Devotions

If you had a chance to ask God a ‘why?’ question, what would you ask him? Why did this bad thing happen to me? Why did my mom pass away?

How about a personal failure question? That’s what we find in Matthew 17. The disciples failed at something they were empowered to do and did not know why they’d failed. They had tried to heal a young man’s boy and were unable, so the man brought his son to Jesus. “And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.’” (Matthew 17:18-20, ESV).

I love  that the disciples asked their question. People don’t do this today when they finish a task. It’s rare to find someone asking for critique to get better. We live in a culture that will blame others but not inspect ourselves. 

Jesus’s answer to the disciples is astounding and multi-layered. The big issue, Jesus said, is faith; then he tells them (and us) what can get mustard seed sized faith kick-started: prayer and fasting. Track with me here. Fasting is not a hunger strike to get God’s attention. Fasting creates space for God. To make a meal during the disciples’ time period was not going to Whole Foods or Costco; it was an all-day affair that involved killing an animal and cooking it. Fasting meant creating space to pray and hear from God. 

When someone fasts, they are giving God more time, and when you get more time with God, trust me, God gets bigger in your life. That’s why I believe that you can fast from many different types of things and not just food — social media, television, certain activities — and create space for prayer. 

The way you get a grain of faith is by praying and fasting. A private ‘why’ not only helped the disciples but also gave us great insight for when we need some movement on things that won’t budge. 

^{After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.}

Many of us have had formative experiences of being rejected, abandoned or hurt by people. These are experiences we feel not just in our thoughts but in the very fabric of who we are and how we view the world. We can say things to ourselves like “Oh, I’m not unloved. I’m not an outcast.” all day long, but that’s not enough to deal with the emotional core in us. We must have something higher to set us free from binding emotional pain or accusations against our worth as God’s children. 

Many times in life, I’ve struggled with a sense of not being enough and saying to myself, “I don’t feel worthy…” What’s set me free from that sense of unworthiness has been setting my heart on a higher power. Here’s what I mean. If I feel like I’m not enough, then I will say, “I want to be a man who pours out God’s love on other people.” 

Remember this scripture: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…” (1 John 4:18, ESV). I think that we could put many things in the place of ‘fear’ in this verse. God’s perfect love casts out a sense of inadequacy. Perfect love casts out loneliness. Perfect love casts out defensiveness. 

How do we come into a place of perfect joy and confidence? I don’t think it can genuinely come from trying to confess out what’s holding us back from those things or looking into a mirror and telling ourselves, “I’m worthy! I’m worthy!” Those actions aren’t powerful enough. 

Constantly returning to what God says about us as his children, however, helps us not lose sight of his great love for us. Contending to be a man of God and live like Jesus gives us something greater to overcome those emotional pains and doubts that would color our decisions. This is why scripture tells us “…to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24). 

Israel refused to believe God's message about how precious they were in his eyes. Instead, they preferred to focus on their condition, their weaknesses and inabilities; and they gave in to their fears.

After a time, God ran out of patience with them, saying to Moses, “How long will these people reject me? And how long will they not believe me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them…” (Numbers 14:11-12, NKJV).

The Lord forgave Israel for Moses’s sake, but they were not permitted to enter into the Promised Land. Instead, they were assigned a wilderness existence, a life given over to constant fear and destructive doubts. They were forgiven but miserable! They had lost the hope, rest and peace that come from accepting and believing how special God's children are to him.

Beloved, the only time God's patience runs out with us is when we refuse again and again to accept how much he loves us and wants to see us through our battles. Indeed, many Christians today have been turned back into a wilderness of their own making. They have no joy, no victory. To look at them, you'd think God had forsaken them years ago when actually he has just turned them over to their own complaining and murmuring.

Thank God, Joshua and Caleb entered into the Promised Land, and what joy they had! God blessed them incredibly, and they stood as green trees in his house until their dying days. They were men of power and vision because they knew they were precious to God.

You also are precious to the Lord, in spite of all your problems and failures. No matter what your trials or struggles, you can be a green tree in God's house, just as Joshua and Caleb were. Simply stand on what scripture promises: “He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me” (Psalms 18:19). That is the foundation of true faith.

Joshua and Caleb were among the twelve spies sent to spy out the Promised Land. When they discovered enemies in the land, they didn't shed tears, bemoaning the conditions they had found. Rather, they rejoiced after searching out the land and came back full of hope, faith and vision.

Do you know Christians like this? They are always rejoicing. You know they are enduring awful trials, yet they seem to know how to get hold of God in the midst of their situation.

What about you? Are you always down, always complaining? Perhaps your personal problems or family situations have possessed you and eaten up your soul. Beloved, no matter what you are going through, you are precious to God. If you come to him with a repentant heart and a hungry soul, he will give you his vision and hope.

Joshua and Caleb had a revelation of their value in God's eyes, and they knew Israel was special to the Lord. That was the key to their hopeful, victorious spirit. Joshua said, “If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us” (Numbers 14:8, NKJV). In other words, “Because he delights in us, we are as good as in the land already.”

This is the same revelation David had: “He brought me out and delivered me because he delighted in me.” Likewise, every victorious Christian today has this same revelation of the loving heavenly Father. “We can't fail! All our enemies are meat for us because we are precious to the Lord. He delights in us.”

Let me reveal to you the great mercy of God in the preaching of Joshua and Caleb. Israel had spent the night in rebellion, wallowing in unbelief, weeping as though God had forsaken them, and finally appointing a captain to lead them back to Egypt. Yet the Lord sent Joshua and Caleb to them, and they told the people, “Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them” (Numbers 14:9).

In Numbers 13 and 14, we see that Israel had sent twelve spies to search out the Promised Land. When these spies returned after forty days, they planted three lies in the hearts of God's people.

1. “There are too many people in the land, and they're too strong for us.” 
2. “The cities are walled too high. The strongholds are impregnable.” 
3. “There are giants in the land, and we are no match for them. We are helpless!” 

These lies took the heart right out of Israel, and the people endured a night of despair. “And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night” (Numbers 14:1, NKJV). Can you imagine this scene? Think of what it must have sounded like. More than 2 million people were weeping, wailing, moaning, focusing completely on their weaknesses and inabilities. Those wailing sounds of unbelief bombarded heaven.

Beloved, take a good, hard look at that scene, and you may see yourself in the midst of it. Have you ever spent a night like that one, wailing and moaning because of demonic lies that were planted in your spirit? You may have cried out to God, “I've had it; I can't take any more. This trial is too much. These strongholds in me will never come down. I'll never make it. I've lost the battle.”

The devil throws these same three lies at all of God's people, “Your temptations are too numerous. Your lusts are too overwhelming. You are too weak to resist the powers coming against you.”

The word that God spoke to Israel is for us today: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people; for all the earth is mine” (Exodus 19:5).

Dear one, remember this: “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 14:2).