Press the arrow to listen to Robbie Seay Band sing “Song of Hope” while you read today’s devotion.
Scripture For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time he fled from Saul and went into the cave. To be sung to the tune “Do Not Destroy!”
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy!
I look to you for protection.
I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings
until the danger passes by.
I cry out to God Most High,
to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. Psalm 57:1-2
Observation
David was creative under pressure. While most would be pacing, David was working out rhyme and rhythm of his latest lyrics. How did he do it? David turned each sigh into a song.
All of his songs display emotional honesty. He did not whistle a happy tune, he took time to be sad, angry or desperate in the presence of God. As Bill Hybels says, he learned to “ventilate vertically”. Passing through the emotion David was able to discover that space in God’s heart where there is permission to improvise, invent and envision. When we bring the whole of ourselves to the Lord we find God’s center, a place of creativity.
Application
We may write our own song or we may borrow one from another, but we must learn this secret of emotional honesty in God’s presence. Songs are made from life just as much as songs are the thing life is made of. How many fresh ideas do we miss out on because we are allowing our emotions to play at our heart strings rather than playing them back to the Lord.
Prayer Father, I’m no where near David’s skill of writing and composing, but whether its with an iPod or a radio station, let me be one who turns the sigh into a song.
Press the arrow to listen to Don Moen sing Rescue while you read today’s devotion.
Scripture I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.
He freed me from all my fears.
Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy;
no shadow of shame will darken their faces.
In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened;
he saved me from all my troubles. Psalm 34:4-6
Observation
Fear is paralyzing. Like a spider’s bite that immobilizes the victim, so the Enemy can use fear as a way of manipulating us. Satan cannot change reality, but he can alter the way that we perceive what is real. Small finger movements become huge wall shadows of frightening monsters. These illusions are not authentic, but they feel real. That emotion is all that Satan needs.
How can we escape fear? We can elude fear when we make the choice to pray through to the other side of fear. The other day I flew into snowy Denver. The pilot warned us that a blizzard awaited us below, but while he gave the forecast, brilliant sun and blue sky poured through my window. His words seemed so out of touch with reality. To those living on the ground, it seemed like the sun had disappeared. But my flight reminded me that sun still shines. The cloud cover was so thick, that we saw the land just as the wheels touched the tarmac. The fog and snow were depressing but not debilitating, because I knew where the sun was.
Prayer melts through fear to find the smiling face of God on the other side. There are two things we are to pray for when we are afraid. The first, is to see the Father’s face, so that our hearts will be filled with joy. The second, is for the Lord to release us from our troubles.
David would go on to face moments more fearful than this. But never again would he have anxiety attacks. From that moment on he would use fear to leverage himself into a more secure place in God.
Application
Why pray when you can worry? Oops, I think it is supposed to be the other way around! The answer is obvious and my choices are plain.
Prayer Father, show me the other side of fear today and help me to live in rainy days as if the sun were shining around me because it is within me. Amen.
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Jeremy Camp Let it Fade
Scripture The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.
Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”
…Unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord.
So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him!
Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!
Psalm 32:8-11, selected
Observation
In my file drawer I keep a thick folder of stick figures drawn by my daughter, finger paints of my son and every encouraging note and email I’ve ever received. In fact that folder has turned into many volumes of scrapbooks I keep in storage for days when smiles come with more difficulty. The label on the top of the file reads “Joy File”. On sullen days I pull it out and chuckle again.
If we should recycle our garbage, should we not also recycle good things as well? Rejoicing is another word for recycling our joy, for this is a choice to re-joy life by smiling again over old things.
Rejoicing is more than something that gives me pleasure, it’s also something that gives God flexibility to improve my life. When I don’t rejoice I take my negative opinion too seriously. Without joy I listen only to my own narrow point of view. My neck becomes stiff and my heart becomes stubborn. The Bible word to describe me is something close to donkey, but not as pleasant. When I have not pursued the pleasure of re-joying I become like a stubborn mule. God can only lead me with the two-by-four of consequences. The best he can do with my life is to keep me under control. There is no willing following of him.
When I rejoice I become flexible to God’s direction and life becomes fluid as I move through his grace to his next plan for me. The question is: how can we rejoice when there is nothing fresh to take joy in? The answer is: recycle past joys and be happy again about them. Joy never wears out, it can always be used again.
Lilly Bailey was the most optimistic human being I’ve ever known, best of all she was my aunt. There were many downbeat moments in her life. She lost a son to a fever and a grandson was tragically run over by his own mother’s car. She outlived three husbands, becoming a widow three times. Yet at 96 she was as chipper as ever. She could always find the positive in anything. We were once driving through a depressing part of town with dilapidated houses. Of course, Aunt Lilly didn’t see all of that, instead she pointed to an upper window and exclaimed, “See those pretty flowers!” In the midst of the slum was a vase filled with red roses. When asked the source of her jubilant spirit she explained that her father was something of an ogre, a negative man. She made a choice as a child to say something positive or nothing at all. Joy is a choice, and with that joy God can move anything forward in our lives.
