Category: Published

On What To Do In Desperate Times

Habakkuk 3:17-19 NLT  Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord!  I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!  19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength!  He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.

Observation

Habakkuk was a prophet during the rise of Babylon as a world power, a contemporary of the prophets Nahum and Jeremiah.  Habakkuk lifts up a lament, conducting a dialogue with God regarding injustice and how God was not living up to expectations based on their interpretation of His promises and their human understanding of God’s nature.  Habakkuk was crying out, “God, what are You thinking?!  How long will You tolerate injustice, allowing evil to triumph and the innocent to be oppressed?  I thought You were a good God, a God of justice.  I don’t understand!!  Why don’t You do something about it NOW??”  Haven’t we all asked these questions at some time or other?

King David frequently lamented about God’s seeming hesitance to step in to turn the world right side up, making things right and just (from his perspective – see Psalms).  Nonetheless, David after venting always returned to “but yet I will praise” in the end.  This passage above is the final word from Habakkuk – regardless of what I don’t understand, or what I experience, or what I may face, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord!  I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!”  We may not understand how current events fit into God’s plan – why the suffering, why the injustice, why evil seems to triumph – but like David and Habakkuk, we can have confidence in God’s wisdom, power, justice, timing and ultimate plan for redeeming humankind.

Impact on Me

I confess that I have lamented before God – so confused about why I was where I was experiencing circumstances that were not fair, just, blessed or earned – from my perspective at least.  I want to understand the WHY, be able to reason out the purpose, see the light at the end of the tunnel and be able to discern how God is planning to turn around for good what is meant for evil.  Then, I remember the Cross.  If I had been standing with the disciples watching Jesus die a public, shameful, unimaginable death, would I have despaired?  Would I have questioned if He was Messiah?  Would I have lamented before God over my expectations that He was not meeting? 

The Cross is the pivot point of history, the event that provided us a choice and changed eternity for us all.  If I was there, I am sure I would have cried out for another way because the Cross would seem so unjust a punishment for an innocent victim.  And yet, where would I be without that sacrifice.  The Cross reminds me to trust in God to deliver ultimate justice in His time and His way.  The Babylonian Empire was eventually overthrown by another empire builder who was subsequently overthrown by another.  The only kingdom that will last forever is the Kingdom of God.

Ultimately, I want to be like David and Habakkuk.  After my whining, complaining, discouraging prayer/dialogue, I want to remember to rejoice in the fact that:

  • Because God has proven over and over that He is good, He is just, and His timing is perfect, I can set aside my angst and trust in Him during desperate times;
  • God even gives me the privilege of listening to me – much less the beautiful free gift of salvation and adoption as His child;
  • I have hindsight on the Cross the disciples did not have because of Jesus’ resurrection, so things are not always as bad as they look – be on the lookout for opportunities to represent Him in all circumstances;
  • I have His Word to keep in my heart to sustain and remind me that I am not alone and not rejected because of my human response to what happens in this world; and
  • In Christ, I have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to give me strength to endure all that comes and the wisdom to trust in God regardless of circumstances.

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength!  He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.”

Prayer

Lord God, Creator, Redeemer, All-Just, King of all kings, I praise You and rejoice in Your justice, mercy and grace.  Help me to let go of my need to understand, my desire to control/fix what is not mine to fix and trust in You and Your plan even when circumstances endeavor to discourage and cause doubt.  May I humbly walk in the footsteps You place before me to be what You need me to be and do what You need me to do in the moment You need me to do so.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

On Trusting in God’s Timing

Amos 5:13-15 (MSG)  Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.  Decent people throw up their hands.  Protest and rebuke are useless, a waste of breath.  14   Seek good and not evil—and live!  You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, being your best friend.  Well, live like it, and maybe it will happen.  15  Hate evil and love good, then work it out in the public square.  Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will notice your remnant and be gracious. 

