Day 475: When You Don’t Know What To Do

Jun 24, 2022

Three enemy armies were closing in on Judah, and King Jehoshaphat called the nation together at Jerusalem. Something had to be done immediately. No doubt people expected him to announce plans, a decisive declaration of action, a way to wage war. Instead, Jehoshaphat stood before his people and poured his heart out to God in confession.

Jehoshaphat pointed out that God himself stopped Israel from attacking these nations when they first came into the Promise Land. “Here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of your possession which you have given us to inherit. O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (2 Chronicles 20:11-12, NKJV).

We are living in a time when everything is getting shaky and insecure, and almost everybody is hurting in one way or another. Hardly anybody knows what to do anymore. Our leaders don’t have the foggiest idea of what is happening to this world or to the economy. The business world is even more confused with economists arguing with each other about what is coming. Psychologists and psychiatrists are baffled by the changing forces affecting people today.

You don’t fold your hands, sitting around at ease and letting God do it all. That is not what it means to keep your eyes “fixed on the Lord.” We look to the Lord, not as people who know what to do but as people who don’t know at all what they must do. All we do know is that he is the King who sits on the flood. He is Lord of all, and we know that even if the world falls apart, he is a rock of certainty. As scripture says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Our eyes are fixed on a risen Lord. If we do not know what to do, our faith assures us that he knows what to do.

Day 474: Give Thanks and Be Delivered

Jun 22, 2022

Listen to the words of Jonah: “For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all your billows and your waves passed over me. … The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me. … The earth with its bars closed behind me forever” (Jonah 2:3-6, NKJV).

Jonah had hit rock bottom, entombed in the belly of a whale. He was in a battle for his life and filled with despair, shame and guilt. He was heavy of heart, literally as low as a person could get. He thought God had abandoned him.

So, how did Jonah get out of his pit? “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to you, into your holy temple. …I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving” (Jonah 2:7,9). Simply put, he passed the test! Jonah didn’t receive any word of deliverance. He was in a hopeless situation with everything about him dark and gloomy. He was ready to faint, yet when he came to such a point, he said, “I’m going to thank the Lord!”

In the midst of all his troubles, Jonah entered the Lord’s presence and offered up thanks. God answered, “That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear you say, Jonah. You’ve trusted me in the middle of it all. You just passed the test.”

Scripture says, “So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (Jonah 2:10). That burdened man must have rolled onto the beach shouting, “I’m free! I’m free!” He probably danced as he pulled the seaweed from his hair because he was already at the altar of thanksgiving.

When you have no place to turn, turn to thanksgiving. Thank the Lord for his forgiveness, for releasing you from all past sins. Thank him for delivering you from the teeth of the lion, for giving you a new home in glory, for all his past blessings, for all his promises, for all that he is going to do. As scriptures says, “Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:14-15). In everything, give thanks!

Day 473: The Abundance of God’s Glory

Jun 21, 2022

God always desires to pour out more of his glory on his people. He longs to do for us “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV).This is why he wants a people who have a ravenous appetite for more of him. He wants to fill them with his awesome presence, beyond anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime.

Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). To obtain this abundant life, though, we must abound more and more in pleasing the Lord. Paul wrote, “We urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God” (1 Thessalonians 4:1) as well as “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

The Greek word for abound means “to exceed, excel, super-abound, to have enough and to spare, over and above, excessive, exceeding abundantly above, beyond measure.” Paul was saying, “God’s glory in your life is going to exceed the little moments you’ve gotten up till now, but your prayers have to be more than just saying a blessing over your meals.”

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7). Paul was saying, “To have this abundant life of God’s glory and presence, you must serve him above measure, with a love and commitment exceeding that of lazy, slumbering servants.”

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself” (Ephesians 1:7-9). God wants to mete out to you glory and revelation beyond any previous measure. The Lord is saying, “I’m going to open to you a deeper understanding of my Word. I want to give you revelations of its mysteries.”

Day 472: The Great and Glorious I Am

Jun 20, 2022

I asked the Holy Spirit to give me a one-paragraph description of faith so that the boys in our Teen Challenge drug center could understand it. I have a book in my library that uses over three hundred pages to define faith, and I never understood it. Frankly, I don’t think the man who wrote it understood faith either.

Moses once asked the same questions we ask: “Who am I? Who is God? Describe him.” God answered Moses in two words. “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And he said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’” (Exodus 3:14, NKJV). According to modern thinking, God oversimplified himself.

Can you imagine Moses telling people when they ask, “Who sent you?” that “I AM sent me”?

I AM who? What do you need?  Deliverance? I AM deliverance. Faith is God saying, “I AM” and my answer that “HE IS.” Faith simply accepts God’s description of himself. God says, “I am delivering you from the storm.” I say, “He is delivering me from the storm.” Faith is taking God at what he says.

What is the storm in your life? How do you face it? Ask the Lord to give you faith to believe. Ask him no matter what happens, no matter what conditions you face. This is how Paul wrote, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11).

I believe that the moment faith gripped Paul, he was content. He was in the center of God’s will, and he had the promise of God. He had prayed through. It didn’t matter what happened from that moment on; God had taken the sting out of the storm. He can take the fear out of the storm for you too. Will you let him? God is not about to let you go under. Ride out your storm.

Day 471: Our Ministry In Life

Jun 16, 2022

What does it mean to behold the Lord’s glory? Paul wrote, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV). Paul is speaking here of devoted, focused worship. It’s time that’s given to God simply to behold him, and the apostle quickly adds, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:1). Paul makes it clear that beholding the face of Christ is a ministry we all must devote ourselves to.

The Greek word for beholding in this verse is a very strong expression. It indicates not just taking a look but “fixing the gaze.” It means deciding “I won’t move from this position. Before I do anything else, before I try to accomplish a single thing, I must be in God’s presence.” We’re to “fix our eyes” this way, determined to see God’s glory in the face of Christ. We’re to shut ourselves in the Holy of Holies with one obsession: to gaze so intently and to commune with such devotion that we’re changed.

The Greek word for changed here is “metamorphosed,” meaning “changed, transformed, transfigured.” Everyone who goes often into the Holy of Holies and fixes his gaze intently on Christ is being metamorphosed. A transfiguration is taking place. That person is continually being changed into the likeness and character of Jesus.

Maybe you come often into the Lord’s presence, yet you may not feel yourself changing as you spend time shut in with him. I tell you that you can know a metamorphosis is taking place. Something is surely happening because no one can continually behold the glory of Christ without being transformed.

Note the preceding verse in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “The Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Do you see what Paul is saying here? He’s telling us, “When you’re beholding the face of Christ, there is freedom to be changed.” By being in his presence, we give the Spirit liberty to govern our lives, to do with us as he would. It’s an act of submission that says, “Lord, my will is yours. Whatever it takes, transform me into the image of Jesus.”