Streams in the Desert.....

 Streams in the Desert

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me (Psalms 23:4).

At my father's house in the country there is a little closet in the chimney corner where are kept the canes and walking-sticks of several generations of our family. In my visits to the old house, when my father and I are going out for a walk, we often go to the cane closet, and pick out our sticks to suit the fancy of the occasion. In this I have frequently been reminded that the, Word of God is a staff.

During the war, when the season of discouragement and impending danger was upon us, the verse, "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord," was a staff to walk with many dark days.

When death took away our child and left us almost heartbroken, I found another staff in the promise that "weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning."

When in impaired health, I was exiled for a year, not knowing whether I should be permitted to return to my home and work again, I took with me this staff which never failed, "He knoweth the thoughts that he thinketh toward me, thoughts of peace and not of evil."

In times of special danger or doubt, when human judgment has seemed to be set at naught, I have found it easy to go forward with this staff, "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." And in emergencies, when there has seemed to be no adequate time for deliberation or for action, I have never found that this staff has failed me, "He that believeth shall not make haste."
--Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, in The Outlook

"I had never known," said Martin Luther's wife, "what such and such things meant, in such and such psalms, such complaints and workings of spirit; I had never understood the practice of Christian duties, had not God brought me under some affliction." It is very true that God's rod is as the schoolmaster's pointer to the child, pointing out the letter, that he may the better take notice of it; thus He pointeth out to us many good lessons which we should never otherwise have learned.
--Selected

"God always sends His staff with His rod."

"Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut.33:25).

Each of us may be sure that if God sends us on stony paths He will provide us with strong shoes, and He will not send us out on any journey for which He does not equip us well.
--Mclaren

The Priesthood of Believers..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 The Priesthood of Believers

Dr. Charles Stanley

Revelation 5:9-10

According to Scripture, the believer’s citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). In other words, we’re not going to be citizens of an eternal kingdom; we already are.

What’s more, every person who professes Jesus Christ as Lord is part of God’s priesthood. In the ancient Israelite culture, priests were the privileged servants of Almighty God. They carried out all the tasks related to keeping the Law and preserving the spiritual well-being of the people. They cared for the temple, offered sacrifices, and interceded on behalf of the community.

When John says in Revelation 1 that you and I are priests, he is placing us among the ranks of a people set apart as God’s servants. It is a blessing and calling to worship the Lord, to adore and honor Him, and to ensure that all glory is given to His name. Our duties also include interceding on behalf of others.

The one priestly task we do not have to do is perform sacrifices. God Himself offered the final sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, when His Son died in our place. Our part is to bear witness to the breadth and depth of His love for all people. Once you grasp the fact that God looks on His children—every one a former slave to sin—with unconditional devotion, you can’t keep quiet about it.

Believers are special in the eyes of their God and King. We are a sacred people and a holy order. What are you doing with your life? As a believer, you are not your own anymore (1 Corinthians 6:19). You are a priest and a privileged servant of the Most High God.

Dealing With Anxiety When Life Is Uncertain..... KIA STEPHENS

 Dealing With Anxiety When Life Is Uncertain

KIA STEPHENS

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6 (NIV)

Editor’s Note: We want to acknowledge that many suffer from anxiety as a health condition/chemical imbalance that must be treated with professional help. This devotion is not intended to simplify the solution to a more complex problem.

For weeks, I couldn’t sleep through the night.

I went to bed, woke up at 3 a.m. and stared at the ceiling.

I tried counting sheep.
I tried reading my Bible.
I tried saying my prayers.
Nothing worked.

Every night was another sleepless carbon copy of the night before.

Then I began to look for a root cause in my behavior. This led me down a familiar path. Like a slow leak on drywall, I discovered my sleepless nights were a byproduct of a larger problem.

It began with the rapid and ever-changing circumstances in our world. Then it was compounded by situations in my life and the lives of those I love. Gradually, I began to entertain unrelenting “what ifs” until I was steeped in full-blown anxiety.

