Shelter-Living

“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty…. He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday.”  Psalm 91:1, 4-5

We won’t find rest if we’re living somewhere else. We won’t know peace if we’re trusting in ourselves, in our circumstances, or in our feelings.

We must reside and persist in the presence of our Savior. If we don’t, our lives will be plagued by fear and worry. Our situation will overwhelm us. We will be fear-driven instead of living in His shelter.

How do we do this with a God we can’t see or touch?

This is where it gets tough. This choice of life, this shelter-living doesn’t happen accidentally. It takes intentionality. It takes spending time with our Savior, pouring over His words, sitting in His presence, quieting our hearts long enough to hear His gentle whispers, and seeking His way not ours. It means falling on our knees in repentance, mourning our sin and refusing to make excuses for it. It’s surrendering our hearts, our choices, and our will to Him. All of this is so contrary to the world around us, but this is how we live in the shelter. This is where we find rest. This is where protection is found. This is where we will find peace in the storm.

When we live in the shelter of our Abba Father, we no longer need to be afraid. Worry will become a thing of the past. Trust will be our daily companion. He alone will be our place of refuge and we will know a peace the world will never comprehend.

Father, when our hearts are weary and troubled, help us to look to You. Give us the determination and discipline to choose to live in Your shelter, to find comfort in Your wings. Thank You that You give us rest. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Take Action

Are you living in God’s shelter? If not, ask yourself what is preventing You from surrendering Your heart to Him.

 

Grafted Into Christ

John 15:1-8

A vinedresser plants and tends his vines for the purpose of seeing them produce grapes. God, as our vinedresser, encourages us to bear spiritual fruit. He wants us to have a character like that of Christ—marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Our Father wants to ensure that believers will be fruitful; for this reason, they are removed from the dead tree of humanity and grafted onto the living vine, Jesus Christ.

After His baptism, Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit,” who led Him to the next step (Luke 4:1). Christ’s life and ministry were the result of the Spirit’s empowerment, and when we become believers, God sends the very same Helper to indwell us. In the language of vineyards, the sap from the vine flows into a grafted branch, giving it life and the capacity to grow the kind of fruit typical of that plant. The branch and the vine become one life. The Living Bible translation says, “Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him” (Col. 2:7).

Some people run away from the Christian life because they think they cannot do it. And they’re right: They cannot, but the Holy Spirit can. When we are one with Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God lives His life through us. That doesn’t mean we are free from responsibility—the Spirit can do His work only as we wisely choose to yield to Him. When we are obediently following the Lord, our joy and peace are not dependent upon circumstances; the One in whom we are rooted is our joy and peace.

Walking In 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 Bible reading plan

• Ezekiel 3
• Psalms 39

The War Against Love: Part Two

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” Colossians 1:13

The war against love was failing. The rebellion against the dark empire’s anti-love laws refused to die. The ruler gathered his generals.

“Sir,” said one, “the rebels say the anti-love laws have no authority over them.”

The ruler exploded with rage. “No authority? I must be obeyed — or else!”

“Yes, sir,” we agree, “but they claim to live in a different kingdom now. They accept the Lord of Love’s authority only. The more we arrest them, the more they multiply.”

A coruscating fireball of wrath flashed out from the ruler. “Crush them! Find a way to stop this thing. Now!”

But how? It was proving not to be so easy. Then someone said, “I’ve got it. Instead of fighting against love, we need to celebrate it.”

“Are you crazy?” the others asked.

“Not all,” he replied. “It will be easy. We’ll tell them that love has to be repaid.” For example, “If you love me, then I will love you.”  Or, “I love you because you make me happy.”

The rebels countered with their own idea: “Let love be genuine.” But really! Genuine? Yeah, right, as if that could ever happen!

They launched the attack immediately. Within weeks “conditional love” was being promoted everywhere: books, songs, television, and movies. It proved enormously popular. Real love was hard, too much sacrifice. This was selfishness with a new name, and people couldn’t get enough of it. Conditional love spread like a warm but toxic fog.

The ruler of the dark empire laughed and thought to himself: “Conditional love! At last, a strategy that might work.”

Lord, I want to love like You love. Fill me with Your Spirit. Lead me and teach me how my love can be genuine and real this week. Amen.

