1 Timothy 4:12-16

Every Christian is given at least one spiritual gift with which to serve the Lord and build up the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:7). But many believers neglect this special empowerment of the Spirit. Although Timothy had some good reasons to forsake his calling from God, Paul advised him to “take pains with these things” and “be absorbed in them” (v. 15). As you look at Timothy, ask yourself if either of the following situations are hindering you from fully serving the Lord.

Age: No matter how old we are, the Lord wants us to use our spiritual gifts. Because Timothy was young, he could easily have been intimidated by those with more experience. However, youth isn’t our only excuse. Some believers think they’re too old to serve the Lord. Even though our areas of ministry may change over the years, we’re never called into spiritual retirement.

Inadequacy: Have you ever avoided a service opportunity simply because you felt totally unqualified? That’s probably how Timothy felt about leading the church at Ephesus. Our spiritual gifts rarely come to us fully developed. God often requires that we step out in faith and trust Him to work in and through us. Over time, as we obey and serve Him in our areas of giftedness, He increases the effectiveness of our ministry.

Is anything keeping you from using your spiritual gifts? Though given to us, these abilities aren’t for us; they’re for the church. To neglect them would not only deprive fellow believers but also rob ourselves: there is joy and blessing in serving others and doing the work God has designated for us.

There is an immense difference between a worldview that is not able to answer every question to complete satisfaction and one whose answers are consistently contradictory. There is an even greater difference between answers that contain paradoxes and those that are systemically irreconcilable.

Once again, the Christian faith stands out as unique in this test, both as a system of thought and in the answers it gives. Christianity does not promise that you will have every question fully answered to your satisfaction before you die, but the answers it gives are consistently consistent. There may be paradoxes within Christian teaching and belief, but they are not irreconcilable. To those who feel that Christianity has failed them because of prayers that went unanswered, it is important to realize what I am saying here.

I sat with a man in my car, talking about a series of heartbreaks he had experienced. “There were just a few things I had wanted in life,” he said. “None of them have turned out the way I had prayed. I wanted my parents to live until I was at least able to stand on my own and they could watch my children grow up. It didn’t happen. I wanted my marriage to succeed, and it didn’t. I wanted my children to grow up grateful for what God had given them. That didn’t happen. I wanted my business to prosper, and it didn’t. Not only have my prayers amounted to nothing; the exact opposite has happened. Don’t even ask me if you can pray for me. I am left with no trust of any kind in such things.”

I felt two emotions rising up within me as I listened. The first was one of genuine sorrow. He felt that he had tried, that he had done his part, but that God hadn’t lived up to his end of the deal. The second emotion was one of helplessness, as I wondered where to begin trying to help him.

These are the sharp edges of faith in a transcendent, all-powerful, personal God. Most of us have a tendency to react with anger or withdrawal when we feel God has let us down by not giving us things we felt were legitimate to ask him for. We may feel guilty that our expectations toward God were too great. We may feel that God has not answered our prayers because of something lacking in ourselves. We may compare ourselves with others whose every wish seems to be granted by God, and wonder why he hasn’t come through for us in the way he does for others. And sometimes we allow this disappointment in God to fester and eat away at our faith in him until the years go by and we find ourselves bereft of belief.

G. K. Chesterton surmised that when belief in God becomes difficult, the tendency is to turn away from him—but, in heaven’s name, to what?  To the skeptic or the one who has been disappointed in his faith, the obvious answer to Chesterton’s question may be to give up believing that there’s somebody out there, take charge of your own life, and live it out to the best of your own ability.

But Chesterton also wrote, “The real trouble with the world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite.”(2)  He is right. Only so much about life can be understood by reason; so much falls far short of any reasonable explanation. Prayer then becomes the irrepressible cry of the heart at the times we most need it. For every person who feels that prayer has not “worked” for them and has therefore abandoned God, there is someone else for whom prayer remains a vital part of her life, sustaining her even when her prayers have gone unanswered, because her belief and trust is not only in the power of prayer but in the character and wisdom of God. God is the focus of such prayer, and that is what sustains such people and preserves their faith.

Prayer is far more complex than some make it out to be. There is much more involved than merely asking for something and receiving it. In this, as in other contexts, we too often succumb to believing that something is what it never was, even when we know it cannot be as simple as we would like to think it is.

