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So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. Hebrews 10:35-36
During New Testament times the most cherished and protected item of a soldier’s armor was his shield. Those who lost their shield, and survived, were humiliated and at times killed by their own men. In fact, it was nobler to be carried home dead on your shield than to return home healthy and minus the shield. The shield was more important than life itself!
The word picture that the writer to the Hebrews gives us of confidence is likened to the shield of battle. The faith we have in God should be the most important thing we possess. Our faith in Jesus should be so important that we are willing to set aside our own personal reputation and safety to protect it. Jesus was humiliated, rejected by family and friends, wrongfully accused and eventually murdered by the very people He came to save. In spite of all that pain, He believes in you!
To many people their faith is an add-on to life. Faith is fine to have when times are tough, but when times are good it’s not necessary. To some it’s even confining. When faith is nothing more than an add-on and adversity comes we’re faced with a dilemma. We blame ourselves and try harder to ‘be good’ but this leads to frustration because we aren’t perfect no matter how hard we try.
We blame others and become angry and bitter, but that really only leads to our own emotional prison. Anger and bitterness robs our joy and our strength and keeps us from experiencing the joy and freedom only Jesus can give.
We blame God when our prayers aren’t answered the way we want or ask. But God isn’t a vending machine. His promises aren’t for an easy life here on earth. Jesus warns us repeatedly that we will be faced with tribulation and pain throughout our lives.
When you encounter battles and trials in life, learn a lesson from the admonition of Hebrews. Don’t throw away your faith! It doesn’t matter who is at fault in the trials you are enduring. If it’s your past you can be forgiven. If you’ve suffered evil at the hands of others God can help you recover from the wounds. But if you lose your faith in God, then you are truly without hope. Faith in God through Jesus Christ is the only way we can endure the attacks that others put in our way.
Persevere. Be strong. Guard your heart from the enemy. Never grow tired in your quest to follow Christ. Trust Jesus to empower you through His Holy Spirit to work in your life for good. Regardless of how things look around you Jesus is in control and madly in love with you!
PRAYER: Father God, I praise You for the protection and strength You have promised through Jesus Christ. I confess to you that I’m struggling with the things that are going on around me. There are times when I feel completely overwhelmed by enemy attack. Help me to hold fast to the confidence I have that You are an all-powerful, loving God. Empower me by Your Holy Spirit to live a life of faith in the midst of struggle. Amen.
Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Psalm 105:4
There are times in each of our lives when we feel like we can’t go on. It could be after the death of a loved one; when we face financial ruin; when relationships go bad; when our health fails or we find ourselves growing older.
During those times of weakness we seek things that will either make us stronger or help us hide the pain. We look to relationships to help us feel good about ourselves. We look for a different job so we can have a life of comfort. We surround ourselves with friends and toys so we feel valuable. If the pain gets to great, we seek drugs, alcohol or even religion to help us try to forget the pain.
No matter what you are looking for to dull the pain, there is nothing that will do that outside of a relationship with God. A relationship with God is NOT religion. Religion is a set of rules, do’s and don’ts and warnings about how to behave ‘or else’.
A relationship is uplifting, loving, compassionate and grace-ful. Relationship with God is found through faith in His Son Jesus and forgiveness for our failures because of His death and resurrection.
Not only does a relationship with God free us from the guilt and shame of a life that hasn’t met up to our expectations, a relationship with God gives us strength. Strength to endure life and its troubles can only come from God. He has promised that we can rely on His almighty power because of His love for us, not because of our ability to love Him back.
Regardless of the trials that lie ahead of you, seek to worship the only one who can bring true comfort into your life. The more you get to know Him through His Word (the Bible) and prayer, the more He will be able to help you endure what life has in store for you. There will be times He seems distant. That is a lie of the enemy. God is always near you and because of that we can live in assurance of His love for us.
The Psalmist encourages us to remember all that God has done for us and to earnestly seek Him throughout your life. There is no time when He is absent or unconcerned. There is nothing that comes your way that He can’t give you the strength to endure.
God never intended for you to do life alone. He never expects you to make all the right choices all the time. In spite of our failings He promises to love, forgive and strengthen us for the road ahead.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father. I praise you and worship you for being the creator and sustainer of the universe. I thank you for your Son Jesus and all that He has done for me. I feel weak today. I’m facing challenges and struggles that seem insurmountable. I ask for your strength to seek you and your strength to endure all that I have before me. Help me to remember your love as I face today’s challenges. Amen.
