My sister became a Christian in a far-away country where Christianity was and still is illegal. She came home to discover that I also had become a Christian. She told me to have daily devotions using the method taught to her by a missionary (who was also not legally allowed in that country).
Her instruction was simple: Read John five times and Romans twice, then the NT and the OT. Read until God speaks to me then write the date, Bible reference, and what I understood from the reading. This served well for many years.
After a time, I realized that every line in the Bible was truth from God, even the parts that describe human sin. It was written in the Bible because God wanted it to be there and wanted me to know it. While many people pick and choose the parts they want to believe, or only believe the parts they understand, I can see this book is not a manual for theologians or even casual reading. It is truth revealed that I might know God.
Understanding this may have come easy for some, but my mind is wired to solve puzzles, enjoy mysteries, seek answers, and find reasons for everything. I’m a ‘hard sell’ in that if someone tries to convince me that I should have a product or do something, I will resist it. I want to discover for myself whether the sales claims are true and the more I am pushed, the more I resist. I’m the opposite of gullible, but at the same time, once convinced, stick solidly to what I believe.
Sadly, if convinced a lie is true, that causes me great conflict and pain — showing me the reality of why I need Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Without God’s saving power, who knows where I would be and without the Book of books, who knows what I would believe.
This is the power of God’s Word. Because it is not a book of theories but of actual facts, it feeds my mind with the right stuff. As today’s devotional says, things are not true because they are in the Bible; they are only in the Bible because they are true. When it tells me that God loves me, this is a fact. Otherwise, it would not be in the Bible. Solomon wrote:
Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. (Proverbs 30:5)
Jesus and the NT point out that knowing the truth must be followed up by obedience to it. If told the truth that eating junk food would affect my health and I simply kept eating it, could I expect otherwise? It is the same with truth from God:
But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21)
But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28)
The Word of God changes lives — as long as it is believed and obeyed:
You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. (1 Peter 1:23)
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)
PRAY: Jesus, it is one thing to read listening for a special word from You, and delightful that for the past fifty plus years You speak to me every day. I’m amazed at You. This truth is in place only because ALL of the Bible is You speaking. I cannot control or even be certain I will hear those special words — only be glad in Your faithfulness, but I can believe whatever has been written and know that as I read it and do what it says, You transform my life.
Someone once wrote that the presence of God is just like the air around us in that we cannot see it but know that it is there.This changed my understanding of God in that no matter what is going on, I know that He is here, right beside me, as close as the air the I breathe.
Some wonder how to know God’s presence. Some claim an inward revelation that makes them know Him, but for many the presence of God is not there without some special event. As today’s devotional points out, this is not what knowing God means. If requires no special event or mystical interior revelation, which is delightful when they happen, but can be inconsistent or uncertain.
Knowing that God is present with me is based on what He says, not based on my experiences. He says, “I will never leave you or forsake you” which is the plain knowledge of what God says about Himself, and believing it.
It is believing what is written — whether accompanied by any eureka moment or not. As my mom wrote in her Bible: God said it, I believe it, that settles it.
For example, when I read in the Bible that God is love, I am to believe it just because it is written and the Word of God who does not lie, not because I have had any inward revelation or amazing experience that proves it is true.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:10–11)
This is true because God says it, and in this truth about Himself, He actually showed it to the world be sending Jesus. However, not every statement God makes has a dramatic event to go with it. Knowing God and His power includes believing statements such as:
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matthew 6:26–29)
But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:30)
Because God said it, I am to believe it, not because God arranged someone to give me a new wardrobe but because He said He would take care of my needs. Knowing His omniscient power isn’t because He made known by a Google search or some other way the number of hairs I have. He says He knows this and I believe Him. He does not need to do something. He says He knows all about me — and all the proof I need is in His statement and I also know that He does not lie. Knowing that is a matter of faith in what He tells me about Himself.
