Ephesians 3:20-21

Jesus knew firsthand what it meant to live with limited financial resources, to have others–including family members–question His actions (Mark 3:21), and to suffer rejection by those He sought to serve (John 6:66). Yet, in spite of such opposition, Jesus never let circumstances control His emotions or dictate His actions. Instead, He chose to trust that the Father was able to carry out His Word.

We are called to follow the example of Christ by believing that God is able to do what He has promised. For instance, the Bible pledges eternal salvation for everyone who asks for forgiveness in Jesus’ name (Heb. 7:25). The Son’s death on the cross satisfied the demands of divine justice for all our sins–from “white lies” to unspeakably vile acts. When we have true faith in Jesus, God will forgive us and make each of us a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). No matter what trouble we may have caused, He invites us to draw near in faith and receive the gift of everlasting life.

God promises to save whoever trusts in Him, and also to establish believers in truth (Rom. 16:25). He gives us a firm foundation in Christ and then builds us up in righteousness. Through His Spirit and the Word, we start to see things as our Father does and then can understand what pleases Him.

By believing God keeps His promises, we grow stronger in our faith and gain peace. Hardships that would have thrown us off course lose their power to shake us. Hope replaces discouragement, and trust overcomes doubt. When trouble comes, focus on God’s ability to care for you.

 In the eyes of an eight year-old, the most wonderful thing about Lake Michigan was grandpa’s boat. Sailing was a hobby of his and I was a glad participant. A particularly rare treat was spending the night on the boat, gently being rocked to sleep by the bobbing waves and steady clanking of metal against mast. My grandpa tried to show me the Milky Way, directing my eyes by way of the North Star. He told us the meaning of the boat’s name, a word that sounded funny at the time. “Nomad,” he said, “is the word for a wanderer, a drifting, homeless traveler.” Feeling like the darkened sky could swallow me up in seconds, under the stars, I felt the same. 

 One of the things I am comforted by in the Christian religion is the insistence that I am a wanderer, a stranger in a foreign land. “Hear my prayer, O LORD,” pleads the psalmist, “and give ear to my cry; do not hold your peace at my tears. For I am your passing guest, an alien, like all my forebears.” In the book of Hebrews, amongst the testimonies of those who have lived and died, we are told that besides having in common a life of faith, these men and women had in common the suspicion that they were people living as aliens, journeying toward home. “All these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth.”(1) 

 In his book Reaching Out, author Henri Nouwen defines a stranger as someone who is “estranged from their own past, culture and country, from their neighbors, friends and family, from their deepest self and from God.”(2) There are perhaps few of us who cannot find ourselves within that definition in some way each day. At the sound of breaking news and in the silence of anguished prayer, there is a sense of alienation that wells up within us. Longing for promises in the distance, we wait estranged by the hope that all is not as it will be.

 Along the road to Emmaus, Jesus walked with two of his disciples who did not recognize him. On their way, the disciples talked about the events that gripped them with confusion and sorrow: their crucified leader, their lost hope, and rumors of an empty tomb. The one who traveled with them talked about the Scriptures, explaining events and promises down the centuries from Moses to the prophets. When they arrived, they invited him in to have a meal with them, and as he broke the bread, their eyes were opened:  This stranger who walked with them was the one they knew.

 On the journey towards home, there are always parts of ourselves that wander off with guilt or resentment, or get stuck somewhere on a tangent. But there is a great difference between wandering like a nomadic soul and walking as a stranger aware that going home is a lifelong journey walked in thankful awareness of life with the Spirit. Often we are aware how long is the journey and how trying the conversations that must be had along the way. But we may find ourselves encouraged by fellow strangers in our midst. In the form of a tired traveler, Christ came to show us how to live. As a stranger in a foreign land, salvation came searching for all who find themselves estranged.  

 Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

 (1) cf. Psalm 39:12, Hebrews 11:13.
(2) Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out (New York: Doubleday, 1986), 49.

Morning “On mine arm shall they trust.” / Isaiah 51:5

In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can
trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When
his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must
simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy
storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that
drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes
because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so
friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his
Father’s arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with
troubles so pressing and so peculiar, that he cannot tell them to any but his
God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more of his Lord then than
at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that
drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see
that thou puttest thy full confidence in him. Dishonour not thy Lord and
Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to
God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show
rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper.
Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath thee
are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant
exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly,
as surely as he built the heavens and the earth, glorify himself in thy
weakness, and magnify his might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of
the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single
visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything
discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you to rest in Jesus
this closing day of the month.

Evening “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light.” / 1 John 1:7

As he is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to
walk as clearly in the light as he is whom we call “Our Father,” of whom it is
written, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all?” Certainly, this is
the model which is set before us, for the Saviour himself said, “Be ye
perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;” and although we may
feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after
it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist, as
he grasps his early pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael
Angelo, but still, if he did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he
would only attain to something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by
the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light?
We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We are as truly in the
light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as
honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot
dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in
the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of
purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the
infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the
help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to his image. That famous old
commentator, John Trapp, says, “We may be in the light as God is in the light
for quality, but not for equality.” We are to have the same light, and are as
truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though, as for equality with God
in his holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and
enter into the perfection of the Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred
fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light …   1 John 1:7

 “As he is in the light”! Can we ever attain to this? Will we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as He is whom we call “Our Father,” of whom it is written, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (verse 5)? Certainly this is the model that is set before us, for the Savior Himself said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”;1 and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it and not be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist as he grasps his newly sharpened pencil can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michelangelo; but still, if he did not have a noble ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary.

But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to convey likeness but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, although we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun—it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth that belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, to conform to His image.

The famous old commentator John Trapp says, “We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality.” We are to have the same light and are as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though as for equality with God in His holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High. Notice how the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.

1Matthew 5:48

Family Reading Plan  Ezekiel 3   Psalm 39