Waiting on God..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 Waiting on God

Dr. Charles Stanley

Psalms 37:1-9

Waiting on God is an important spiritual discipline in our walk of faith. King David’s life teaches us about the value of following the Lord’s plan and the danger in moving ahead of Him.

When David was a young shepherd boy, the prophet Samuel anointed him as Israel’s next king. Yet he did not become the ruler for many years. Waiting for the Lord to place him on the throne was made more difficult because the current king, Saul, turned against David and repeatedly tried to take his life. Despite the opportunity to take matters into his own hands and kill his enemy, David held back. He wouldn’t allow anyone else to attack Saul either (1 Sam. 24:1-7). He waited on God and was greatly blessed for his obedience.

King David also knew what it was like to move ahead without the Lord. One year he chose not to join his troops in battle, even though that was one of his duties (2 Sam. 11:1). During the time he stayed home, he noticed Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, and he coveted her. Acting upon his desires, he conceived a child with her and then tried to cover up his sin. What a mess he made of his life. Instead of following the Lord’s plan and being blessed, he experienced divine chastisement and much heartache.

As believers, we want to obey the Lord, but there may be situations when intense desire propels us forward without waiting for His direction. Like David, we will experience the blessing of obedience or the heartache of disobedience. Be sure to seek out God’s plan before you act.

The Lord Gives Contentment..... Craig Denison

 The Lord Gives Contentment

Craig Denison

Weekly Overview:

Our heavenly Father is the giver of every good gift. His mercies are vast, powerful, and real. His love has the ability to completely overwhelm and satisfy every one of our needs. Everything he gives us satisfies, transforms, and leads us to abundant life. As we spend this week stirring up our affections toward God, allow your heart to become soft and open. Allow his loving character to draw you close and provide life to every dry and weary place in your soul.

Scripture:“The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied.”  Proverbs 19:23

Devotional:

In Philippians 4, Paul describes what he calls “the secret” to contentment. Scripture says, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

Similarly Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Imagine a life of total contentment regardless of your possessions or status. Imagine the peace, joy, and strength you would find in this kind of freedom Paul experienced from the ways of the world. The question before you today is this: what is keeping you from living your life consistently and completely content?

Scripture is clear that true contentment transcends circumstances. True contentment is found apart from abundant provision. God longs to draw you into a lifestyle of situational transcendence. He longs to provide contentment for you on every level, but it will take surrendering your system of values and pursuits to experience the satisfaction of God’s perfect perspective. Contentment comes solely through a lifestyle of surrender.

The truth is, we consistently believe a lie that the world can offer us true contentment. We believe that the next purchase, friend, job, or hobby will satisfy foundational needs that can only find their fulfillment in God. We reach out to the world for help as if the world wasn’t in immense need already.

Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If your value lies in possessions and status, they will own you rather you owning them. If you search after the opinion of man above God’s, your contentment will come and go with the fleeting whims of those around you. But if you place your treasure with your heavenly Father, your heart will find its home in the loving arms of God.

If you will find the courage to surrender possessions, family, friends, jobs, and status today, you will find wonderful strength and contentment that transcends this world and finds its source in God alone. Spend time in prayer cutting your emotional ties to the world and placing your hope and trust in your heavenly Father alone.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on God’s desire to bring you contentment that transcends your circumstances.

“The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied.” Proverbs 19:23

2. Where have you been finding your contentment? What have you been seeking after to satisfy your emotional needs? Where have you placed your treasure?

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:11-13

3. Repent of any area in which you have been pursuing the ways of the world, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you value what he values. Ask him how he feels about your possessions and to give you the courage to give away or sell anything that is keeping you from reaching contentment. All that God would lead you to do is perfect and absolutely for your best interest.

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Hebrews 13:5

When it comes down to it, what’s more valuable than contentment, peace, joy, fulfillment, and love? What possession, friend, job, or status is of greater value than what God has to offer us? The world seeks contentment from avenues which only ever lead to greater need. God has placed before you the avenue of surrender and promised an unconditional and limitless supply of contentment if you will simply take his hand and trust and follow him. May you gain the perfect perspective of your heavenly Father today and pursue the contentment that comes from him alone.

Extended Reading: Matthew 6

Broken but Not Beyond Repair..... TRACIE BRAYLOCK

 Broken but Not Beyond Repair

TRACIE BRAYLOCK

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” 1 Peter‬ 5:10‬ (ESV)‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

My best friend and I borrowed the car from her sister for a few hours, heading off on a teenage, summertime adventure.

We were only a few miles away from returning the car when something unexpected happened.

The car suddenly started to shake.

We cautiously looked over at one another, each wondering if the other noticed the increasing vibrations that seemed to arise out of nowhere.

We continued to drive for a few minutes, peering out of the windshield to check if the road we were traveling on was bumpy and causing the car to shake. But we saw nothing. And with each passing moment, the uncontrollable shake grew stronger.

My friend slowly pulled into an empty parking lot and we both hopped out of the car, standing there, staring at it.

Nothing was visibly wrong. We decided we were close enough to our destination to keep driving in the shaky car. But I silently prayed as we attempted to make it home through the now‑violent shaking.

