Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Sanctification (1)
 
This is the will of God, your sanctification. . . -1 Thessalonians 4:3

The Death Side. In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. Sanctification requires our coming to the place of death, but many of us spend so much time there that we become morbid. There is always a tremendous battle before sanctification is realized- something within us pushing with resentment against the demands of Christ. When the Holy Spirit begins to show us what sanctification means, the struggle starts immediately. Jesus said, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate . . . his own life . . . he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26).

In the process of sanctification, the Spirit of God will strip me down until there is nothing left but myself, and that is the place of death. Am I willing to be myself and nothing more? Am I willing to have no friends, no father, no brother, and no self-interest- simply to be ready for death? That is the condition required for sanctification. No wonder Jesus said, "I did not come to bring peace but a sword" (Matthew 10:34). This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us falter. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ on this point. We say, "But this is so strict. Surely He does not require that of me." Our Lord is strict, and He does require that of us.

Am I willing to reduce myself down to simply "me"? Am I determined enough to strip myself of all that my friends think of me, and all that I think of myself? Am I willing and determined to hand over my simple naked self to God? Once I am, He will immediately sanctify me completely, and my life will be free from being determined and persistent toward anything except God (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

When I pray, "Lord, show me what sanctification means for me," He will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus puts in me- it is Himself in me (see 1 Corinthians 1:30).


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Avoiding the Pit

Over the last few days, we have looked at what it takes to get out of the pits-what to do when life seems to be turned upside down.   

There is one pit, though, that every person is headed for except for the grace and provision of God.  Some of the most marvelous verses of Scripture are found in Psalm 49:6-9.  These verses point us to the one and only way to avoid the pit for eternity.

Those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him-for the redemption of their souls is costly, and it shall cease forever-that he should continue to live eternally, and not see the Pit.

These are powerful words for our day and age.  It is so easy for many to believe that their wealth, their power, and their goodness will someday be enough to save them.

But the only way to have eternal life and not see the pit of eternal destruction is to realize that you can do nothing and pay no amount to redeem your own soul.  Why?  Because the price of your soul is very costly-more than you could ever pay.

The purchase price was the shed blood of the Son of God upon Calvary's cross.  Only through embracing His sacrifice can your soul be ransomed.  No good works can do it.  No personal sacrifice can do it.  The price has been paid.

I trust you have accepted God's gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.  If so, praise Him today for rescuing you from the pit of hell and for paying that high price for you.


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Are You Shouting?

In His Presence: "Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones" (Psalm 33:1).

Shirley Caesar sings a song entitled "Hold My Mule." Itis a song about a man who was called Shouting John because he loved to worship God. The problem was that he ended up going to a city church whose members did not appreciate his form of worship. However, this did not stop John. When he felt the Spirit move, he shouted all over the church.

It wasn't long before he had irritated some of the members, and the deacons decided they needed to have a talk with Shouting John. Standing in one of John's fields-where the old man had been plowing with his mule-they explained why he could not continue his antics. "We're a quiet church," one of the men said, "and you can't be doing all this."

Shouting John listened for a moment, and then he said, "Just a minute. Look out there." He pointed to his fields. "You see all that land? I'm a [former] slave; I'm not supposed to have anything. Yet, I got all this land. Whenever I see that land or think about it, Shouting John gotta shout!"

He paused a moment and then continued, "Look at my chillen. All my chillen are alive. All my chillen are saved. All my chillen are doing fine. Whenever Shouting John thinks about the goodness of God to his chillen, Shouting John gotta shout!"

Then he said, "I get up every morning when the rooster crows and Shouting John get on the back of this mule, and it pulls that plow so Shouting John will have food all year long. When I think about God giving Shouting John a mule and the strength to plow when he is 85 years old, Shouting John gotta shout!" It was then that Shouting John turned to one of the deacons and said, "Hold my mule, I feel a shout coming on."

When we realize where God has brought us from and the plans He has for our future, we will want to shout and never stop!

One Minute Please
The thing that determines whether or not a person is a true worshiper of Jesus Christ is the gratitude that overflows from his or her heart.

