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Those who rush to other gods bring many troubles on themselves. I will not take part in their sacrifices; I will not worship their gods. Psalm 16:4 (GNT)
Several years ago I attended the same church as a State Trooper for the state I lived in at that time. This guy was huge, make no mistake about it. I’m guessing he was about 6’ 8” tall and close to 350 pounds. From the looks of him there wasn’t an inch of fat on him. He was all muscle. His facial features were deceiving. Tom (I’ll call him) was the kindest, most compassionate person I’d ever met. He had a heart for Jesus and a heart for people. That love of people was the driving force behind his career choice.
Tom worked in the children’s ministry with his wife. I never saw him get upset. Never saw any anger in his eyes. Never saw any personality traits that would match his stern expression…except once.
Tom and I were standing in a group having coffee after services. One person in the group made an innocent, off hand remark about how there was a speed trap out on the interstate on his way to church.
Tom looked him square in the eye and said, “That wasn’t a speed trap. Traps are for not intended for innocent people, only guilty ones. The innocent have nothing to worry about.”
There was a very noticeable pause in the group and discussion suddenly changed to the Huskers game the day before!
Tom’s point was well-taken. The innocent don’t need to worry about ‘being caught’. If you never lie, cheat or steal you will never be accused of being dishonest. If you never drink, you will never get drunk. If you never open yourself to the opportunity of an affair you will never be caught in infidelity. If you never look at pornographic images you will never have your mind contaminated by their poison.
The world is full of many gods (note the small ‘g’) that promise wealth, success and happiness. God’s that offer us status and power. Only one God promises us inner peace in the present and eternal life after death. That God (note the capital ‘G”) is the God of Genesis; the God of Creation; the Father of Jesus Christ.
When struggles attack ask yourself, is this a natural consequence of following a god of hopelessness or a test of your faithfulness. Only one God promises that we will never have to be ‘caught in the trap’ intended for the guilty.
PRAYER: Lord thank you for your promise of inner peace and eternal life. Forgive me for following the gods of this world. Empower me with your Spirit to follow after you. Amen.
I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” Psalm 16:2
I try to pride myself on how my yard looks. I like green grass, neatly trimmed shrubs and weed less flower gardens. It involves hours of work, but when I look out over the lawn a certain amount of pride sets in.
That’s one reason why I cringed as I was loading the fertilizer spreader one day in my garage. “Can I help you put fertilizer on today Daddy? I’ll be careful” I heard my six year-old say.
Instantaneously my mind thought of all sorts of reasons why this wouldn’t work. She was too short to walk and hold the spreader…well, no she wasn’t.
It was a big yard and a hard job…but I knew she’d only want to help for a little while and short attention spans in this case are your friend. Minutes, not hours. A hard lesson I learned long ago. A few minutes of inconvenience makes a world of difference in the life of a little one.
I knew the real reason of course. She wouldn’t walk straight. Some areas may be missed, some would get extra fertilizer. It may not look as green and as uniform as I wanted it.
So while I wanted to hear myself say, “Not today honey.” I heard myself say, “Of course sweetheart. I’ll help you.”
She stayed at it longer than I’d hoped. She missed some spots. She walked in wavy lines, not straight. She didn’t do it at all the way I would…and smiled all the way.
The modern translations of Psalm 16:1 don’t give us an entirely clear picture of what is being said according to some scholars. It may be better translated something like this: “All my work, all the things I have, all my striving is really worthless compared to what you can do.
We often take our work too seriously. Especially those of us in ministry circles. We want to protect our ministry. We point at the growth of our church, readership, book sales, salvations, baptisms and a whole list of other things.
Of course we’d never admit it, but we hold all these things out to the Lord as if to say, ‘Look what I’ve done for you! Look at the amazing things I’ve done in your name! See me!’
Our Heavenly Father smiles and says, nice job my child. The rows aren’t straight. You god too much fertilizer over here, you missed some opportunities over there, He doesn’t really say that of course, but compared to the work He can do our efforts are really pretty small and insignificant.