After we made it safely home, the car was later checked out by a mechanic, and we were told that the tie rod was broken. This meant we had no real control over the car we were driving. The front wheels were acting independently of one another, and the steering wheel couldn’t properly guide them in the direction we wanted them to go.

Thankfully, we were kept safe, and the car was able to be repaired.

That day, we both learned that there will be times when things are broken and damaged in our lives, problems that seem to arise out of nowhere, pain that we can’t begin to understand and shattered pieces we’re simply unable to hold together — and through it all, God will still deliver us to our destination.

Even though life’s trials can be unpleasant and unnerving, this Scripture verse helps to put things into perspective: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).

We learn a few things from this verse. First, our suffering will only last for a little while. It may not feel that way from our perspective, but from God’s eternal perspective, our troubles here on earth are an instant in light of heaven, our final destination. The Apostle Peter contrasts our present suffering with “eternal glory” — our future glory in heaven.

Secondly, we are promised that God will do four things in us: restore, confirm, strengthen and establish. Here are what these words mean in the Greek:

• Restore: to complete thoroughly; to repair or adjust.
• Confirm, or secure: to set fast; to turn resolutely in a certain direction.
• Strengthen: to make strong so as to be mobile; to move something that achieves something in the most effective way.
• Establish: to lay the foundation of.

My friend, the brokenness in your life is not beyond repair. God sees your suffering, and He Himself will restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. He is doing all these things even in your suffering.

Before attempting to steer what’s broken in the direction you want it to go, welcome God into your situation. Trust that, with Him, you can travel through life’s detours, diseases, delays and disappointments because He is on the journey with you, actively guiding you towards His plans for you. So take heart, my friend … your brokenness has an end.

Dear God, thank You for navigating this journey with me. I anticipate the restoration You’ve already planned out for me, and I will trust You with everything I go through. You are the God of all grace, my peace and my protector. Into Your hands I place my broken pieces, and I await the beauty You will create. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The Swiftness of God’s Provision..... By Meg Bucher

 The Swiftness of God’s Provision

By Meg Bucher

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY: “You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.”Joel 2:26

“Can I have more fish?” my daughters both looked at me with plates extended….

Second, third and fourth helpings of dinner that night had me thinking somebody had swapped my children.

“Are you even taking the time to chew this?” I asked, as barrels of laughter answered me back.

Today’s verse is a reminder of how God has provided for us in our lives. In the good times, and in the problems solved and health restored, we are quick to inhale and ask for more. But in the not so good times …in the hard places of life that are not so easy to chew and almost impossible to swallow, we rarely even finish the first helping.

In order to digest the nutrition God gives us properly, we must consider the following.

• “You will have plenty to eat…”If we’re still standing on this earth, God is assuredly providing a way for us to be here another day. And if He’s provided another day, He’ll get us through it.
• …”and you will praise the name of the Lord your God.”Good entrees in life call for a side or two of praise.
• …”who has worked wonders for you…”By recognizing the miracles God has woven into our everyday lives, we acknowledge the fact that He’ll do it again! The Israelites had to be reminded constantly of the way God brought them out of Egypt and provided for them. If they were privy to forget the massive miracles that God had bestowed upon them …then we are surly prone to forget what He’s done in our lives. We must choose to remember.
• “…never again will my people be shamed.”When Christ died on the cross, the guilt and shame and wrath we deserve for our sin was wiped out. In one last breath, He sealed those that believe in Him for good. Though our lives remain imperfect, grace forgives us over and over as we grow in holiness all the way to heaven.

When we get a good Word from God, let’s vow to write it on our hearts …to turn back and look at the way those Words have already marked our lives, and take them forward with us as the sharp sword they are …to cut through the calamity and follow Christ.

Father, Praise You for remembrance. Thank You that we can search our memories and see the tracks and traces of Your love marked on our lives. Forgive us for falling short and turning back …for delaying and doubting, and strengthen our hearts to believe in You more and more each and every day. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

No Turning Back, No Turning Back..... By Mike Pohlman

 No Turning Back, No Turning Back

By Mike Pohlman

No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. -- Luke 9:62

I love the old spiritual, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” I hear in it the echo of Luke 9:62. Listen, for example, to the third stanza: “The world behind me, the cross before me. No turning back, no turning back.”

In this simple song we see a profound biblical truth: the Christian life is a constant movement forward to our heavenly home. We are not called to retreat in the face of the many spiritual battles that will crusade against us. We are called to advance in godliness—come what may.

I’ve been indulging lately in a wonderful biography of Ulysses S. Grant by Jean Edward Smith. One theme that persists in Grant’s career as a general was his constant movement forward. Grant, in other words, was always on the offensive. His battle strategy was not to “dig in” and fight a defensive war. He was on the march, pressing the Confederacy into submission. Grant’s persistence—his stubborn determination to move forward and not look back—was summed up succinctly by Abraham Lincoln when he said in response to calls for Grant’s removal in early 1862: “I cannot spare this man; he fights.”

