The Bible Says

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!”

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.

Here I am at age 6 with a bandaged playground injury sitting on the knee of Uncle Henry, the man who was the grandfather I never had.

Scripture

So it is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the Lord.
And it is good for people to submit at an early age
to the yoke of his discipline:

For no one is abandoned
by the Lord forever.

Lamentations 3:26, 27, 31

Observation

What is the recipe for creating a person of success? We would think that it would begin with plenty of love, nurture, compassion, encouragement, grace, kindness, and all of the other best intentions we have for our children.

But experience with people shows again and again it is those who have started life with the gift of hardship who are often most successful. Some of the most successful people I have known began life in poverty, abuse, rejection, and pain. But it was that early hardship that introduced them to the secrets of life success.

“It is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline”, Jeremiah wrote.

For those who are passing through hardship in their early years, there is hope in these words. With the Lord there is no freedom from pain, but instead our hope is that our pain can be used for his purposes. Those God wishes to grace with success will often be given the gift of hardship early in life to teach them the lessons of success. Those who have suffered while they are young should have the most hope of better things to come. As A.W. Tozer said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” (From Glorify his name! Root of the Righteous, chapter 39.)

Jeremiah was an old man as he wrote these words, but he could remember his years as a young prophet suffering great abuse. Now as an old man he was watching young men of Jerusalem suffering their first bruises in the aftermath of war. Jeremiah made quite a list of hardships a young man can experience that are signs of future success:

…walled in (verse 7)

…heavy chains (verse 7)

…blocked with a high stone wall (verse 9)

…target for his arrows (verse 12)

…arrows deep into my heart (verse 13)

…people laugh at me (verse 14)

…chew on gravel (verse 16)

…rolled in the dust (verse 16)

But still Jeremiah wrote,

Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:

The faithful love of the Lord never ends
His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. (verses 21-23)

It seems that the best view of the Lord comes not at the top, but from the bottom.

I remember when I first moved to Australia, living amongst the tall gum trees of the Dandenong Mountains. I went for a walk with my camera to take pictures to send to my family in America. I wanted to give them some sense of the slender stature of the eucalypts of Australia. I took my Kodak Instamatic and placed it at the base of the tree looking upward through the branches to the crown. When the pictures were developed I discovered that trees are best appreciated not from a distance but from the bottom. As the camera lens captures the slender trunk and waving branches we can get a feel for how mighty a tree can be. And so it is with the Lord. His greatness of mercy so fresh every sunrise is seen best not from the high blessings of life but from the low hardships.

Application

I must embrace my hardships if I am to be successful in life. Success begins when I don’t lose heart with my early failures but see them as but the precursors of success.

Prayer

Father, use all that I have experienced in life both good and bad to prepare me for better days to come. Amen.

This is my daughter Laurel and her boyfriend Kris. He’s a special young man who overcame a high school wrestling accident and a wheelchair to finish a college degree in psychology. He hopes to counsel other quadriplegics into hope.

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

God has plans for us. That is a comforting thought. Like a good employer, or better yet a kindly Father, he has thought of the way ahead and prepared relationships, finances, opportunities, setbacks and endurance to bring out the best for us.

But note carefully that it is God who knows the plans and we do not. He doesn’t give away details, but he does have plans. He keeps some things hidden from us on purpose because if we knew what he was planning we would mess them up. The mystery draws us closer to him and he likes it that way.Â

What we are told is that his plans are good. They give us a plan for tomorrow and hope for life beyond that. There is a future and a hope. We’re not told anything. Instead just as wrapping paper can turn a brown, cardboard box into a thing of wonder, so the plans of the Lord give us hope of what is inside.

If we are to get anywhere into the future that the Lord has planned for us we must be confident of two things: God has plans, and those plans are something to look forward to. Who else can say that?

I sat with a pastor in his car as his GPS device coached us through a city of 4 million people. We had to drive across town. After punching the beginning and ending points into the device he remarked that the computer had searched over 170,000 options and had selected the best road possible. After that the screen showed us only the road immediately ahead of us. The Lord has done so much more for us.

How many thoughts the Lord has had concerning us. There is so much in life to look forward to.

Father, this day I surrender to your plans. I need not know what they are. Anticipation is enough. So here is my whole heart searching for you this day.