Devotions
Esther’s Hope Ministries will take a pause this week to say, “Thank you to all of you who have made this ministry possible. Thank you to all our prayer partners, donors, volunteers and well-wishers. Most of all, we are deeply grateful to God; for his faithfulness to us, and to the young girls we serve in Kenya. 2018 brought us untold blessings, and we firmly believe, the best is yet to come.
In almost every culture, the birth of a child is marked with gifts and special ceremonies. Things were no different when the baby Jesus was born. The Magi came into the house where the baby lay. They fell down and they worshipped him, and presented their gifts to him, gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Magi presented the baby with the very best gifts they could find, because this was no ordinary child. This was a special child, who would grow up to be the Savior of the world.
God loved the world so much that he gave us the greatest gift of all; his one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God’s gift was not wrapped in glittering paper, but rather in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. God’s gift was never meant to be torn open, ignored, returned or rejected, but to be held close, nurtured and cherished, and loved for all eternity.
When Lazarus fell ill, Mary and Martha, never doubted that Jesus would come quickly to help them. They knew how much he loved them (John 11:5). And yet, the Bible reveals, that when Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he waited two more days. Wait! What! Yes, you heard it right. “Yet, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.” You have to wonder; didn’t Jesus love them? Didn’t he care?
People who testify to miraculous and divine healings, have one thing in common. They have an unwavering belief that Jesus is who he says he is, and based on his word, his desire is to heal people. Jesus heals from sin, from sickness, from demon possession and even from death. Each demonstration of Jesus’ power to heal is based, not on the emotions or strong desires of those who seek healing. It is based on the simple belief that if God said it, it is so. It is this simple faith that God honors. Jesus is indeed the Great Physician, and “by his stripes we are healed.”
Has there ever been a time that life came at you with such relentless fury that you wished God would give you a break? Do you sometimes find yourself overwhelmed with trials, tribulations and emergencies? Did you know that these troubling and unjust situations are simply God’s way of opening you up to new opportunities that will deliver his blessings into your life?
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.
Perhaps Jacob’s older sons didn’t understand why Jacob gave authority to his youngest son rather than them. Maybe, they were driven by their own insecurities after hearing about Joseph’s dreams and were trying to control the situation. Perhaps sheer frustration and sibling rivalry and jealousy drove them to attack their younger brother. Something unnatural was about to happen.
A Soviet-born stand-up comedian, Yakov Smirnoff, once told a story about his first impressions, after he moved to America in 1977. He was amazed at the endless variety of instant products he could buy at the store. For instance, there was powdered milk; just add water and you have milk. Then there was powdered orange juice; just add water and you have orange juice. Then he saw baby powder and thought, … what a great country!
Have you ever received a word from God that was so incredible, so “unreasonable,” and so unbelievable that you wondered if it would ever come to pass? In the 21st century, many of us only believe what we can see, and what we can prove. Anyone who claims otherwise is seen as disconnected from reality, a wishful thinker and at worst, a little insane and light in the head.
You have to admit, our world needs God’s mercy. These are turbulent times; times when only Jesus can provide the right answers. It appears that no matter where you turn, the assault on the foundations of our lives is constant. The idea of family is being shattered as many re-interpret what marriage means in their own way. Many homes are broken, or in the process of breaking. Human lives are in the grip of modern-day vices like alcohol, drugs, pornography, gluttony, busyness or despair. The assault on the children is like a drum-beat that grows ominously louder with each passing day. These are the days that Romans 1:25 describes thus, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised.”
“What’s in a name?” Juliet asks in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. “A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” The implication here is that names don’t matter but this is not entirely true. There is one name that matters for you and me today, and every day. And that name is, Jesus. His is the name that is above every other name. It is the first and the last. It was, it is and always will be.
Have you ever been forced to wait for something? Waiting is difficult at any age. Waiting can also be lonely. There have been times in my life when the Lord has forced me to wait on Him. There have been times when I fell ill and was unable to continue with the work of ministry. There have been other times when I experienced delays and interruptions and couldn’t go forward with a mission that I felt was God-ordained. During these times, I discovered the gift of rest; and I also discovered the gift of spiritual growth.
As we go through life, there are times when our confidence wavers. There are times of deep discouragement, disappointment and despair. Quite often these dark moments result from the interactions we have with people around us. For instance, have you ever put your confidence in a person and been disappointed? Have you ever suffered a let-down by someone you trusted deeply?
We humans have a pervasive desire for power, fame, wealth and recognition. We will go to great lengths to outdo one another, and we will frown at anyone or anything that gets in our way. Even as little children, we display the desire to see our names in lights. The little girl wants to be a princess and the little boy wants to be a superhero and both desires are encouraged and rewarded with loving nods by the adults in their lives. Very soon, these desires and ambitions dominate our adult lives. But in the Confession of St. Augustine, Augustine writes: “Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. Not only is it sin, it is a perverse distortion of the image of the Creator in us. All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in him (Philippians 3:8).”
Over the last few months, I’ve heard a certain phrase used repeatedly, “You do you!” It is often stated with such emphasis as though to convince the hearer of its ultimate wisdom and truth. On the one hand, God created you to be unique, no one else is like you, so go ahead and be you. However, the modern take on this phrase goes further, it gives one the license to be a free spirit, no matter where that spirit takes one. In other words, in this modern era, people are free to be and do whatever pleases them. Whatever feels good to you, go ahead and do it. However you want to show up in the world, go ahead and be it. No one has a right to an opinion concerning your lifestyle because it is your life. On the surface, this is a tempting proposition.
Our current world is fraught with danger; fraught with pettiness and rumors; fraught with worry and all manner of ugliness and confusion. I would even dare say; a perfect storm is brewing. It is easy to get carried away by the sludge; it is easy to get immune to the wickedness. It is easy to want to withdraw from it all and pretend, it will all go away quietly. It is quite easy to normalize this corrosive, oppressive, unsound and ungodly environment. In fact this is what the devil hopes we will do. But God is looking for those who will be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer (Romans 12:12) in spite of the storm.
It’s a wonderful thing to have a good friend; to have someone in your life that Anne of Green Gables would refer to as a “bosom friend.” For the past 23 years, I have had one such a friend. She is like a blood sister to me. We share a similar sense of humor, and everything is funnier when she is around. Our telephone conversations are peppered with fits of uncontrollable giggles over jokes that only we understand.
Every day, millions of people donate their possessions to second-hand stores for re-sale. For some, these giveaways are just trash. And yet, every once in a while, we hear one of those amazing stories on the news where a lucky person purchases an item for a few dollars, only to discover that the second-hand item is worth a couple million dollars? The seemingly ordinary object, whether jewelry or a piece of art turns out to be a piece of treasure.