What if things don’t work out?
What if the worst happens?
What if the situation never changes?

I wanted to give every difficult circumstance a happy ending, but the problems I saw were beyond my control. The outcome of these mammoth-sized issues depended on God alone. This is where I struggled: perpetually agonizing over circumstances I could not change.

As a result, I opened the door of my heart wide enough for anxiety to walk right in and get comfortable. My inability to sleep through the night directly correlated to my anxious thoughts.

This is exactly what the Apostle Paul commanded us not to do in Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

In the Greek, the word for “anxious” translates to “distracted,” further illustrating the power of anxious thoughts. Anxiety magnifies our problems and minimizes our view of God. It prevents us from seeing God’s power and sovereignty in the midst of our circumstances.

Paul, who had many things to be anxious about, was essentially waving a caution flag because he knew anxiety could take us down a dangerous path leading to fear, doubt and despair. When we are anxious, our minds are monopolized with worry instead of consumed with God and what He is able to do.

Paul tells us the way to combat anxiety is to first make a conscious choice not to be anxious. This is easier said than done. It requires us to face every uncontrollable circumstance and possible outcome with confidence that God knows what He’s doing. Here we are forced not to just read Scripture but anchor ourselves in it. This means I have a choice to believe God is sovereign and always has a plan, even if the outcome is not what I desire.

The next thing Paul says to do is pray, petition and thank God for the things we are anxious about. Although I did resort to prayer, my prayers were simply reworded worries. After I presented my request to God in prayer, my fears continued to weigh on my heart and mind. The type of praying, petitioning and thanking Paul referrs to involves relinquishing our will for God’s.

I believe God wants us to ask for what we desire while trusting He ultimately knows best. Paul could pray in thanksgiving because he learned how to surrender to God’s perfect will over his desires.

When we choose to do this, we can experience the peace Paul describes in Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (NIV).

As we pray, petition and thank God, we are able to close the door on anxiety and open the door to peace. This peace allows us to focus on God rather than worry about the future. By choosing not to be anxious, we discover peace that is not dependent on controlled outcomes but comes from the God who controls all things.

This is the peace I am learning to intentionally embrace. Although the world, my circumstances and the lives of those I love may not change, I am learning to trust God with what I cannot control, challenge my “what ifs” and sleep through the night.

Dear God, when I am overwhelmed by things I cannot control, help me place my trust in You. Remind me You are sovereign and in control of all things. Help me to believe Your ways are good and You have a plan, even if it is not the outcome I desire. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Matthew 6:34, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (NIV)

7 Suggestions for When God is Silent (1 Kings 18:1)..... By Ron Edmondson

 7 Suggestions for When God is Silent (1 Kings 18:1)

By Ron Edmondson

After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” - (1 Kings 18:1)

Elijah had been used of God to hold back rain from the people for over three years, because of their sins. Obviously, he was not well liked as a preacher. I can imagine the stress he experienced during those years.

Something strikes me, however, that seems to further complicate Elijah’s situation.

Consider 1 Kings 18:1: “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

According to a couple New Testament passages, this “After a long time” was actually three and a half years. The famine was three and a half years long. For three and a half years, the people apparently continued to sin, Elijah continued to hold on by faith, but God said nothing. God was apparently inactive… not speaking… even to His great servant Elijah during this time.

Have you ever been there? Has the silence of God in your life ever been eerily strong?

Imagine you had been faithfully serving… God is using you… you are in constant communication with Him… and then suddenly… everything is quiet. You have to wait.

The separation must have seemed unbearable. Elijah is not liked and unpopular. He’s an outcast from the people and the One he trusted most was seemingly absent.

God would soon do a miracle through Elijah… one he couldn’t even imagine… certainly not script, but during this period all Elijah could do was wait.

If you have been follower of Christ very long, you have had periods where it seems God is nowhere to be found. We often call them periods of spiritual dryness. Sometimes I refer to it as being in a spiritual funk.

