Year: 2015

Regarding God’s Story, Gabriel Fackre once said that:
–We need to get the story straight by learning how to give the content of God’s story and ours;
–We need to get the story out by developing natural communication skills;
–We need to take the story in by learning to depend on the Spirit’s power; and
–We need to learn how to defend the story to others by being prepared to answer the common questions people ask about the gospel.

God help me to better learn Your story, take it in personally, get it out to others, and be able to defend the story. Your story of love for this fallen, corrupted world is the best news that has ever been told. Help me to love to remember it and tell it!

Regarding the idea of a “Sabbath Rest” day:
…In the biblical Sabbath of the Old Testament, God afforded the poor the same amount of rest as the wealthy – which is certainly not the case of today’s society. …One key measure of whether you are experiencing a true Sabbath is to ask, “Can someone in poverty experience this?” The Sabbath won’t come up and embrace you; you have to embrace the Sabbath.
–David Goetz

Too many times I do not experience a true Sabbath on Sunday (the day of rest and worship for most Christians). Even though I am planning to go to church on that day, I do not come to the day with a proper thought about resting and meeting God. Instead, I come to the day with the idea that I will carve a portion of it out for God (a few hours at Sunday school and worship services), and I’ll keep the rest to do what I want to do. I need to have a change of mind and heart to give the day back to God. I’ve just spent six previous days on my plans, and God has ordained one day to be His in a different way. I pray that in 2015, I will embrace the Sabbath in a more intentional way. I hope you’ll join me in the attempt.

Not, indeed, that our Father in heaven always answers his children’s prayers in the form in which we offer them. Sometimes we ask for the wrong thing! It is God’s prerogative to give good things, things that we have need of, and if in our unwisdom we ask for things that do not come under these headings God, like any good parent, reserves the right to say, “No, not that; it wouldn’t be good for you — but have this instead.” Good parents never simply ignore what their children are saying, nor simply disregard their feelings of need, and neither does God; but often he gives us what we should have asked for, rather than what we actually requested.
–J. I. Packer

I am so glad that He is such a good Father that He doesn’t ignore me nor disregard me, but rather that He gives me what I should have asked for, instead of what I think I need.

God, help me always to trust that Your answers to my prayers are wiser than my requests!

What, Lord, is my greatest comfort among all the things that appear under heaven? Is it not You, O Lord, my God, Whose mercies are without number? Where have I ever fared well but for You? Or how could things go badly when You were present? I had rather be poor for Your sake than rich without You. I prefer rather to wander on the earth with You than to possess heaven without You. Where You are there is heaven, and where You are not are death and hell. You are my desire and therefore I must cry after You and sigh and pray. In none can I fully trust to help me in my necessities, but in You alone, my God. You are my hope. You are my confidence. You are my consoler, most faithful in every need.
–Thomas à Kempis

Amen to this beautiful statement written almost 600 years ago. I pray that I feel the same way about Jesus. That my love, conviction, and passion for Him is so much greater than my desires for anything else. May He always be my Hope and my Confidence! (Maybe you’ll join me in rereading the quote, but this time making it your personal prayer to God for today.)

You and I must resist the lie of the enemy that we have been selected to face what others haven’t. We must resist the temptation of thinking that God has forgotten us, neglected us, or turned his back on us. We must refuse to feel that we are victims of abandonment by the One we are called to represent. And we must remember that our suffering is not in the way of God’s plan, but part of it. In our suffering God is not only with us but also is employing it to change us and those to whom we minister.
–Paul David Tripp

As we experience suffering, let us not despair. Rather, let us use it to push us into a deeper relationship with our God who will walk through it with us. It is true that “the rain falls on both the righteous and the unrighteous,” however only one of those groups has a comforting God walking with them through the rain holding their hands.