As the sun was setting on the Apostle Paul’s ministry he wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Unlike Grant, Paul’s fight was not against flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). But like Grant, Paul left no room for retreat. His life was marked by a steady, determined, rugged movement forward. Consider this astounding example from Acts 14:

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed (19-23).

Paul was “struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:9). After being stoned and left for dead, he got up and moved forward. “But one thing I do,” Paul said, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

I’m reminded of one of the most moving passages in Smith’s biography of Grant describing an episode after the first day of fighting at Shiloh leaving Grant’s army on the brink of defeat:

Later, sometime after midnight, raining harder now, Sherman went looking for Grant. He had worked five hours to prepare his division to attack, but it seemed hopeless. His men had been thoroughly beaten and Sherman—who would have been the last to say so—thought it important “to put the river between us and the enemy.” This is why he sought Grant, to see when and how the retreat could be arranged. The rain was coming down in buckets, punctuated by heavy thunder and lightning in the background. In this surreal setting Sherman found Grant standing alone under a large oak tree, dripping wet, hat slouched down over his face, coat collar up around his ears, a dimly glowing lantern in his hand, cigar clenched between his teeth. Sherman looked at him for a moment from a distance. Then, “moved” as he put it later, “by some wise and sudden instinct not to mention retreat,” Sherman approached and said, “Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?”

“Yes,” answered Grant, puffing hard on his cigar. “Yes. Lick’em tomorrow though.”

Which of us has not experienced a crushing defeat in the Christian life? Against the constant bombardment of the world, the flesh, and the devil we battle everyday to believe the promises of God held out for us in the Gospel. And, if we’re honest, some days we don’t feel like we’re winning at all. In fact, some days defeat feels certain.

But arrayed in the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20) we get up by grace ready to “lick’em tomorrow.” We remind ourselves that God in Christ “always leads us in triumphal procession” (2 Corinthians 2:14) “so that [we] may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3).

Intersecting Faith & Life: What promises of God can you cling to right now as you face particular challenges in your life?

A Prayer to Remember Who We Are in Christ..... By Meg Bucher

 A Prayer to Remember Who We Are in Christ

By Meg Bucher

“Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.” - Psalm 5:12 NIV

Injustice is a stripping, helpless feeling. Sometimes, people simply don’t like us, for no real reason. Attacks or slights against us can be incredibly hurtful and unfair. But instead of getting caught up in the drama of these situations, it’s important to remember who our enemy is, and his goal.

Psalm 5, written by David, is an emotional plea for God to intervene in hard circumstances. David is desperate for God’s help, and prayerfully recalls the character of God as he empties his heart out to God.

“This lament,” the NIV Study Bible Notes explain, “is the psalmists cry for help when his enemies spread malicious lies to destroy him.” David so often did this, emptied his heart out to the Lord. In dramatic detail, he was unafraid to pour his soul out at the feet of God. His confidence God would hear, see, answer, and restore him was solid.

Often, when David cried out to God, He received a reminder of who God is. Our circumstances shift, but God never changes. We are right and wise to pour out all of our drama to Him. In that intimate connection with Him, we find a safe place to run to and be reminded of who God is, and who we are in Christ Jesus.

The intense reality of our enemy is he seeks to kill and destroy. Jesus, however, came to give us life to the full (John 10:10). We can step out of those circles of injustice and persecution by running to God in prayer as David did. It won’t always undo our situations, but it will most certainly give us the perspective we need to get through them. David wrote,

“But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them sing ever for joy. Spread your protection over them, and that those who love your name may rejoice in you.” Psalm 5:11

David not only prayed for himself, but for all believers.

Remember who God is. Remember Jesus, and the power of His victory on the cross. Remember the unimaginable strength of the Holy Spirit residing in us, through Christ. Follow His lead, by prayerfully seeking Him in His Word, especially when we’re under attack. The enemy will use weak moments to sneak into our vulnerabilities and cause conflict based on lies and resulting in isolation. Be aware by remembering God, daily.

We can’t always see what’s coming at us, but God goes before us, preparing the way. When we seek Him to prepare our hearts daily, He is faithful. When we run to Him in moments of attack and injustice, He is faithful. When we are the ones who get caught in a weak moment and unjustly attack the character of another- and run to Him to confess and repent- he is faithful to forgive and restore us.

Remember our compassionate God. Choose to forgive forward. And run to Him who is always faithful, forgiving, and fair.

Father, 

The world is ridiculously hard sometimes! There are days we feel attacked for no reason! Please give us Your perspective in those situations. Help us to see others through Your eyes, not through the sneaky lies of the enemy meant to stir us against each other and break us apart.

Remind us, no human being is perfect, but You are. You are unchanging, ever-present and everywhere, and all-knowing. You are love, mercy, justice, forgiveness, compassion and goodness. Father, You are glorious! This is who You are! You made us in Your image, and have given us a purpose and a calling that draws us to You, daily. When our character is attacked and we are tempted to be offended and unforgiving, open our eyes and soften our hearts to hear and embrace who You say we are.

Filter our actions, words, and thoughts through the truth of Your Word, through Your love, Father. May we be quick to forgive, sensitive to love others, and prayerfully lift up those who unjustly and unfairly attack us.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.