What should we do during the times of silence, before the miracles of God come through for us?

If you are like me, you can figure out how to celebrate a miracle. You don’t need much help doing that. The tough part of life is figuring out what to do during the years of silence… during the years when miracles are seemingly nowhere to be found.

What do we do during the spiritually dry periods of life when we don’t hear clearly the voice of God?

Here Are 7 Things You Can Do When You Think God Is Silent:

Don’t ignore the silence – Some of the biggest moves God has made in my life have come after a period of spiritual dryness… when it seemed like God was doing nothing in my life. Stay very close to God and watch for Him to eventually display His power. He will in the fullness of time.

Confront known sin in your life – This wasn’t the problem of silence for Elijah, but the problem for the Israelites was that they were chasing after other gods and living lives in total disobedience to God. Sin may not be the reason you don’t sense closeness to God right now, but if you have known sin in your life it will affect your intimacy with God.

Go back to what you know – Get back to the basics of the faith that saved you. You’ll do it 100s of times in your life, but you must remind yourselves of the basis of faith… which is the very character and promises of God. God is in control. He really is… even when it doesn’t seem that He is anywhere to be found.

Make a decision… Choose sides – You can’t adequately serve God and the world. (Consider Joshua 24:15.) Something happens in life, often sin, busyness, boredom, or a tragedy… but if we are normal, we have periods where we grow away from our close relationship with God. God hasn’t moved, but if you’ve shifted in your obedience, get back securely on the right side.

Trust More… Not less – Times of silence may be filled with fear, but ironically, these times require more faith. Times come in our spiritual life when our enthusiasm isn’t as real as when we began our walk with God. That’s not an indication to quit… it may be that God is using that time for something bigger than you could have imagined… but whatever is next will most likely require a deeper level of trust.

Listen and Watch Closely – Some day God is going to make His plans known to you. Don’t miss them. He may come to your personally, through His Word, circumstances, or another person. You’ll need to be in a position to know that God is moving. (Read THIS POST if you need help discerning God’s will.)

Get ready to receive – God will break the silence some day… and when He does it WILL be good. If you mope around in your sorrows, you’ll be less prepared to receive the good things to come. Not because of your circumstances, but because of your faith, clothe yourself in joy as you wait for God to bless you after the period of silence.

Are you in one of those periods of silence today? How do you handle these periods of time?

Owned by Identity, Bought by a Savior..... by John UpChurch

 Owned by Identity, Bought by a Savior

by John UpChurch

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Arguments about "identity" should end at this verse. For non-Christians, it’s meaningless noise. For Christians, it’s everything. We own nothing from our hair follicles to our toenails. Every drop of cytoplasm, every hormone, every spark of our synapses was paid for in full. Christ didn’t die for the “good” parts or the parts we let Him have; He wanted all of us.

That’s why it makes no sense for us to justify what’s natural or what makes us happy or what satisfies us. To do so breaks us into pieces, compartmentalizing where we will and will not surrender, what we will and will not hand over to Christ. But the choice isn’t ours. The price paid was for the whole shebang.

The heart loves to mass-produce idols, and identity works just as well as anything else. Deep inside, the hammers of what’s just and fair and right beat in time with our resistance to surrender. We know who we are, and we can’t change.

But the possibility of change is completely beside the point. Even if no change comes before the perfect does (1 Corinthians 1:10), even if the desires never stop, we have no room to act on them or justify them. We have no ownership in ourselves. Not even a partial vacation stake.

It all belongs to Jesus.

Christ urged us to follow Him with the heavy weight of lumber slung across our shoulders (Mark 8:34). That image is one of ownership. Why else would we take up humiliation and hardship to struggle after a bloodied Lamb? It isn’t an image of coercion, but of willingness. Just as the Messiah surrendered Himself to be crucified, we crucify ourselves to admit surrender.

