Listen to Today’s Devotion

A small cathedral outside Bethlehem marks the supposed birthplace of Jesus. Behind a high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps. You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave, where a star embedded in the floor recognizes the birth of the King. There is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop. The door is so low you can’t enter standing up.

The same is true of the Christ. You can see the world standing tall, but to witness the Savior, you have to get on your knees! So, at the birth of Jesus, while the theologians were sleeping and the elite were dreaming and the successful were snoring… the meek were kneeling. They were kneeling before the One only the meek will see. They were kneeling in front of Jesus!

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Our daughter Jenna was born in Brazil. Soon after we brought her home we received a hefty bill. No matter how much I pleaded or explained, the insurance company said, “We won’t pay.” The hospital meanwhile said, “You must pay!” The bill was $2,500. The good news is that we paid the bill. The bad news is we were broke as a result.

Philippians 4:6 became a theme promise. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” I was a novice to anxiety-free living, but I treated each anxious thought—and there were many—with prayer.  “Lord, with your help I will not be anxious. But I’m in a foreign country with a new baby and an empty bank account. Hint, hint!” God took the hint!

God keeps His word. I just need to ask. Before amen—comes the power of a simple prayer!

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Look around. People thrash about in seas of guilt, anger, despair. Life isn’t working. We’re drowning fast. But God can rescue us.  And only one message matters…His! We need to see God’s glory. Make no mistake. God has no ego problem. He doesn’t reveal His glory for His good. We need to witness it for ourselves. We need a strong hand to pull us into a safe boat. And once aboard, what becomes our priority? Simple. Promote God. Hey, strong boat over here! Able pilot! He can pull you out!

1 Chronicles 16:24 says, “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.” If we boast at all, we boast in the Lord! Psalm 115:1 says, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth. So…Declare His glory!

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

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What matters to you matters to God! You probably think that’s true when it comes to the big stuff like death, disease, sin, and disaster. But what about the smaller things? What about grouchy bosses or flat tires? What about broken dishes, late flights, toothaches, or a crashed hard drive? Do these matter to God?

Let me tell you who you are! In fact, let me proclaim who you are! The Bible says you are an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ. You have a crown that will last forever. You were chosen before the creation of the world. But more than anything else is the simple fact—you are God’s child. 1 John 3:4 says we are called children of God. And we really are His children. I love that we really are His children! And if something is important to you—it’s important to God!

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

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Maybe your past isn’t much to brag about. Maybe you’ve seen evil and you have to make a choice. Do you rise above the past and make a difference? Or do you remain controlled by the past and make excuses?

Many choose the convalescent homes of the heart. Healthy bodies, sharp minds, but retired dreams. Lean closely and you’ll hear…If only. The white flag of the heart, if only. . . Maybe you’ve used those words. Maybe you have every right to use them. Perhaps you were hearing the ten count before you even got into the ring.

Let me show you where to turn. Go to John’s gospel and read Jesus’ words in John 3:6. “Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from one Spirit.” Your parents have given you genes, but God gives you grace. God is willing to give you what your family didn’t.

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

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Paul asks the question in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The question isn’t simply, “Who can be against you?” You could answer that one. Who is against you? Disease, inflation, corruption, and exhaustion. Calamities confront us and fears imprison. Were Paul’s question, “Who can be against us?” we could list our foes much easier than we could fight them.

God is for us. God is for us. God is for us! Your parents may have forgotten you, your teachers may have neglected you, your siblings may be ashamed of you; but within reach of your prayers is the maker of the oceans. God! God is for you. Not may be, not has been, not was…but God is! He is for you. Today. At this hour. At this minute. As you hear this, He is with you. God is for you!

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

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God rewards those who seek Him! Not those who seek doctrine or religion or systems or creeds. Many settle for these lesser passions, but the reward goes to those who settle for nothing less than Jesus Himself.

And what is the reward? What awaits those who seek Jesus? Nothing short of the heart of Jesus. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him. Can you think of a greater gift than to be like Jesus? Christ felt no guilt; God wants to banish yours. Jesus had no bad habits; God wants to remove yours. Jesus had no fear of death; God wants you to be fearless.

Jesus had kindness for the diseased and mercy for the rebellious and courage for the challenges. God wants you to have the same. Isn’t it just like Jesus!

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

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God will always be the same. No one else will. Companies follow pay raises with pink slips. Friends applaud you when you drive a classic and dismiss you when you drive a dud.

