Nice or Called?

September 9 (Mark 1:37-38)

When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” But Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.”  (NLT)

Jesus had been healing many people, and suddenly everyone was looking for Him.  Wasn’t that a good thing?  It was, but it wasn’t why Jesus had come, and He was not going to let anything get in the way of His mission, not even good deeds.  As important as the direct healing of sick people was, His principal work was to share the good news that the kingdom of God was at hand, that God was actually on earth making reconciliation with Him possible for all people.

You probably do many good things for those around you, but ask yourself this.  How much of your life is spent doing what you were called to do?  Now, don’t get this wrong.  No one is saying to ignore a need in front of you just to do something you think is grand and important.  But seriously, how much of your life is taken up in nice, pleasant, even beneficial activities that are keeping you from what God sent you and only you to do?

And do you even know what that is?  Jesus had a clear sense of His mission.  He knew what the Father had sent Him to do.  Do you?  If you do not spend time with God, listening to what He has to say to you, you will spend your life in a flurry of activity, much of it good, but will miss the unique calling He has for you.

Father, rather than asking You to bless my efforts, I come to You today asking what Your will for me is.  Show me the tasks to which You have truly called me, and may I be quick to perform them.  I ask in the name of Jesus, amen.

Copyright © 2018 by Steven R. Perkins

Getting To Jesus

July 29 (John 10:14)

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.  (ESV)

Not long ago we were at church talking with a friend just back from her mission trip when two other ladies of about the same age as our friend joined us.  Suddenly a little guy, not much more than a toddler, started making his way through the crowd.  He was the grandson of our friend, and I watched to see what he would do.  With his eyes fixed on his grandma, he wove his way through the aisles, passed right in front of the other ladies, and joined the one he sought.

Grandma knew grandson, and he knew her, and he was not about to be deterred by all the other adults in between.  He did not for a moment pause with other ladies who, at least in age, may have seemed like his grandma.  They were not, and there was no fooling him.

Oh, friends.  How often do we get distracted by that which seems helpful but really isn’t?  How many times do we go after what we think will love us but never will?  A sheep knows its shepherd, and a grandson knows his grandma.  Are we really more distracted than a sheep or a little boy?

Jesus, I am embarrassed by the number of times I let other things get between us.  Worse than that, I go after them even though You are in sight.  Help me to be as innocent as a lamb and seek only You, my loving shepherd.  Amen.

Copyright © 2018 by Steven R. Perkins

What Is A Fruitful Life?

March 4 (Mark 4:18-19)

And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.  (ESV)

What do you think it means to be fruitful?  I have always taken this to mean being productive.  We don’t want things getting in the way of our doing things for God.  It is true that we don’t want to be distracted or deterred from our mission, but there is more to what Jesus is saying here than that.

Rather than take a modern definition of fruitfulness, and in my case one that fits very well with my driven personality, consider a biblical understanding.  Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”  Now put those two passages together.  The worries and cares of the world, to say nothing of our desires and pursuit of ungodly things, keep us from bearing the fruits of the Spirit.  You may be doing a great many things, even good things for God, but is your life bursting forth in love?  What about joy and peace?  How are you with patience these days?  You see where this is going.

You can force yourself to do a good deed, but you cannot muscle up and will kindness into existence.  You simply cannot dig down deep and make any of the fruits of the Spirit a reality.  They have to grow and develop on their own.  The only thing you can do is make sure the soil of your life is free from the thorns that would choke them out.

Dear God, You wrecked me with this.  I have so often thought that running around and doing more good things was what it meant to live a fruitful life, and I know that You have given me good works to perform.  Yet I also know that what You want most is for my life to be a rich garden in which the seeds that You plant can flourish and bring forth fruit.  Help me pull out the weeds and thorns of distraction and worry so that nothing may interfere with YOUR work.  In the name of Jesus, my Savior, amen.

Copyright © 2018 by Steven R. Perkins

Focusing On God

January 21 (John 21:21-22)

When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”  (ESV)

You want guidance from God, but can’t seem to hear His voice.  You want to believe in His promises, but struggle do so.  Do you want to know why?  It’s because you have every noisemaker in your soul turned up to full volume.  Think about it.  How many times does someone in your family complain that someone else is not listening?  How can they with the TV, radio, and computer blaring?

One of the loudest and most distracting noises for me is the voice that says, “What about this man?”  It is the voice that draws my attention to what someone else has and makes me question God’s provision for me.  It is the voice that calls out the suffering of others and makes me doubt God’s love.  I absolutely love how Jesus responded when Peter was distracted by that same voice.  “What is that to you?  You follow me!”