Do the best you can. Rely on the God of Heaven to strengthen you for the task ahead. Grow deep in your relationship with Jesus. But remember this; all that really matters in life is our walk with him. That doesn’t mean our work for him is meaningless or insignificant. We just need to remember who we are working for and why. When we see positive results, rejoice. But when we struggle in our walk, remember Psalm 16:1.
Our ‘work for the Lord’ may fall short of our expectations, but if we rely on him, it NEVER falls short of his expectations.
PRAYER: Lord God. I confess to you that I want to do great and mighty things for you. I confess this because I also realize that sometimes I put the effort ahead of the reason, I see myself as being more important than I should. Help me by your Spirit to strive for excellence, but rely on you. Amen.
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2 (NIV)
With our busy schedules these days my wife and I have decided to institute a new system for communication. We find ourselves almost like two ships passing in the night with differing work schedules, soccer practice, music lessons and church responsibilities. Hopefully this new system will draw us closer together. Here it is.
We’ve decided only to talk to each other once a day, except for a hasty, distracted ‘thank you’ at meal times. Most days talking will only take place in bed after the lights are out. That way if we fall asleep in the middle of conversation it won’t be a big deal. We’ll already be ‘in position’ so to speak. Also, rather than waste the precious time for communication on non-essentials, we will only use communication to ask each other for things. After all, that’s what’s really important, right? Just in case you think this sounds a little harsh, we are including the ‘Crisis Clause’. This little number allows us some extra time for communication during times of extreme stress. Of course, some days get long and so we also have an agreement that if we miss talking to each other for several days…or weeks, it’s understood that we still love each other and are passionately interested in each other.
I’m looking forward to this new system. It should make things much better between us.
Hopefully, by now, you are screaming, “NO WAIT! That will never work. You need to increase the level and depth of conversation if you want your relationship to grow stronger.” In fact, if you aren’t screaming that, if you are thinking of adopting my new communication system, I’m worried about you.
Those of us who are Christ-followers know the importance of prayer. However, to my own guilt, it’s the one thing that often gets overlooked in our daily walk. Perhaps it’s time to rethink how we look at prayer. As Max Lucado says in his book, ‘Come Thirsty’, “Think of prayers less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God.”
One of the things I appreciate about family road trips is the amount of talking that takes place when you are ‘trapped’ in a vehicle for hours. It’s not an organized activity; it’s just what you do. Prayer should be like that. Sure there need to be those times when you get alone to be ‘intimate’ with the father, to talk about those things that are heavy on your heart, but sometimes the best conversations can be those one or two word comments as you walk the path of life.
Your Father is passionately in love with you. Even though he’s with you every step of the way, he looks forward to hearing from you. Talk with him throughout the day. It not only reminds him of your love for him, it reminds you of his continual presence with you. Like any proud parent he wants to hear about your day; the exciting things, the scary things; the things that puzzle you. Neglecting conversation with your Father will have the same effect as neglecting conversation with those you love here on earth. It will make you feel alone and unloved.
PRAYER: Father, thank you for the gift of prayer. Thank you for loving me so much that you want to hear about every part of my day. Forgive me for the times I’ve ignored you. Help me to be constantly aware of your love and presence in my life. In Jesus name, Amen.
They do not respect hateful people but honor those who honor the Lord. They keep their promises to their neighbors, even when it hurts. (NCV)
All of us regret decisions we have made from time to time. Sometimes those decisions involve finances. Sometimes they involve decisions based on passion. They almost always affect relationships either negatively or positively.
A friend of mine tells the story of a vision he had for a business. He prayed about the idea and felt in his heart that he had the go ahead to pursue the venture. The one stumbling point was money. He approached his father with the idea and they both prayed and contemplated the idea. It seemed good to them so his father put up money from the equity in his house as well as some retirement account to join in the venture.
Then, the inevitable happened. The economy crashed and my friend lost his business. That, however, wasn’t the worst of it. As a result of his business failure, both he and his father lost their homes as well as the small amount his father had in a retirement account.