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Sanctification (2)
 
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us . . . sanctification . . . -1 Corinthians 1:30

The Life Side. The mystery of sanctification is that the perfect qualities of Jesus Christ are imparted as a gift to me, not gradually, but instantly once I enter by faith into the realization that He "became for [me] . . . sanctification . . . ." Sanctification means nothing less than the holiness of Jesus becoming mine and being exhibited in my life.

The most wonderful secret of living a holy life does not lie in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfect qualities of Jesus exhibit themselves in my human flesh. Sanctification is "Christ in you . . ." (Colossians 1:27). It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification- imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God's grace. Am I willing for God to make sanctification as real in me as it is in His Word?

Sanctification means the impartation of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ to me. It is the gift of His patience, love, holiness, faith, purity, and godliness that is exhibited in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy- it is drawing from Jesus the very holiness that was exhibited in Him, and that He now exhibits in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is something altogether different. The perfection of everything is in Jesus Christ, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfect qualities of Jesus are at my disposal. Consequently, I slowly but surely begin to live a life of inexpressible order, soundness, and holiness- ". . . kept by the power of God . . ." (1 Peter 1:5).


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Falling into Crisis

In 1 Kings we have the story of the prophet Elijah.  In chapter 18, we see a great victory over the priests of Baal, an incredible victory that demonstrated the power of the one true God for all to see.

In the next chapter, we see Elijah on the run (1 Kings 19:1-3),

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword.  Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time."  And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

How could Elijah, a prophet of God who had been used in such a powerful way, now be on the run?  (He eventually even became suicidal.)  While there are a number of things we could look at, I want to give you one truth today to consider.

After any great spiritual victory, it is always wise to keep your armor on.  Over and over, there are examples of tremendous trials and temptations after great victories.

King David, after God had supernaturally spoken to him, fell morally, and committed adultery with Bathsheba.  Or there is Samson who, after God used him to bring great deliverance, got messed up with Delilah.  Then there is Jesus who, after being with the Father on the mount of transfiguration, came to the bottom of the mountain and was met by a demon-possessed boy.

Sometimes we are the most vulnerable after the highest and brightest times we have with God.  So today, let me encourage you to always keep your armor on (see Ephesians 6:11).

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At the Savior's Feet

In His Presence "I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but [this woman] has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair" (Luke 7:44).

It was customary for the master of the house to provide water at the door so that those who entered could wash their dusty feet. Simon, a Pharisee, had obviously overlooked this important detail. However, the Savior used this oversight as a point to teach His disciples an important lesson about God's forgiveness, grace, and personal worship.

A woman who was a prostitute had been waiting for the right moment to express her devotion to God. We are not told how she got into Simon's house, only that she suddenly began to worship at the feet of the Savior, and every man in the room was aware of it. Without hesitation, she bowed before the Lord and broke the seal on a priceless bottle of perfumed oil. Obviously, she had heard Him teach at some point in the past and had repented of her sin. Nothing is so sweet to the Savior as the fragrance of our repentance.

This was her opportunity to say thank you to God for what He had done in her life. The perfumed oil she poured over His feet was very costly. Yet, Jesus did not stop her from worshiping Him or question where she had gotten the money to buy such an expensive gift. He knew her actions where motivated by pure devotion to God. He also realized that it was a steep sacrifice and something that she would remember for the rest of her life.

Though she did not know it, she was anointing the Savior for his burial. Simon, however, did not even offer a simple pan of water so Jesus could wash His feet. Instead, the Pharisee acted in a typically legalistic fashion. He questioned why Jesus would allow such a display of affection to happen, especially knowing that this woman was a sinner.

God is not ashamed to be with us. This woman fell at Christ's feet knowing that He had forgiven her many sins. She was there to worship Him. And today is the day that you can do the same.

One Minute Please
When you realize the grace of God that has been given to you, you will bow down before Him.

