Devotions
In Hebrews, chapter 11 we find faith legends who lived out their faith with strength and courage, no matter what the obstacles may have been. These heroes of the faith saw victories whereas others saw defeat. They saw opportunities where others saw failure. These heroes of the Christian faith not only lived their lives by faith,
It’s a New Year, and I have an important question for you? “Do you know what will happen over the next 12 months?” I must confess that I don’t know what will happen, and it does not really matter that I don’t, because I know the one who does. He is the Almighty, the One that promised to give his people, Israel, a “hope and a future”, and now extends the same promise to those who believe in Him.
I heard a story about a pastor from Colorado Springs who lives at the foot of Pike’s Peak with his family. Now Pike’s Peak stands majestically along the front range of the Rocky Mountains. The Peak is nearly always visible but there are days when the clouds hang low, and the majestic peak is hidden. One day, the pastor’s young son ventured outside and could not see The Peak. He turned to his father and said,
In her book, titled “The One and Only” Beth Moore, an American evangelist and author tells the story of her attempt to minister to people living in a leper colony. Something inside of her drove her to want to serve lepers, who had been ostracized from the community. She wanted to serve this group of people who had no family, no friends, no future and no hope.
Many years ago, I decided to travel to my village to visit my mother. The bus I was traveling in arrived at the junction to my home, at 3:00AM. Instead of waiting till daylight before beginning the one-mile trek to my home, I decided to tempt fate and began the lonely walk home with only the echoing sound of my footsteps for company. About halfway home, fear gripped my throat, my heart began to thump loudly, and I felt an ominous presence watching me in the dark.
Have you ever gone through a time in your life when it seemed that God was “sleeping” or perhaps so far off you could not reach him? Many Christians experience dry spells from time to time. They experience the sense of being adrift in a spiritual wilderness, “apart from God.” Even giants of the faith confess to this sense of abandonment. In one opinion piece, Mother Teresa is described thus: “But there's another aspect of Mother Teresa's life that is slowly coming into focus: her struggles with faith.
When Moses died, God gave Joshua the responsibility of leading the children of Israel to the promised land. This was a frightening prospect for Joshua for a couple of reasons. He was going to be leading a stubborn people. They had demonstrated this stubborn streak in the wilderness under Moses’ leadership (Exodus 14:11-12), and he was going to be leading them into unfamiliar enemy territory. Put simply, Joshua had no clue what he was doing.
Jochebed, remember her? Her name means, the “the Lord is Glory.” She was the mother of Moses, the man who led the Israelites out of Egypt. Little is known about this woman’s background, but no one can miss her deep and abiding trust in God. When Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill all the Hebrew boys, Jochebed took desperate measures to protect her son. She put her son in a basket, coated with tar and pitch, and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile? Surely there were crocodiles in the Nile. Was this abandonment, child abuse, child neglect?
David wrote this Psalm at a time when God had anointed him to become King over Israel. At the time, he was surrounded by many enemies, including Saul who sought to kill him. David reveals that at times he was so overwhelmed with fear, he felt as if, “the cords of death entangled him.” But David calls out to the one who was worthy of praise, and who had delivered him from all his enemies.
Have no doubt, God will test your faith. It is what he does, not for malicious intent nor for his own entertainment, but rather to refine and strengthen the character of those he loves (Deuteronomy 13: 3-4; 1 Peter 4:12; James 1: 3-4). In times of testing, victory comes through perseverance. Speaking to this theme of testing and perseverance, the late author, Maya Angelou, once said,
The storming of the Capitol building in Washington DC, this past week was shocking. It caused the whole world to pause and take notice. Many people understood that if this could happen in America, then it could happen anywhere. Following the rampage, you may be experiencing a lot of mixed emotions. Perhaps, you feel bewildered, disoriented, lost, sad, unclear, uncertain, and even afraid. The foundations we thought would hold firm have crumbled and fear has come to roost.
What would you do if you had a lion breathing down your neck? Think about it for moment and be honest. I know what I would do. It’s probably not the sensible thing to do, I would try to evade the lion. I would run from it, hide, or climb a tree. I would do something, anything, to ensure there was sufficient distance between me and the lion. This would be me in the flesh, trying to save my own skin.
In the middle of the 19th Century, a man in India named, Nokseng came to a saving faith in Jesus Christ through the efforts of an American Baptist missionary. The village chief instructed him to renounce his faith, but the convert declared, "I have decided to follow Jesus." His refusal led to the killing of his two children. When his wife was threatened, he continued to declare, "Though no one will join me, still I will follow." The chief responded by killing his wife. Undeterred, the man continued to sing, "The world behind me, The cross before me." He was executed while singing these last few lines. This display of unfaltering faith is reported to have led to the conversion of the chief and many others in that village.
Do you live in a state of constant expectation that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says, he will do? This appears to be the way the disciples in Acts 9:37-38 lived. In the face of what most humans would consider IMPOSSIBLE, they exhibited outrageous faith; the kind of faith that anticipates the inevitable intervention of the Almighty God. The kind of faith that is completely surrendered to the will of God, whatever that may be. They displayed the kind of faith that invites ridicule.
Where do you turn to in times of trouble? It’s quite a revelation to watch little children interact with their parents. Whenever a little child is in distress, that child will turn towards a parent and look up with lifted arms, expectantly waiting to be picked up and comforted. In such a case, the parent’s most eloquent response is to bend down, pick the child up and hold them close to reassure them. It’s a beautiful picture of God’s love.
The children of Israel had been held captive in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10), when the word of God came to them declaring that God was “doing a new thing;” something they had never seen before. God was doing this new thing right there in the wilderness; in that uncomfortable wasteland; a place where they did not want to be. At the time they must have wondered what he meant.
If you have ever said, “Yes!” to the call of God upon your life, you know that, that is only the beginning of the journey. The path from here to there is often filled with the unexpected; with the extra details that God didn’t reveal to you at the beginning for fear that you would run. Truthfully speaking, the work of the ministry, though fulfilling, is often hard and lonely. In fact, expect it to be so, for God promised both blessings and persecutions (Mark 10:30) to all who follow him.
Rev. John Hagee, the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church, San Antonio, Texas once said, great faith is the product of great fights. One does not have great faith unless, you have engaged the spiritual enemy over and over and won the victory. Great faith is borne on the battlefield of life when your very existence spiritually and physically is threatened. Great faith does not demand miracles; it produces miracles. It is the kind of faith that starts out without knowing how things will turn out.