Application
The psalm writer said, “Unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord.” There is much joy along the road of my journey if I will look for it and use it to speed my way. The world’s largest royal palace is the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. There I saw a slab of stone probably 90 feet long intricately carved with dragons and phoenixes. The sign explained that the slab came from a quarry miles away, yet without modern transport, the stone was delivered in one piece on the building site. The workers moved the stone in the frigid winter. Along the roadway wells were dug at intervals. Water was drawn and poured over the dry roadbed. Allowed to freeze overnight, the mud became like a luge and the stone like a bobsled shuttling toward Beijing. There is much joy along our journey, no matter how heavy the load may be, for we are surrounded by the unfailing love of the LOrd. Our joy and the choice to rejoice and recycle our joy makes it possible for the Lord to move things that no one else can budge. What is in my joy file today. It is time to rejoice.
Prayer Father, through out this day let my mind reflect over the thousands of happy moments you have invested into my life. Let me live on the reruns of joy this day. Amen.
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Mercy Me God With Us
Scripture “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Luke 24:5-6
Observation
Angels see life very differently from humans. The heavenly sentry at the tomb blurted out, “Why are you looking for among the dead for someone who is alive?” It’s an obvious question if you are an angel and see human life from heaven’s point of view.
But it is not an obvious question if one is a human. Cemeteries seem very logical places to look for the living when someone has died. It’s hard to understand until someone close to you has be placed into a coffin and dropped into the ground. Not an old aunt or old high school friend, but someone so close it is difficult to imagine life without them. The graveside can feel like the closest place to them.
Of course it doesn’t have to be death, it can be the loss of anything in life. It can be the loss of a friend, children, homes, income, reputation, position, relationships. When we lose something there will be some place of sadness that we connect with the loss. In our minds we think that if we can but return to that place something will change. But in fact we feel even sadder.
Application
There are times we need to be counseled by angels to see our lives from heaven’s point of view. If it is hope we are looking for we cannot find it by going back to the place of loss. Hope will be found among the living and not the dead. When we have a loss and want to retract back, we must force ourselves into the mainstream of life. There we will find the Lord. One thing is clear in the resurrection stories: the more they gathered together the more they found Jesus. If we are to find hope we must stop returning to what has been lost and plunge ourselves into the flow of human life. There we will find the Lord in the land of the living.
Prayer Father, today I take the counsel of the angels. I want to see my life from heaven’s point of view. Show me where the living are so that there I may find Jesus who is truly alive. Amen.
Scripture But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”
Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.” Exodus 4:10-12
Observation
When God calls a man he does not put a finger on his strengths but digs up all of his inadequacies.
Asking Moses to speak to Pharaoh was a traumatic request. First of all, Pharaoh was only the most important man on earth. Anyone might feel blood pressure increase, breathing shallow out and the voice fade in his presence. But for Moses there was more. He had childhood memories of stuttering to step over. That may seem small to some, but to a stutterer it is a huge tank trap. There were memories of being a chronic stutterer in a king’s court where verbal agility is everything. Moses would not move beyond that.
We know how the story pans out. Moses answers, “Here am I Lord, send Aaron.” The rest of the story would have been easier if Moses had not worked through a press secretary to represent him.
But there could have been another outcome. Moses was being asked to face up to his most primordial fear. What looked like cruelty was in fact an act of help from the Lord. If Moses would face it he could move beyond it.
Moses did not confront his fear of stage fright. Why? Because he expected the fear to dissolve before he spoke. But the Lord proimsed no such thing. He only guaranteed that when Moses started to speak that he would sense God with him. “I will be with you as you speak” the Lord said. The key word there is “as” Reassurance does not come until we step out.
Application
I cannot expect that the Lord will soothe my feelings until first I have obeyed him. We want the feelings to come first. But the Lord will not work that way. Instead we must obey without the feelings. Six years ago this week I went on a trip to Australia to lay the groundwork to plant a new church in Brisbane, New Hope Brisbane. It was just me and a rental car. What later became the church was not yet gathered together. I visited a conference facility and a restaurant function room on top of a hill. I remember feeling so conspicuous looking for a building without people to put in it. But within one year I saw both of those facilities packed with people. First I had to step out and then the confidence came.
Prayer Father you sure do lead us to still waters but you do hide the fact in the middle of the Psalm that the way there comes through the valley of the shadow of death. Help me to continue to do more than my feelings allow. I want to be in the place where you are, which is always on the other side of my fears. Amen.
