Category Archives: Devotional

A Gift from the Heart

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. John 14:1, NIV*

If you love me, keep my commands. John 14:15, NIV*

Last week’s devotional thought, “Willing to Give,” was about the wholehearted, willing offerings we make to God out of love for Him. Lots of times these are actions, but beneath the action is the true offering that comes from the heart:

Faith.

Love.

Trust.

Believing in God, trusting Him, just because of who He is. Because of what we know of His character. Because we know He’s trustworthy.

Even when we don’t see the whys and hows. Even when it hurts.

Our love and trust will result in obedience if it’s real. If we act on it. If we don’t put it into practice it stays theory and we’re never truly sure about God.

Many of my favourite novels have a hero/heroine who’s a strong leader, one the other characters will follow in the bleakest circumstances in blind (but fully warranted) trust. One who operates on the “need to know” principle because stopping to explain takes too long and because the followers don’t have the knowledge base to be able to understand. One who brings them through incredible odds to victory.

God is like that, except better. He’s real, and nothing surprises Him.

Reading the novels, when I see characters mistrusting the leader or trying their own ways, I know they’re wrong and I keep hoping they’ll wise up before it’s too late. Before they either ruin everything or at least get themselves killed.

In real life, it’s sometimes easier to be the doubter than the faithful follower—even when God is the leader.

Father, I’m glad You know our weaknesses. I’m gladder still that You love us anyway, and that You’re working all things out to the end You’ve planned from the beginning. You are the only wise, all-powerful God. The only one who can bring victory in the mess we’ve made. Help us to love, trust and obey You, in the big and in the small. Sometimes the small is the hardest part.

∞

This week’s song is Big Daddy Weave’s version of the classic hymn, “Trust and Obey”.

Willing to Give

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The people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning…[until] the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.
Exodus 36:3b, 6b, 7 NIV*

These are the Israelites in the wilderness, being led and sustained by God. The God who has now instructed Moses in the making of a tabernacle where He will dwell with His people. Moses has asked all who are willing and able to give materials, and this is the people’s response.

As God has provided manna each morning for the people, now that they have the opportunity to give back they do it the same way: morning by morning until the workers have more than enough.

I’m working through Beth Moore’s study, A Woman’s Heart, God’s Dwelling Place (updated version), and along with this passage she asks readers to discover what freewill offerings we give to the Lord—or hold back from Him.

He’s been prompting me for the past few months about an open heart, about stepping out through the self-constructed wall. I’m cooperating as best as I can, but it’s a real “step forward, step back” experience. After all, it’s familiar behind the wall… comfortable.

But I meant it when I told Him I’d obey, and when I realize I’ve retreated again, I get up and move out. Again.

Reading how the Israelites brought more offerings each day made my efforts look useless. I can’t even seem to bring one thing and let it stay there. Like the manna, it doesn’t “keep”. But then I realized, so what? As long as I faithfully bring my heart each time it sneaks home to roost, I’m doing the best I can. One of these days that heart may even stay where it’s put.

Father, my freewill offering is an open heart, but it keeps closing up again. As You remind me, I will open it and bring it to You again and again, like the Israelites kept bringing fresh treasures to You. I pray You’ll count it as obedience, and complete the work You’ve begun.

∞

Third Day’s “Offering” is one of those rare songs that rooted in my heart on a first hearing. It’s a fitting one for today.

Expectations and Complaints

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Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea…. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter…. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
Exodus 15: 22-24, NIV*

The Israelites were jubilant at what God had done: deliverance from Egyptian slavery, parting the Red Sea to rescue them (neatly eliminating their enemies). They believed He could fulfill the rest of His promise and bring them into the promised land.

After a string of miracles and evidences of His great power, it’s understandable that they’d expect Him to melt all remaining opposition and obstacles in their way.

Then right away they have three waterless days in the desert, only to find water they can’t drink. No wonder they complain!

Moses, on the other hand, is used to setbacks, from his dealings with Pharaoh. He cries out to God.

The people know God can help, but they don’t ask. They expect, and then protest when He doesn’t operate the way they want.

Don’t we do the same?

