Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong sing “Higher” (I Beleive in You) as you read today’s devotion about worry-free living.
Scripture Be anxious for nothing….
Observation
“Fear not.” There is such a reassuring cadence in those words. We heard echo in our mother’s voice soothing down the hallway in the middle of a dark night. We hear those words today through the voice of God. “Fear not” is one of the Father’s favorite things to say. He sprinkles this command liberally throughout the whole of the Bible.
The Father wants us to live fearlessly. It is almost like someone inviting Sir Isaac Newton to live in weightlessness of space. There is a freedom from the grim gravity that grips so many down.
Paul found the secret. He knew how to live well poor or rich. The secret was to look beyond the means and to see the source. Behind it all is Christ and in him there is always enough. With or without things we always have him and he is more than enough. Poverty causes us to desire him more; prosperity reminds us that he is the giver of all.
Application
When I chose to be satisfied with Christ alone I am weightless in a weighed down world. Some are weighed down with worry and others with wealthy, but I can be worry free. This begins with a choice, for that is the only option to respond to a command. Paul did not encourage us to not be anxious; he commanded us not to worry. Fearlessness is the result of obedience.
Prayer
Father, I trust you, totally, thorough, completely. You are my all in all. Amen.
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.
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 Mighty to Save from Hillsong while you are reading today’s devotion.
Scripture March on with courage, my soul! Judges 5:21
Observation
When most soldiers march behind armor, the men of this era in Bible history hid behind their mother’s apron. Barak (no relation to Obama) was the General Eisenhower of his day; he was the man standing between desolation and civilization. All eyes were on Barak, but he was suffering panic attacks. Instead of leading the people he ran to his spiritual mother and asked her to go along with him. That would be like George Washington asking for his mama to hold his hand as he crossed the Delaware. Something obviously was wrong, but what exactly?
What Barak faced is what many men face in those self-esteem stripping moments of life. When a man faces a challenge, fear strips away layers like paint stripper, exposing his raw nerves. At that moment a man has two choices.
The first is comfort, especially the comfort of a woman. It can be his mother or a wife he treats like his mother to console him. This is why men turn to pornography, fantasy, adultery and the like in times of stress. In fact, whenever a man is facing unusual sexual temptation he needs to ask himself what challenges is he facing and how is he avoiding them?
The other choice a man has is courage. Courage isn’t what is cracked up to be in the movies. Courage is not a comforting feeling. Courage is a lonely, cold emotion. At the core of tangled terrify feelings, courage is a resolve to press forward no matter what. Courage is not being unafraid, but committed to the cause even when one is afraid. Naturally, lesser men retract from courage and flee into comfort.
All men struggle with the comfort vs courage choice Barak did, it is just that his example is more stark than other men. David turned to Bathsheba, Abraham used Sarah as a body shield in Egypt, and of course don’t even mention the womanizer King Solomon.
Application
The question lands at the front door of every man: will I be courageous or will I seek for comfort? Courage requires a contentment with unsettling feelings and self-doubt, but on the other side lays self-respect. Today I chose courage.
Prayer Father, I like the simplicity of Deborah’s prayer: March on with courage, my soul! As I take that choice enflame me with strength. Amen.
Scripture Keep me safe, O God, for I have come to you for refuge. Psalm 16:1
Observation
Why is it that the Lord chooses to take care of us in troubled times? For one reason only: simply because we have asked for help. The psalm singer is straightforward: he expects God to rescue him simply because he is ringing the bell at God’s house. That is reason enough.
It is a tradition amongst desert nomads of the Middle East to honor hospitality as the most treasured of gifts. The thirsty desert has forced them to show kindness to any wanderer in need. If a traveler says to a sheik, “I desire the rights of a guest in your tent” that Bedouin must take him in even if he has murdered his own brother. The Lord is our sultan and if we ask for help he has bound himself to grant it to us.