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Disposition And Deeds

 
Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 5:20

The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in motive because he has been made good by the super-natural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ came to put into any man who would let Him a new heredity which would exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus says - If you are My disciple you must be right not only in your living, but in your motives, in your dreams, in the recesses of your mind. You must be so pure in your motives that God Almighty can see nothing to censure. Who can stand in the Eternal Light of God and have nothing for God to censure? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that by His Redemption He can put into any man His own disposition, and make him as unsullied and as simple as a child. The purity which God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within, and that is what Jesus has undertaken to do by His Redemption.

No man can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ does not give us rules and regulations; His teachings are truths that can only be interpreted by the disposition He puts in. The great marvel of Jesus Christ's salvation is that He alters heredity. He does not alter human nature; He alters its mainspring.


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The Power of Zero

Perhaps you are in a very stressful time in your life right now, and you feel you can't go on.  I want you to know that you are not alone.  In fact, some of the greatest men and women of God have gone through what you are going through right now.

One of those individuals is the prophet Elijah whom I mentioned in yesterday's devotional.  After a great spiritual victory over the priests of Baal, we find him on the run, wondering whether life is even worth it.

We catch the story in 1 Kings 19:4-6,

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree.  And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough!  Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!"  Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat."  Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water.  So he ate and drank, and lay down again.

Elijah had reached that "zero" place in his life.  There was nothing left.  He had given it all and the tank was empty.

Maybe that describes you right now, you are on the verge of quitting.  You figure, "I've had enough.  I'm done.  Enough pressures, enough hassles, I cannot ride this thing out anymore.  My strength is gone!"

Well, did you notice that when Elijah was at the end of his strength, that was when God intervened?  Being out of strength, being at zero, is not a bad place to be. If you will look to God, He is prepared to meet you in your moment of need.
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Let the Waters Flow

In His Presence: Psalms 19:14

"Jesus stood and cried out, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, "From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water." ' But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified"(John 7:37-39).

We know God wants Christians to grow. Spiritual growth takes place deep down inside us. It comes from the Holy Spirit, whose job is to make the "waters flow." However, most Christians have a home improvement mentality, where we depend on ourselves to produce the development we know we ought to have. But if we could do it ourselves, we wouldn't need the Holy Spirit. The assumption of the work of the Holy Spirit is that we can't do it ourselves. Just as air enables a horn to make a sound, or wind enables a sailboat to move, the Holy Spirit enables the spiritual life to work.

Many Christians do not realize what they have within them. If we were riding on a bus and it broke down, we would all look pretty foolish if we got out to push the bus while Clark Kent was sitting inside it. Christians tend to want to row themselves to spiritual progress. We row and row until we are so tired that we want to give up. But God wants us to use the speedboat with the motor, and He provides it for us.

One Minute Please

Without the power of the Holy Spirit, there would be no spiritual progress.

 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Am I Blessed Like This?
 
Blessed are . . . -Matthew 5:3-11
When we first read the statements of Jesus, they seem wonderfully simple and unstartling, and they sink unnoticed into our subconscious minds. For instance, the Beatitudes initially seem to be merely soothing and beautiful precepts for overly spiritual and seemingly useless people, but of very little practical use in the rigid, fast-paced workdays of the world in which we live. We soon find, however, that the Beatitudes contain the "dynamite" of the Holy Spirit. And they "explode" when the circumstances of our lives cause them to do so. When the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance one of the Beatitudes, we say, "What a startling statement that is!" Then we must decide whether or not we will accept the tremendous spiritual upheaval that will be produced in our circumstances if we obey His words. That is the way the Spirit of God works. We do not need to be born again to apply the Sermon on the Mount literally. The literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount is as easy as child's play. But the interpretation by the Spirit of God as He applies our Lord's statements to our circumstances is the strict and difficult work of a saint.

The teachings of Jesus are all out of proportion when compared to our natural way of looking at things, and they come to us initially with astonishing discomfort. We gradually have to conform our walk and conversation to the precepts of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit applies them to our circumstances. The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations- it is a picture of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is having His unhindered way with us.


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Your Weakness, God's Power

2 Corinthians 12:9 is a powerful reminder of God's provision for you and me when we reach the end of our strength.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."

