with singing! And then—

Loudest of the crowd I’ll sing, While heaven’s resounding mansions ring With shouts of sovereign grace.

And I expect each of you who love the Lord will say the same.

Let me just say this to you: The place is prepared. Are you prepared for it? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, your preparation has begun. Do you love the Lord and love his people? If so, your preparation is going on. Do you hate sin, and do you long for holiness? If so, your preparation is progressing. Are you nothing at all, and is Jesus Christ your all in all? Then you are almost ready. May the Lord keep you in that condition and before long swing up the gates of pearl and let you in to the prepared place! May the Lord bring us all safely there, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

ALCORN • For Christians, to die is to “be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8, NKJV). The apostle Paul says, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Philippians 1:23, NIV). He could have said, “I desire to depart and be in Heaven,” but he didn’t—his mind was on being with his Lord Jesus, which is the most significant aspect of Heaven.

Seventeenth-century Scottish theologian Samuel Rutherford says, “O, my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without thee, it would be a hell; and if I could be in hell, and have thee still, it would be a heaven to me, for thou art all the heaven I want.” b Martin Luther said, “I had rather be in hell with Christ, than be in heaven without him.” c

When Jesus prays that we will be with him in Heaven, he explains why: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (John 17:24, NIV, emphasis added). When we accomplish something, we want to share it with those closest to us. Likewise, Jesus wants to share with us his glory—the glory of his accomplishments and his being.

Our greatest pleasure, our greatest satisfaction, is to behold his glory. As John Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” d

We’ll worship Jesus as the Almighty and bow to him in reverence, yet we’ll never sense his disapproval in Heaven—because we’ll never disappoint him. He’ll never be unhappy with us. We’ll be able to relax fully—the other shoe will never drop. No skeletons will fall out of our closets. Christ bore every one of our sins. He paid the ultimate price so we would be forever free from sin—and the fear of sin.

All barriers between us and him will be gone forever. He will be our best friend there.

I love that Spurgeon expresses his desire to live near Rowland Hill and John Berridge in Heaven, two men who died before he was born. When he talks of the three of them being “a good deal too merry,” we see not only Spurgeon’s spunk but also the sense of camaraderie he anticipates in Heaven. Spurgeon had an astounding number of critics who reproached him about everything from his doctrine to his humor to his weight to his cigar smoking. Spurgeon says of himself and his as-yet-unmet friends Hill and Berridge, “We will make them laugh up yonder, I warrant you, as we tell again the wonders of redeeming love and of the grace of God—their mouths shall be filled with laughter.”

The Bible doesn’t directly address the concept of special friendships in Heaven, but is there any basis for Spurgeon’s position? I think so. First, since we remain human in the Resurrection—since we maintain our identities and since our memories are part of who we are—shouldn’t I expect to be particularly close to my wife and daughters and sons-in-law and dearest friends? Is there any reason to believe we won’t pick right up in Heaven where our relationships from Earth left off?

True, there won’t be marriage as we know it here (Matthew 22:30), but there will be one marriage—our marriage to Christ. That means as fellow members of the body of Christ, my wife, Nanci, and I will be part of the same marriage forever—our marriage to Jesus. Wouldn’t it be fitting and in keeping with God’s ways, given our many years of growing in Christ and serving him together here, that we would be close friends when we’re with him?

I think we’ll especially enjoy connecting with those we faced tough times with on Earth and saying, “Did you ever imagine Heaven would be so wonderful?” We all have our own Rowland Hills and John Berridges, don’t we? Enjoying God and enjoying one another go hand in hand. Augustine said, “All of us who enjoy God are also enjoying each other in Him.” e

The odd notion that relationships with family and friends won’t continue in Heaven flies in the face of Paul’s encouragement to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 to look forward to rejoining their loved ones in the presence of Jesus and his encouragement to comfort one another with those words. The comfort is not “Don’t worry—you won’t remember or care about them anyway.” The comfort comes from the anticipation that we will actually see our loved ones again.

Do you have a close friend who has had a profound influence on you? Do you think it is a coincidence that she was in your dorm wing or became your roommate? Was it accidental that your desk was near his or that his family lived next door or that your father was transferred when you were in third grade so that you ended up in his neighborhood? “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands” (Acts 17:26, NIV).

Since God determined the time and places where you would live, it’s no accident which neighborhood you grew up in, who lived next door, who went to school with you, who was part of your church youth group, who was there to help you and pray for you. It’s no accident that Charles Spurgeon heard about and read about Rowland Hill and John Berridge and was touched by God through their stories. It’s no accident that God gave me the friends and the profound influences he has given me. Some of these men and women are from different times and places, and I have not yet met them except through books. Our relationships, past and present, direct and indirect, were appointed by God, and there’s every reason to believe they’ll not only continue but expand in Heaven.

