September 4, 2025

Micah 6: 6 With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? (NIV)

He doesn’t want meaningless worship or mindless obedience from his subjects.*

Whenever my husband’s family gathers at my house for a special occasion, his youngest brother always brings me a hostess gift. He doesn’t have to bring a present in order to be welcome in my home but it is a gracious gesture which I always appreciate.

When Micah asks what he can present to the Lord, he isn’t asking how to be saved. He just wants to know what gracious gesture he can perform to express his appreciation for being welcomed into the Lord’s presence. In the following verses, it’s as if Micah is looking at the shelves in the gift shop, trying to decide what to buy: Burnt offerings? No. Thousands of rams? Nope. Ten thousand rivers of oil? Not that! My firstborn? Hmm . . . Until, finally! There it is! The perfect hostess gift: Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (verse 8).

We will never be worthy of the honor of being allowed in the presence of the Almighty God but we are welcome nonetheless. Though unworthy, wouldn’t you like to make some gracious gesture to show your appreciation to God for his gracious gesture to you? No more wandering around in the store in search of the perfect gift, because “he has showed you, O man, what is good.” Turns out God isn’t so hard to shop for after all!

If we comprehend what Christ has done for us, then surely out of gratitude we will strive to live “worthy” of such great love.*

September 3, 2025

Romans 15: 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (NIV)

Sometimes loving others takes effort and creativity.*

There are times when I want to pray for someone but I just don’t know what to say. Paul doesn’t seem to have the same problem. What can we learn from his “model” prayer for the Roman Christians? 

• It wasn’t enough to ask for something good on their behalf. He doesn’t just pray that they will be capriciously filled with joy and peace – he reminds them that they have some responsibility in the transaction: to trust in God. 
• He offers them hope by pointing out that overflowing hope would be the result of the aforementioned joy, peace, and trust. 
• He gives credit where credit is due: this was all possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Our prayers for others will not be arranged in such a tidy little outline, and those for whom we pray may never know what we asked on their behalf – if they ever learn that we are praying for them at all. But Paul’s prayer can show us that we can be more thoughtful, deliberate, intentional, and specific when we bring someone before the throne of God. “Please help Suzy with her problem” is a good start but doesn’t Suzy deserve a little more reflection, a bit more of your time and attention? Not because God needs us to tell him what he should do for dear Suzy but because he wants us to care that much for others.

There is a pulse for caring for one another at the heart of following Jesus.*

September 2, 2025

Exodus 14: 31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant. (NIV)

The history of the Israelites should nail a coffin lid on the notion that impressive displays of God’s power will guarantee faith.*

Remember after 9/11 how united this country was – in patriotism, in faith in God, and in standing strong against our enemies? Why didn’t it last? We could ask the same question about the Israelites who upon witnessing God’s great power - wielded on their behalf - feared God and put their trust in him and in his servant, Moses. Why didn’t it last?

 I don’t know the answer – but I sure can speculate! In both cases – post-9/11 Americans and pre-wandering-in-the-wilderness Israelites – the momentum couldn’t be sustained because it was not driven by a sustainable force. In the USA, our solidarity was founded on feelings: fear, anger, loss - not unity of purpose. As for the Israelites, they feared and trusted God because of what they saw him do for them, not because of who he is. 

Our faith in God should be founded on his faithfulness. We should remain faithful to him because we know he will be faithful to us, and not because of what he gives us or does for us. He is in the business of fulfilling his plan – not granting our wishes. But as his plan involves working for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, true faith lasts long after the emotion-inducing moments have passed.

True faith trusts God when he does not perform a dramatic demonstration of power in our life.*

September 1, 2025

Psalm 18: 1 I love you, O Lord, my strength. (NIV)

God could answer many of our prayers a hundred times over, and we would never know because they are not specific enough for us to see the results.*

For all that we believe in praying, we don’t always do it well. For example, we’ve been warned about the danger of praying for patience – the only path to patience is through trials, so think carefully before you decide to ask for it. Maybe our prayer for patience would be more effective if we prayed specifically: Please give me patience . . . with my boss; with that neighbor; as I am waiting for something to happen.

Prayer is a powerful weapon and just maybe we need to read the instruction manual a little more carefully before we head out to the firing range. This verse points to one of the many ways in which we tend to pray improperly – dare I say, ignorantly? I am as guilty as you are of asking God to give me strength. Help me to be strong when I am faced with temptation. Please let me be strong when I don’t feel like doing the right thing. Give me strength when my loved one is in trouble. But here, we don’t read David’s request for strength. We see his acknowledgment that God is his strength.

What’s the difference? you ask. Well, read the rest of the Psalm. Therein, David listed a multitude of calamities which he had faced and from which he had been delivered. There is not one victory for which David can take credit. The closest he comes to speaking of his own strength begins in verse 32 where he says, “It is God who arms me with strength . . .” He goes on to itemize more specific ways in which God enabled him to perform strongly – but, admittedly, he wasn’t strong without the armor provided by God. He wouldn’t have asked God to give him strength – because he knew that God was his strength.

Do you see from this example how we might need to learn to pray more effectively? Do you want to pray more properly and more powerfully? Consult the user’s manual. Do a word search on prayer in the New Testament. Look at the context; compare the passage to other passages. What did Jesus say about prayer? What model did he establish? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you interpret correctly. Turn your prayer life into a WMB – a Weapon of Mass Blessing!