When Paul wrote these words, he was being harassed everywhere he went by an evil spirit that he referred to as "a thorn in the flesh."  It was a messenger sent from Satan to buffet him, to constantly harass him.

The constant harassment of this spirit finally got to him, and he begged God three times to take it away.  Paul was clearly at the end of his rope.

But, even though Paul prayed for God's intervention three times, the spirit did not depart.  And God's response to Paul was the verse we read above.  His strength is made perfect in weakness.

What does perfect mean?  It means that His power comes to full maturity...it blossoms...it is fully expressed in our weakness.

What was Paul's response?  He went on to say in verses 9-10 of that same chapter,

Therefore most gladly I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.

It seems that sometimes we have to get to the end of ourselves before we will look fully to God.  But when we do, we find that He is more than enough.  If you are there today or close to that point, take hold of God's strength.

Put your trust in Him.  He will bring you to the place of your breakthrough, and you will find the strength and direction you need--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Person of the Holy Spirit

In His Presence: John 14:16-29

Our God is a triune Being, three Persons in One. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. They are distinct from one another in Their personhood, but They are one in their essence. They are like pretzels, which have three holes but are all tied together by the same dough. The Three are distinct in their functions, but They are essentially one God.

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Account With Purity

 
Out of the heart proceed . . . - Matthew 15:18-20
We begin by trusting our ignorance and calling it innocence, by trusting our innocence and calling it purity; and when we hear these rugged statements of Our Lord's, we shrink and say - But I never felt any of those awful things in my heart. We resent what Jesus Christ reveals. Either Jesus Christ is the supreme Authority on the human heart, or He is not worth paying any attention to. Am I prepared to trust His penetration, or do I prefer to trust my innocent ignorance? If I make conscious innocence the test, I am likely to come to a place where I find with a shuddering awakening that what Jesus Christ said is true, and I shall be appalled at the possibility of evil and wrong in me. As long as I remain under the refuge of innocence I am living in a fool's paradise. If I have never been a blackguard, the reason is a mixture of cowardice and the protection of civilized life; but when I am undressed before God, I find that Jesus Christ is right in His diagnosis.

The only thing that safeguards is the Redemption of Jesus Christ. If I will hand myself over to Him, I need never experience the terrible possibilities that are in my heart. Purity is too deep down for me to get to naturally: but when the Holy Spirit comes in, He brings into the centre of my personal life the very Spirit that was manifested in the life of Jesus Christ, viz., Holy Spirit, which is unsullied purity.


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Lightening the Load

When we get into the storms of life, it is often difficult to know what to do.  It can feel like the noise of our troubles drowns out everything else.

In Acts 27 we find the apostle Paul caught in the midst of a horrible storm.  The ship was being tossed all over the place, and the situation was becoming quite serious.

Embedded in this story is a spiritual truth that can guide you and me when we get caught in the storms of life.  It is found in verses 18-19,

And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship.  On the third day we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands.

Notice that when the storm got bad and threatened to capsize the ship, they lightened the load.

Sometimes in a storm you need to throw some things overboard.  In fact, it is a great time to evaluate any baggage that you are carrying in your life.  There are some things that may not be a sin to you, but they are a weight to you.

One of the things you need to carefully evaluate is your relationships.  There are some relationships you need to cut loose because they are hanging you up, holding you back, and they are hindering you from getting to where God wants you to go.

Or maybe it's something as simple as too much TV.  Watching TV may not be a sin, but it can sure be a weight!  It can sure be a hindrance to you hearing from God, especially when you are in a time of crisis.

If you really want to hear from God and get yourself unstuck, lighten your ship.
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Filled with the Holy Spirit

In His Presence: Psalms 63:1

"Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord"(Ephesians 5:18-19).

Jesus tells His disciples that the Holy Spirit "abides with you and will be in you" (John 14:17). But how do we engage this personal Helper? How does His power become real for us? We are to become filled with the Spirit; another way to express this is to be full of Him. When a person drinks too much liquor, they become intoxicated. When a person is drunk, they are under the influence of the drink. The alcohol dictates the agenda. They don't get drunk by looking at the liquor or talking about it. They drink it. The more they drink, the more drunk they get.