This dire passage caused me to revisit an entry in my journal from a few years ago on another prophecy regarding how injustice seems to triumph (see below). Even when we feel like the situation is hopeless, we are being overwhelmed by evil and injustice, and our efforts are fruitless, we must always remember that we serve the Living God, the God Who answers, the Eternal, All-Knowing, the God for Whom nothing is impossible, this God-of-Angel-Armies Who cannot be defeated.   I also must remind myself that the Enemy is already defeated by Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross and injustice, evil and all of their companions are doomed in that same defeat – suddenly in God’s timing.

Isaiah 30:12-14 (MSG)  Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this: “Because you scorn this Message, preferring to live by injustice and shape your lives on lies, this perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall that slowly, slowly tilts and shifts, and then one day, without warning, collapses — smashed to bits like a piece of pottery, smashed beyond recognition or repair, useless, a pile of debris to be swept up and thrown in the trash.” 

EXAMINE:  People make up every society. We forget that people are people, whether in 1000 BC or 2000 AD.  There are always people who live in a way that pleases God and others who seek only to please themselves and the culture in which they live.  Because we only have a perspective limited by our mere decades of life, we often wonder why God does not move more quickly. 

Sometimes it seems that the wall is not tilting and shifting because the movement is imperceptible in our short lifespan.  We also are limited in experiencing the collapses that have come over the millennia, such as the revivals that completely turned a society right side up, the revolutions that have overthrown unjust rulers, and the hard-fought social reforms that have eventually succeeded against entrenched power and traditions. There is no way to explain with words the history leading up to those powerful events; you have to live them. 

APPLY:  I have experienced miracles that cannot be explained with words – miracles of salvation, provision, healing and restoration.  There is nothing that compares to being in the midst of the power of God working, impacting your situation, making possible what is impossible, demonstrating that His eyes and attention are on you, filling you with a joy and peace that is immeasurable. 

These kinds of experiences fill me with hope for the next impossible challenge, the next perpetration of injustice, the next onslaught of evil.  They also cause me to recognize that it is not what talents, abilities, resources experience or seniority I bring to the table that matter; it is only faith, my willingness to be used and obedience to His instructions, my absolute trust in His timing, His Word that matter.  His success does not depend on me, but mine entirely depends on Him. 

Isaiah 55:8-11 MSG “I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.” God’s Decree. “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.

DEVOTE:  Father God, may I always keep faith in Your timing, knowing that You are timeless and eternal and my insight is so limited because it is rooted in this moment. Your Word will not return void, but fulfill the purpose for which You intend. May I never lose hope that You are faithful so I will, without questioning, fulfill Your Word when the time is right and most profitable to Your Kingdom purposes.  Romans 15:13 (JBP) “May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope.”. Let me know that the wall will fall when You are ready.  In Jesus’ name, I pray. 

On a Life of Substance & Purpose

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, 12-14 MSG Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.] There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? … 12-14 Call me “the Quester.” I’ve been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there’s not much to write home about. God hasn’t made it easy for us. I’ve seen it all and it’s nothing but smoke—smoke, and spitting into the wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 NIV The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” 3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? … 12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.  What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Philippians 3:7-9 MSG The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.

Observation

Ecclesiastes is believed to be the writing of King Solomon (“Questor” or “Teacher”) and represents his philosophical outlook on the world and on life in general toward the end of his life.  He had everything the world could offer in abundance – worldwide renown and respect, wealth, wives, a palace or two, horses and chariots and so on.   He was the wisest man of his time, but he had fallen into the very human trap of allowing his acclaim, pride in his accomplishments, material possessions and his wives to turn his heart away from remembering God’s part in it all.  All that he possessed was suddenly purposeless and meaningless.

He starts Ecclesiastes by stating that all you can gain in this life by your own efforts is “hevel” (smoke, vanity, meaningless).  It is like “Spitting into the wind” or chasing after the wind, which is defined as wasting time doing something totally pointless, fruitless or futile, without substance or value.   For King Solomon, despite his riches and fame, the joy was gone from his heart and all that he possessed and did was hevel.  

