2 Timothy 1:6-7

What do you do when you’ve lost your enthusiasm for ministry? Perhaps difficult circumstances have led to discouragement. Or maybe you just keep going, but the Spirit seems absent and no fruit is visible. Paul told Timothy to “kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you” (v. 6), but how is that accomplished? Over the years, God has taught me what to do whenever I sense that my flame is beginning to flicker.

Refill: Ministry is exciting when we’re filled with the Holy Spirit, but everyone springs a leak now and then. Get on your knees before the Lord and ask for a refill. Examine your life, repent of any sins, and submit to His leadership in every area.

Refocus: Nothing dims the flame like fixing your eyes on the problem. Whenever we focus on obstacles, they grow larger. But when we shift our eyes to Christ, He becomes bigger than any problem we face.

Reject: When we’re down, the Devil whispers his lies into our minds: You can’t do this. No one appreciates you. Why not call it quits? We need to recognize all discouraging thoughts as coming from him–and reject them.

Retreat: Turn off the phone, electronics, and entertainment, and get away with the Lord to rekindle your intimate relationship with Him.

After going through all these steps, you will be able to return to ministry with new enthusiasm and commitment. Hard circumstances may remain, but you’ll be equipped to handle them because the Spirit’s flame is burning brightly within you. Rely on Him, and He will empower you for service.

Like many Generation Xers, I have spent a great deal of my life asking questions. In retrospect, it seems that more than a few of my plaguing inquires were probably the wrong inquiries. In fact, more than a few of my questions were probably even unanswerable. But it took me a while to be able to admit there existed such distinctions. When you are a child and inquiry is your way of gaining a handle on the world around you, you come to believe that every question is right, and every inquiry deserves an answer that satisfies. And there is some truth to that comforting thought; questions are valid and answers should satisfy. Later, when social pressure begins to stress conformity and asking questions carries the risk of embarrassment, we learn to repress our inquisitiveness, even as those who still see the value in inquiring minds offer the ready assurance, “There are no wrong questions!” And this may be true as well, particularly in a classroom. But it does not mean that one cannot ask an unanswerable question or inquire in such a way that simply fails to cohere with reality. Is your idea blue or purple? How much time is in the sky? I imagine a great number of the questions we ask along the way are in fact quite similar.

When it comes to faith, we are actually instructed in the Christian religion to carry into our discipleship some of the qualities we held as children. I suspect a child’s passion for inquiry is one of the traits Jesus intended in his directive: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” But the childlike expectation that every inquiry is capable of being answered to our satisfaction, that every question is capable of being answered now (or even answered at all) is likely not a quality he was encouraging us to keep.

Regardless, Jesus readily received the questions of those around him, whether they were asked with ulterior motive or childlike abandon; no inquiry was turned away. Of course, this is not to say that he always answered, or that he always satisfied the questioner. Actually, more often than not, he replied with a question of his own. “Who gave you the authority to do what you are doing?” the scribes asked. Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question; answer me and I will answer you. Did the baptism of John come from heaven or human origin?” Knowing they were stuck between conceding to Jesus’s authority and risking the wrath of the crowd, they refused to answer. So Jesus refused as well.

Hopefully, beyond learning that questions, like words, can be used as ammunition, we also learn as we grow from inquiring children to questioning adults that questions are not deserving of satisfactory answers simply because they are asked. Most of us can now admit that there are some questions that simply can’t be satisfied. And yet, we scarcely take this wisdom with us into the realms of faith and belief. Standing before a God whose wisdom is said to be many-sided, we somehow feel that God can and must answer our every inquiry. But questioning an all-knowing God does not presuppose that the question itself was even rational. In fact, Jesus’s reactions to the questions around him seem to verify the strong possibility that many of our questions miss the point entirely.

So what does it mean if many of our great questions of ultimate reality and theological inquiry are as unanswerable as the child who wants to know God’s home address? First, the question isn’t wrong in the sense that it has no meaning for the inquirer. Nor does a question’s unanswerability mean we must walk away from the inquiry entirely disheartened. On the contrary, even in questions that cannot be answered there rings the promise of an answerer who satisfies. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”(1) God may not have a physical address, but God’s dwelling is nearer and greater than we imagine.

The desire to know, the curiosity that formed the question, and the assumption that someone indeed holds the answer, are all forces that compel a child to ask in the first place. It is this compulsion to know that Jesus encouraged in every questioner, however he chose to answer them. Perhaps he knew that in becoming like children who long to see we would be moved further up and farther in to the kingdom and closer to the one who prepares us for it. Inquiry is not in opposition to faith; it is faith’s road to the answerer.

