2022-06-17
Hebrews 11:17 NKJV
In Genesis 12, God told Abraham to leave his country, his family, and his security. When he said yes to God, he travelled along an unknown path to an unknown destiny based on the strength of God’s promise. Without hesitating, the seventy-five-year-old patriarch ‘went, as the LORD had told him’ (Genesis 12:4 NIV).
Now fast-forward twenty-five years and Isaac is born; the miracle son who would fulfil God’s promise that through Abraham’s descendants ‘all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed my voice’ (Genesis 26:4-5 ESV). Then God makes a heart-wrenching demand: ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering’ (Genesis 22:2 NIV). And in obedience to God’s Word, ‘the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two if his servants and his son Isaac’ (v.3 NIV). God’s promised blessing hung on Abraham’s willingness to let go of what he loved most. Holding on to Isaac would have been natural and understandable, but it would have short-circuited the promised blessing.
Are you clinging to something that’s blocking God’s blessing? Is it a particular friendship, your reputation among people you’re close to, power, possessions, comfort, or habits? Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac was the ultimate act of faith. ‘By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.’ How could he do it? ‘Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life’ (Hebrews 11:19 NLT). Abraham believed that, with God, letting go never means losing, but getting back something better.
2 Kings 10-12; Matt 18:21-35; Ps 73:1-16; Pro 13:17-19
John 10:10 KJV
The things we experience as we go through life can sometimes make us different from the way God intended us to be. If we’re not careful, the people, activities, and entertainments we choose to spend our time on can end up leaving us with regrets and feelings of hopelessness. When we lose our sense of self-worth, it gets difficult to believe God could love us – but He absolutely does. He knows that hidden inside each of us is a person who can do great things for Him. That’s why He stirs our hearts – it’s to let us know that He’s at work in our lives. Our part is to respond to Him in faith, and dare to believe that He can make each one of us ‘a new creation’ (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV).
We need to shift our thoughts from our own weaknesses to His power, and trust in Him rather than our limited strength. Jesus knows about every mistake we’ve ever made, and He wants to mend the broken parts of our hearts and make us whole again. But to do that, He needs to have access to every area of our lives. When He comes into our hearts, we’re changed, and we’ll be empowered to reach the potential He sees within us!
David’s sins became a national scandal. But when God forgave and restored him, he wrote: ‘Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things (Psalm 103:2-5 NIV).
Hosea 11-14; Matt 21:33-46; Ps 17; Pro 14:13-16
2022-06-16
Proverbs 6:2 NIV
Author Stormie Omartian wrote: ‘Early in my walk with the Lord I spoke many negatives… “I’m a failure,” “I’m ugly,” “Nothing ever goes right,” “Nobody cares about me,”… [Then] the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart… “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21 NKJV). I had been speaking words of death, not life. One clear example had to do with my speech problems. I’d had them since childhood and was teased about them all through school… [When] I was old enough to afford professional help, I worked with a speech therapist… I practised day after day, year after year, to gain… little improvement… I still lost my voice… halfway through each [speaking] engagement… “I’ll never be able to speak right,” I cried… But as I spoke those words… the Lord [said]: “You’re bringing death to your situation because you’re not speaking the truth… Do not speak what you think… or what seems to be truth… speak what you know to be the truth of my Word… ‘The stammering tongue will be fluent and clear’ (Isaiah 32:4 NIV)… ‘I have put My words in your mouth'” (Isaiah 51:16 NKJV)…
Soon after, when I was asked to speak at a… women’s meeting, I took my fears… to [God]… and… spoke [His] truth instead of voicing my own negative opinions… My talk went so well… an entire speaking ministry opened up… The Bible says, “You are snared by the words of your mouth” (Proverbs 6:2 NKJV). That includes [your self-talk]… Wipe [out] words of hopelessness, doubt, and negativity from your vocabulary. [They] may seem harmless… but [they] affect your body and soul… Speak words that reflect the wholeness you desire.’