God’s plan won’t stop on the New Earth. He doesn’t abandon his purposes; he extends and fulfills them. Friendships begun on Earth will continue in Heaven, growing richer than ever.

Notice Spurgeon’s point that Jesus loved twelve men more than the rest of his disciples and that he loved three most out of those and that one, John, was his most-beloved disciple. While Spurgeon isn’t certain we’ll have favorite relationships in Heaven, he clearly hopes we will. He says, “If we do, Christ has so prepared a place for us that you shall be nearest, in your position and occupation, to those who would contribute most to your happiness.”

If, as you walk about the New Jerusalem, you see Adam and Eve holding hands as they look at the tree of life, would you begrudge them their special friendship? Of course not. And no one will begrudge you yours.

Perhaps you’re disappointed that you’ve never experienced the close friendships you long for. In Heaven you’ll have much closer relationships with some people you know now. But it’s also true that you may not have met your closest friends yet. Maybe your future best friend, after Jesus himself, will be someone sitting next to you at the first great feast. Don’t be surprised. After all, as Spurgeon suggests, the sovereign God, who orchestrates and redeems friendships, will be in charge of the seating arrangements.

a Rowland Hill was a popular preacher in London who died a year before Spurgeon was born, and John Berridge was an English revivalist and hymn writer in the eighteenth century.

b Samuel Rutherford, quoted in Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, January 17, morning reading.

c Martin Luther, quoted in James M. Campbell, Heaven Opened: A Book of Comfort and Hope (New York: Revell, 1924), 148.

d John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1996), 50.

e Augustine, On the Christian Doctrine, 1:32–35.

Hope to Carry on

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

ROMANS 15:13

THERE’S A MOVIE PORTRAYING THE LIFE OF CHRIST, simply called the JESUS film. It’s been translated into all kinds of languages, and millions of copies have been distributed throughout the world. Paul Eshleman, one of the people responsible for that, tells about when the movie was shown at a refugee camp in Mozambique. Most of the people watching had never heard about Jesus. As they watched the film portraying his life, they fell in love with him. Then came the part when Jesus was arrested, beaten, and led away to be crucified. Everyone began to weep and wail, and many rushed toward the screen. Their cries and the dust they stirred up made it impossible to finish the film, so the projector was turned off. And for more than thirty minutes, the townspeople were on their knees weeping.

They had lost hope.

And our hearts need hope.

Paul Eshleman explains that eventually the JESUS film crew settled the people down and turned the movie back on so they could know the end of the story. Jesus’ story does not end in death on a cross, but in resurrection and new life. Jesus conquers death and walks out of the grave on the third day. And not only does he experience new life, he offers it to anyone who says yes.

When the townspeople saw how the story ended, the crowd exploded. They began cheering, jumping up and down, dancing, and hugging each other.

Nearly everyone made the decision to accept Jesus into their lives as the one who could take away their sins through the sacrifice he made. The following Sunday, five hundred new believers showed up at the church service offered for them.

When, as a nonbeliever examining Christianity, I first encountered the story of the Resurrection, I realized it was the critical piece my brain needed. I wanted to know if I could trust the message of the Bible, and this was the key historical incident I could use to prove it true or false. I soon learned there was all kinds of evidence proving the Resurrection actually happened, and I surrendered my life to Jesus. As someone who required proof, I am thankful God made a verifiable historical incident like the Resurrection the crux of our faith. a

I later realized that the Resurrection was also the critical piece my heart needed. Our hearts need hope. We are desperate for it. People say hope is like oxygen for the soul. Many lose hope, and they’re suffocating without it.

As we look at this world, we despair at the condition it’s in. The crime, the hatred, the economy, the wars, the environment—all the problems.

And sometimes we look at our own lives, and we despair at the condition we’re in. The times we’ve screwed up, the relationships we’ve ruined, how little progress we seem to be making, the fact that someday we’re going to die.

And then something bad happens, and that’s when the despair really hits the fan. I think of when I got a phone call in the middle of the night from one of my best friends, Rich. His teenage daughter Megan had been in a car accident. She was dead. I raced over to the house and grieved with Rich and his wife, Karen.

About ten years later, I received another phone call. Rich had a brain tumor. The cancer was aggressive. He didn’t have much time. Last year Rich died.

I think of Karen. How do you lose your daughter and your husband and not lose your mind? How do you carry on? Is there any way to hold on to hope? Without it, would she just suffocate?