God tells us that it is like that with the Holy Spirit. To see the Helper develop us, He must have control. We must come under the influence of the Holy Spirit. We must become full of Him. So how do we drink the Holy Spirit? Remember, the Holy Spirit is a spirit, not a being we can see. He functions in the spiritual world, so that's what we drink-spiritual worship. The Holy Spirit fills up the environment that is filled with worship-songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with our hearts to the Lord.

One Minute Please
Worship fuels us with the Holy Spirit's presence, operating in us to engage the new nature.
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Do You See Jesus in Your Clouds?
 
Behold, He is coming with clouds . . . -Revelation 1:7

In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. "The clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds- He does not come in clear-shining brightness.

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. Through every cloud He brings our way, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in using the cloud is to simplify our beliefs until our relationship with Him is exactly like that of a child- a relationship simply between God and our own souls, and where other people are but shadows. Until other people become shadows to us, clouds and darkness will be ours every once in a while. Is our relationship with God becoming more simple than it has ever been?

There is a connection between the strange providential circumstances allowed by God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Until we can come face to face with the deepest, darkest fact of life without damaging our view of God's character, we do not yet know Him.

". . . they were fearful as they entered the cloud" (Luke 9:34). Is there anyone except Jesus in your cloud? If so, it will only get darker until you get to the place where there is "no one anymore, but only Jesus . . ." (Mark 9:8 ; also see Mark 2-7)


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PRAISE: The First Step in Effective Prayer

Praying consistently will change your life.  In fact, many of the blessings God wants you to enjoy will never be realized unless you pray.

I think all Christians know they are supposed to pray, and all Christians want to pray.  But many of God's people, if they are completely frank and transparent about the issue, would have to admit their prayer life is somewhere between mediocre and non-existent.

Over the next few devotionals, I want to share with you four simple points which I have put into an acronym: P-R-A-Y.  If you can spell the word pray, hopefully you will be able to remember how to make your prayer life more effective, and you will be inspired to pray more consistently.

Psalm 100 helps us understand the first letter, "P", in the word P-R-A-Y, which stands for praise.  Psalm 100:1-4 states it well,

Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!  Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.  Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.  Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.  Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Verse 2 tells us, Come before His presence with singing.  And in verse 4 notice the words "enter into."  In other words, praise is how you are to enter God's presence.  It is the best way to begin your prayer.

When you want to come to God, you start with thanksgiving.  You start with singing.  You start with praise.  Or, as The Message says, Enter with the password:  "Thank you!"

Today, and every day, make praise the starting point of every conversation with God!

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Keep Your Tank Full
In His Presence: Psalms 27:14

"Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand" - (Psalm 95:6-7).

Most Christians view worship as an event instead of a lifestyle. But our day of worship is not supposed to replace our weekday and weekend worship. Sunday is supposed to launch us into our week of worship. Worship is meant to be a lifestyle, not an event.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit and with a heart full of worship for our great God and King, we must be like a car pulling up to a filling station to receive a full tank of gasoline. Once we are filled up, do we park our vehicle and sit there the rest of the week? No, we go to a filling station to get what we need to leave the station. We have a destination and need full tanks to get there.

A problem occurs when we leave the station. As soon as we walk out of our Sunday worship, people begin to burn up that fuel inside them. Our mates, children, and work burn it up. When we leave our church, we are full of God's presence and glory from our time in corporate worship. But Satan's job is to burn up that fuel. The worst thing we can do is to wait until next Sunday to worship. We need to drink continually to stay filled.

One Minute Please

What we do on Sunday must become a way of life to remain filled with the Holy Spirit.
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Teaching of Disillusionment
 
Jesus did not commit Himself to them . . . , for He knew what was in man -John 2:24-25

Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from these deceptions. However, though no longer deceived, our experience of disillusionment may actually leave us cynical and overly critical in our judgment of others. But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism. Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another. According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious, and cowardly.

Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering of human life. And this is how that suffering happens- if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; yet we are demanding of a human being something which he or she cannot possibly give. There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter. Our Lord's confidence in God, and in what God's grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone.


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REPENT: The Second Step in Effective Prayer

Yesterday we began to look at what makes for effective prayer by using the acronym P-R-A-Y.  The first step is praise.  Today, I want to focus on the second letter of our acronym, "R", which stands for repent.

By repentance in prayer, I mean taking the time before God to search your heart and repent of anything that has come between you and Him.  Psalm 19:12-13 expresses it well,

Who can understand his errors?  Cleanse me from secret faults.  Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.  Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.

Verse 12 begins with the question, "Who can understand his errors?"  The psalmist is telling us, "You will not always know when you do something wrong.  You will not always know when you get into an area that is not right."

What David is pointing to are the secret faults and presumptuous sins which can still have dominion over you-even though you may not be aware that what you did was wrong.

For example, sometimes we can allow attitudes to get into our hearts that we don't realize are inconsistent with God's character.  Or sometimes we can do and say things that are detrimental, not only to us, but to others, and not really understand the damage we have done.

How do you deal with these sins?  You come before God and say, "God, put the spotlight on anything in my life that has raised a barrier between You and me, and I will repent of it."

So when you pray, ask God to reveal any sin in your life you may be overlooking.  God will honor your heart of repentance.

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Walking in the Spirit
In His Presence: Proverbs 9:10

"We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us"(1 John 3:24).

Since we all live in the flesh, we will struggle with the desires of the flesh until we get to heaven. But we can bring these desires under the Holy Spirit's influence. "I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). Notice that the apostle Paul doesn't say we won't have the desires of the flesh when we walk in the Spirit, but that we won't carry out those desires.

Walking in the Spirit is similar to the concept of being filled with the Holy Spirit. To walk implies that the Spirit is going somewhere-there's a destination. He always goes to the same place, to that which brings God glory. In contrast, the flesh is always moving to that which will please itself. Walking is continuous, so not only do we have to pay attention to our destination, but our walking also involves dedication. Like the filling of the Holy Spirit, walking in the Spirit is ongoing. A third aspect of walking includes dependency. The act of walking is taking one step after another.

The key to walking in the Spirit is to look to Him to give us the ability to do what we know we can't do on our own. The moment we try to do it on our own, we reject the work of the Spirit. The Spirit doesn't need our help; we need His.

One Minute Please

When we walk in the Spirit, the flesh will lose its ability to have the last word.

 

[Judy Harder]

 
Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Becoming Entirely His
 
Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing -James 1:4
Many of us appear to be all right in general, but there are still some areas in which we are careless and lazy; it is not a matter of sin, but the remnants of our carnal life that tend to make us careless. Carelessness is an insult to the Holy Spirit. We should have no carelessness about us either in the way we worship God, or even in the way we eat and drink.

Not only must our relationship to God be right, but the outward expression of that relationship must also be right. Ultimately, God will allow nothing to escape; every detail of our lives is under His scrutiny. God will bring us back in countless ways to the same point over and over again. And He never tires of bringing us back to that one point until we learn the lesson, because His purpose is to produce the finished product. It may be a problem arising from our impulsive nature, but again and again, with the most persistent patience, God has brought us back to that one particular point. Or the problem may be our idle and wandering thinking, or our independent nature and self-interest. Through this process, God is trying to impress upon us the one thing that is not entirely right in our lives.

We have been having a wonderful time in our studies over the revealed truth of God's redemption, and our hearts are perfect toward Him. And His wonderful work in us makes us know that overall we are right with Him. "Let patience have its perfect work . . . ." The Holy Spirit speaking through James said, "Now let your patience become a finished product." Beware of becoming careless over the small details of life and saying, "Oh, that will have to do for now." Whatever it may be, God will point it out with persistence until we become entirely His.


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ASK: The Third Step in Effective Prayer

So far we have discovered that praise and repentance are the first two steps to effective prayer.  Today I want to show you the very important third step of asking.