PRAY: Jesus, Your Word says faith comes by hearing — and faith is simply believing what You say. How did I realize that You speak truth? If proof was needed, all I need is to look at the OT promises that said You would come, the story of Your short life here, and the cross where You died. Those who don’t believe You have been listening to someone or something else!
Not once but four times yesterday the Lord gave me opportunity to speak with people that were on my heart and I wanted to talk with them. Two were friends who have been on the church prayer list for months and both of them were there for the first time in a long time. Chatting on the phone or with email is not the same as face-to-face, never mind the matter of hugs.
The other two were a surprise as well, consider a crowd of nearly 500 people. I wanted to introduce a teen to a woman whose son is the same age and considering coming to church next week. This boy would make a newcomer feel welcome and be glad to do so. I could not see him, but the next thing I knew, he was giving me a hug and getting the other boy’s name from his mom.
The last surprise involved a couple with a baby bump. I wanted to celebrate with them, but again, the crowd of people makes finding anyone a challenge. However, as we prepared to leave, they were in front of us and we rejoiced with them in anticipation of their first child.
Today’s devotional points out that God is good, and I should be thankful, not because of good things like those four instances, but because He is good. I am not wise enough to judge whether some things are really, in their essence, joys or sorrows; but knowing that He is good means I can be absolutely certain that everything He provides or permits must be good, including my recent illness. I’ve learned that I can be thankful for the trials. The key is being able to see the events of life with His eyes.
That is not always the way life comes to us. This last few weeks were wrapped in “rough coverings” and seemed worthless, even as if this came from the enemy and I did not want to accept what was happening. However, I would have lost something special. As the devotional writer says, be aware that we should not fight against the most unlikely for it may be a blessing from God that is temporarily disguised. As I learned first hand, submission is the route to victory, and very soon adds thanksgiving. As the chorus says, I can…
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! (Psalm 100:4)
Knowing God and realizing the truth about Him is vital to discerning the value of both “coincidental surprises” and unpleasant disasters. He is in charge and because of that, no matter what is happening, I can praise Him.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6)
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13)
PRAY: Jesus, of course I prefer the pleasant places, the pleasing surprises. I loved the calls from my adult children this week, their gifts and their thoughtfulness. I love it when my hubby does chores so I can have extra sleep and when my brothers both called the same day. I don’t like the struggle of trying to sleep with a persistent cough, yet am glad to have nights with no coughing at all. But what joy to realize that You use the unpleasant things to bless me also, to teach me that You are not absent but drawing me into a deeper relationship with You and a deeper understanding that love is not coddling me but preparing me for the surprises of how deep and wide is the love You have for this slow-to-learn child. Praise Your name, now and forever.
Since the middle of January up until two days ago, I had many hours of wondering if this was the way God would take me home. Much of the time I felt as if I would not survive or not ever feel normal again. I joke that normal is only a setting on the dryer, but when illness hits and does not go away, normal takes on a different meaning.
Not only that, my joy vanished. All through the years, the joy of the Lord has always been there, deep in my heart and through good and bad, but this past few weeks, it was missing. Knowing self-pity drives it underground didn’t help. Praying that I would not feel sorry for myself didn’t help. All the kindness shown to me in the hospital and after at home didn’t help. Whining like OT Job with “why this” questions went unanswered.
Finally I stopped all my asking and surrendered to the will of God without knowing what that might be. I belong to Him and He would do whatever He wanted for me, and I accepted that. The very next morning His joy returned. Still coughing and somewhat more tired than usual, but “normal” came back in that when I asked for the joy of the Lord, He granted it to me — and those who know this joy also know that hardships lose their power when joy takes over.
Today’s devotional says joy is not a thing to rejoice over, like the return of health or an outside event, nor is it to be idolized as something to put on a pedestal. Instead, it is the gladness of truth, of realizing what Christ has done, that I know Him, and that no matter what might be happening, He brings delight to my heart. Outer well-being does not do that. Joy goes beyond circumstances in this world with a clear comprehension of who God is and who I am because of Jesus.
