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Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. Galatians 4:7 (NLT)
A slave has no decisions to make about daily schedules, what food to eat or where they will live. A child is given new choices every day.
A slave has no future other than that decided by the master. A child is groomed every day to believe that they can be anything they want to be.
A slave lives every day with the fear that they may be ripped up from where they are and taken from their family. A child is secure in the knowledge that they are loved and that they can always come home.
A slave lives knowing that all relationships are temporary, that those closest to him may be gone tomorrow. A child lives with the assurance that those who love him will always be at their side.
A slave lives with the presupposition that love is based on performance, that he is loved for what he does. A child lives with the foundational truth that he is loved for who he is, not for what he does.
A slave lives for today because tomorrow there is no hope for tomorrow. A child endures the struggles of growing up because he knows that his future is full of hope because someday he will receive the inheritance.
A slave knows that if he leaves, death is certain. A child knows that if he wanders he can always come home. Always.
A slave, even if he were to become ‘legally free’ still holds the DNA of slavery. A child will always bear the genetic marks of son-ship.
A slave sees a master. A child sees a loving father.
Brothers and sisters, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a child of the living God. You no longer need to live as slaves. You are a child of the King. Regardless of where you are, or where you have been. You have hope based on the person of Jesus Christ, not of yourself.
PRAYER: Father God. Daddy. I’m in awe as I’m reminded once again of who I am. It’s so easy with life circumstances to be deceived into seeing myself as a failure rather than your child. Forgive me for my doubt. Empower me with your spirit to live as your child. Thank you again for Jesus. Amen.
But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!” Matthew 14:27 (NLT)
It was dark. The storm was so deep that even the ambient light of the night was swallowed by the roaring wind. Only the occasional flash of lightning gave the men any indication of their situation and allowed them to see the fear in each other’s faces. While some rowed hopelessly, the others prayed. Where was Jesus? Why had he sent them out to die in this way?
Then, almost as if on cue from a distant director, they saw it. A faint glow on the horizon wafting over the waves and coming towards them. As if the fear of the wind wasn’t enough, now a ghost was coming near. Panic consumed even the hardiest of men who had weathered many a storm on this sea.
A voice in the dark. Loud enough to rise about the howling of the wind, but at the same time mysteriously gentle and quiet. “Take Courage. I am here!” The actual Greek rendition states, “Don’t worry, the I AM is here.”
How often do we miss that? Especially during the storms of life. We hear the treacherous howling of the wind. Our minds replay every mistake we’ve made. The voices tell us this is all God’s way of getting even. The doubts rise mysteriously and whisper in our ears, “He’s not real you know. If he was he’d never let you go through this.” We live in the false conviction that we deserve this for our sins or we blame others or question God.
Jesus seldom calms the storm until we look to him. He saw the disciples struggling but waited until they looked to him. Even then he didn’t calm the storm until Peter took a dip in the cold lake water.
How often, during the storms of life do we miss the glow, the faint shadow of God’s working? How many times have we forgotten to attribute to Jesus the calming of our fears? Sometimes the things we endure are consequences of our own selfish decisions. Sometimes our pain is the result of malicious and evil acts of those hell-bent on our destruction. Sometimes we are devastated by the seemingly strange quirks of nature. But always, we are under the watchful eye of a loving God and passionate savior who is willing to come to us in the darkest night of our suffering and in the midst of the storm remind us to be brave because he is there.
PRAYER: Jesus, right now I’m going through a storm of sorts in my life. It seems like everything is falling apart around me. I sense the fear and hopelessness of the disciples as I try to battle the waves that want to overtake me. Help me to see you in all this. Calm the storm, but if you don’t choose to do that, calm my spirit so that I can trust you. In your name I pray, Amen.
Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the LORD, and he will avenge you. Proverbs 20:22
The toughest prisons are the prisons with no visible walls. Prisons of our souls that rob us of our freedom to love, our freedom to trust, our ability to live free of fear. In a ‘real prison’ the walls are built thick and strong by someone else for the express purpose of keeping you inside and protecting others from you.
The prison of the soul is built with your own hands. Brick by brick. Hurt by hurt. Failure by failure. Misunderstanding by misunderstanding. In your own mind, whether it’s a conscious thought or not, the prison walls of the soul are built to keep others out and to protect you from any more hurt. You’ve contracted with the master builder of walls, vengeance to make sure no one ever hurts you again.
One of the key ingredients to wall building is the desire to get even. We want to make sure that the perpetrators of our wound ‘pay for what they did’. We want to see justice served and are willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that happens.
The problem is, when we try to settle the score with someone else we usually just imprison ourselves in bitterness, anger and fear. ‘If I don’t trust, you won’t fail me; If I don’t love you, you won’t hurt me again; If I don’t forgive you, you will never forget what you did to me.’
Your heavenly Father has a better way. His is the way of freedom; of hope; of love. His way offers you the healing you need from the emotional, spiritual and physical scars that weigh you down every day. His is the way of love, forgiveness and trust. Not trust in others, trust in His ability to take care of the situation in his time and in his own way.
When you forgive someone you aren’t saying what they did is okay, you are saying you trust God enough to let him take care of the situation. Think about that for a moment. Who better to deal with the enemies of your soul than the creator God of the universe? Trusting God to handle each situation in your life not only frees you from the prison of your soul, it protects you from the enemy that seeks to destroy you.
Who better to defeat your enemy than the creator God of the universe who loves you so much he was willing to give his very own son so that you could live free. It’s time to tear down the prison walls of your soul. It’s time to live in the freedom of forgiveness and trust. Not trust in mankind, but trust in an almighty God who wants desperately to free you from your hurt.