“Looking back,” my friend tells me, “We both had some apprehension about the idea but for some reason we decided to go ahead with the plan.”
The situation caused some real strains on the relationship my friend had with his father for several weeks. However, in the course of that difficult time financially, his Dad never once placed all the blame on my friend.
“In the course of our conversations we forgave each other for not listening a little closer to the Spirit. We both admitted to each other, and our God, that our ‘answer to prayer’ may have been our own human voice and not the voice of God and reason. Still, Dad and I maintained a good relationship even during the strained times.”
That story, difficult as it is, reminds me of the verse in Psalm 15. A man of God keeps his promises even when the results cause him hurt. He doesn’t keep them because they benefit him; he keeps them because they honor the Lord.
That principle should guide each of us in our financial dealings, our dealings in our jobs, and in all our relationships. My friend learned a painful and valuable lesson to listen carefully to the Spirit’s voice. But he learned another valuable lesson from his earthly father.
A promise is a promise. Period. If we think about it, isn’t that what our Heavenly Father does for us every day? We get up in the morning and promise not to engage in road rage…until we are cut off in traffic. We promise not to listen to the vulgar jokes at work…until we enter the break room. We promise not to snap at our family…until we can’t find the remote. We promise God that we’ll get up early in the morning to spend time with him…until the alarm rings.
Regardless of how many promises we break, our Heavenly Father keeps his promises to us. Even when it hurts him. He promises to love us, to walk by our side, to forgive us and a whole list of other promises. His promises are based on his ability to keep them, not on our ability to keep ours.
PRAYER: Father I praise you for your patience with me. I praise you for the fact that even though I can’t keep my promises, you always keep yours. Help me to show that kind of faith and patience with those around me that continually break their promises so that your name will be glorified. Amen.
Lord, who may enter your Holy Tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? Psalm 15:1 (NCV)
You see the signs everywhere. The wording may vary, but the message is the same. Restricted Access. Employees Only. Authorized Personnel Only. No Admittance. All ways of saying that unless you have the right credentials, you are not welcome to enter a particular area.
My son and I went to a neighboring city one day to hear a famous comedian. Just so happens that this comedian married a woman from a church my dad pastured. I knew this guy before he was famous! Our family knew him as a goofy guy who loved Jesus and had a fantastic ministry to youth. I was excited to hear him and excited for my son to meet him.
As we entered the arena where he was to speak to approximately 20,000 men I had an idea. I approached the first security person and explained that I was a family friend of this person and hadn’t seen him in years. My parents knew he was there too and I just wanted to pass a note that I’d hastily written to him.
The guard looked at me warily but took the note and disappeared down a hall. A few minutes later he returned with a smile and welcomed me to follow him. I wasn’t met with a handshake. I was met with a hug. It was only minutes to show time so our conversation was short. However, he turned to his ‘body-guard’ and said, “Make sure these guys get good seats.”
We were ushered down yet another hallway and emerged in front of the stage. We were then escorted to two seats in the front row! The guys we’d traveled with were many rows back, but because of my relationship with this guy, I got preferential treatment!
In Old Testament times, very few people had a personal relationship with God. All of their communication with him was done through a priest.
The Psalmist asks the question, “Who may enter your Holy Tent?” The answer then was a few priests who would pass on your ‘note’ to the King of Kings. The answer today? You can! The forgiveness Jesus offers as a result of the cross and empty tomb allows you access to the most inner thoughts of God. You don’t need a priest. You don’t need a particular set of rules and words. You need only to accept Christ’s forgiveness.
I needed permission to access my famous friend, but the writer to the Hebrews tells us we can approach him with confidence because of Jesus. With Jesus by our side we can enjoy the presence of his Father for all eternity. “What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms; what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms.”
PRAYER: Father God, I thank you that through your son Jesus I can come before you with complete assurance that you will accept me with open arms. I praise you for the fact that I don’t need a priest; I don’t need a set of rules to be accepted because you accept me as I am. Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 