The devotional author says we “do not on an earthly plane rejoice in our joy but in the thing that causes our joy. And on the heavenly plane it is the same. We are not to rejoice in our joy, but we are to rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation.” The OT prophet put it this way:
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places… (Habakkuk 3:17–19)
Not only can no man or devil take this joy from us, and no earthly sorrows can touch it unless… and God answered my “why” questions with this final paragraph:
All the spiritual writers of past generations have recognized this joy in God, and all of them have written concerning the stripping process that seems necessary to bring us to it. They have called this process by different names—“inward desolation,” “winter of the soul,” “dispensation of darkness”—all meaning the same thing, which is the experience of finding all earthly joys strained or taken away in order to drive the soul to God alone.
PRAY: Jesus, I would not thought of being so sick as a stripping process or even these other names for such an experience, but am thankful that in it, You have shown me in a deeper way than ever before that You are enough. No matter what happens, I can rejoice in You, the only One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Most of us have met people and felt as if we didn’t really know or understand them. Either they were silent when it came to revealing themselves and how they think about life, or they put on a layer that covered up their actual thoughts so we saw only what they wanted us to see.
I read a book on encouragement that introduced me to the idea of layers and began to see it, not only in myself but in others. Some behaved in certain ways when we were alone together but changed if more people were around. Some seemed to have a persona that differed depending on the topic of discussion.
Then I noticed how much I was drawn to people that are transparent, easy to get to know, without layers and consistent in their personality and way of life no matter what was happening. I also noticed that these transparent people made me comfortable to share my true self as well. On the other hand, people with layers had me unsure of how to behave around them.
Taking these thoughts and applying them to knowing God brings out a truth that is vital. That is, the better I understand who God is and how He thinks, the easier it is to be who I am. Everything about me seems related to knowing what God is really like. If I understand that He created me, put me in my present environment, and I am absolutely in His power, and that He is good and kind, I feel free to be who I am. I know that I am cared for and happy.
If I met a person who was obviously lying to me, telling me untrue things about themselves, or I suspected they were evil, I would not want to be around them. My knowledge of that person, right or wrong, would affect the relationship, even end it.
It is the same concerning God. If my thoughts of Him are based on the idea that He is cruel or unkind or anything negative and He didn’t want the best for me, this would also affect any relationship I might have with Him. Like Eve in the garden, I would be thinking He didn’t care and lose my trust, even go hide from Him.
Everything I know about God also affects everything I understand about life. How vital to have the right knowledge. If for no other reason, this motivates me to read the Bible and find out who God is, what He is like. I cannot let the serpent lie to me, or let circumstances form my opinions. I need the truth about God and knowing that truth is better than anything else I might possess.
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23–24)
This is the reason for morning devotions, prayer, Bible study, going to church, studying life — to know God. Not only does it bring delight to Him, but it also greatly affects me.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)
PRAY: Jesus, thank You that You came to bring me the knowledge of God. Your Word is clear that grace and peace are multiplied to me in that knowledge (2 Peter 1:2) and that knowing You means I have eternal life (John 17:3) Just as getting to know another person takes time and involves increasing depth, knowing You involves layers of knowledge, but none of them are put-on cover-ups. Instead, You are the true God who gladly reveals Himself to those who seek You.
Insurance policies and other legal documents use the term “an act of God” which is defined as an instance of uncontrollable natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, meaning anything that is beyond the control of humans. Acts of God do not absolve people from a duty to exercise reasonable care.