Ravi Zacharias is founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

(1) Excerpted from Has Christianity Failed You? by RAVI ZACHARIAS. Copyright © 2010 by Ravi Zacharias. Used by permission of Zondervan. http://www.zondervan.com
(2) G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995), 87.

Morning    “Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods.”    Jeremiah 16:20

One great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the spiritual Israel

are vexed with a tendency to the same folly. Remphan’s star shines no longer,

and the women weep no more for Tammuz, but Mammon still intrudes his golden

calf, and the shrines of pride are not forsaken. Self in various forms struggles

to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion, and the flesh sets up its altars

wherever it can find space for them. Favourite children are often the cause of

much sin in believers; the Lord is grieved when he sees us doting upon them

above measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to

David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If

Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them

dote on their dear ones.

It is truly said that “they are no gods,” for the objects of our foolish love

are very doubtful blessings, the solace which they yield us now is dangerous,

and the help which they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed.

Why, then, are we so bewitched with vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore

a god of stone, and yet worship a god of gold. Where is the vast superiority

between a god of flesh and one of wood? The principle, the sin, the folly is the

same in either case, only that in ours the crime is more aggravated because we

have more light, and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false deity,

but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils, inasmuch as

we forsake the living God and turn unto idols. May the Lord purge us all from

this grievous iniquity!

“The dearest idol I have known,

Whate’er that idol be;

Help me to tear it from thy throne,

And worship only thee.”

 

Evening    “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.”   1 Peter 1:23

Peter most earnestly exhorted the scattered saints to love each other “with a

pure heart fervently” and he wisely fetched his argument, not from the law, from

nature, or from philosophy, but from that high and divine nature which God hath

implanted in his people. Just as some judicious tutor of princes might labour to

beget and foster in them a kingly spirit and dignified behaviour, finding

arguments in their position and descent, so, looking upon God’s people as heirs

of glory, princes of the blood royal, descendants of the King of kings, earth’s

truest and oldest aristocracy, Peter saith to them, “See that ye love one

another, because of your noble birth, being born of incorruptible seed;

because of your pedigree, being descended from God, the Creator of all things;

and because of your immortal destiny, for you shall never pass away, though the

glory of the flesh shall fade, and even its existence shall cease.” It would be

well if, in the spirit of humility, we recognized the true dignity of our

regenerated nature, and lived up to it. What is a Christian? If you compare him

with a king, he adds priestly sanctity to royal dignity. The king’s royalty

often lieth only in his crown, but with a Christian it is infused into his

inmost nature. He is as much above his fellows through his new birth, as a man

is above the beast that perisheth. Surely he ought to carry himself, in all

his dealings, as one who is not of the multitude, but chosen out of the world,

distinguished by sovereign grace, written among “the peculiar people” and who

therefore cannot grovel in the dust as others, nor live after the manner of the

world’s citizens. Let the dignity of your nature, and the brightness of your

prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to cleave unto holiness, and to

avoid the very appearance of evil.

 

A very present help.   Psalms 46:1

Covenant blessings are not meant only to be observed but to be appropriated. Even our Lord Jesus is given to us for our present use. Believer, you do not make use of Christ as you ought to do. When you are in trouble, why do you not tell Him all your grief? Does He not have a sympathizing heart, and can He not comfort and relieve you? No, you are going to all your friends, except your best Friend, and telling your story everywhere, except into the heart of your Lord.

Are you burdened with this day’s sins? Here is a fountain filled with blood: Use it, saint, use it. Has a sense of guilt returned upon you? The pardoning grace of Jesus may be proved again and again. Come to Him at once for cleansing. Do you deplore your weakness? He is your strength: Why not lean upon Him? Do you feel naked? Come here, soul; put on the robe of Jesus’ righteousness. Do not stand looking at it, but wear it. Strip off your own righteousness, and your own fears too: Put on the fair white linen, for it was meant to be worn.

Do you feel yourself sick? Call upon the Beloved Physician, and He will give the medicine that will revive you. You are poor, but remember you have a kinsman, who is incredibly wealthy. What! Will you not go to Him and ask Him to give you from His abundance when He has promised that you will be joint heir with Him and has credited all that He is and all that He has to your account? There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for His people to make a show of coming to Him and yet not to use Him. He loves to be employed by us. The more burdens we put on His shoulders, the more precious He will be to us.

Let us be simple with Him, then,

Not backward, stiff, or cold,

As though our Bethlehem could be

What Sinai was of old.

The family reading plan for May 3, 2012

Song 8 | Hebrews 8