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The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1
Imagine David on the hillside. Alone in the wilderness. Nothing but the sound of sheep snoring in the dark and an occasional twig snapping as some unknown visitor scouts the perimeter of his camp.
As the fire dies his attention is drawn straight above him. Around him is darkness, but above him is the splendor of heaven. Millions and millions of stars. Stars that looked like pin holes in black paper to him but were, in reality huge, energy emitting balls of gas billions of miles away!
I can’t help but believe that the time David spent in the wilderness alone was time spent learning about the majesty of God. His courage in fighting Goliath; his patience and grace in running from Saul; his wisdom in leading a nation and his acceptance of God’s discipline in the ‘Bathsheba Affair’ didn’t come from wrestling lions and bears or herding stupid sheep!
David’s character was built spending time in God’s creation communing with him in solitude and worship. It’s appalling to me to realize that one Sunday a year some churches ‘celebrate’ Darwin’s lie about origins. People who claim to believe in the God of the Bible applaud a system of belief (evolution) which discredits what the Bible says about God creating everything we see as well as the unseen world.
David would have been horrified at the thought! He’d say to us, “Look at the heavens! How can you possibly doubt a God who made all this!”
Life can be hard sometimes. Relationships fail us. Sleep evades us. Children/parents disappoint us. The darkness of our sin or the way we are treated by others surrounds us and fills us with fear and despair. When that happens, look up! If God can make the millions of stars in the sky he can handle whatever you are going through.
There is no sin too great that he can’t forgive. No illness to harsh that he can’t heal and/or comfort. No relationship he can’t mend. It was in the darkness that David formed a character that gave him the title of “A man after God’s own heart.” It is in the darkness that each of us must grow our character as well. We don’t develop character in the light of day and the comfort of a palace. We learn character in the darkness of a hillside wilderness.
PRAYER: Holy God. As with David, I ask that my eyes would be drawn to the heavens. Help me to see your power and majesty in the world you have created around me. Empower through your Holy Spirit to have the courage to believe in you as I endure the struggles that lay ahead of me. Just as the heavens declare your majesty, may my character declare your grace and power to love others and live for you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12
Here’s a math question for you. If a train leaves Philadelphia traveling east at 55 miles per hour how long will it be until it gets there…to the east that is? Don’t spend too much time thinking on that one. The answer is easy. It won’t make it. East just keeps going.
You can go north but eventually you will reach a point where you are going south. You can go south but, again, only for time and then you are going north. We have a north pole and a south pole to designate the furthest possible point we can go in that direction. We don’t have an east and a west pole because they never, ever meet!
That is the word picture the Psalmist wants each of us to have when it comes to our sin. Some of the sin in our lives is the result of intentional acts against others. We sin in the things we say without thinking. We sin by not doing the things we know we should do. We sin by making well thought out choices and by making flippant choices without thinking of how they will affect others, or ourselves.
Sin happens. And with each sin, each wrong choice, each rebellious act we take, there are consequences to our sin. Some of those consequences are physical ones which will affect us our whole lives. Some affect us relationally and can destroy marriages, friendships and careers. But all sins affect us spiritually.
Our Father in Heaven loves us dearly. But much as he’d like to, he can’t have a relationship with us if there is sin in our lives. It drives a wedge between us. That’s why he sent Jesus. Jesus came to remove our sin as far as the east is from the west. But the east and the west can never meet. They are forever the same distance from each other. In the same way our sins and their punishment are removed to an eternal distance by his mercy and grace. We may carry some of the consequences of wrong choices with us, but our punishment has been forever removed!
Fly as far as the wings of your imagination can take you. You can never find the place where a trace of your sin in God’s mind. It’s gone! Since your sin is so far removed you need never fear that it will be brought back to haunt you. You are free!
Don’t let the enemy try to get you to think differently. Don’t let others drag the memory of your sin before you to accuse you. Don’t let your own mind feel defeated because of your past. Live in the freedom of Christ’s eternal forgiveness.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus. I make so many mistakes. It seems like every time I turn around I’m hurting someone by my words or actions or doubting your promises to provide or taking matters into my own hands and making bad situations worse. Thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you that my sin is eternally removed from your mind. You are a great and wonderful Savior. Amen.
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Matthew 14:14
The English definition of compassion is a ‘sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.’ While that is a noble gesture, the English word for compassion doesn’t come close to giving us the picture God intends for us to have of compassion ‘God’s way’.