On the other hand, then we have Paul, a man who gave up everything – status, power, authority, recognition among his peers – to know and serve Jesus. “Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung.”  Like Solomon, Paul recognized that all earthly accomplishments and acclaim are hevel, but, unlike Solomon, Paul was willing to trade it all in to fulfill God’s will and purpose in his life.  “I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.”

Impact on Me

So, now I face the uncomfortable question of which of these two do I most resemble?  Am I, like Solomon, chasing after the wind, looking for the praise of my culture, doing what will increase my wealth, status, authority, power over others OR am I willing to be like Paul and submit all I am and have to fulfill God’s will and purpose?  Is knowing and serving Jesus enough for me?  Do I secretly crave the praise and adulation of people or am I willing to let the Holy Spirit be my promoter – setting me where I need to be doing what I need to do at the precise moment God needs me to be obedient regardless of the cost to my reputation, financial position, comfort, perceived abilities?  Am I willing to appear a failure, if necessary, to accomplish God’s will and purpose? 

Jesus was willing to do all these things.  His obedience, His sacrifice, provided us with righteousness that cannot be gained on our own.  “I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.”  Do I trust God enough to give it all?  Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!

Prayer

God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, All-Wise, All-Knowing, Gracious and Merciful Father, You know my heart.  I am human, fallible, inconsistent, selfish, unfaithful, but the Holy Spirit lives within me and is working on changing me so I can be more like Jesus.  I pray that You will give me insight, wisdom, knowledge, understanding and strength to believe in You when what You ask me to relinquish seems too hard to do, too much to give up.  May I stand before You on that day and know that I lived a life of substance and purpose in Christ.  May I remember that all I have is Yours and You are the rewarder of the faithful.  I am safe and secure in Your hands.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

On The Bottom Line

Romans 12:1-2 Phillips. 1 With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. 2 Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

Romans 12:1-2 MSG. 1 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 

Observation

This chapter 12 of Romans could be titled, “The Universal Practical Guide to Worshipping God in Your Living.”  Paul has spent the previous 11 chapters explaining how only faith in Christ provides forgiveness of sin and redemption, and that faith is not based on or evidenced by the adherence to any Jewish religious rules, practices, or The Law.  Living by faith in Christ transcends culture and religious rites, rituals and rules; it is based on:

  • 24/7 worship,
  • our glad obedience/submission to God’s will, and
  • allowing Him the freedom to change us in order to fulfill His plan in and through us – “bring the best out…develop well-formed maturity”. 

This might require us to be as counter-cultural as Paul is asking the Jewish believers to be regarding new Gentile believers – by accepting that faith in Christ is not proven by works, but, rather, weighing all against the heart of God to redeem and restore relationship with all of His creation.  With this heart, we can embrace others in the Body of Christ in spite of differences in practice as long as Jesus is their Lord and only Savior.  Paul lays out the bottom line for all believers here in chapter 12:

  • submit (“give Him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him”),
  • be changed and matured by the Holy Spirit (“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within”)
  • serve with humility trusting in God’s plan/purpose for you (“Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it”), and
  • let your love be sincere, motivated by mercy, grace, and redemption  generously poured out to all (Romans 9-end).

Impact on Me

The book of Romans is cram-packed with teaching by Paul on what really happened on the Cross, Who Christ is, what His sacrifice really provides for all mankind, and how I should respond to/show my gratitude for this free gift of redemption. 

Here Paul is saying that I need to:

  • submit myself to God, giving the Holy Spirit freedom to search me, know me (without reserving any private areas),
  • allow the Holy Spirit to bring areas that need changing to my attention, and
  • give the Holy Spirit freedom to work the change in me that makes me ready and able to fulfill God’s will and purpose for me.

This requires me to have the courage to trust Him with my secret places of pride, shame, sorrow, guilt, stubbornness, fear, selfishness, criticism, and all the other ugliness I have hidden away in the locked closets of my soul. I am then shamefully faced with the question of how much I really do trust Him.  Would I really be willing to let Him be in charge of cleaning out those closets, truly putting my past, my present, my future under His scrutiny and in His hands regardless of the cost to me?  Am I willing for Him to reveal my deepest darkest secrets if it serves His purpose to heal and release me or others?  It all comes down to the bottom line – how much do I really trust Him?