Interestingly, one of the first questions the disciples asked Jesus was, “Where do you live?” He simply answered, “Come and see.”
 Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

   (1) 1 Corinthians 2:9.

Morning   “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”   2 Corinthians 6:16

What a sweet title: “My people!” What a cheering revelation: “Their God!” How

much of meaning is couched in those two words, “My people!” Here is speciality.

The whole world is God’s; the heaven, even the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s,

and he reigneth among the children of men; but of those whom he hath chosen,

whom he hath purchased to himself, he saith what he saith not of others–“My

people.” In this word there is the idea of proprietorship. In a special manner

the “Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.” All the

nations upon earth are his; the whole world is in his power; yet are his people,

his chosen, more especially his possession; for he has done more

for them than others; he has bought them with his blood; he has brought them

nigh to himself; he has set his great heart upon them; he has loved them with an

everlasting love, a love which many waters cannot quench, and which the

revolutions of time shall never suffice in the least degree to diminish. Dear

friends, can you, by faith, see yourselves in that number? Can you look up to

heaven and say, “My Lord and my God: mine by that sweet relationship which

entitles me to call thee Father; mine by that hallowed fellowship which I

delight to hold with thee when thou art pleased to manifest thyself unto me as

thou dost not unto the world?” Canst thou read the Book of Inspiration, and find

there the indentures of thy salvation? Canst thou read thy title writ in

precious blood? Canst thou, by humble faith, lay hold of Jesus’ garments, and

say, “My Christ”? If thou canst, then God saith of thee, and of others like

thee, “My people;” for, if God be your God, and Christ your Christ, the Lord has

a special, peculiar favour to you; you are the object of his choice, accepted in

his beloved Son.

 

Evening   “He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the

Lord, happy is he.”   Proverbs 16:20

Wisdom is man’s true strength; and, under its guidance, he best accomplishes the

ends of his being. Wisely handling the matter of life gives to man the richest

enjoyment, and presents the noblest occupation for his powers; hence by it he

finds good in the fullest sense. Without wisdom, man is as the wild ass’s colt,

running hither and thither, wasting strength which might be profitably employed.

Wisdom is the compass by which man is to steer across the trackless waste of

life; without it he is a derelict vessel, the sport of winds and waves. A man

must be prudent in such a world as this, or he will find no good, but be

betrayed into unnumbered ills. The pilgrim will sorely wound his feet

among the briers of the wood of life if he do not pick his steps with the

utmost caution. He who is in a wilderness infested with robber bands must handle

matters wisely if he would journey safely. If, trained by the Great Teacher, we

follow where he leads, we shall find good, even while in this dark abode; there

are celestial fruits to be gathered this side of Eden’s bowers, and songs of

paradise to be sung amid the groves of earth. But where shall this wisdom be

found? Many have dreamed of it, but have not possessed it. Where shall we learn

it? Let us listen to the voice of the Lord, for he hath declared the secret; he

hath revealed to the sons of men wherein true wisdom lieth, and we

have it in the text, “Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” The true way to

handle a matter wisely is to trust in the Lord. This is the sure clue to the

most intricate labyrinths of life; follow it and find eternal bliss. He who

trusts in the Lord has a diploma for wisdom granted by inspiration: happy is he

now, and happier shall he be above. Lord, in this sweet eventide walk with me in

the garden, and teach me the wisdom of faith.

 

You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable.   1 Peter 1:23

Peter earnestly exhorted the scattered saints to love each other “earnestly from a pure heart” (verse 22), and he did so not on the basis of the law or human nature or philosophy, but from that high and divine nature that God has implanted in His people. In the same way that a sensible tutor of princes might seek to foster in them a kingly spirit and dignified behavior, finding arguments in their position and pedigree, so, looking upon God’s people as heirs of glory, princes of royal blood, descendants of the King of kings, earth’s truest and oldest aristocracy, Peter said to them in essence, “See that you love one another because of your noble birth, being born of imperishable 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.”

We would do 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 lies 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 perishes. Surely he shall conduct himself in all his dealings as one who is different from the crowd, chosen out of the world, distinguished by sovereign grace, part of God’s “peculiar people.”1

Such trophies of God’s grace cannot grovel in the dust like some, nor live in the fashion of the world’s citizens. Let the dignity of your nature and the brightness of your prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to hold fast to holiness and to avoid the very appearance of evil.

1Titus 2:14, KJV

The family reading plan for May 4, 2012

Isaiah 1 | Hebrews 9