The Greek word for compassion in Matthew 14 is the word splanchnizomai. Okay, it doesn’t really matter how it’s pronounced. What’s more important is what it means to you and me. The word translated in English means ‘from the gut’. It gives the idea that Jesus didn’t just have a ‘sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress.
When Jesus saw the leper he actually FELT his loneliness right down to his shoe laces…okay, sandal straps. Even so, it wasn’t just a kind gesture. He actually felt the despair of the young mom whose daughter was lying dead in the upper room. His eyes teared up as he climbed the stairs while mourners wailed in the background. He felt the fear that gripped the father as he watched his son go into yet another demon-powered seizure. He felt the darkness and confusion of the blind man who had never seen the faces of his mother or father or any of the other family members that cared for him on a daily basis.
One of the most meaningless statements a person can make to someone is, “I know exactly how you feel.” Have you ever had someone say that to you? Come on now, be honest. Just between you and me, didn’t you want to deck them? Didn’t every nerve in your body want to scream “NO YOU DON’T! HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY KNOW HOW I FEEL?” Maybe you’ve even decked a few people physically or emotionally. The words flew out before you could be ‘socially appropriate’.
Fact of the matter is. You were right. No one can climb inside your heart and feel what you are feeling. No one that is except Jesus. You may not always feel his presence, but he’s aware of every one of your thoughts, emotions and pain. His gut hurts when he feels the pain you are in. That’s compassion. That’s Jesus.
He doesn’t only feel your pain every bit as much as you do. He wants to heal you. He wants to build a relationship with you that enables you to sleep through the storms, to endure the trials and overcome the enemy. He’s never too tired. Never to angry with you. Never far away.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank you for the fact that you not only understand my pain, you feel it from the bottom of your gut. No one understands my pain. No one sees how much I’m hurting inside like you do. Help me to feel your presence in my life in a way I’ve never felt before. Forgive me for my part in the bad choices I’ve made. Empower me with your Spirit to grow in relationship with you. In your name I pray, Amen.
He remembered us in our weakness. His faithful love endures forever. Psalm 136:23 (NLT)
Most of us don’t remember weak people, we remember the strong, the victorious. We admire the athlete who overcomes all odds to cross the finish line first. We applaud the one who endures pain to finish the race or the one with determination that continues to try even when defeat is obvious.
The person who tries to overcome their weakness is sometimes looked on with favor as well. We look kindly on them as they scrape and clutch for every inch as they pull themselves up the rochy muddy walls of the hole they’ve fallen into. Tenacity and determination are qualities we can admire in a person if at least some progress is being made.
But we seldom remember the weak. If we do remember the weak person we remember them with disdain. We question how they got there. Why they don’t seek help? On a rare occasion we may give them some lame words of encouragement, but often those words are condescending and really meant to make us feel better for having tried.
The Psalmist reminds us that our Father remembers us while we are still in our weakness. He doesn’t ask how we got there or why we haven’t tried harder. How we got ourselves into the situations we are in isn’t as important to God as how we will find victory and he knows the only way we can find that victory is through his son Jesus.
Weakness can show itself in many ways. For some of us our weakness shows up in addictions to anger, drugs, sex. For others our weakness shows up on doubt, worry, and fear. Weakness can also show itself in how we feel about ourselves in our relationships. We put ourselves in ‘love’ relationships that are really demeaning because we don’t feel we are worthy of being treated well.
Weakness is seen as a flaw to us humans, but God sees weakness and an opportunity to make us strong. Anyone who has ever worked with wood knows that the strongest part of the wood is the knot. The knots in wood come from injuries that the tree has ‘healed’ and from branches that need the support of the trunk to grow.
Weaknesses in our lives are like knots in wood. They are places and situations in our lives that we can use to make ourselves stronger through faith in Christ and the grace he freely offers us. Don’t let your weaknesses leave you defeated. There is one who wants to take your weaknesses and use them to make you stronger, and that person is Jesus Christ. Jesus never looks down on us for being weak. Jesus welcomes the opportunity to uplift us in the midst of our weakness.
PRAYER: Father God, it seems like everyday I fail myself, you or others in some way. I say things I shouldn’t say. I do things that are hurtful or fail to do things to lift others up. I’m looked down upon and scoffed at for not being able to succeed. Some days I just give up because I don’t feel it’s worth trying anymore. Thank you for loving me in the midst of my failures. Thank you for wanting to help me overcome my weaknesses so I can be strong in you. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 