Press the arrow to listen to Newsboys sing In Wonder as you read today’s devotion.

Scripture
Once upon a time the trees decided to elect a king.
First they said to the olive tree,
‘Be our king!’
But the olive tree refused, saying,
‘Should I quit producing the olive oil
that blesses both God and people,
just to wave back and forth over the trees?’ Judges 9:9

Observation
Here is a statement that will take some mulling over: ambition can keep us from becoming our best.

Ambition is obviously a good thing. With it we pursue goals and achieve them. But ambition can be detrimental if we are aiming in the wrong direction.

Look at it this way. Each of us is created with a core. Jobs come and go, we may move from one city to another, but the core of who we are essentially remains the same. The more comfortable we are with the core of what we are designed to be as a human being and the more we develop that core the more fruitful our lives will be.

My core can make me successful, but that is just the problem. Success brings with it recognition, and with recognition comes the invitation to lead others with the same core passion. That is considered a step up the ladder, and it very well may be just that. But there are times that the invitation to lead can sever us from our core and what has made us fruitful.  As the “Peter Principle” states: every person is promoted to a level of incompetence.

In the parable, the olive tree would have to give up bearing olives in order to lead the trees of the forest. The olive was a wise tree and knew his core mission well, “Should I quit producing the olive oil that blesses both God and people, just to wave back and forth over the trees?” There is a sense of settledness in that sentence in the core design of what the Lord had put into his trunk and root system.

Application
There is a level of maturity when we become content with our core and fully develop what that is. I just spent the last month asking a dozen people who know me well to answer four questions about myself:

1. What words describe the core of who I am?
2. When I am fulfilled in ministry, what am I doing?
3. What have I been doing for the past 25 years that I need to stop doing?
4. What can you imagine me doing for the next 40 years and being satisfied?

Their answers had individual nuances, but all essentially said the same thing: Phil is an equipper of leaders and pastors. Other factors came through as well: love of family, community, writing, contemplation, creativity, communication, improving, influencing, leadership, passion and compassion. But the core of my life is the mentoring of leaders.  These are the “olives” I am to produce, so I must use my branches wisely to do what they were designed best to do. I must avoid the things that would cause me to wave my branches wildly and thus drop my fruit.

Prayer
Father, I want to invest my life well according to the design you have for me. Let me know the contentment of my core. Let me discover the fulfillment of working according to my design. Help me to use my branches well. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to Chris Tomlin sing Amazing Grace while you read today’s devotion.

Scripture
“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?

Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” Judges 6:13-14

Observation
The greatest obstacle to answered prayer can be me. The problem is not with God. He wants to rescue. The problem instead is with my skewed view of reality.

Gideon had a head problem. He had a faultless chain of logic that was totally wrong but made perfect sense. Bad things were happening, therefore he assumed that God was against his people. The difficulty of his logic was that it exonerated Gideon from attempting anything to challenge the status quo. He felt perfectly justified to hide like a fugitive in his own land, choking on chaff dust, because God was against them all.

We too block answers to prayer when we see God as the source of our problems instead of the beginning of our solutions. If we think life’s problems are God’s fault why try to change things?

There is a higher, heavenly perspective that the angel brought into Gideon’s life. This heavenly logic is like a gust of fresh air in a stuffy room. Here’s the new logic: assess your personal strengths and use them and God will use you. The presence of potential in Gideon’s life was proof that God was with him. He later proved himself as a leader, strategist and warrior. Once unpackaged the problem was solved.

Application
Answers to prayer require as much a change in my heart as in God’s heart. We must exchange faulty thinking for fresh perspective. Instead of asking, “What does God have against me” we should instead ask, “What do I have going for me?” The answer to prayer is not external, it is internal. Inside of me God has placed the potential for the answer. I have to change my outlook so God can use what he has given me to change the world around me.

Prayer
Father, give me a clearer and clearer understanding of what you have invested into my life so that you can work through my life. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to this worship song while you read today’s devotion.

Vineyard UK All Who are Thirsty

Scripture
Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the one who attacks and captures Kiriath-sepher.” Othniel, the son of Caleb’s younger brother, Kenaz, was the one who conquered it, so Acsah became Othniel’s wife.