Take Action

“Let [your] love be genuine” (Romans 12:9). It will take the power of God’s Holy Spirit to do this. Learn how to breathe spiritually so you can walk in unconditional love:

 

Experiencing God’s Love

Ephesians 3:17-19

In today’s passage, Paul prays that the Ephesians will grasp the depth of Christ’s love. Though divine care is beyond human comprehension, the apostle says God will give spiritual understanding so we can experience Him more fully. But there are four things that keep us from getting a handle on His love and resting in it.

1. We think God’s acceptance is imperfect and conditional like ours. Yet the Bible tells us that His compassion comes from His character and is not dependent upon our morality, choices, or thoughts. (See Rom. 5:8.)

2. When we recognize our sin, we often experience guilt. Sometimes this leads to feeling unworthy of the Father’s ultimate love. Instead, let a guilty conscience lead you back to God so that you can repent. Realize that His love and forgiveness are greater than any sin. He promises that there is no condemnation for His followers (Rom. 8:1).

3. There are some teachers who encourage legalism. This traps a person into feeling he or she must earn God’s favor. It also contradicts the divine truth that our Father loves His children without condition.

4. Some of us have a difficult time reconciling God’s love with His discipline. These can exist together, however. His correction flows from compassion, just as loving parents must redirect their children.

Recognizing God’s love will bring peace and joy to your life. At the same time, it doesn’t give license to sin. Like any caring father, the Lord will use discipline to bring you back to Him. Instead, why not let His love motivate you to walk in a holy and obedient manner before Him?

Spiritual Doctor

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.

Jeremiah 17:14

I have seen his ways, but I will heal him.

Isaiah 57:18

It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honor is to be given to God who grants wisdom to doctors and bestows power to enable the human frame to cast off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the Great Physician alone; He claims it as His prerogative: “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal”;¹ and one of the Lord’s choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, “the Lord who heals you.” “I will heal your wounds” is a promise that could not come from the lips of man but only from the mouth of the eternal God.

On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, “Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled,”² and again, “Heal me, for I have sinned against you!”³ For this also the godly praise the name of the Lord, saying, “[He] heals all your diseases.”⁴ He who made man can restore man; He who was at first the creator of our nature can re-create it. What a transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”⁵

My soul, whatever your disease may be, this Great Physician can heal you. If He is God, there can be no limit to His power. Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding; come with the limping foot of wasted energy; come with the disabled hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the fit of shivering despondency; come just as you are, for He who is God can certainly restore you. No one can restrain the healing power that proceeds from Jesus our Lord. Legions of devils have attempted to overcome the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been hindered. All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and you may be counted among them, my friend, if you will but rest yourself in Him tonight.

¹⁾ Deuteronomy 32:39
²⁾ Psalm 6:2
³⁾ Psalm 41:4
⁴⁾ Psalm 103:3
⁵⁾ Colossians 2:9

Family Bible reading plan

• Ezekiel 2
• Psalms 38

Choosing Gentleness

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” James 3:17 (ESV)

A month ago I went on a much-needed vacation. I didn’t realize how burnt out I had become until I was on the airplane. Though I didn’t want to talk to anybody, when the immigration forms were passed around — and I realized I was without a pen — I was forced to strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to me. Within moments of our talk, I welled up with tears. And I wept for the rest of the airplane ride.

Gentleness.

I had been living with a “go, go, go” attitude for a long time, making decision after decision, having to be nothing short of strong. Somewhere along the road, I had left tenderness behind. So, when I had a moment to just sit and be still, God allowed me to encounter an individual who flourished with a sprit of gentleness. Through this stranger, I encountered God.

When we abide in God, He lives through us and shows Himself with joy, peace, and kindness, in all of His beauty. Sometimes we can see how God uses us, and at other times, we have no idea how we touch the hearts of those around us who desperately need an encounter with God.

I’m sure this individual had no clue how they touched my spirit, but God sure did. All I want now is to be used in this way as well, and choose to live in gentleness.

Max Lucado says, “I choose gentleness…. Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.”

Heavenly Father, I long for Your fruit in my life. Today, I choose You and Your ways and ask that You would live in me and through me. May You use me to touch those in my life who need to encounter You. Amen. 