Father God, mighty to save and wise to teach, You could give us smooth paths. But we seem to learn better when we experience Your help in the rough places. Help us to trust Your leading and to listen, obey, and learn to do life Your way. Help us to be grateful for Your presence.

∞

A good song and prayer for today is Matt and Beth Redman’s “Blessed Be Your Name,” sung here by Matt Redman.

Pain and Joy

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Now a man named Lazarus was sick….When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
John 11:1a, 4-6 NIV*

Jesus didn’t even have to go see Lazarus to heal him, he could have just said the word. Instead He waited until Lazarus was dead before starting out.

He loved this family. Their home seems to be one of the few genuinely safe places where He could visit without loaded questions and malice.

Loving them, knowing their faith and character and that they could pass this test, He let Lazarus the provider die.

Because there was something bigger at stake.

This was “for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (v. 4)

And as much as this was clearly about God, it wasn’t for God’s benefit. He wasn’t on an ego trip.

It was for the people, the believers. Jesus told His disciples in verse 15, “…for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.”

Not for God’s sake that they could believe, but for theirs. God already knew who He is.

Jesus wept and was deeply moved by the sisters’ grief. Probably more so because He knew He could have prevented it. Given that He’d already been speaking about laying down His own life, it wasn’t a case of letting someone else pay a price He wasn’t prepared to double.

The people needed to know Him better, and joy was on its way. But that didn’t negate the pain.

Sustaining and compassionate God, help us remember in our tears that You feel our pain. Help us rely on You in faith, trusting although we don’t understand. Reveal Yourself to us, not for Your benefit but for ours, so that we can trust You more.

∞

There are plenty of good songs about trusting God in the pain. Today I chose David Crowder*Band’s “Shadows”.

A Pure Heart

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Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10, NIV*

To step out from behind my wall of self-protection and live authentically with others…

to trust God to be my Protector and to let His life give itself through me…

I need a pure heart and a steadfast spirit.

Purifying the heart, renewing the steadfast spirit, comes by removing the fallen wall’s rubble so that I can step out through it.

Sometimes purification needs strong cleansers. Or fire. It needs an expert and delicate touch—only God, who broke the wall, can do it.

What feeds a pure heart? Dependence on God and delight in Him. Time alone with Him, with heart, mind and spirit tuned to His.

Father, thank You more than words can say for rescuing me from a life—and a death—separated from You. You have saved me… You are saving me… You will save me. In the saving, make my heart pure. Make my spirit steadfast. Help me learn to depend on You and to live authentically in Your world.

∞

Brian Doerksen’s song, “Refiner’s Fire,” is a challenging prayer that holds nothing in reserve. May it be our prayer nonetheless.

Help for a Monday

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Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.

Don’t assume that you know it all.

Proverbs 3:5-7a, MSG*

This was my devotional reading on Monday in the NIV**, but when I saw how The Message phrases it, with that “listen in everything/everywhere” that has been encouraging me lately, I knew that was the version to use here.

Monday… definitely one of those days I longed to crawl back into bed. I wasn’t sick, just painfully sluggish in body and mind.

It was also a day full of commitments.

These verses from Proverbs are old friends to me, and still verse 5 brought a new insight this time:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

It brought back recent advice I’d heard to dwell on the positives: to say “I’m great, thanks” instead of “I’m so tired”. The idea was to talk oneself into a better outlook, not do deny serious trouble, to choose good over bad when both are present.

A question popped up in my spirit: Am I going to believe my mental groaning of “I can’t do this”—or am I going to believe God’s promise that His grace is enough to strengthen my weakness?

Denial is another form of lying, and trying to think things better because we want God to agree with us is shaky ground.

But for me, it’s more a case of settling for less, of listening to my own understanding of how I feel instead of trusting God to be enough to make a difference. Sure, I’m tired, but am I really as tired as I say I am? As I’ve come to believe?

Today’s Wednesday… how did Monday play out? I was slower than normal, but everything got done that needed doing. The biscuits I made to go with supper even turned out fine!

Father, You are faithful to Your promises and loving towards all You have made. Thank You for Your grace. Thanks for reminding me to trust Your perspective instead of mine. Thanks for times of weakness that remind us to trust Your strength.

∞

I’m glad feeling weak can remind me of God’s strength. Here’s a vintage Amy Grant song (written by Gary Chapman & Michael W Smith) with a similar perspective: “I Love a Lonely Day”.