When Acsah married Othniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field. As she got down off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What’s the matter?”

She said, “Let me have another gift. You have already given me land in the Negev; now please give me springs of water, too.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs. Joshua 1:12-15

Observation
This little real estate story from the life of Caleb is an odd bit of trivia to record in the Bible. It is listed for us twice, both here in Judges as well as in Joshua. Like so many other places in the Bible, I find myself wondering why it is given so much page space. I come to the conclusion yet again that if God repeats soemthing, then the story must be significant for us to learn from.

Caleb was the weathered old warrior who kept a dream alive for 45 years until he saw it fulfilled in his retirement. But this story shows us another side of the geriatric general. Caleb was a gracious man too. He gave away generous rewards to those who shared his zealous heart. To the one who fought a battle he gave precious land. To his daughter he gave a gift even before she asked. Caleb had not only remained passionate he had also managed to remain compassionate as well. Passion and compassion are an outstanding combination.

Acsah was a determined daughter. She took a risk to ask for more. She and her husband had been given land, but it was dry land. Like a good wife who wants her husband to succeed, Acsah wanted her man to have all that he needed to excell. She astutely perceived the need for water. What was more, Acsah had the courage to go to her father and do the ask. Others may have tried to survive in the desert on a few scattered raindrops, but she asked for refreshment in the desert place.

Application
When I read this story, I see something of God in Caleb and us in Acsah. The Lord is a generous God, especially to those who share his heart of adventure and risk for things that are eternal and significant. There are times God gifts to us the desert place. There is room to live, but nothing to drink. Too often we are content with that, when the Lord would give more if we would but ask. That is where our faith comes in to ask the Lord for more. We should not be reluctant, for he wants to generously give to us. There is a freedom for us to ask for water to be added to our dry desert. I want to ask more of the Lord, for he is more kind than I could understand.

Prayer
Father, today thank you for desert places, for it is here that desire is created. That would not happen in lush environments. You have give to us land in the desert, now give to us springs of water as well. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to this worship song while reading today’s devotion.

Promises by Desperation Band

Scripture
Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true. Joshua 21:45

Observation
I read this news story last week from Tampa, Florida:

“In the early months of the Civil War, the city of Tampa needed ammunition and other supplies to defend against attack but apparently was short on cash. So it issued a promissory note for $299.58 to storekeeper Thomas Pugh Kennedy on June 21, 1861. Kennedy’s great-granddaughter says the city never made good on its loan. Now, Joan Kennedy Biddle and her family are suing to collect the payment plus 8 percent annual interest. The total bill: $22.7-million.” (Taken from the St Petersburg Times, tampabay.com, March 16, 2008, Janet Zink, reporter)

It will be interesting to see the legal outcome of this way past due debt collection. The prospect of the City of Tampa coughing up some dollars is there from earlier legal precedents.

As I read that news clipping today I thought, the Lord would remember a promise longer than that, and pay up as well with no statute of limitations. The promises of God are something like uncashed checks that he feels compelled to honor. God can no more forget a promise than we are allowed to forget an unpaid bill. Many have had the experience of finding an answer to a prayer long forgotten, because the Lord never forgets.

The promises of God will not let go of us. They cling to us and pursue us until they are fulfilled. Time is involved, as well as obedience, but the words will be accomplished.

The Book of Joshua was written to show how 400 year old promises made to Abraham were completed. God never forgets his word; he won’t forget his promises to us either.

Application
There are times we remind the Lord of the promises he has made to us, but there is another way to live in God’s promises. Instead we can rest in the presence of God and watch the word of God do its work. Though we pray we must always remember that the fulfillment of promises is not up to us, it is all from the Lord. He will not forget them, even if we do.

Prayer
Father, I have a safe deposit box in my heart full of words you have spoken to me. I sift through them wondering what will come of them. I am certain that what you have in mind is bigger and more beautiful than I could accomplish. I’m counting on you to fulfill your word. You will not forget. I trust you in that. Amen.