The arguments about orientations or ingrained needs or natural behaviors focus on one thing: us. They point to who we are and what we want. Put succinctly, such discussions are nothing more than navel-gazing. We’re peering down at what makes us tick and letting that determine our course.

And ultimately, none of it matters. That navel we’re peering so deeply into belongs to Christ. He bought it.

We’ve got genes. They’re Christ’s. We’ve got a past. It’s Christ’s. We’ve got failures and foibles and more twisted thoughts than we know what to do with. And they’re hammered to the cross. The ownership of a Savior sidesteps any arguments about identity because our true identity starts and ends with who we are in Christ. It undercuts any passionate defense of “who I am” because who we are is His. Nothing should come between us—the purchased—and the One who took care of the bill.

We must not let the clanging of our idol-making heart drown out the call of Christ to follow how He leads.

Intersecting Faith and Life: Salvation is free, but following Jesus isn’t. The cost isn’t in wealth or doing enough good stuff. It’s sacrifice—the willful surrender of even some of our most cherished beliefs about ourselves and what we need. When we come to Christ but refuse to surrender it all, we’re like the rich man who couldn’t bear the thought of empty pockets (Matthew 19:16). We’re not all in.

However you identified yourself before you got blisters from hauling around your cross, that identity is now the old identity. You gave it up to the One who paid up. You’re His. You’re new.

For Further Reading

1 Corinthians 1:1
2 Corinthians 2:1

A Prayer Against Selfishness..... By: Emily Rose Massey

 A Prayer Against Selfishness

By: Emily Rose Massey

“I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31, NASB).

Change the baby’s diaper, take the dog outside, feed everyone breakfast (including said dog), start a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher, fill the dishwasher with more dishes, fold and put away the laundry, clean counters, vacuum, sweep, mop, snack-time, school-time, nap-time, lunch-time, snack-time, dinner-time, snack-time, bed-time. Do it again tomorrow. 

As a mom and wife, I am given countless opportunities to set aside my wants and give my love, time, and attention to the needs of my husband and children. Pouring yourself out like that on a daily basis can sometimes be physically and mentally exhausting, and I have to admit, I am tempted to wonder when I will have some “me time.” It is our human nature to seek to put ourselves and our needs first, but God has a better way.

The Apostle Paul shared this way in his first letter to the Corinthian Church:  

“I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31, NASB).

The Biblical principle of dying to yourself has always been true, but I didn’t always live it or even understand it. Becoming a stay-at-home mom has challenged me in more ways than I can count in the area of putting others before myself, and I am always learning and finding that it is truly is more blessed to give than to receive.

As Jesus’ disciples, we are called to follow Him. That was Paul’s mission in life – to imitate Christ. And it is what he and the rest of the apostles literally gave their lives to preach to the world through their words and actions. We may not ever get the honor to literally die for Jesus Christ because of our faith in Him, but by God’s grace, we can imitate His selflessness every day.

To be able to imitate Christ, we must look to Jesus as our example. Even though Jesus was God in the flesh, He still leaned upon God the Father for everything He said and did while He walked this earth. Jesus would rise early to pray and seek God for His will for the day.

In addition to seeking God in prayer, Jesus obediently submitted Himself to the will of the Father, even unto death. Each day, we are faced with the temptation to satisfy our flesh and go outside the boundaries of God’s perfect will. We are not perfect, but thankfully Jesus was, and because of His sacrifice on the cross. Ultimately, Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve others (Mark 10:45). He was the most selfless person to ever walk this earth.

Casting aside our selfishness and dying daily definitely isn’t easy, but it is worth it because Jesus promises us that whoever loses his life will find it and find it abundance (Matthew 10:39/ John 10:10)!

But remember, we cannot die daily in our own strength, friends. The Holy Spirit is who empowers us to choose God’s way through the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). With each passing day, by God’s grace, we mature and cultivate a life worth dying for, a life found in Christ alone!