Online Devotions: listening to God

Showing posts with label listening to God. Show all posts

Sunday, October 28, 2018

The Gift and Necessity of Rest

October 28 (Psalm 127:1-2)

Unless the Lord builds a house,

the work of the builders is wasted.

guarding it with sentries will do no good.

from early morning until late at night,

for God gives rest to his loved ones. (NLT)

When are you at your best with God? When are you at your best for Him? If you are anything like me, it is not when you are doing a million things all at once. And this probably means we are not at our best most of the time. “Now here, now there, he darts from place to place.” It is a line describing the Greek warrior Diomedes in the Iliad, but it also describes most of us today.

Why is that? Why do we run ourselves ragged? It is because we believe that we must build the house, metaphorically speaking. We think it is all up to us. Hard work is good, of course, and Paul had strong words for those who were lazy (2 Thessalonians 3:10), but nowhere does Scripture say we must do it all and kill ourselves in the process. In fact, it says the opposite.

God loves you, which means, as this Psalm clearly says, He will give you rest. Are you rejecting the gift? Are you handing it back to Him because you know better what needs to be done? Not only is that arrogant and insulting to God, but it is something we would not even do with a gift from an earthly friend. He knows what is best, not your boss, not the family calendar, and not you. Listen for Him, and when He is calling you to a moment of quiet with Him, eagerly accept the gift that He knows you need.

Father, help me to set aside regular moments each day to rest in You. Help me to develop habits of rest in which I can hear from You and share with You my heart, in which I can grow in You and worship You truly. I ask it in the name of Jesus, amen.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

One Who Truly Knows

July 8 (Matthew 7:29)

for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law. (NLT)

We all know blowhards and braggarts. They are the ones who like to give us the scoop, the real deal, the skinny on how things actually are. They have been there, done that, and are more than willing to give us all the answers. Then there are those who have expert opinions on everything because they have studied it all. They have the ins and outs, the trivia and the minutiae about anything you want to know. Yet there is something about the knowledge and advice from both types of people that rings hollow.

And then there are the people you just know are telling it like it is. They may say it differently than others and maybe even in opposition to the policy manual, the company line, or the official statement, but there is just something in what they say and the way they say it that makes you know they are giving you the truth.

That was Jesus. He spoke with authority. He cut through all the layers of this, that, and the other thing and got straight to the point. Others may have talked about God, but He was God and actually knew what He was talking about. Once people heard Jesus speak, they knew He was telling the truth and wanted to hear more. They didn’t want to hear from anyone else, which leads to the question…why would you?

Jesus, with so many voices coming at me from newspapers and books and radio and television and websites and social media, to say nothing of friends and family, it is easy to accept things that are not true. Help me to hear Your voice and listen to what You have to say, for Peter was right. You have the words of eternal life, and I have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God (John 6:68-69). Amen.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Stopping God

April 8 (1 Corinthians 2:13)

[W]e speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. (ESV)

Do you realize how much power human beings have? We can be laid low by a cold or a papercut, but we are so powerful that we can actually stop God from accomplishing His will. We only have to say no.

Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, and so He did. The Holy Spirit lives within us and, among other things, He speaks to us the words of God. When we need to offer a word of encouragement or rebuke, when we need to explain or teach a matter of spiritual significance, God does not leave us on our own. He speaks through the Holy Spirit and gives us what we need to say. Yet unbelievably we thwart this divine guidance with our second-guessing. We waffle, we reconsider, and we hesitate. We become Prufrock, the pathetic character in Eliot’s poem, for whom “in a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”

Bold is the life lived in Jesus Christ. When we are fully surrendered to Him, when we see everyone and everything through His gaze, we can speak and act confidently in this world, for it will not be we who speak and act, but rather God working through us. Yet we can always resort to weakness, and with fear and timidity halt the very plans of God.

Lord, may every inspiration of the Holy Spirit find its fulfillment in my words and deeds. May I die to myself so that, fully alive in You, I may be Your willing servant on earth. When I pray as You taught, that Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, may I be Your good instrument and never an obstacle to the working out of that will. In the name of Jesus, Who was obedient even to the cross, amen.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

How God Speaks

April 24 (Jeremiah 36:17-18)

Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?”Baruch answered them, “He dictated all these words to me, while I wrote them with ink on the scroll.” (ESV)

Do you ever laugh at things you read in the Bible? This is one of the more amusing passages for me. Baruch is the scribe for the prophet Jeremiah and after he delivers Jeremiah’s words to the king’s officials, they ask how he came to write them down, and his response is as simple as it gets. “Well, Jeremiah spoke, and I took out ink and scroll and started writing.” I have to believe that Baruch was thinking, “How else do you think it happened?”

Human beings are odd creatures. We try to explain away with natural explanations the miracles and mysteries of God and we look for the strange and the supernatural in the most mundane affairs. Yes, God spoke to Moses through a burning bush, but He also spoke through a guy who just sat taking dictation from his friend.

I love elegant, leather-bound books, but notes from students scribbled in pencil have touched me deeply. Don’t overlook the simple, everyday means that God uses to speak to you.

Father, You richly and lovingly speak to us through Your holy words that form our Bible and through direct encounters with Your Holy Spirit. You also, through the Spirit, inspire others to speak into our lives words of support, encouragement, direction, rebuke, and edification. May we miss nothing that You say, even when it comes through the humblest of means. In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

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…

History of Online Devotions

In January of 1999, I began the Online Devotions with the teens of the church we were attending. Each week they would receive a verse of Scripture, a short reflection, and a prayer. Over the years others subscribed to this email list, and soon the Online Devotions were going out to people across the country and beyond.

In 2007 I published in book format a collection called Desert Days: Forty Devotions for Men.

After suggestions from several readers, I launched in 2010 the Online Devotions blog. Devotions are still available each week by email, and if you would like to subscribe, please indicate so in the comment box.

As I have always said, if one of these devotions touches you, you can be sure it was from God. If one leaves you flat, then there was too much of me in it.