The power of prayer does not rest in the person praying; it rests in God.*

August 31, 2025

Romans 1: 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (NIV)

The divine power serves . . . to show the folly of atheists, who see there is a heaven and yet say, “There is no God,” who see the effect and yet say, “There is no cause.”*

From the very beginning, Satan has deceived and lied, and blinded humans to the truth of God. When nature itself shouts of the majesty of the Creator, the devil offers an alternative belief. “A being who has no beginning and no end?” he scoffs. “How can you believe in that? The universe has to have been formed some other way.”

Satan’s lie is ironic on two levels. First, in order to discount the story of creation, he has offered an equally unbelievable theory: there was nothing, then there was everything. Gullible people began to believe that, given enough time, anything is possible – except God. While nature is intricate and precise, the devil would have us believe that it operates by random chance.

The second level of irony is that in our blindness to the truth of God, our inborn need to worship has been perverted. Rather than acknowledge and glorify the perfect God, mankind has chosen to deify created and inferior objects. Where God loves us unconditionally and has done everything for us, men devise gods who are amoral, capricious, and demanding. When the urge to worship has been totally subverted, we rely on self, riches, and luck – with no hope beyond life on earth.

God’s people may not have completed their mission to spread the gospel throughout the world, but those lost souls cannot claim ignorance of God - he has made himself known to them (verse 19). But their lack of excuse does not exempt us from fulfilling Jesus’ command to share the saving knowledge of Christ with them. We know what our job is and we are without excuse if we fail to perform it.

He does not say the heathen will be lost if we do not go; He simply says, “Go . . .”*

August 30, 2025

II Kings 2: 9, 10 Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied. “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said. (NIV)

No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he simply chooses God’s will, just as Jesus did.*

I wonder what Elisha thought he was asking for when he requested a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Did he want to be twice as good in the prophecy business as Elijah? Did he think Elijah’s spirit was divided into a hundred or so portions and he was merely – humbly - requesting only two of them? Whatever Elisha wanted, it seems that Elijah understood that a double portion of his spirit meant twice the responsibility. As it turns out, the Bible records Elisha performing twice as many miracles as Elijah did.*

A similar scene occurs in the New Testament between Jesus and an ambitious mother. In Matthew, chapter 20, we read about James and John’s mother approaching Jesus with the request that her sons be elevated to right- and left-hand men in his soon-to-be-established kingdom. Jesus told her, “You don’t know what you’re asking.” (verse 22) While Elijah was able to grant Elisha’s request for a double portion of his spirit, Jesus said that the places of prominence next to his throne were not his to bestow. What he could give them, he said, was a life of suffering and service. Not what a proud mom wanted to hear!

There is no scriptural proof that Elisha ever regretted the granting of his request. He led a full and productive life in service to God and king. Have you ever listened to the testimony of a missionary whose hardships seem unbearable – and yet he is more alive and joyful than you? It is the paradox of Jesus’ kingdom that he promises abundant life to those who choose to suffer and serve on his behalf. As Paul reminds us, in Romans 8: 18, what we suffer today is not equally weighted with the glory to come.

Want the ride of your life? Ask for a double portion of the Spirit. Get in the short line to become a slave. It’s the only way to greatness!

We seek to find Christ in our vigor; but he often comes to us instead in suffering. We pursue him in success; we find him in defeat. We desire to have him meet us in exaltation; but he is frequently at the end of humiliation. We assume following him will mean gain; he is our Lord in loss. We want him with abundance; but he speaks to us in poverty. We long to be his friend in the resurrection; but in this life, he offers us the cross.*

August 29, 2025

Genesis 41: 38 So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” (NIV)

The call of God is larger than sermons and shepherding.*

My friend’s son was given a special assignment while he was in the Army: he was a chauffer for dignitaries. He got the job because they wanted a clean-cut, non-smoking, non-drinking, drug-free, non-swearing, trustworthy, and mannerly soldier for the position. The competition was slim. The Army didn’t care that the young man was a Christian – only that he acted like one.

Pharaoh was looking for a good right-hand man for his kingdom. With a seven-year famine approaching, Joseph had proven himself valuable as an interpreter of dreams and an organizer of famine-relief – for which he gave God the glory. Pharaoh, who believed in lots of gods, did not mind admitting that the spirit of God got results. And no one in Egypt was as full of the spirit of God as Joseph. Clearly, Pharaoh, like the U. S. Army, saw that a man of God was the right man for the job.

At this point, we might assume that Pharaoh believed in God - but he didn’t worship him. I am not aware of any indication in Scripture or in history that Pharaoh ever acknowledged God as the only God. In this regard, we might think that Joseph failed as a witness for God – but that would be to misunderstand God’s purpose for Joseph. As a man of God, his life was a testimony, but his job was to serve God in a political and historical capacity, not a religious one.

What has God called you to do on behalf of his Kingdom? Do you ever think that you might not be fulfilling his purpose for your life just because your days are spent in secular pursuits? In the words of another writer:  “Joseph didn’t have to preach a sermon or lead a prayer for Pharaoh to see the Spirit of God upon him. He could see it in his character, in his message, in his knowledge, in his wisdom, and in his humility.”* 

You are a testimony when others can see the Spirit of God in you.

We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing – that He is preparing and equipping us for some extraordinary work in the future. But as we grow in His grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, at this very moment.*