God constantly snaps His fingers as if we were fidgety children in class.  It is as if He is pointing at his eyes and saying, “Hey!  Over here!  Pay attention!”  If you want to hear from Him, if you want to live a life built on solid trust in His promises, You have to stop looking at this and listening to that.  You must regularly shut out the world and focus on Him.

Lord, You know I love You, but You also know how easily distracted I can become.  Help me develop habits of stillness that will allow me to focus on You.  In the name of Jesus, Who kept His eyes on You even while hanging on the cross, amen.

Copyright © 2018 by Steven R. Perkins

Unite My Heart

September 2 (Psalm 86:11)

…unite my heart to fear your name.  (ESV)

We have become a new species.  We are no longer homo sapiens, Latin for “wise human being.”  We have become homo crazyicus distracticus, or “crazy distracted person,” itself a branch of homo modernicus, “modern man.”  In fact, talking about how distracted we are and weighing the benefits and the drawbacks of our tech-dependent, interconnected society, has become a commonplace.  You know it as well as I do.  Your heart and mind are like a glorious, stained glass panel that has been shattered into a million jagged fragments.

I need to pray this one part of Psalm 86:11 over and over again, for I am at my best when my heart is united and focused on God.  I long for those moments when it is.  I truly do.  Yet there are just so many things pulling at my attention, from genuine responsibilities to the blinking lights of distracted temptation.

Friends, many of us have entered a state where it is almost impossible to marshal our thoughts into anything like coherence.  We simply cannot slow down or shut out the noise.  Fortunately, help is just a cry away.  Pray the words of this verse and notice their purpose.  We cry to God to unite the pieces of our distracted hearts not just so we can have a few moments of peace, although that is a pleasant benefit, but to focus more clearly on Him.

Father, unite my heart to fear Your name.  I am struggling to do this on my own.  I want to be with You, to sit in Your presence, and to hear Your voice, but I just cannot shut out the noise of life.  Unite my heart to fear Your name.  I pray this in the name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior, amen.

Copyright © 2017 by Steven R. Perkins

Tuning Out And Tuning In

April 17 (Exodus 3:4)

When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”  (ESV)

It is spring and it is election season, which means that in the green lawns and fields near us are the budding colors of nature and campaign signs.  The one whispers to get attention, the other screams like a carnival barker.

God does not yell.  He does not raise His voice.  He does not give the hard sell or come on strong.  This does not mean that He does not communicate with us in extraordinary ways.  He does, as He did by setting a bush on fire and not letting it be consumed.  Moses could have passed by, but he recognized the burning bush as something worth noticing and turned aside from the business of his day, and when he did, God spoke directly to him.

I know what I am about to say has a touch of irony since you are reading this in an email or on a blog post, but consider a fast from technology or social media.  It may be just for a day or after a certain hour, but try it.  Turn aside from the clamor that screeches for your attention.  Turn aside and look and listen actively for God.  You know perfectly well that if your child or best friend came looking for you, you would make time for him or her.  That is what you are to God, His child and His friend.  Do you think He will do any less?

Jesus, it has been too long since You and I just spent some time together, and that is on me.  I am the one who has let other things get in the way between us.  I want to hear Your voice again.  I want to hear what You want to say.  As I enter this period of quietness, I am eager for You to speak to me…

Copyright © 2016 by Steven R. Perkins

April 26 (Psalm 62:5)

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.  (ESV)

A friend once asked me how I could stand to eat alone.  While I have lively interactions with friends and love my family dearly, I do enjoy being alone sometimes.  I am quite content to eat alone, hike alone, or sit alone even in a crowded place.  Being alone allows me to be quiet and commune with God.

Now, lest you think I am a monk in disguise, please know that this rarely happens any more.  My life, likely very similar to yours, is a blooming, buzzing confusion of sensory overload.  Even when I am alone these days, I am find it nearly impossible not to be doing something, catching up on something, reading something.  Access to multiple email accounts, news feeds, and social media updates 24-7 gives me the unprecedented ability to be and do everything all the time.

Friends, this is insanity.  This mentality of doing it all is destroying our schools and our families.  It is ruining relationships, and none more so than our relationship with God, Who refuses to compete with Trivia Crack and Twitter.  If our hope is truly in the Lord, we must learn to silence our souls.

Father, I cry out to you.  Stop me.  Stop me from running to this and that, hurrying to do one thing so I can get on to another.  Turn my eyes toward you and away from the tyranny of the urgent and the attractive and immediate temptations that beckon me.  I truly want only You.  In the words of the old hymn, I pray that You would turn my eyes toward Jesus.  Let me look full in His wonderful face that the things of earth may grow dim in the light of His glory and grace.  Amen.

Copyright © 2015 by Steven R. Perkins