Rebuild the House

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This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured,” says the LORD. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.”
Haggai 1:7-10, NIV*

God is speaking through Haggai to the Jews who have returned from exile. They’d started to rebuild the temple, but how could what they put together out of rubble compare with the remembered glory of Solomon’s temple? Building homes didn’t seem as impossible, and it was a legitimate need too.

Christians today don’t have a temple to rebuild, but we’re each temples of the Holy Spirit. And we’re not to neglect meeting together as congregations of faith.

We’re sure busy with our own “houses”: work, household duties, busy schedules… nobody has much time for church events. It’s hard enough to fit in time for Sunday worship.

The last thing we need is another church group or committee meeting. And people can burn out or weaken their families by being too busy in the church.

But this idea of building… rebuilding….

If we are the body—the church—then maybe the rebuilding isn’t about formal meetings or events. Maybe it’s about relationships. Some of that can happen in structured settings, but it can also happen one-on-one as we take the initiative.

This isn’t the pastor’s job. It’s up to each of us. And it’s what will cause observers to know we belong to Jesus.

Father, some things from my own “house” will need to move aside to make time for Yours. But doing things Your way is always better than pushing for mine. Please help me to seize the opportunities You give to connect with my spiritual brothers and sisters—so You may take pleasure in us and be honoured.

∞

An appropriate song-prayer is “Bind Us Together”.

Listening to God

Soul Rest

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Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30, NIV*

The rural language of yokes isn’t as clear to me as a city-dweller in 2010 North America, but I’ve been told that farmers will pair a new ox with an experienced one to help the new one learn how to pull (and probably how to interpret and obey the farmer’s guidance).

Usually when I think of learning from Jesus I think of His teachings, although He was a living model of following the Father. (Paul wrote about following Jesus’ example too.)

Today it’s the example, the attitude, I see He wants me to learn. Yes, there’s the doing, but it’s too easy to overlook or neglect the how.

Jesus demonstrated a life that’s gentle and humble in heart. He didn’t try to control or dominate. Although by His nature as God He has that right, He modeled submission to, obedience to, and trust in God the Father.

Rest for my soul indeed! Trying to be mentally in control, pushing to do it my way, is not just unsatisfying and unproductive, it’s soul-draining.

Father, let me learn from the Son, and be led by the Spirit, to live the way You intended, and to come into Your rest.

∞

An appropriate prayer this week is “O Master Let Me Walk With Thee,” (Words: Washington Gladden, 1879. Music: Henry Percy Smith, 1874.)

Out Through the Rubble

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Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28, NIV*

I got away for a much-needed spiritual retreat last weekend. Our speaker challenged us to ask God to take down the walls we’ve built, and to let His living water flow out through us instead of being dammed up.

As part of this process, she asked us meditate on Scripture. Not sure what verse to choose, I thought, “Come to Me”. Not a verse, but a fragment. Okay.

Come to Me.

It said some things that meshed with our weekend:

step out through the rubble of your wall;
you need to be with the people you’ve walled out; and
Jesus is waiting there to welcome you (not that He’s not with you in your self-made prison too).

It wasn’t until later I recognized the phrase as coming from Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28. But don’t they fit beautifully?

If we’re struggling to hold up a wall, we’re definitely weary and burdened. It’s hard work. And it never ends.

Trusting Jesus to be in charge gives us rest. Taking down the walls lets us be ourselves: the gifts God has for those around us.

Father, I praise You for Your grace and mercy to bring us back into relationship with You, and for Your healing and restoration in our lives. Thank You for setting us free, for equipping us to live with one another and with You. The world may look out of control, but You are sovereign. Teach us to live trusting in You, listening for and confident in Your leading.

∞

I had trouble finding a song for this, but Francesca Battistelli’s “Free to Be Me” captures the feeling of how I want to live on the other side of the rubble.

Janet Sketchley

Writing Christian Mysteries & Suspense

Category Archives: Devotional

A Gift from the Heart

Willing to Give

Expectations and Complaints

Pain and Joy

A Pure Heart

Help for a Monday

Rebuild the House

Listening to God

Soul Rest

Out Through the Rubble