Yesterday we talked about how repentance is searching your own heart and asking God to put the spotlight on it, and then repenting of anything that He shows you.  When your heart is clean, you can have confidence before God when you ask.  As 1 John 3:21-22 says,

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.  And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

In Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus tells us,

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

Pretty clear, isn't it?  God loves you and wants the very best for you.  Be careful not to water down the words of Jesus, or somehow try and explain them away or complicate them.  He meant just what He said.

But there are some conditions.  And tomorrow we will look at those conditions for receiving what you ask God for.

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Remarkable Fruit

In His Presence: Matthew 11:29

"[God] made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"(2 Corinthians 3:6).

The Holy Spirit within us makes life real; life comes alive. When we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer, life is no longer theology. It's all right to have theology in our heads, just as long as it becomes real in our lives when we grow closer to God through the Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit takes over, we begin to grow. The Holy Spirit becomes our power source behind this growth so that eventually it will become evident. "The deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:19-23).

The Holy Spirit is the divine enabler who produces growth in us. Every time we try to grow independently of God, we are working against Him. Many of us spend much of our time shutting God out. We are trying to produce those fruits on our own. However, God does not need our help to grow us.

One Minute Please
When the Holy Spirit takes over our spiritual growth, He will produce remarkable fruit in us.

[Judy Harder]

 

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Learning About His Ways
 
When Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples . . . He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities -Matthew 11:1
He comes where He commands us to leave. If you stayed home when God told you to go because you were so concerned about your own people there, then you actually robbed them of the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself. When you obeyed and left all the consequences to God, the Lord went into your city to teach, but as long as you were disobedient, you blocked His way. Watch where you begin to debate with Him and put what you call your duty into competition with His commands. If you say, "I know that He told me to go, but my duty is here," it simply means that you do not believe that Jesus means what He says.

He teaches where He instructs us not to teach. "Master . . . let us make three tabernacles . . ." (Luke 9:33).

Are we playing the part of an amateur providence, trying to play God's role in the lives of others? Are we so noisy in our instruction of other people that God cannot get near them? We must learn to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct us regarding His Son, and He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration. When we become certain that God is going to work in a particular way, He will never work in that way again.

He works where He sends us to wait. ". . . tarry . . . until . . ." (Luke 24:49). "Wait on the Lord" and He will work (Psalm 37:34). But don't wait sulking spiritually and feeling sorry for yourself, just because you can't see one inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our own spiritual fits of emotion to "wait patiently for Him"? (Psalm 37:7). Waiting is not sitting with folded hands doing nothing, but it is learning to do what we are told.

These are some of the facets of His ways that we rarely recognize.


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The Conditions for Answered Prayer

Yesterday we talked about the "A" in the acronym P-R-A-Y, which is our way of understanding the steps in effective prayer.  That "A" stands for ask, and I have come to believe that too many Christians don't believe that God wants them to ask.

God wants you to ask.  He really does.  But there are some conditions He gives in order to answer your requests.  In John chapters 14-16 we find a number of these conditions.

We need to remember that these are Jesus' last hours with the disciples; and He wants them to understand how prayer really works.  Over and over He emphasizes the need to ask, but His answers will be based on three conditions.

First, in John 14:13, Jesus says your request must glorify God,

"And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."

Second, in John 15:7, He says your request must be consistent and in harmony with His Word,

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."

And finally, in John 16:23-24, Jesus sets the condition that your request bring you joy,

"And in that day you will ask Me nothing.  Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

Over and over, Jesus commands you to ask.  But when you ask, make sure your request will glorify God, that it is consistent with His Word, and that it will bring you joy.


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The Raging Battle

In His Presence: Psalms 37:4

"I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please"(Galatians 5:16-17).

The very Spirit of God has taken up residence in our lives if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior. God wants to express His mind, His thoughts, His desires, and His will through our mortal bodies. But for us to see this happen, we need to be under the Holy Spirit's control. While this is taking place, we are going to experience conflict within ourselves. This is one way we can know we are Christians. If we have no battles raging within, we are probably not saved. There is no opposition within us. God says the flesh and the Spirit are total opposites; they are not going to get along with each other at all.

