DEVOTIONS

Happy Lord's Day to you All:

August 7th:

Too Close to the Ground

But You, LORD, are exalted forever.
PSALM 92:8

The reason our personal problems and difficulties seem so large and ominous is due mainly to the fact that we have not brought God into proper focus. When we are able to see Him as He really is - "high and lofty" - then all our troubles and anxieties are reduced to their proper proportions.

A minister looked through his study window one day into the garden next door. He saw a little boy there, holding in his hand two pieces of wood, each about eighteen inches long.

He heard him ask his mother if he could make a weathercock. After getting her permission, he proceeded to nail one piece of wood upright on the low garden wall, then nailed the other piece loosely on top. Soon the loosely nailed piece of wood turned and twisted, first this way and then that, and the little boy danced with delight.

He thought he had made a weathercock that registered the winds, but all it did was register the draughts. "It turned half a circle," said the minister, "when the back door banged."

From where the minister sat in his study, he could see a real weathercock on the church steeple. It was as steady as a rock in the constant winds that blew in from the sea.

There are many Christians, however, who are like the little boy's weathercock, always living at the mercy of every gust of circumstance, their thoughts of God fluctuating with their personal experiences. They take their direction from a weathercock that is too close to the ground.

Daily Prayer

O God, my Father, forgive me that my life is taken up more with the immediate than the ultimate. I have been glancing at You and gazing at my circumstances. From today it will be different - I will glance at my circumstances and gaze at You. A

Quiet Contemplation

You have made me rejoice, LORD, by what You have done.
PSALM 92:4

The contemplation of God humbles the mind, expands the soul, and consoles the heart. How does it expand the soul? "The soul," says one theologian, "is at home only when it is in God."

He meant, of course, that as the soul was made for God, it can only function effectively when indwelt by God. Contemplation of God is like breath to the soul; it inflates it and causes it to be fully actualized. "My body and my whole physiology functions better when God is in it," said a doctor to me some years ago.

I replied: "And so it is also with the soul, dear doctor, so it is also with the soul."

Another benefit of contemplating God is that it consoles the heart. But how? It does so by focusing the heart's attention on the greatness and goodness of the Eternal and also on His tender mercies and compassion.

The more we know of God, the more we realize that when He permits us to pass through deep and dark waters, it is not because He is powerless to deliver us, but because a beneficent and eternal purpose is being worked out in that process. And what is more, we discover that God is not interested merely in working out His purposes in us, but in imparting to us a richer sense of His presence.

In God there is a balm for every wound, a comfort for every sorrow, and healing for every heartache.

All kinds of nostrums are on offer in today's church to help the hurting (some of them more secular than sacred), but I know of nothing that calms the swelling billows of sorrow and grief as does the quiet contemplation of the Godhead.

Daily Prayer

My Father and my God, forgive me if in times of trial and distress I look for comfort in the wrong places. You and You alone are able to meet my soul's deepest needs. Help me to see this not merely as an opinion but as a conviction. In Jesus'name. Amen.

Inner Cohesion

He did what was right in the LORD's sight but not completely.
2 CHRONICLES 25:2

One scriptural example that illustrates the need for a proper correlation between heart and mind is the Old Testament character, Amaziah. Second Chronicles 25:2 tells us: "He did what was right in the LORD's sight but not completely." His mind gave itself to doing right in the sight of the Lord, but his heart did not support his actions.

This lack of coordination proved to be his undoing: "After Amaziah came from the attack on the Edomites, he brought the gods of the Seirites and set them up as his gods.

He worshiped before them and burned incense to them" (25:14). Now look at how the life of Amaziah ends:

"From the time Amaziah turned from following the LORD, a conspiracy was formed against
him . . . men were sent after him to Lachish, and they put him to death there." (25:27). Notice
the steps:

(1) He was outwardly correct but inwardly uncoordinated.
(2) His inner disunity showed itself in outer disloyalty.
(3) This disunity resulted in his failure and death.

At the beginning, Amaziah does not appear to be a particularly bad individual - he just failed to be wholehearted in his commitment. He did all the right things outwardly, but his heart was not in them - hence, his spiritual ruin.

We could say he missed his step by inches, but his fall was one of the worst ever recorded. If we are not held together by a single-minded devotion, our spiritual life can quickly go to pieces. Commitment to God demands cohesion - the cohesion of heart and mind.

Daily Prayer

O God my Father, help me to live a life of single purpose, with heart and mind moving together as one. Let me will the highest with all my being. In Jesus' name I ask this. Amen.

Joy - More Than Pleasure

Satisfy us in the morning with Your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days.
PSALM 90:14

One of the reasons why so many Christians do not experience the delights of spiritual joy is that they do not expect to. A woman who came into the experience of Christian conversion said: "Strange, but I never associated joy with God before."How sad that many do not expect their faith to make them basically and fully joyful now.

They think that joy is reserved for the hereafter. Our Lord pointed out to the disciples that it was for the present.

We can better understand this supernatural joy if we distinguish it from the pleasures of life with which it is sometimes confused. Spiritual or supernatural joy is quite different from pleasure or happiness.

A worldling can experience pleasure and happiness, but he cannot experience supernatural joy. Indeed, worldly people often pride themselves in knowing how to experience pleasure.

Yet pleasure and Christian joy cannot be equated. Look with me at some of the differences. Pleasure depends on circumstances. It requires a measure of health and wealth.

It demands that the life conditions be kindly, and thus it can be stolen from us by things like lack of money - or even a toothache. Christian joy is completely independent of circumstances. It is there in the believer even when "strength and health and friends" are gone; when circumstances are not only unkind but savage.

Out of all the miracles I have witnessed in my life, none is more wonderful than the miracle of seeing Christ's exuberant joy burst forth in those who are caught up in pain or persecution. The springs of Christian joy are deep within and can exist, no matter what the circumstances.

Daily Prayer

O Father, how can I thank You enough for imparting into my sadness Your unconquerable gladness? No matter what happens - all is well with my soul. I am so grateful. Amen.

Not a Private Fight

Do not be afraid or discouraged . . . for the battle is not yours, but God's.
2 CHRONICLES 20:15

The spiritual application of the helmet of salvation is not so much the enjoyment of our present salvation (though it includes that) as it is the assurance that a sure salvation is coming - and is even now at work.

This is what we need to know if we are to prevent the Devil from bringing us into a state of mental distress - not merely that things will finally end right, but that God's plan is being worked out now. "History," writes Ray Stedman, an American Bible teacher, "is not a meaningless jumble but a controlled pattern, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is directing these events."

The attack of Satan on the mind proceeds differently. He says to us: "Just look around you at the state of the world. God seems powerless to put things right. He has given lots of promises that things will one day get better, but none has come to pass. Hadn't you better give up this foolish idea that it's all going to work out right?"

If you were to let your mind dwell on that kind of satanic argument, you would soon find yourself in distress. The answer is to put on the helmet, the hope of salvation. You must remind yourself that things are not as they appear.

The battle is not ours, but the Lord's. We may be individual soldiers fighting in the army of God, but the ultimate cause is sure and the end is certain. We need not be unduly troubled by what is happening in the world, for our commander is not just winning - He has already won!

Daily Prayer

Lord Jesus, I am grateful that the Cross is the guarantee that neither sin nor Satan will ever defeat You. Your victory at Calvary has settled forever the question of who has the final word in the universe. I am so deeply, deeply thankful. Amen.