We make these requests of God in times of prayer. That is obvious enough. But there are other prayers we do not know we are even praying that the Lord listens to as well. When we have an idle conversation with a friend and we grumble against the Lord and question his ability to care for us, the Lord hears that. On the other hand, when we are talking with a friend who is skeptical or nervous of God’s ability to provide and we state our confidence in the Lord to care for us even when nothing is evident, the Lord hears that as if it were a prayer.
If we need proof that the Lord listens to our idle conversations, then turn to Malachai 3:14-18
“You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the Lord of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins? From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.’â€
Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name.
“They will be my people,†says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.â€
Our private comments are public prayers to the Lord.
Application
So why do I doubt God’s ability to keep me safe and to bring me through to the other side? Because somehow I question if God is really enough, as if he were a blanket too short to cover the bed. We need to get lost in the enormity of the nature and character of God. In my Bible readings today is a passage where God tells Moses what his name is. God doesn’t give a word but a paragraph to state his name:
“Yahweh! The Lord!
The God of compassion and mercy!
I am slow to anger
and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.
I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
But I do not excuse the guilty.
I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren;
the entire family is affected—
even children in the third and fourth generations.†Exodus 34:6-7
We should not read this paragraph as individual words but as one complete word. This is the name and nature of God. When we come to the Lord for refuge we find a cavernous expanse large enough for us all all of our concerns. He is enough for us.
Prayer Father, in you I take refuge. Hear my prayers in private and in public and demonstrate your ability to save to reveal something of the enormity of your name. 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.
Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service. As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!†The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!â€
My Mind Thinks
Baseball fans all over Colorado are as exuberant as the autumn trees. The Colorado Rockies actually stand a chance of making it to the World Series. We’re staying in Colorado at the moment with friends. The hype is everywhere. The local sporting goods store is sold out of Rockies caps. Cars have flags waving. It’s fun to be neighbors with winners. The Rockies have nothing to do with the Bible passage I’ve read today except this: in baseball it’s three strikes and you are out.
Peter had three strikes against him the day he walked into the temple.
He was on his way to a Jewish majority event as a minority Christian. Â Â Strike one.
He met a man asking for help with needs bigger than he could fix.   Strike two.
Like most pastors, he didn’t have enough money.   Strike three.
But this time, after three strikes Peter was not out but in. Peter made it to the home plate of a miracle because he knew what he did have. Peter had the Lord Jesus Christ and that was enough. Jesus was freshly resurrected from the dead, ascended on high and seated at the right hand of God. This news was so fresh it had not even yet been written about. Peter’s Lord Jesus was in a place of power to act. This would be the Lord’s first public demonstration of his healing power since his days on earth. Peter was poor but he knew he was rich because he had Jesus. The rest of the story is in the Bible.
So often we disqualify ourselves from miracles because we focus on the strikes against us rather than what we do have to offer. Throughout the Bible all kinds of excuses are used to opt out of doing something supernatural.
“I can’t talk so good.”
“I’m a sinful man.”
“My tribe is the least in Israel.”
“I have only a little oil.”
“We have only a boy and his lunch but what is that among so many.”
You’ve heard the excuses all before as the struck out batter shuffles back to the bull pen with his shoulders slouched. So many of us check out of God’s supernatural plan because we accept as ironclad fact that three strikes make an out.
But not with the Lord. Three strikes can be rubbed off the scoreboard if we will instead dig down in our pockets into what we do have. When was the last time you took personal stock of your assets rather than your liabilities? Or take it one step further. What does Jesus have to offer that you don’t have?
My Heart Responds
I’m about to take a Sunday morning walk along a path that leads straight to Pikes Peak. On my prayer walk I’m going to ask the Lord and myself this question in a new way, What do I have? What does Jesus have that I can use that I have not touched.
My Spirit Prays
Father, can you speak louder than the Umpire today, over the sound of striiiiiiiiike and instead remind me what I do have? And then help me to use it. 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.