In Brennan Manning’s book Ruthless Trust, he tells the story of John Kavanaugh, a man who volunteered for three months with Mother Teresa’s ministry to the dying in Calcutta, India. He wanted to know how he should spend the rest of his life and hoped Mother Teresa could give him the answer.

When he met her, she asked, “What can I do for you?” Kavanaugh requested prayer. Mother Teresa asked, “What do you want me to pray for?”

This was what he came for, the moment he had waited for. He answered, “Pray that I have clarity.”

“No,” she said, “I will not do that.” He was confused and asked why. She replied, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.”

This wasn’t what Kavanaugh was hoping for. He countered that she always seemed to have the kind of clarity he was longing for. She laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”

The question we all need to wrestle with is this: Are we hoping for something or are we hoping in someone?

If we’re hoping for something—the career we dream of, financial security, a perfect family—we’re sure to be disappointed.

But if we’re hoping in someone and that someone is Jesus, who loved us enough to go to the cross, and was strong enough to walk out of the grave, ultimately we’ll never be disappointed.

Rich’s daughter Megan died around midnight . . . on Easter Sunday. I was at his house till about four in the morning, then went home and rewrote my sermon to include Megan’s death in it. A few hours later I was standing in front of a room full of people explaining that yes, Megan had died, and the sadness felt overwhelming. But I also explained that we do “not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.” b

Our hope, when we despair at the condition of the world or at the condition we’re in, or even when tragedy strikes, is certain, because our hope isn’t in something; it’s in someone.

That doesn’t mean we don’t get confused. We often live without clarity. But the one thing we can have is trust. We can trust in God. And he can give us the hope our hearts hunger for, the hope we need to carry on.

Now What?

Read 1 Peter 1:3-9.

That passage tells us we can live with hope. We get so caught up in the things of this world and so depressed by our problems, but it’s all temporary, and we have the certainty of a better future in heaven. A pastor once tried to help his kids learn this lesson by having them stamp the word “temporary” on all of their belongings. You might not want to literally stamp your stuff, but why not mentally stamp “temporary” on all your belongings and on all your problems today?

Prayer can be used to repent. To repent means to change your mind and your direction. Ask God to show you what you’ve been putting your hope in. One way to detect it is by filling in the blank: “I would be happy if .” What do you think you need? Whatever it is, pray and repent. Ask God to help you change your mind and become sure that the only thing you really need is him.

a See 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.

b 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14.

Making the Most of Loneliness

Glynnis Whitwer

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

(John 15:15)

My little son sat looking out the front window. His head resting on crossed arms, he watched two neighbor boys race past on bikes.

I watched Joshua from the kitchen door, drying my hands with a dish towel. My shoulders drooped as he let out a despairing sigh. Mirroring his sadness, hot tears burned my eyes. Setting the towel on the counter, I quietly sat down next to him. Without saying a word, I scooped him into my lap and enveloped his little frame with my arms.

His face nuzzled mine and our tears mixed together. I could almost feel the wishing and hoping pulse through his small body: Will they stop by my house? Will they invite me to play? A smothered sob escaped from my little boy, who was trying valiantly to be “big.”

Ever since our move earlier in the year, Joshua had had trouble making friends. The local playgroups were already established, and my shy son was painfully left on the outside. His little brothers were good companions at home, but that didn’t replace friendships at school or in the neighborhood.

The loneliness was oppressive, and I felt it too. In fact, that period of my life was one of my darkest times. We had all left lifelong friends when we moved. Those friendships had been born of common experiences and years spent together. They were effortless.

Now we faced unknown territory, not just geographically, but culturally and socially. This was a new world to us, and Josh felt it as painfully as I did. And yet, during that time, God used loneliness to teach us things we couldn’t learn when our lives were filled with friends.

I learned there are times when God uses loneliness as an invitation. He invites us to turn to Him for advice, to seek His comfort, and to pursue Him as our closest friend. In our pain, God reveals His presence in new ways.

God longs to fill our lonely hearts with Himself. Yet, we often try to fill the desires of our hearts with the things of this world. However, those attempts to find replacements for God are fleeting and insubstantial, leaving us even lonelier than before.

As you face a time of loneliness, take this opportunity to look to Jesus as a best friend. Jesus said: “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

Even though we were designed for community, God has a purpose for loneliness. If we can learn from it, rather than run from it or resent it, we’ll find a lifelong Friend who’ll never leave us lonely.

Dear Lord, thank You for being a friend who will never leave me.

Sometimes the loneliness is overwhelming. Please be real to me today.

I want to learn from this time of loneliness rather than run from it or resent it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

REMEMBER

Sometimes God uses loneliness as an invitation to pursue Him as our closest friend.

