Devotions
Have you ever had moments in life when you have felt frail, weak, or distressed? Have you gone through a season so dark, you felt there was nowhere to turn? The truth is all humans, no matter their occupation or station in life, go through seasons of struggle and difficulty. It is when we are at our most vulnerable that we can draw on God’s strength.
Many of us living in the US will fall back on time, this week (adjusting our clocks one hour back). This practice can often make some people feel as though they have power over time, and this can lead into a pattern of thinking we can control the events of our lives and change the time when important things should happen. The truth is, we can try but we will not succeed. For as the Psalmist says, concerning God, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night (Psalm 90:4).”
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.
Words have power. In some cases, words influence who we are, and words are also the lens through which the world often judges us. When life is calm, it is easy to find the right words for any occasion, but when we are under stress or trial, we sometimes feel less restrained in what we utter. Consider times when you’ve said something you ought not to have said and then added sheepishly, “Pardon my French!” or “Oooops! That was a slip of the tongue.”
Does the thought of God the Father overwhelm you with a deep sense of awe and wonder? Does the idea that he cares for you and loves you completely leave you overwhelmed with gratitude. Does the realization that he knows every aspect of your life, past, present and future and that he has knit every event brilliantly for your good, flood your heart with humility?
There’s much happening in our world today, and a lot of it is frightening and disheartening. It is easy to get distracted. Jesus instructed his disciples to watch and pray so that they would not fall into temptation. It is tempting to spend time chatting idly about what is going on politically and socially; it is tempting to chit-chat about the financial issues affecting our nation; it is tempting to spend all our time pursuing those pleasures and activities that distract our minds from the frightening realities around us, but Jesus says, “watch and pray.”
Has life ever thrown you a curve ball? If you are reading this, I bet you have experienced a down time at some stage of your life. Desperate times in our lives come in all shapes and sizes: betrayal, rejection, divorce, illness, death, loss of employment, foreclosure, financial hardship, national upheaval and so on. When the down times appear, what do you see?
A New Year is a great time to hit the restart button, and many of us do, but by the time April rolls around, the majority of us will have gone back to old habits. Why? Because we typically strive for improvement in our own strength, which fails us every time. This is especially true of our spiritual lives. As we are reminded in Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the LORD Almighty. Only God’s Spirit is able to replace the darkness in our lives with his light.
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.