It interests me that this term is used only for disasters. Seldom do I hear sunshine, a balmy breeze, the birth of a baby, the bloom of flowers, or the soft wool of a lamb called an act of God. No wonder the idea of God loving us is difficult for many people to accept. He gets blamed for all the negative things we cannot control but evolution takes credit for the positives. Regardless, the Bible says:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7–12)
This passage offers several clues to why the term “an act of God” is used as it is. One, those who know God will know that He loves people, and will love people too. But those who do not know God cannot love like He does. Many who don’t know God assume that whatever makes them uncomfortable or stressed is not good. Without knowing God, it is difficult if not impossible to see that He uses all things for the good of those He loves. We who know Him are told to be joyful in trials for God is using them to mature us. (Romans 8:28-29, James 1:2-4)
Second, the love of God sent Jesus into this world to die for our sins. The people who know this also know their sin is harmful and can ruin their lives. Eventually we learn that the love of God exposes and deals with our sin, not because He wants to hurt us but to rescue us from sin’s destructive power. His love will go to great lengths to get that job done. It includes kindness:
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)
Yet His love also includes discipline:
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:6–11)
Such discipline may come through an “act of God” that I cannot make happen nor prevent. God knows what I need to be more like Jesus, and He also knows how to get me there. It might be His incredible kindness (I have seen it in my hospital stay) or in trials that I cannot control, such as being unwell without any apparent lack of self-care on my part. He is training me to be more kind by example and to be more patient by helplessness. He teaches me that all events of life including “acts of God” open my eyes to His great love that wants only the best for me, and that best is being like Jesus. And as today’s devotional says, the first step into the life hid with Christ in God is that of entire consecration. I must do it gladly, thankfully, and enthusiastically and can, because seeing all things as acts of God is the most joyful way to live.
PRAY: Lord God, as You work all things so I might be like Jesus, I sometimes feel sorry for myself as I forget the love that motivates Your will. Mercy and genuine pity for spiritual bondage is far more important than mercy and pity for physical discomfort. I’m glad You will never stop loving me.
When my husband was saved, we had a discussion with one of the elders in the large church we attended. He had a cup in front of him and used it to illustrate the Christian life. He held the cup upright and said that when we confessed our sin for salvation and for each sin after being saved, God would fill us with the Holy Spirit. The cup remained upright.
Then he said that each time we disobeyed God, the cup tipped over — or in other words, we were filled with ourselves and the Holy Spirit was no longer in control. He said that we needed to deal with that sin so we could be upright and again filled with God’s Spirit.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
A new Christian discovers the joyous wonder of what it means to be forgiven and clean. We realize the power of the Lord Jesus and become amazed at His ability to give us victory. We are delighted that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)
However, the illustration with the cup didn’t end there. The elder tipped it then set it upright several times, and said, “You have to realize that this is the Christian life and how God works to deal with the sin that He has saved you from.”
Today’s devotional writer points out that Christians tend to feel that a life of inward rest and outward victory is their inalienable birthright. We remember that initial joy that made us certain of victory but it isn’t long before our experience becomes one of few and fleeting victories and our defeats are many and disastrous.
I remember when my early visions of triumph grew dim and I began to match that overturned cup. My faith seemed to be an never-ending cycle of failure and victory, one hour sinning and the next repenting. I soon thought 1 John 1:9 had to be the most important verse in the Bible regarding Christian growth and victory over sin.
Then I started to think that this experience was more like being a soldier. Enlisting makes me one but in name only. Life would be the bootcamp where I learned to live like what I already was.
I had to learn this reality: Jesus came to save me now, in this life, from the power and dominion of sin and to make me more than a conqueror through His power. The Bible declares it in the purpose of His death and says it everywhere. Not one hint is given that this deliverance is limited and partial, nor that we have to be satisfied with continually being tipped over.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:1–8)
The solution is keeping short accounts, not accepting that tipped-over condition as the norm. I’m to set my mind on Him and consider the old me dead to sin and alive to God.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
PRAY: Lord, it is harder to set my mind on the truth of what You have done in me when my body is plagued with weakness and feels yucky. Help me keep short accounts and take care of myself without letting this recovery time fill me with fleshy self-pity. Of course I want the joy of the Holy Spirit but I will accept whatever You want for me.