REFLECT

In what ways would you say Jesus has revealed Himself to you as a friend?

RESPOND

Take a moment to consider what it means to be a good friend. Write down three or four things that come to mind. Using these characteristics as a reference, identify one way you might be a better friend to God today.

POWER VERSES

James 2:23; Joshua 1:5

Unexpected Blessings

Writer ANONYMOUS

I’m always amazed when the discussion at my support group meetings turns to the blessings that have come through the survivors’ cancer experiences. Somehow the words blessing and cancer in the same sentence just don’t make sense.

I’m a very logical, rational person, and having colon cancer at the age of thirty-six made absolutely no sense to me. But as the years have gone by, I must admit that God has used this “senseless” experience to bring blessing in my life.

In May 1991, when I returned for my first checkup after six months of weekly chemo, I was the only person who wasn’t there for a treatment that day. I knew I should feel happy that I had finished treatment, but I didn’t. As I looked around that room of people in recliners, hooked up to poles with saline-solution bags, I was overcome with sadness. Some of them looked so thin and ill, and others looked so tired and afraid. I began to weep. I wanted to take away their pain, but I couldn’t. I wanted to give them peace, but I couldn’t.

Then God spoke to my heart: “But you know the One who can, and you can tell them about Me.”

“But I just want to put all this behind me and go on with my life,” I argued. “Besides, I don’t want to hang around people with cancer. It will be depressing.”

Finally, a few weeks later, like a pouting child, I gave in: “I’ll do it, but I won’t like it,” I told Him.

I started the Cancer Prayer Support Group in October 1991 with four people. My intent was to have a one-hour, once-a-month meeting. That shouldn’t be too depressing, I figured.

But almost immediately I could see that the people coming to the group needed more support than that. Not only that, but I found that I actually felt better after the meetings rather than worse. So we started meeting twice a month and have been doing so ever since. And guess what soon became a great source of joy in my life? The support group! As the months rolled by, I secretly began to pray that I would be able to quit my public relations job and volunteer with cancer patients.

In July 1995, on the fifth anniversary of my cancer surgery, I told our congregation how God had blessed me through my cancer experience—through my friends in the support group and through Marc and his wife, Elizabeth, who by then had become very close friends and prayer partners with my husband and me.

I concluded with this sentence: “Someday I hope I can quit my job and minister full-time, sharing God’s peace and love with cancer patients.”

I knew it was an unrealistic wish—

there was no way financially that we could afford for me to quit my job and volunteer. But less than a year later, my prayer became a reality when Marc offered me a job in his office ministering to his patients’ emotional and spiritual needs.

So since May 1, 1996, I have been a patient advocate, listening to patients’ hopes and fears and praying that God will heal them physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I ask Him to bless each one, and I believe that He will.

In the year before my new job offer, I had been meditating on Ephesians 3:20, which speaks of our God “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (NIV).

There is no doubt in my mind that God has done far more in my life than I could ask or imagine, and I know that He can do that in your life too.

Do I think He’s going to give you a job as a patient advocate for your oncologist? Probably not.

Do I think He is able to do something equally amazing in your life? You bet I do.

I can’t tell you how, when, or where God will bring a blessing through your trial of suffering. But I can tell you why—because His Word promises He will.

Romans 8:28 (NASB) says,

We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

God will bring blessing through your trial because you matter greatly to Him and He longs to show you that. He may bless you with physical healing, or He may bless you by healing you emotionally of some deep-seated hurts. He may bless you spiritually with the joy of knowing Him in a way you never have before. Or He may bless others through you in unimaginable ways.

My blessing from cancer is certainly not the one I sought, but because God knows me and loves me, He knew how to bless me.

He knows you. He loves you. He can bless you through cancer . . . if you let Him decide the blessing.

Perhaps you would like to use part of Psalm 139 as your prayer today:

Lord, You go before me and follow me. You place Your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I’m believing that You can bring blessing through cancer, and I’m trusting You to choose the blessing. Amen.

Conscience

MY QUESTION for GOD

How can I have a clear conscience?

A MOMENT with GOD

Learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought.

1 CHRONICLES 28:9

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

PSALM 19:14

My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide.

1 CORINTHIANS 4:4

When your motives are selfish or impure, it is only a matter of time before your actions become selfish and impure. God is far more concerned about the condition of your heart than he is with your external behavior. Your behavior always flows from what is in your heart, not the other way around. Remember that God alone knows your heart. You may be able to fool others and even yourself, but you can’t fool God. Welcome his examination. Then, like Paul, you can say that your conscience is clear. And when your conscience is clear, your heart will be open to God doing a great work in you and through you. DIVINE PROMISE

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105

Hope to Carry On