Scripture “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.” Hebrews 10:35
Observation
Keep pushing on. The first time I applied these verses to myself, pushing on seemed too hard and even unfair. I had been mistreated by others. I had been misunderstood. I lost things that I valued. A godly friend read to me the verses from this chapter and urged me to keep on pushing:
“Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.”
That was many, many years ago. In the years that followed, one bright door after another opened, not because of me but because of the hand of Christ that opened the way for me.
I see around me people who stopped pushing. The skid marks of their heavy load stop where they sit. Their lives have halted over some past disappointment. Urging them to move on is offensive to them.
And yet if we keep our confidence that there is a Saviour leading us, then it is not too much to ask us to keep pushing on to follow him.
Application
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”
These words seem warmed like a cookie in the microwave and served hot and fresh to my heart again today. The confidence is the thing not to be lost. It is an assurance that I have a Lord and he is leading me home.
Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, making you Lord means nothing until moments when life requires me to push on. The greatest hinderances are not external but internal in my heart. Sometimes I don’t want to. But I sludge through the slush of apathy and expect better things. There is reward for pushing. This I believe. Use that faith in me for your glory. Amen.
Press the arrow to listen to Mercy Me sing “Finally Home”
Scripture The righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. Hab 2:4
The Sovereign Lord is my strength!
He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
able to tread upon the heights. Hab 3:`0
Observation
On a morning walk, time froze as a young buck with velvet antlers crossed my path. I was down wind so he didn’t smell me coming. For a moment both of us were surprised to see the other. The moment unthawed and with a pogo bounce, I watched the deer bound up the hillside. Rocks and undergrowth didn’t phase him. He moved with confidence through uncertain terrain.
As he mounted the hill, I thought to myself, “His feet are my feet.” God’s blessing to us is not always that we can conquer troubles but that we can walk over the top of them to a better point of view. Those with the feet of a deer do not need a paved road to reach the summit. The surefooted do not remove boulders; they bounce over them. The path is not on the ground but in their feet. Their ability to navigate four wheel drive country gives them a vista few others will see.
Application
What keeps the righteous man alive is his record of faithfulness to the Lord. What he sows, he will also reap. As he has been faithful to the Lord, so in turn, in days of need, the Lord will be faithful to him. The greatest investment we can make in our tomorrows is to put one foot in front of the other for today.
Prayer Father, I have the feet of a deer now help me to use them. I ask not for a better road, but for agility to clamber up to a better point of view. Help me to scamper to the heights and receive the reward of those who take the rugged incline. Amen.
Press the arrow to listen to Leeland sing “Count Me In” while reading today’s devotion about hope.
Scripture “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” But his wife answered, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.” Judges 13:22-23
Observation
Life can go well. God can answer a prayer. But we can still assume the worst.
Manoah was in that boat. God called at his door and gave a promise of a child to their empty home. But he feared the worst. He thought that God would kill him for opening the door.
I love Mrs. Manoah. She is nameless in the Bible but priceless. With earthy pragmatism she pointed to all the good things that God had done for them and concluded: would God have brought us so far to kill us?
Application
There are days I fear the worst. There is a residual fear that comes from our days without Christ that lingers on us like smoke smell in our clothes. But when I consider all that God has done for me in the past twenty-nine years of following him, it is hard to imagine that he has brought me thus far to embarrass me. There are many more glad and happy surprises that he has in store for my life. I’ve opened the door and seen the face of God and I believe that he won’t kill me for it!
Prayer Father, today I dare to believe even better things are to come. Amen.
Press the arrow to listen to Newsboys’ “In Christ Alone” as you read about today’s fight.
Scripture One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you. Joshua 23:10
Observation
Life is not a shuffle, it’s a fight, so we cannot approach it with halfheartedness. We must fight to win, for the Lord and his cause matters. This fighting spirit should infuse everything that we do.
But if we could view our day from God’s point of view we would quickly see that we are not alone in this effort of living. There are unseen angels. There is the gust of the Holy Spirit blowing behind what we do. Overarching all is our Father, so secure in his power that he need not fight at all.
