Press the arrow to listen to the Keith Green classic, “Create a Clean Heart in Me” while reading today’s devotion.

Scripture
Have mercy on me, O God,
because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunts me day and night.
Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you. Psalm 51:1, 3, 4, 10-12

Observation
immediately after World War II, the ever energetic an engineering Germans rebuilt their pulverized nation back to factory specifications. One building, however, was left in ruins. The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin remained a bombed out rubble. Why? The people of Germany wanted a daily reminder of the futility of war, so the building was left in ruins. Next door a new church was built. Inside that church a cross was fashioned from the nails of another bombed cathedral, Coventry Cathedral in England destroyed by German bombers.

We like to erect memorials to glory days, but some of the best monuments are the ones we raise to commemorate our lowest moments. Psalm 51 is a still photo of David’s heart just after Nathan’s confrontation. His heart would go on and grow on. Like all hearts it would wander. But Psalm 51 was like an old vinyl LP with etched grooves that his heart could replay in years to come. Because he took time to carefully record his heart condition he could retune his heart back to that humbled moment.

Application
Today I’m ending a sabbath that has filled nearly an entire year. It has been 10 months of living off of what has grown of itself and diverting myself from my normal routine. Today I enter the on ramp of life and merge into the frenzy of human activity. Life will speed up, but I don’t want to forget the state of my heart in this time. What lessons do I want to take from this Sabbath Season into the next epoch of my working?

Live in and work out of that sacred space between the Father and the Son.
God never forgets a promise.
Patience should make me excited for it has rewards.
Hope is unreasonable, so linger in vulnerable places where miracles happen.
Work hard at being myself so I never have to remember how to act.
Prove that you trust God by resting.
Don’t expect new seasons to be a rerun of old seasons, be different to make a difference.

Early in this sabbath I wrote an entry that sums up my desires for the days ahead: I Want to Make This World a Better Place.

Prayer
Father, please strengthen me for the work that is before me. Let my life be an ice chest full of Gatorade to re-hydrate the weary where the water does not flow. 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.

Scripture
After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ Acts 13:22

Observation
How did God find out about David’s heart?

There was no resume that David sent to Samuel. There was no referee who put in a good word for him. Samuel didn’t point him out to the Lord. In fact, David’s father had pushed him out of sight by sending him to the back acres to care for sheep. His brother’s belittled him. David had no business card and took no time for networking. And yet he became King of Israel because God spotted him.

How did God find David and then find him useful?

God spotted David during his job interview. What interview you might wonder? David indeed had an interview to become king; it was called shepherding. While he was feeding sheep, fighting off lions and bears and singing psalms under the stars God was reviewing David’s file. Because David made the most of a dead end job God opened another door for him. What change can happen in life if we make the most of insignificant moments. Little do we realize that God is watching and because of our faithfulness in one difficult place the Lord opens the door for the next one.

David worked the way God works, that is why he was called a man after God’s own heart. He cared for sheep with passion just as the Lord does his own. He worshipped with gusto even without cds or mp3s. It is our attention to the trivial things of life that gains the attention of the Lord and gives us entrance into other things.

Had the Samuel advertised for a king in the newspaper his mail box would have been packed with resumes. Instead he listened to the Lord who had been watching when one one else was looking. What is invisible to others is in plain sight to the Lord and he can make the inconspicuous into the obvious just as easily.

Application
What matters most is our heart. We must throw our heart fully in what we are given to do. There can be no excuses that we would work harder if we had something better to do. We must work with heart. It is not enough to show up to work, we must throw ourselves into the job. God delights in passion when energy and emotion blend together to bring results; when love and labor intertwine and life changes for the better. What would happen if we treated every mundane moment like a job interview? Not only would we do our best but more importantly God will open doors for what he next has in store for us to do.

Prayer
Father, today I give you my heart by throwing it into that which you have given me to do. Amen.