Online Devotions: May 2018

Sunday, May 27, 2018

A Life of Purpose

May 27 (Psalm 144:4)

Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. (ESV)

John Cougar Mellencamp recorded a song called “Paper In Fire,” and the second verse goes like this.

He wanted love

With no involvement

So he chased the wind

That's all his silly life required

And the days of vanity

Went on forever

And he saw his days burn up

Like paper in fire

Ask any adult and he or she will tell you. Life goes by more quickly with each passing year, and before you know it your whole life can seem as insubstantial and fleeting as a breath or a shadow. Whether your life is indeed insubstantial, however, is up to you. If your pursuit is of nothing more than pleasure without the entanglements of responsibility, then life can become quite silly and vain, and your days will certainly burn up like paper in fire.

Yet if you realize that your life is a gift and choose to make of it a life of purpose, that is a different matter entirely. A life lived full tilt, passionately, and with the greatest use and development of its God-given talents, a life lived in pursuit of something greater than itself, will pass just as quickly as the one spent in vanity, but it will be rich and full. It will carry the weight of deep satisfaction along with magnificent joys and unspeakable tragedies. In short, it will be a life well lived.

Father, may my eyes ever be focused on the deep calling of my life. May I not be sidetracked with silly and vain temptations. And when I come to the end of my days, may I not realize that they have been wasted, but rather that they have spent in work that is pleasing and acceptable to You, o Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of Christ Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Difficult, Freeing, Exhilarating Faith

May 13 (2 Corinthians 5:7)

For we walk by faith, not by sight. (ESV)

Do you realize how difficult it is to walk by faith and not by sight? You certainly do if you’ve ever tried it. We cannot see God, but we have faith in Him. His ways are not our ways, but we have faith that His ways are right. We will experience suffering, but we have faith because Jesus said He overcame it all. It is no wonder that people look at us and say, “Are you kidding?”

Let’s be clear. Everything we do in our daily existence is based on our physical sensations. We see a line of traffic and take a different route. We hear about an interesting book and go to buy it. We smell bacon frying and know the day is off to a good start. Yet everything about our relationship with God is based on something else. As the writer of Hebrews 11:1 puts it, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It is assurance. It is conviction. It is not namby-pamby, wishful thinking, but because it has nothing to do with our physical senses, which form the basis for how we interact with every other aspect of our lives, faith is a different way of knowing, and a difficult one.

Yet faith in God is the single most freeing force in the world! Think about something that scares you, something that just terrifies the living daylights out of you. Maybe it is standing on the diving board and looking into water that seems about a thousand feet away. Maybe it is facing a job decision or the prospect of losing a job. Picture that thing that gives you the sweats. Now, what if you didn’t have to rely on your senses? What if all the things that terrify you because you have seen them or heard about them or experienced them in some way just weren’t there? What if you could ignore all that? Would that not be the most exhilarating feeling in the world? That, my friends, is faith.

Jesus, whenever You call me, I look around at the wind and waves the way Peter did and start to sink. Remember that I am dust, Jesus, and prone to fear and weakness. Help me to strengthen my faith so that I may operate more by it and less by my physical senses, for I truly do believe in You. Amen.

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Yes, But...

May 6 (John 6:28-29)

Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (ESV)

Yes, but…. The non-believer says no to the call of God, and the believer who says yes often falls into the pride of the Pharisee who thanked God for not being like others (Luke 18:11). If truth were told, however, the yes of the believer is often conditional. We say yes and then hurry on to an objection. “Yes, yes, I get it, Lord. You want me to believe in Jesus. But what do you really want me to do? Shouldn’t I be out there saving the world with the wonderful talents you have given me?”

Belief in Jesus leads to following Him, and following Him leads to acts of service through which He does indeed change the world. Yet when we rush to the acts of service and forget Jesus Himself, we fall prey to pride that we are the ones actually making the difference. We begin to believe that it is all up to us, and this turns into a deadly perfectionism that leaves us exhausted from carrying burdens we were never meant to carry. Remember, it was Jesus who said that His burden was light (Matthew 11:30).

Are you experiencing the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that are the fruits of the Spirit? If yes, then thank God and savor the true life in Christ. If not, don’t double down on your own efforts to force those fruits into existence. That is likely what you are doing anyhow and is the cause of the problem. Instead, turn back to Jesus. Let Him become once again your all in all. When you let Him become your life, you are truly doing the work of God.

Jesus, pry my fingers from the tight grip I maintain on life. Open my hands so that I may receive You. May You direct my paths and not my agenda, however many good things it may contain. Amen.