Category Archives: Devotional

A Well-Placed Trust

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One of the great lessons of the Bible is that our circumstances need not be the big deal that we tend to make them.  If we insist that our circumstances be perfect, we will normally be disappointed.  Perfect circumstances are rare in this life.  Unpleasant circumstances can even serve as the springboard from which we leap into the arms of God – a very good, or even pleasant, place to be. 

A nice illustration is found in the steady flow of water in a river compared to the daily fluctuations observed in rainfall.    In extreme cases, such as those found in Egypt, the contrast is even better.  Egypt gets very little rain at all, yet has a long history of agriculture.  The Nile provides a constant source of water.  The secret? The water comes from rainy areas of central Africa rather than the regions of the Sahara closer to the Nile’s mouth. 

If we make it a point to trust in the Lord regardless of circumstances, we’ll be like trees planted near the water of that river.  Our lives can be very fruitful even in the consistent absence of rain. 

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord. 
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”
          – Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NKJV)

Yummy!

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Think of a favorite food.   Eating it is an amazing pleasure on many levels.  The look of it already excites you.  The smell fills you with anticipation.  Then the flavor as you bite, chew and swallow.  With some things, like crunchy ones, your hearing is even affected as you chomp away.  And the feeling in your mouth always adds to the experience.   What’s more, you can still taste whatever it is for some time even after gulping it down.   Forget brushing your teeth.  Let’s just enjoy this multi-sensory experience for as long as we can.  No wonder some people overeat when they’re depressed!  Eating just plain makes you feel good!

Now let’s switch gears:

If anyone ever needed something to cheer him up it was the prophet Jeremiah.  This was a man sent to deliver one message of gloom and doom after another.  And he did it without the slightest hint of a judgmental, fire-and-brimstone self-righteousness.  In fact we see him weeping over a people who had utterly lost their way, hating the fact that he never had anything good to say to them.  Moreover, his listeners hated him, repeatedly attacking the messenger because the message upset them – as if the the mail carrier were somehow responsible for their bills.

In the midst of his sorrow, Jeremiah resorted to eating to make himself feel better.  We don’t hear much about his diet, but he loved to devour God’s Word.  Listen to how he described it:

Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”
          – Jeremiah 15:16 (NKJV)

May the Lord increase our appetite for His delicious Word!

Keeping Secrets

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There is a lot that people don’t know about one another.  That’s not likely to change no matter how much each of us will ever be willing to share.  The sheer volume of data, combined with the emotional energy it would take to process it, would eventually send the most compassionate listener on earth into information overload.  Still, we should always strive to be better at compassionate listening.

God has a real advantage here.  He knows everything already.  Our deepest darkest secrets are as plain and obvious to Him as the bright light of day.  We see this in the New Testament Greek word for “confess” (homologeo), which literally means something like “same say” or “say the same as another”.   When we confess anything to God, we are only admitting what He already knows to be true.  We are finally saying what He has been saying all along.

Which brings us to a deeper problem, namely that of keeping secrets from ourselves.  There can be areas within our lives or beings that we don’t fully understand.  Sometimes that’s a willful ignorance; sometimes it’s more inadvertent.  In either case, the effect is the same:  We don’t know what we’re like or who we are.  It’s not that we won’t admit our fatal flaws or inner conflicts; we don’t even fully understand them.  We’ve yet to accurately identify these concealed culprits that hold back our personal and spiritual growth.

What a blessing to have an all-knowing Helper – a loving know-it-all who truly knows it all!  David came to grips with his self-ignorance and it led him to this useful, yet beautiful, prayer:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties; 
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
          – Psalms 139:23-24 (NKJV)

Let’s follow his example by praying it, letting the Lord reveal our secrets to ourselves.

Dull-Hearted Shepherds

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Only occasionally do people rise above the level of their leaders.  It happens now and then, to be sure, but not often.  This is especially true in the area of personal character.  Thus, lousy leaders produce pathetic people and together they share the unhappy effects of their common corruption.  This was the problem in the days of Jeremiah and it was the cause of great calamity.

For the shepherds have become dull-hearted,
And have not sought the Lord;
Therefore they shall not prosper,
And all their flocks shall be scattered.”
     – Jeremiah 10:21 (NKJV)

The remedy, of course, is that leaders must lead well.  They must lead with integrity, always setting a good example, and tending to the deepest needs of the people entrusted to them.  Simon Peter understood this and he offers the following counsel.

The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd* the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd** appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. – 1 Peter 5:1-4 (NKJV) ***

May all of us who in any way lead God’s people take the apostle’s advice and see the satisfying results multiplied in many hearts and lives.  

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For those who like to study words, I offer the following tidbits:
* Jesus used this verb form of shepherd when He said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” in John 21:16
** The noun Shepherd is translated “pastor” in Ephesians 4:11.
*** This passage is one of two in the New Testament that bring the three terms shepherd (pastor), elder (presbyter) and overseer (bishop) together, placing them in the same context more or less as synonyms.  The other passage to do so is  in Acts 20; see verses 17 & 28.