They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Acts 15:39-41
Observation
The church is a family and not a business. Bonds are close so when decisions are made in church life we tip toe through exposed nerves. We should be considerate.
When the tough calls come here’s the question: should we go with the heart or the head?
Barnabas went heart first. He thought of his home state and his cousin first before the mission of the church. In time Barnabas’ choice proved to be right. Cyprus was won to Christ. Johnny Mark matured into Mark the author of a Bible book. Heart decisions work.
Paul went head first. He thought of the corporate mission left by Jesus to go into all the world. He was not willing to jeopardize that for one immature young man or to stay cooped up on an island in the ocean. So he chose a seasoned veteran to journey with him and went where no apostle had gone before. In time Paul was proven to be correct. Before his life was over the gospel had made it to Gibraltar and back. Head decisions work too.
The accent of this story is on Paul and his bold decision to move ahead head first. There are times when the family bonds of church life must be bruised as we move forward with the gospel.
Paul’s home church didn’t criticize him for it, they prayed for him. What a healthy response!
When we sit on the outside of a business meeting or on the edge of a large organization, leaders can make choices that cause tongues to wag. Often it is because we who live on the edges are thinking emotionally and personally rather than strategically.
Leaders, like the captain of a ship, sit in the helm where all things are visible from the boiler room to the horizon. There are many things to be considered. When leaders make choices they cannot afford to be enslaved by one particular need. All things must be considered. So the church prayed, as we should as well.
Application
Are the decisions that I make about life direction based on serving a small, narrow view of life attached to deep feelings of love or am I sitting in the control tower with the Lord seeing life from his point of view? Sometimes we must navigate misunderstanding to move forward into what the Lord has for us.
Prayer
Father, I like to make people happy, but I need even more today to please you. Help me to see your direction.
“You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.” Acts 7:51-53
Observation
Stephen’s sermon is so eloquent that it’s hard to remember the guy is on death row approaching the electric chair, in a manner of speaking. The last words Stephen spoke on the courtroom floor are the most remarkable. Around Stephen is a swirling chaos of fists, spit and stones, but at the center is a man having an epiphany. It’s like a melodramatic scene from 1950’s Bible flick. Stephen is gazing toward heaven, a spotlight warms his face, a beatific smile illumines his visage and he swoons at the sight of Jesus.
Stop, stop, stop! This is the sort of thing that should happen in a sanctuary and not in the witness stand. How did Stephen manage to see such a remarkable sight in the midst of chaos?
Here’s the secret: Stephen had learned to worship in extreme conditions. He had learned to be comfortable with adrenaline, push it aside and to see the Saviour’s face. His story would not be told if it were not a model for us as well.
Do you know the taste of adrenaline? Have you felt the dizziness of a surge of blood pressure? Can you hear the ringing in your ears as the blood vessels swell? Have you sensed the out-of-body experience as you stand before those you fear to hear a voice speaking and wake up mid paragraph to discover it is you? We’ve all been in pressure points. Stephen’s is an extreme. But here’s the point: have we learned to live as Stephen learned to die? Have we learned how to look up in pressured circumstances and to worship the God of heaven?
Application
Stephen’s poise under pressure is not an ideal but a possibility. There are pressured moments in life when we too are placed on the spot. It is then that choices we make can open up our relationship with Christ. I remember reading about the Christian leader Polycarp (his name does not mean ‘many fish’ but that’s another story). Polycarp was on his way to be burnt at the stake, but he asked the arresting officer if he could have time to pray. He asked for a meal to be brought to his executioners and he went to an upstairs room where he methodically prayed for each of the churches he oversaw. It’s no wonder that at the stake, when Polycarp was asked to turn his back on Jesus, that he had the presence of mind to say, “I’ve served him 86 years and he’s never failed me, how can I be unfaithful to the one who has loved me so?” (That’s my paraphrase.)
Worship can happen anywhere, even under pressure. It requires me to become comfortable with uncomfortable emotions, to walk through stress rather than trying to neutralize it, and to look for Jesus in the most unlikely places.
Prayer
Father, I can’t say that I’m there yet with this one, but I’m certainly learning. I’ve had several lessons this last year. I expect there will be more. Help me to look up rather than looking down in these pressure points and help me to break through emotions that I fear into an experience of you too great for words so that I can say what must be said even in the most difficult times. Amen.
I'm Phil McCallum, a husband, father and most of all one of the people Jesus loves. I'm privileged to serve Evergreen Community Church in Bothell, Washington as Senior Pastor where people love enough to believe "it's all about relationships." In 1982 I made a vow to read God's word daily and apply it to life. Each day I write out my reflections. Some days I post those on my blog. It's a little personal but it's my hope it will stir you to go deeper still. Learn how I do my devotions. These are my thoughts and not necessarily those of the ministry I serve. By the way check out the computer study Bible Glo. I highly recommend it.