How do we know the difference between the flesh and the Holy Spirit within us? The Spirit will want to please God, and the flesh will want to please ourselves. That's why the war going on inside of us is good, not bad. Most of us feel guilty about having such a battle. Of course, we may not like the feeling, but the two laws operating in our bodies should give us occasion to praise God.

One Minute Please

If a battle is being waged within you, that's a good thing because it indicates that the Spirit is active.

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Teaching of Adversity
 
In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world -John 16:33
The typical view of the Christian life is that it means being delivered from all adversity. But it actually means being delivered in adversity, which is something very different. "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling . . ." (Psalm 91:1,10)- the place where you are at one with God.

If you are a child of God, you will certainly encounter adversities, but Jesus says you should not be surprised when they come. "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." He is saying, "There is nothing for you to fear." The same people who refused to talk about their adversities before they were saved often complain and worry after being born again because they have the wrong idea of what it means to live the life of a saint.

God does not give us overcoming life- He gives us life as we overcome. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength. Are you asking God to give you life, liberty, and joy? He cannot, unless you are willing to accept the strain. And once you face the strain, you will immediately get the strength. Overcome your own timidity and take the first step. Then God will give you nourishment- "To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life . . ." (Revelation 2:7). If you completely give of yourself physically, you become exhausted. But when you give of yourself spiritually, you get more strength. God never gives us strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the moment. Our temptation is to face adversities from the standpoint of our own common sense. But a saint can "be of good cheer" even when seemingly defeated by adversities, because victory is absurdly impossible to everyone, except God.


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YIELD: The Fourth Step in Effective Prayer

Psalms 37:4  provides us the "Y" in the acronym P-R-A-Y, the four elements to effective prayer we have been discussing over the last few devotionals.

Here is what Psalm 37:4 says,

Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Now the Hebrew word for delight in this verse literally means to become soft or pliable.  This means that "delighting" in the Lord is assuming a yielded posture before God.

So the "Y" in P-R-A-Y stands for yield.  The question is:  How do you practice yielding to God when you pray?  Yielding is when you stop talking, and  you wait, listen, and seek to hear from God.

In my own practice of prayer, I will often bow before God and ask Him, "God, is there anything You want to say to me?  Do You have any instructions for me?  Is there anything You want me to change?"

Then I silently wait for Him to speak to me.

As you assume this posture of being yielded and waiting quietly before Him, you will be surprised at some of the things that come to your attention: "You need to spend more time with your daughter," "Take your wife out on a date," "Bake your neighbor a pie and build a bridge over which the gospel can travel," "Spend more time praising Me," "Show your gratitude and appreciation for those who have been helping you in your life."

You will indeed hear from God if you ask Him to speak into your heart, and wait silently before Him. 

That is the last element of effective prayer:  praise, repent, ask, yield.  Your prayers can indeed be effective if you commit to these four principles.  That is how to  P-R-A-Y.


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What Are Carnal Christians?

In His Presence: 1 Timothy 2:1-4

What is a carnal Christian? Carnality is that spiritual state where a born-again Christian knowingly and persistently lives to please and serve self rather than Christ. Carnality is an issue with Christians only, because a carnal Christian is a genuine Christian. These people have placed their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone, and have been born again a second time. It is possible for Christians to be on our way to heaven but be of no good to God on earth.

Christians are experiencing a crisis of carnality. Many men, women, and young people are only half-stepping with Christ. God has too many children who are not sure whose family we really want to be a part of. This indecision has led to untold agony, unanswered prayers, emotional weakness, physical weakness, loss of peace, loss of joy, and lack of stability. This does not mean that every time a Christian experiences a problem it implies that he or she is carnal. However, far too many of us are experiencing too many failures because we are, in fact, carnal and only half-stepping with the Gospel.

The apostle Paul addressed this issue with the church in Corinth: "I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly" (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).

One Minute Please

Do you want to be part of God's family or the world's family?