If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. Psalm 37:23-24
When I was young I used to dream of being a famous athlete. I imagined myself being in position to win the big game. Sometimes it was the winning basket at the buzzer in the championship game. Sometimes it was hitting a homerun with bases loaded, two out, behind by three and a 3 ball, two strike count. Other times it was breaking free for the winning touchdown.
There were several things that kept those dreams from becoming a reality. The major one is that while I love sports of all kinds, I’m really not very athletic! So no matter how much I’d like to make any of those achievements, it just wasn’t going to happen!
Sometimes we feel that way about our walk with Jesus. We get up in the morning feeling like we can tackle any challenge before us. Then we burn the toast, remember that we forgot to buy milk and find a flat tire on our car! Things tend to go downhill from there and at the end of the day we realize that our thoughts, actions and words haven’t made us the spiritual champion we hoped we would be.
To make matters worse, it seems like people who could care less about living for Jesus seem to be prosperous, happy, successful people. We look at others and wonder what we are doing wrong and if God even notices that we are doing our best.
Psalm 37 has good news for us. Even though it seems that people who are evil are winning, they aren’t. God doesn’t look on a person’s actions. He measures us by our heart, our desires, our yearning to follow Him.
I like the way the message phrases Psalm 37:23-24, “Stalwart walks in step with GOD; his path blazed by GOD, he’s happy. If he stumbles, he’s not down for long; GOD has a grip on his hand”
These verses remind me of a small child walking on ice. No matter how hard they try to walk, they will slip and fall. But, if a loving parent is holding their hand, even if they do fall, the fall will be temporary and relatively painless. Mom or dad will lift them back to their feet. That’s what Jesus does for us. We try to live for him. We fail by the words we speak or the thoughts we think. We do things we’ve promised ourselves we’ll never do (and do them again!). Still, because of His love, forgiveness and grace, He picks us up and helps us continue on our way.
There are three promises of God in these verses. First, God delights in our attempts at living for Him. Second, we will fail at times. Third (and I like this best), He’ll help us get back on our feet!
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I come to you today feeling like a complete failure. There are so many times I’ve tried to live for you. So many times I’ve tried to break the bad habits I’ve formed, said words I didn’t mean and had thoughts that are displeasing to you. Forgive me for my failures. Help me back to my feet so I can walk closely with you. Most of all, thank you for loving me so much! In Your name I pray, Amen.
The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”1 Samuel 16:1
Samuel was a priest who experienced first-hand the nation Israel’s transition from being a people governed totally by God (through priests) and being governed by a King when he annointed Saul as the very first King of Israel.
In spite of Samuel’s help, Saul had not proven to be a king that honored God. He was too easily swayed by the opinions of the people and was openly disobedient to the rules God had set forth for him. As a result God would soon be removing Saul from the throne and replacing him with a new king.
When God made this announcement to Samuel, he was very sad indeed. In fact the Bible tells us that he reacted in the same way one would react if someone close to us had died, by going into mourning.
God came to Samuel one day and told him it was time to be done with his sadness. He had a new man chosen for the throne and Samuel would be the one to anoint him as King, just as he’d done with Saul.
The man Samuel would anoint was a shepherd boy named David. He would become the strongest King the nation Israel would ever see and be referred to by God himself as a ‘man after my own heart.’
Imagine what is must have been like for Samuel to be involved in one more transition of power. He’d poured a lot of time and effort into Saul and it hadn’t worked out at all the way he’d hoped. When Saul failed I’m sure that Samuel felt a little bit of a failure as well. It’s never easy to see projects of yours fail. That’s true whether those projects are people, places or things. Failure hurts.
In anointing David, Samuel would witness a passing of an era as well. Change is never easy. Especially when that change involves something that is near and dear to your heart.
While we may never have an opportunity to anoint a king or usher in a new era, each of us know what it is like to experience the pain of failure. We are all to familiar with the effects of change in our lives. Relationships fail that we’ve counted on for a lifetime. Favorite TV shows are pulled from the air. Businesses we have frequented close their doors. And with each of these events we feel the pain of their passing.
We don’t always understand the reason for the changes that come into our lives. As Christ-followers we need to remember that if we trust God and look objectively at the changes that come we will see how God can take changes that are tough to handle and make them into blessings for our future. When changes come remember that God has everything in His control and will take care of you in whatever new challenges arise.
PRAYER: Father God. There are so many changes going on in my life right now. Some are of my own doing. Many are being forced upon me. Regardless of the reason, change is hard for me to take. I ask that you would empower me with your Holy Spirit to accept the changes that are ahead of me and look for the blessings that will come as a result. Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 