Scripture
“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:13-14

Observation
My dad was a university professor with tons of experience watching students. He told me before my first college class, “Don’t sit in the back row where the students talk. Sit at the front so you can listen.” He was right. Front rows have been a life habit of mine. But Jesus tells me something different today. There are times it pleases God to sit in the back.

The tax collector “stood at a distance” and was closest to God. He, and not the preacher on the front row, was the example to follow.

Application
I wonder how often I walk into church with a sense that I belong there. I grew up in the church. My dad was a pastor. I’m a pastor. It’s all very familiar, maybe too familiar. What would happen if I stopped at the back and pondered my inadequacy.

In the Parliaments of the British Commonwealth there is at the entry doors a bar placed across the open doorway. In the Queensland State Parliament, where I lived in Brisbane, there is a golden bar across the doorway. Visitors are called “strangers” and if a non-member of parliament is invited to speak he maybe asked to stand behind the bar and address parliament at a distance.

Maybe we need to put a bar across the doorway, not of church, but across the threshold of every life entry. When we walk into the office, or the boardroom, or the classroom, or the restaurant or even our own homes, it would be good if we paused and reflected on our unworthiness and Christ’s full sufficiency. Everything is better than we deserve. That is the nature of mercy. That hesitation to pause to acknowledge our sinfulness and need of a Saviour could make all of the difference.

Prayer
Father, the only ticket of entrance I have into heaven or your presence is my confession that I am a sinful person. Have mercy on me. And let me seek that mercy at every entry point of life, for I am unworthy of it all. Everything is better than I deserve. Amen.

Scripture
But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all. 1 Corinthians 12:31

Observation
There are two ways to pray about the days that we live.

First is to pray, “Lord, use me greatly.”
It accents the word “greatly”.
It’s a showroom prayer from the staring line.

The other is to ask, “Lord, greatly use me.”
The spotlight is on the word “use”.
It’s a workshop prayer that will get us past the finish line.

We have a choice in life to be remembered for our gifts or to be recalled for our love.

It is clear which way of living is most excellent. Humans define excellence in terms of performance while God only grades the quality of our love. While we polish the finish, God checks the dipstick to see what’s on the inside.

Application
If I want an A in God’s course of life I need not so much to perform well but as to love well.

Prayer
Father, this sentence is a teaser to look past the skills of life and to find the heart of living. If I am remembered for how well I performed I have failed. If you are remembered because of how I loved, then I have succeeded. Lord, love through me today. Amen.

From www.inkcinct.com.au

What the Bible Says
The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount!’ “‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’

“But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, ‘Master, I hid your money and kept it safe. I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and harvesting crops you didn’t plant.’ “‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.
Luke 19:16, 17, 20, 21, 26

What My Mind Thinks
What holds us back from becoming all that God has imagined us to be? It is our desire to play it safe. It’s the tendency to live with a passbook savings account mentality in a bull market economy.

The interest rate of Jesus is frankly out of this world. His rate of return doubles investments, or a 100% dividend rate. The only thing he asks of us is calculated risks. We are not to spend his resources, we are to invest them. We need to place them strategically in the hands of others where they can become greater. That requires thought, demands, foresight, trust and accountability.

But with returns of 100% we want to play it safe. Why? Because we are afraid not so much of failure as we are of disappointing God. “I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with….” Our ability to succeed in life depends on our perception of God’s face. If we we live with a fear of his scowl we will hide our nest egg under the mattress. But if we can capture something of the glee and merriment of God at our forward success we will look for opportunities and take them.

Years ago my aunt put a book in my hands with one quote that has changed my outlook. It comes from Annie Dillard’s Pulitzer Prize Winning Book, Pilgrim On Tinker Creek:

“There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain or Lazarus.”

How My Heart Acts
It is time for me to invest…with wisdom. Instead of the self-conscious life that worries what God will think with this or that, I must think of the joy I can bring to his heart by making the most he has given to me while there is yet time.

What My Spirit Prays
Father, today I want to be an investor of what you have given to me. Liberate me from the paralysis of bewilderment of options. Help me to discern the appropriate opportunities. And then hover over my investments with the Miracle Grow of the kingdom of God. The best is yet to come. 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.