Not God. God is always the same. James 1:17 says, with Him “there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Catch God in a bad mood? Won’t happen. Fear exhausting His grace? A sardine will swallow the Atlantic first. Think He’s given up on you? Wrong. Did He not make a promise to you? God is not a human being, and He will not lie. He is not a human, and He does not change His mind. What He says He will do. What He promises, He will make come true. His strength, truth, ways, and love never change. Hebrews 13:8 declares “He is the same yesterday and today and forever.” What He says, He will do!

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People came to Jesus. My, how they came to Him. They touched Him as He walked down the street; they followed Him around the sea; they invited Him into their homes and placed their children at His feet. Why? Because He refused to be a statue in a cathedral or a priest in an elevated pulpit. He chose instead to be—Jesus.

There’s not a hint of one person who was afraid to draw near Him. There were those who mocked Him. Those who were envious of Him. There were those who misunderstood Him. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach Him for fear of being rejected. Remember that.

Remember that the next time you find yourself amazed at your own failures. Or the next time acidic accusations burn holes in your soul. Remember. It’s man who creates the distance. It’s Jesus who builds the bridge!

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I can’t assure you your family will ever give you the blessing you seek, but God will! Let God give you what your family doesn’t. How do you do that? You do it by emotionally accepting God as your Father.  It’s one thing to accept Him as Lord, another to recognize Him as Savior, but another matter entirely to accept Him as Father.

To recognize God as Lord is to acknowledge that he is sovereign in the universe. To accept Him as Savior is to accept His gift of salvation offered on the cross. To regard God as Father is to go a step further. Ideally, a father is the one in your life who provides and protects. That’s exactly what God has done! God has proven Himself as a faithful father. Now let God fill the void others have left. You are His child and He’ll give you the blessing He promised!

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Healthy marriages have a sense of tenderness, an honesty, an ongoing communication. The same is true in our relationship with God. Sometimes we go to Him with our joys, sometimes our hurts, but we always go. And as we go, the more we go, the more we become like Him.

Paul says we’re being changed from “glory to glory.” People who live long lives together eventually begin to sound alike, to talk alike, even think alike. As we walk with God, we take on His thoughts, His principles, His attitudes. We take on His heart.

And just as in marriage, communion with God is no burden. Indeed, it’s a delight. The Psalmist says, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty. My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Psalm 84:1-2). Nothing—nothing compares with it!

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Crankcase oil coursed my dad’s veins. He repaired engines for a living. Dad loved machines. God gave my dad a mechanical moron, a son who couldn’t differentiate between a differential and a brake disc. Dad tried to teach me. I tried to learn. Honestly, I did. Machines anesthetized me. But books fascinated me.

What does a mechanic do with a son who loves books? He gives him a library card. Buys him a few volumes for Christmas. Places a lamp by his bed so he can read at night. Pays tuition so his son can study college literature in high school. My dad did that.

You know what he didn’t do? Never once did he say, “Why can’t you be a mechanic like your dad and granddad?” Study your children while you can. The greatest gift you can give your child is not your riches, but revealing to them their own!

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How would you fill in this blank? A person is made right with God through… (what)? A person is made right with God through. . .being good. Pay your taxes. Give sandwiches to the poor. Don’t drink too much or drink at all. Christian conduct… that’s the secret! Suffering….there’s the answer. Or doctrine…that’s how to be made right with God.

No, no, no. All of the above are tried. All are taught. But none are from God. In fact, that’s the problem. None are from God. Who does the saving, you or Him? Romans 3:28 says, “A person is made right with God through faith.” Not through good works, suffering, or doctrine. Those may be the result of salvation, but they’re not the cause of it. Faith in God’s sacrifice, in the gift of His Son. It’s not what you do, it’s what He did.

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The Bible says in Romans 8:28 that “in everything God works for the good of those who love Him.” Do this simple exercise. Remove the word “everything” and replace it with the symbol of your tragedy. How would Romans 8:28 read in your life? In hospital stays God works for the good. In divorce papers God works for the good.

As hard as it may be to believe, you could be only a Saturday away from a resurrection. Hours from that precious prayer of a changed heart…God, you did this for me?

Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, Paul said, The Scriptures give us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope. These are not somewhere-over-the-rainbow illusions. They are historic moments in which a real God met real pain so we could answer the question, “where is God when I hurt?”

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I’m about to tell you something you may find hard to believe. You don’t have to agree with me, but I’d like you to consider it with me. Here it is: If you were the only person on earth, the earth would look exactly the same. The Himalayas would still have their drama and the Caribbean its charm. The sun would still nestle behind the Rockies in the evenings and spray light on the desert in the mornings.