Take Action

Take a moment and reflect on an area of your life that you are struggling to see the fruit of God in you. Ask the Holy Spirit to live through you in that specific way this week. Watch and see how He will reach others because of your willingness to surrender to His beautiful ways.

 

The Trials of Life

1 Peter 1:6-7

Most likely, you’ve heard the age-old question, “If God is good, how can He let bad things happen?” Since the fall of man, life has always included hardship. Though trials are painful, understanding the Lord’s purpose can bring joy and hope.

The Word of God is clear that suffering is purposeful. Primarily, the Lord is conforming His children to be like Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18). When a person is newly saved, he or she still has many “rough edges.” Sanctification, which takes place from that point on, is the process of becoming holy—and few things build character like sorrow. Unfortunately, people rarely mature during pleasant times. Instead, pain brings impurities to the surface and forces people to see the reality of their life.

Another reason the Father allows trials is to test the faith of His children. Of course, He doesn’t need this for His own information—it is the believers who benefit. Tested faith is stronger and more reliable than untried faith.

Furthermore, God allows hardship in order to reveal His character, love, and power. During life’s storms, people who cling to their heavenly Father will find Him trustworthy and real. When the next difficulty arises, they’ll remember His faithfulness during the previous trial and will rest confidently in Him.

While no one wants to suffer, experience and sorrow will mature the believer. We can learn certain things from books and other people’s stories, but most growth occurs during trials. So, when problems occur and sorrow seems piercing, thank God for His purpose in your suffering.

The Reward of Careful Walking

All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.

Numbers 6:4

Nazirites had taken, among other vows, one that debarred them from the use of wine. In order that they might not violate the obligation, they were forbidden to drink the vinegar of wine or strong liquors; and to make the rule even clearer, they were not to touch the unfermented juice of grapes, nor even to eat the fruit either fresh or dried. In order to secure the integrity of the vow, they were not even allowed anything that had to do with the vine; they were, in fact, to avoid the appearance of evil.

Surely this is a lesson to the Lord’s separated ones, teaching them to come away from sin in every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes but even its spirit and likeness. Such strict walking is much despised in these days, but rest assured, dear reader, it is the safest and happiest path. He who yields a point or two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah. A little crevice in the seawall in Holland lets in the sea, and the gap soon swells until a province is drowned.

Worldly conformity, in any degree, is a snare to the soul and makes it more and more liable to presumptuous sins. The Nazirite who drank grape juice could not be completely certain whether or not it had fermented and consequently could not be clear in heart that his vow was intact. In a similar way the yielding, vacillating Christian cannot have a clear conscience but is constantly aware of his double standard. Doubtful things we need not wonder about; they are wrong for us. Tempting things we must not play with, but run from them speedily. Better to be sneered at as a Puritan than to be despised as a hypocrite. Careful walking may involve much self-denial, but it has pleasures of its own that are more than a sufficient reward.

Family Bible reading plan

• Ezekiel 1
• Psalms 37

The Art of Patience

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:12-13

I am not by nature a very patient person. I am a planner. I have a timeline in which I believe things are supposed to begin and end — and it’s often completely contrary to our Lord’s timeline. Throughout my Christian journey of 35 years, I have had to learn the art of patience, with people and with God’s will.

Many times I’ve found it easier to judge than to show mercy to others who didn’t meet my standards. I have stepped ahead of God in trying to pick my relationships, jobs, and other things instead of trusting Him to direct my steps. I am just beginning to understand just how patient and merciful He has been to me all these years, as He has forgiven my bad choices and stubborn ways.

Today I am learning the art of how to be still, and how to be filled with the Spirit. As I do this, the fruit of patience is being pruned in me: I can wait on God for His timing; I can show understanding to people who reject God; I’m able to show mercy to those who are stubborn. As the Scripture above says, I must bear with people and forgive any grievances I may have, just as the Lord does with me. Knowing that, I am more willing to wait patiently, and to bear the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces within me.

Lord, please grant me the fruit of patience as I sit still and wait on You and others. Let me always be reminded of Your mercy, patience, and forgiveness. I ask You to prune me in areas where I still need it so that I may grow and bloom in your likeness. Amen.

Take Action

Try sitting still when you’re seeking discernment for an important decision or trying forgive someone you need to. Ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit that you may be able to be a witness of patience.