2 Kings 7-9; Matt 18:10-20; Ps 80:12-19; Pro 13:13-16
2022-06-15
1 John 1:3-4 GWT
When joy is missing from our lives, power is also missing (see Nehemiah 8:10). The truth is, we shouldn’t base our happiness on what’s happening around us; instead, it should be dependent on our relationship with Jesus. John said, ‘We can be completely filled with joy’ (1 John 1:4 GWT). Pastor Reimar Schultze wrote: ‘John did not say this when all was well, but when… everything had turned to shambles.
1) All his fellow apostles had been murdered. 2) Rome had destroyed the temple [so]… not one stone was left upon another. Flavius Josephus, an eyewitness wrote, “The multitude of those that… perished exceeded all the destructions men or God ever brought upon the world.” 3) Many Jews and Christians became refugees. Average life expectancy was about forty years and 25 per cent of the people in Rome were slaves. 4) John himself lived as a condemned criminal on the Isle of Patmos. He had no earthly comforts;… no assurance of living another day.
When the cup of misery was full, God commissioned [him] to show the world the absolute power and triumph of Christianity over everything… [John’s] writings, in reference to our daily walk, put a capstone on all that heaven intended to reveal in the Word: if we have apostolic fellowship, our joy will be full. You do not need pleasant circumstances for this to happen.’ The psalmist said it best: ‘In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore’ (Psalm 16:11 NKJV).
2 Kings 4:18-6:33; Matt 18:1-9; Ps 80:1-11; Pro 13:11-12
2022-06-14
Proverbs 19:20 NIV
You’re really good at lots of things. And there’s probably something that you can do better than most people. But without the help of others, it’s possible that you’ll never be as good as you could be. It’s very difficult (even impossible) for us to reach our highest potential without a good and trusted adviser. World-class tennis player André Agassi valued his trainer even when he’d reached the top levels of his game: ‘Tennis requires subtle adjustments crucial to winning and my coach, Gill, is the best at making them. The older I get, the more valuable he becomes.’
Age and experience don’t necessarily make us better or more skilful; sometimes they just deepen the rut we’ve found ourselves in. In life, just as in the sports world, we’ll never reach a point where we don’t need good input. Even if we’ve reached the top of our skill, or job, or sport, good advice is always valuable. We might make the mistake of measuring ourselves against others instead of our own God-given potential, and in the end we never become what we could have been.
Self-evaluation is important, but the evaluation of others is crucial. A good coach measures our performance against our strengths, not somebody else’s. That’s because they understand what we’re capable of and they’ll push us to reach for it. Good coaches are constantly on the scene, observing, and getting involved. They walk with us and take a personal interest in every success we have, big or small, celebrate with us when things go well, and encourage us when things don’t go to plan. Ruth needed Naomi and Timothy needed Paul. We all need an advisor – who’s yours?
2 Kings 1:1-4:17; Matt 17:14-27; Ps 143; Pro 13:9-10
2022-06-13
Exodus 18:18 NIV
Helping others is something we’re called to do. The Bible says that we should care about the ‘interests of the others’ not just our own (Philippians 2:4 NIV). But sometimes we can take this too far. We try to be everything for everyone, seeing it as our responsibility to help everyone with their problems. And that can be dangerous because we can end up feeling overwhelmed. Instead we need to remember that we’re part of the body of Christ (take a look at 1 Corinthians 12:12-31), so all of us have a responsibility to be there for other people, but we can all offer different things. Sometimes God will use us to help others, and at other times He’ll use someone else. It doesn’t always have to be us.
Moses had to learn this when he was leading the Israelites. He was wearing himself out physically, emotionally, and spiritually trying to keep up with the demands of two million Israelites and be the one everyone turned to when they needed answers to their problems. That’s when his father-in-law told him, ‘You cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice’ (v.18-19 NIV).
It takes wisdom, maturity, and humility to ask for help or to say no to helping when someone is in a bad place. When we take on too much, we can end up not helping anyone because we can’t cope ourselves. What Moses was doing wasn’t good for him, and it wasn’t good for the people depending on him. Sometimes we may need to guard ourselves from becoming overwhelmed by too many people offloading their problems onto us. And doing that is a sign of strength, not weakness.
Rev 19-22; Matt 17:1-13; Ps 132:11-18; Pro 13:7-8