Application
The greatest reassurance to me today is that this fight is not up to me. I am responsible to fight in the zone God has chosen for me. I am charged to throw my whole heart into the fray. But really the pack behind my punch is from Christ.
Prayer Father, there is a part of me that retracts from the fight. Sometimes it is reluctance. Sometimes it is laziness. Sometimes it is the feeling of being overwhelmed. Sometimes I prefer peacemaking. But I wrap myself with the promise today that you are working through me to fight. I give you my sword. Use me. Amen.
Press the arrow to listen to Jeremy Camp sing “There Will Be a Day” as you read today’s devotion about the challenges of new opporutnities.
Scripture “…the hill country shall be yours. For though it is a forest, you shall clear it, and to its farthest borders it shall be yours….” Joshua 17:18
Observation
I cried most of the day of my 25th birthday. Just two months into my first pastorate, the pincers of a divided church had pierced through to my heart. In my prayers I imagined that I had been dropped off on the shore of an island covered with sharp thorn bushes and it was my job to clear the land.
The Lord has no problem giving us opportunity. But we have a problem with what stands in our way. It may be a forest to clear, or hard leadership calls to make, debt to clear, conflict to resolve or paint to scrape before we can experience all that God has for us.
Opportunities can discourage us when God gives them. There is always an obstacle he deliberately puts in our path. Why does he do that? Is he against us? No, the challenges are proof that he is for us. He knows that these obstacles will bring the best out of us.
Application
I served long enough to see the thorn bushes in my first church pulled out by the roots. In time a new church building was built and the the congregation multiplied five times in size. I am glad that my ministry started the hard way, for that past endurance gives me today present strength to dig up the thorn bushes God has put in front of me.
Prayer Father, help me to claim all of the land you have intended for me. Amen.
Press the arrow to listen to a Hillsong classic “I Will Run to You”. The song is old but the meaning is new.
Scripture Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:27
Observation
If it were permissible to put exclamation points in the middle of a sentence rather than at the end, then this word of Jesus would have three of them.
Carry your cross!
Come after Me!
If not, you cannot be my disciple!
There is an ugly, splintered beast of a beam that lays in the middle of our path. It is impossible to miss. Jesus put it there so we would pick it up.
Then starts the race. We are to pursue after Jesus. What motivates us is that he is carrying a cross of his own that is far bigger than ours. Who are we to complain?
What motivates us to tote the cross is the thought of being in the inner circle of Jesus. There is only one way to get close to Jesus, and that is by shouldering responsibility as an act of worship. It is under the heavy load that we are closest to Christ.
Application
I don’t like splinters. I would rather sit on heavy things than carry them. But I love Jesus, and so I will chase after him with my own telephone pole strapped my back. Oddly enough, as I pick it up I find that it fits me and it is somehow supporting me as much as I am carrying it.
Prayer Father, today, I take my weighted pursuit of Jesus. I may travel light, but Jesus does not. His love comes with responsibilities. I will not shirk them. I will follow. Amen.
Press the arrow to listen to Casting Crowns sing “Life Song” while reading today’s devotion about usefulness.
Scripture So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. 1 Corinthians 15:58
Observation
What brings burn out is not hard work but work that feels pointless. Hard work, at least for me, is exhilarating. But work without reward is debilitating.
There is a sweet word I can drop into my day like sugar into my coffee that sweetens everything. That word is “useful”. If I am confident that what I am doing today is useful to the Lord, then I will work enthusiastically.
Application
I was reflecting about some major exertions of energy in my life and the works that they have produced. I wonder about the usefulness of some. But I have to ask myself, “Did I do them for the Lord?” My answer is, “Absolutely.” Then I must exercise faith that what I have done will be useful to the Lord, given time. I can’t let disappointments about the past slow my present pace. I must leave the past in the Lord’s hands with faith that he will make it work for him, somehow. Then I can move forward into what is given me to do today.
Prayer Father, I’ve heard on the radio of songs dedicated to loved ones. I dedicate my life-song today to you. Make it useful. It may never be in the top 40. I do not ask that my song be louder than any others, only that it will last forever. 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.