Prayer

Lord, my desire is to trust You so unconditionally that I will have no secret places, no locked closets in my soul full of shame, guilt and unforgiveness.  I want to cooperate with You in the process – “be changed from the inside out”–so I “may prove in practice that the plan of God for you (me) is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”  Help me to hear the song You sing over me – that it may ring in my flesh, my heart, my spirit so I may worship You with my “everyday, ordinary life…and place it before God as an offering.”  I want to live in Heaven’s culture, having my actions determined by what You see with Your eyes and how You love with Your heart.  I pray this all in Jesus’ name. Make it so.

On Setting Things Right

John 3:16-17 MSG “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

Luke 11:1-4 MSG One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”  2-4 So he said, “When you pray, say, Father, Reveal who you are.  Set the world right.  Keep us alive with three square meals.  Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.  Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”

Observation

The last few years have made everyone recognize that things are not right with the world.  This pandemic has disrupted whatever was considered normal on a worldwide basis.  All that once seemed stable, secure and reliable are now not so much.  These verses above bring us the only secure hope that withstands every challenge of the ages – knowing that God is in the process of putting the world right again.  “Set the world right” is also translated as “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” 

The people of Jesus’ time understood living in an insecure world.  Their history was a sad story of Gentile and homegrown kings and kingdoms that came and went – Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Babylon, Rome and a series of evil rulers from Judah and Israel itself.  Even the religious leaders gave them no hope of fulfilling the intricate and burdensome rules for righteousness before God.  If you were poor or sick, God hated you and was punishing you.  Jesus says, “Not so!”  “He came to help, to put the world right again.”

He is saying the same thing to us today.  His kingdom is still the only truly safe place that cannot be breached or conquered by any enemy – man or devil.  We can get confused and discouraged when we don’t experience that same promised stability, security and safety in our temporary physical lives. Jesus said we would have trouble in this world; He certainly did.  The promise of stability, security and safety are eternal and sure in spite of the circumstances we encounter.  Unlike other human kings, Jesus’ first concern is for our eternal welfare, not His personal gain.  Setting our hearts in His kingdom will produce righteousness, peace and joy in the midst of what this world turns upside down.

Impact on Me

I have a choice of what kingdom I choose and which king I serve.  The last couple of years have drawn a striking border between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God.  In all of the confusion and conflict created by dueling authorities touting their information as correct, there is one source that has not wavered or been shaky.  God’s plan is to set the world right using anyone who will seek His direction, listen and obey His calling, serve His eternal Kingdom goals rather than be distracted by the havoc caused by any earthly one.

I confess that I am impacted emotionally by wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, plagues, floods, political infighting, greed that disregards the lives of others and all the other things that seem to turn the world upside down.  How can I be stable, secure and safe in the midst of the swirling chaos?  I must choose who and what rules me.  If I am first a subject of the Kingdom of God, I must have faith in and follow His plan, walk in my calling, set myself as a servant to fulfill His will and purpose.  In this way, I will be assisting in setting the world right according to His plan, not mine.  I will trust that my obedience to Him will contribute to His ultimate result, even if I don’t see that result with my own eyes.  I will allow the Holy Spirit to give me insight into the eternal so my focus will not be distracted by the temporal.  I will know that whatever I suffer here on earth is less than the sacrifice made by Jesus to come as a Man to redeem me and whosoever will come. 

Prayer

Lord, I do pray for Your kingdom to come and Your will be done – beginning with me.  Jesus, You said that Your Kingdom is within us when we are in You.  I want to be remodeled by Your presence, working with me to become all that You desire me to be and do all that You desire me to do.  Change me from someone rooted in the worldly and temporal to someone who is fruitful because I am rooted in Your eternal Kingdom soil.  I want to be part of Your setting the world right regardless of the cost to me and whether I ever see the result of my obedience and sacrifice.  May I willingly serve as You ask.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.