If you were the sole pilgrim on this globe, God would not diminish its beauty one degree. Because He did it all for you. And He’s waiting for you to discover His gift, for your eyes to pop, your heart to stop. He’s waiting for the moment between the dropping of the jaw and the leap of the heart. For in that silence He whispers… I did it just for you.

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

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They sat on opposite sides of the room, a man and a woman, bidding on an adorable puppy at a school auction. Others dropped off, but not this duo. Back and forth until they’d one-upped the bid to several thousand dollars. This was like the Wimbledon finals, and neither player was backing off the net! Finally the fellow gave in and didn’t return the bid. Going once, going twice, going three times. Sold!  You know what she did? Amidst the applause, she walked across the room and presented the puppy to the competition.

Suppose you did that to the competition. With your enemy. Suppose you surprised them with kindness? Not easy? No, it’s not. But mercy is the deepest gesture of kindness. Paul equates the two in Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

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Max Lucado – Texas Church Tragedy – Hello, everyone. This is Max Lucado joining with you in offering urgent prayers for the community of Sutherland Springs, Texas. It’s hard to believe that this peace-loving, God-fearing community was victimized in, of all places, a church service.

We pray for their recovery and for peace. And we are reminded that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers of this present darkness.

We are praying for the quick and speedy demise of the devil. And we are urgent in our prayers for the return of Christ in which He will establish a kingdom of peace, once and for all, with the banishment of evil, and filled with the goodness of God. Amen.

This Brutal World

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” Matthew 10:28

Yet again, yet so soon, we struggle to make sense of bloodshed and violence. Last week bikers mowed down on New York City’s Westside. Sunday, worshippers slaughtered in a small-town South Texas church.

Life is a dangerous endeavor. We pass our days in the shadows of ominous realities. The power to annihilate humanity has, it seems, been placed in the hands of people who are happy to do so.

Contrary to what we’d hope, good people aren’t exempt from violence. Murderers don’t give the godly a pass. Terrorists don’t vet out victims according to spiritual resumes. The bloodthirsty and wicked don’t skip over the heavenbound. We aren’t insulated. But neither are we intimidated. Jesus has a word or two about this brutal world. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28).

His disciples needed this affirmation. Jesus had just told them to expect scourging, trials, death, hatred, and persecution (Matthew 17–23). Not the kind of locker room pep talk that rallies the team. To their credit none defected. Perhaps they didn’t because of the fresh memory of Jesus’ flexed muscles in the graveyard. Jesus had taken his disciples to the “the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, [where] two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs; they were so exceedingly violent that no one could pass by that road. And behold, they cried out, saying, ‘What do we have to do with You, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’” (Matthew 8:28–29 NASB).

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We speak of a short life, but compared to eternity, who has a long one? A person’s days on earth may seem like a thimbleful. But compared to the Pacific of eternity, even the years of Methuselah filled no more than a glass.

James was not speaking just to the young when he said, “Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away” (James 4:14). In God’s plan every life is long enough and every death is timely. And though you and I might wish for a longer life, God knows better.

And this is important. Though you and I may wish a longer life for our loved ones who’ve gone to glory before us, they don’t. Ironically, the first to accept God’s decision of death is the one who dies. While we’re mourning at a grave, they’re marveling at heaven. While we’re questioning God, they’re praising God!

From the Inspiration Lucado Reader

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Remember when you sought a night’s rest and got a colicky baby? Remember when you sought to catch up at the office and got even further behind? And you can add to the list of interruptions sorrow, excitement, and bedlam. Sound familiar? Take comfort—it happened to Jesus too.

You may have trouble believing that. You probably believe Jesus knows what it means to endure heavy-duty tragedies. You’re no doubt convinced Jesus is acquainted with sorrow and has wrestled with fear. Most people accept that. But can God relate to the hassles and headaches of my life? Of your life? For some reason this is harder to believe. Jesus knows how you feel. His eyes have grown weary. His heart has grown heavy. He has had to climb out of bed with a sore throat. He has been kept awake late and has gotten up early. Jesus knows how you feel!

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Many years ago I spent a week visiting the interior of Brazil with a longtime missionary pilot. Let me just say, Wilbur and Orville had a sturdier aircraft! I could not get comfortable. I kept thinking the plane was going to crash in the jungle and I’d be gobbled up by piranhas. I kept shifting around, looking down and gripping my seat—as if that would help. Finally the pilot had enough of my squirming. He looked over at me and shouted over the airplane noise, “We won’t face anything that I can’t handle. You might as well trust me to fly the plane.”

Is God saying the same to you? Examine the truths which sustain your belief in God. Make sure one of them is etched with the words “My God is sovereign!” Then, be anxious for nothing!

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