PRAYER: Father God, I’m angry today. I’m looking out at a world of hurt and fear from walls I’ve built to protect me. I sought freedom and gained incarceration. I thought pain-free living, but live in anguish and worry. I can’t tear these walls down on my own. I need your help. Empower me with your Spirit to be able to hand all this ugly stuff over to you. Help me to forgive for my sake and trust you to take care of the rest. In Jesus name, Amen.
God is strong and can help you not to fall. He can bring you before his glory without any wrong in you and can give you great joy. Jude 1:24 (NCV)
I sat and watched a group of rock climbers one day as they tried to scale a sheer rock cliff. From a distance it seemed impossible for them to be able to make it to the top safely. It was apparent from my observation which climbers were novices and which were the ‘veterans’ of the group. The novices moved very slowly and tentatively. Some got half way up and came back down by the safety ropes to regroup and try again. One by one the group made it from the bottom to the top safely. With each person’s successful climb you could hear a cheer erupt from the onlookers.
Later, I had the opportunity to ask one of the climbers what he thought were the essential ingredients to a successful climb. He told me that, in his opinion, there were three things each successful climber needed to make it to the top. One was faith in your equipment. The climb I watched was pretty minor but especially on the big climbs you needed to have good equipment and trust that equipment to do what it says it would do.
The second ingredient was remaining focused. He referenced the few ‘novice climbers’. Their biggest problem was that they focused so much on the danger and the possibility of falling and getting injured that they lost their grip. On this climb it was okay because there were safety ropes to lower them to the ground. In a real climb one slip can mean death. “Most climbing accidents are the result of improper use of equipment and/or climber error” He told me. Equipment failure is rare.
Lastly, he said, good climbers don’t climb alone. They would prefer to climb in groups because the support of the group helps them, especially during the tough climbs and during inclement weather. Group support is indispensible when it comes to making it to the top.
As I left I thought about the application to our spiritual lives. When we first start our walk with Christ we are careful to do the things that will help our growth. We read his Word, we pray, we seek every opportunity to make our way up the slippery slope of life.
As we ‘grow older’ in our faith we may tend to lose our focus on the task before us. We may have more faith in our own ability than to trust the equipment. We may be so intent on looking back to our past that we lose sight of the task before us. We may look towards our goal and wonder how we will ever make it to the top. When we lose our focus we increase the chances of losing our footing and falling.
Along with the focus we need to have in our climb, we need to have faith in our equipment. Climbing equipment rarely fails. The word of God and his presence in our lives NEVER fails. But falling is a possibility when we fail to have faith that our God is strong enough to see us to the top.
Lastly, when climbing the sheer rock wall of life, we need each other. Fellowship with other Christ-followers encourages us on the way, reminds us who we are, and gives us another vantage point to see our way to footholds that help us advance.
Proper equipment (Faith in a living and powerful God); Focus (relying on the Holy Spirit to guide us through the daily tasks of life); Fellowship (surrounding ourselves with people who can help us along the way). Three ingredients to making it up the slippery slope of life.
PRAYER: Father God, there are so many times I’ve lost focus on you or relied on my own power and ability to make it through life’s challenges. Empower me with your Spirit to climb the slippery slope of my life relying on you to conquer to obstacles before me. In Jesus name, Amen.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103:13-14
After one of my speaking engagements a man came up to me to talk. He was, perhaps in his mid sixties. He told me that he had been a Christ-follower for as long as he could remember but he had always struggled with his salvation.
As we talked more he told me that during my session he’d realized that his issue wasn’t really so much about his salvation as it was the concept of a loving forgiving God as ‘Father God.’ When he was growing up his father was non-existent for the most part and when he was around he was angry, demanding, unforgiving and, at times, abusive physically. He came to the realization that God wasn’t like any earthly father he’d ever known. God did love him. God was forgiving. God wasn’t harsh or abusive.
I left the conversation wondering how many of the rest of us struggle with what it means to have God as our Father. Personally, I’m fortunate to have an earthly father who loves God and his children. He wasn’t perfect, but we kids knew he loved us. I have no problem seeing, in my father, what a compassionate, forgiving and loving God we have.
Many of us don’t have that luxury. Earthly fathers fail us. Some are abusive emotionally, physically or even sexually. Some are so caught up in making a living and providing physically for us that they fail at their most important job: building relationships. Some are absent completely, having checked out emotionally or physically from our lives. The demise of the family also hinders our view of father hood. More than half of our children are being influenced by two or more male figures that could be called ‘dad’, such as step-dads and foster dads.
Then God comes along to say he is a compassionate father? Two terms put together that describes someone we can’t relate to. We see compassion as passion and we see fathers as someone to be feared and avoided!
If you are struggling with your view of God as Father then it’s time to rethink what a ‘father’ is supposed to be.. Your Heavenly Father, Lord of all creation, doesn’t love you as earthly fathers may. He knows you are frail. He knows you will struggle and fail miserably at times. He won’t demand that you do things that will harm you or harm others.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be struggles in your life for a compassionate father knows that struggle is required to gain strength. When you are learning to ride a bike he’ll allow you to fall, but he’s there to clean up the scraped knees and help you get back on again.
Don’t allow the failures of earthly fathers to hinder your view of a loving God who will stand by you in the good times and the bad. You may not always understand your Heavenly Father, but he always understands you. Rules aren’t the important thing to him, relationship is! He gave us a picture of himself in the person of Jesus Christ.
PRAYER: Father God. I confess to you that the idea of you being a father isn’t particularly comforting to me. My father here on earth didn’t leave me with a very good feeling about fathers. I ask that you would show me what a truly compassionate father is. Help me to learn to trust you and grow in relationship with you as I learn to walk with Jesus. In your name I pray, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 