Strengthened Hearts

“Then He spoke a parable to them,

that men always ought to pray

and not lose heart.”

     Luke 18:1 (NKJV)

“And let us not grow weary while

doing good, for in due season

we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

     Galatians 6:9 (NKJV)

Things happen in our Christian walk that can easily make us lose heart. We can become disheartened in many situation, such as seeing a relationship we’ve been praying about go from bad to worse instead of better; experiencing more defeat than victory in our efforts to die to self; watching the increasing hostility towards God and rising anti-Semitism; even trying to bear up in a seemingly unending winter. 

Christ knew that life in this sin-infected world would not be easy and He exhorts us to “pray and not lose heart.”  The Apostle Paul similarly urges us not to grow weary and lose heart but continue to do good.  Why?  Because “in due season we shall reap.” God is faithful and we can trust the Bible’s promises that this life is not all there is, that heaven awaits those who have put their faith in Christ.

God hears and answers prayer according to His will; God works all things out for our good according to His plan and in His timing.  We can trust in that. Christ came the first time in fulfillment of Scripture; He is sure to come again in fulfillment of Scripture.  Spring will eventually come because God has ordered our seasons. 

So we can press on, with hope and joy, because our “redemption draws near.” (Luke 21:28, NKJV)  We can be strengthened through the power of the Holy Spirit in Christ, enabling us to pray always and continue to do good without growing weary or losing heart. 

Thursday Devotional - God's Help Over Consequences

Last week we saw how Joshua upheld his oath, even though the Gibeonites deceived him into making a peace treaty. However, what do you think happens when the Gibeonites are attacked by the Amorites and ask Joshua for help?

Joshua 10:6-11        ⁶ The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us.”

⁷ So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. ⁸ The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”

⁹ After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. ¹⁰ The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. ¹¹ As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.

Not only does Joshua willingly help the Gibeonites, but God confirms Joshua is to help them and then God does most of the work!!! If I was Joshua, I might have told the Gibeonites that they were on their own. I might have thought God was bringing judgment on them for their deception. I would uphold my oath of a peace treaty, but nothing extra.

God clearly helped Joshua and the Israelites not only uphold their oath, but love their neighbor (without holding a grudge) by sacrificially helping them in crisis. Even though Joshua and the Israelites had made a big mistake in making a treaty with the Gibeonites, they obediently did the next right thing and the next right thing. God rewarded their steps of obedience despite their previous disobedience. 

God can do the same for us today. Even after making a big mistake, God wants to help us make the next right move. God is willing to help us in a mighty way, just like He did for Joshua! Where will you and I seek His help to make the next right step?   

Alice

My Provider

“How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.”

They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”

Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass.  So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred.

Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share.  They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish.  A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.  Mark 6:38-44

My wife and me will often write notes to each other as affirmation of our wonderful and amazing love for each other. Sometimes, we will write on the envelope of the note positive words of affirmation describing the love the writer has for the other.  For example, one envelope I wrote her recently was from an old Barry White song simply saying, “My first, my last, my everything.”  I know for older ‘Ally McBeal’ fans, you are about to have that tune in your head for the rest of the day 😊  We often place these notes in areas of our work places to remind us when we are away just how much we mean to each other.  One which hangs in my area was of comfort the other day.  I looked at it, and on the corner of the envelope it said, “My provider.”  Those words are humbling to read even to this day.  It’s not that she does not realize that God is our ultimate provider, because she does.  However, it is the meaning of the word that she wanted to acknowledge.  It is to say she appreciates I give her the love, affection, and comfort she needs.  That means a lot to me because it goes back to that famous Rick Warren ‘Purpose Driven Life’ opening sentence that has become a guiding light for my walk of faith; it’s not about you.

God’s often underappreciated but incredibly important attribute is that He is a awesome provider for us. One of my recent devotions talked about God always watching over us.  In that case, the focus was on how God is there when we do not notice.  In this case, we focus on those times where we truly know He delivers.  For the disciples in today’s verses, they have thousands to feed and little to offer.  Or so they thought.  Jesus simply does what he does, and all the people are fed.  It really sounds too simple, but we often find that it is the simplest things that are the most powerful and profound.  In our lives, we often do not know how we will get through life’s trials, or we struggle to find a way through a situation.  Then low and behold, God shows up often in an awesome way.  A check comes in the mail just as you realize you don’t have anything in the account, or a friend stops by when you are at your near breaking point asking, “Are you ok?”  Sometimes, it’s just a word or scripture from the Bible that gives your strength and courage to carry through another day.  We should always expand our understanding of who God is beyond just the ‘He gives me stuff’ realm.  Much of His provision is well beyond material things or what we can understand.  Like my wife knows, it’s His love, nurturing, protection, and so much more.  What we as followers of Christ should aspire to do is become more aware of those things, and most importantly, give thanks for it!

God’s provision is unlimited! He gives us so much, and yet, asks for so little.  Obedience to God to some may seem to be a bit much, but if we have a relationship with Him, we see clearly all that He does in our life.  Let us spend more time reflecting on God’s gifts to us no matter what form they may come in.  Where might you give God the glory for gifts received?  How has God provided for you beyond what you see?  My prayer is that we see God today for all the blessings He has given as ‘my provider.’  Amen.

Righteous Persecution

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we have been studying the beatitudes.  This week we have started studying Matthew 5:10.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
    preserve my life, Lord, according to your laws.
Those who devise wicked schemes are near,
    but they are far from your law.
    but my heart trembles at your word.

To understand what it means to be persecuted, we first need to understand what it means to be righteous as this beatitude clearly states that those who will inherit the kingdom of heaven will be those that are persecuted because of righteousness.  While there are plenty of people that are persecuted in this world, it is not always because of righteousness. 

The first person mentioned in the Bible to be righteous was Noah. 

Genesis 6:9b

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.

What made Noah righteous?  He LISTENED to God, he BELIVED God, and he OBEYED God. 

Next we see Abram referred to as righteous.

Genesis 15:6

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Like Noah, Abram listed, believed and obeyed.

Next, we need to understand what counts as persecution. 

Psalm 119:149-150; 161

Hear my voice in accordance with your love;

Rulers persecute me without cause,

We see that persecution comes from 1) evil intentions, 2) being far from God’s law, 3) without cause.  I’m sure that each of us has encountered persecution at some point in time.  It may have been something as simple as someone spreading falsehood against us.  You may have experienced righteous persecution without even realizing it. 

Each of us should strive to live a life worthy of persecution because of righteousness.