Devotions

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:7-9, ESV).

Weakness will get you sympathy on earth, but it does nothing with Satan. He has no sympathy and no mercy. If you walk around complaining, “Oh, I’m so weak, and I haven’t read the Bible for days, and I never spend time alone with God,” you might as well be whistling for Satan to come and get you.

There’s a reason scripture refers to the devil as a roaring lion. Predators look for weakness. Lionesses lie in the high grass, studying their prey for hours, and you know what they’re looking for? Who’s weak!

Zoologists don’t even know how lions can tell if a prey animal is diseased, but they know. They can sense it somehow. They know disease like they’re veterinarians. Once they begin their run and the whole herd is going crazy, another animal can come up right in the lion’s grill, and often the lion won’t even look at it or attack it. That lion is going after one animal: the weak one.

If I’m in a spiritual coma because I haven’t picked up my Bible in months, what do you think the devil’s going to do? Be afraid of me because I had an experience with God three years ago?

We have to wake up! We must start seeking God. This is the only way we can resist the enemy and become, as Peter puts it, “firm in your faith.” In spiritual warfare, the only thing that wins is the power of God, as scripture promises us, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).  

If you’re feeling weak, go to your Bible. Get down on your knees. Seek God’s face. Our enemy is pitiless, but our heavenly Father gives us strength in his name.

^{Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.}

The apostle Paul declares, “But what does it [scripture] say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame’” (Romans 10:8-11, NKJV).

Simply put, we are brought to salvation through our open confession of repentance. Jesus states, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). He also says repentance is how we are healed and restored: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).

This is good news. Jesus is telling us, “In my church, everyone is healed through repentance. It doesn’t matter who you are — the physically broken, the mentally ill, the spiritually sick — because everyone must come to me the same way. All find healing through repentance.”

What is the central message of Christ’s gospel? He makes it plain throughout the four gospels. “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15). This was Jesus’ first recorded message, and he preached repentance!

To some Christians, this may sound like overbearing language. They may respond, “Okay, but how strongly did Jesus preach repentance?” Luke answers that in his gospel. Jesus told his listeners, “But unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5).

How many churches don’t open their altars for heart-smitten people to come forward and repent? How many pastors have stopped giving invitations for this all-important spiritual work?

We must not lose all sense of our need to confess sin!

Once a woman named Celeste Horvath was New York’s most notorious madam, running a prostitution ring that catered to some of the nation’s most famous men. Celeste had grown up in a Pentecostal home, and her praying grandmother had prophesied over her, “You’re going to be an evangelist.”

Celeste rejected her church upbringing, though, and turned to prostitution. As her prostitution ring grew, she became addicted to drugs, but a battle was going on in her heart. Night after night, she prayed, “God, please let me live one more day.” Finally, Celeste was arrested. The news made national headlines.

At that point, her brother wrote to her, “You’ve shamed our family so badly that you’re beyond redemption.” Everyone who saw Celeste’s life thought she was utterly hopeless, totally unmovable; but they had a limited view of Christ.

One day during the trial, Celeste broke before the Lord. The change in her was immediate, and instantly she became a new creature. While the people in Celeste’s life had seen her only as common and unclean, the Lord had seen in her an evangelist.

Celeste showed up at Teen Challenge just before she was sentenced, and we took her in. She served time in prison where she became the evangelist God had called her to be. She led many souls to Jesus while in jail. After she was released, she became a powerful street preacher, and she eventually started a church in Long Island that was on fire for the Lord.

Are you worried about a family member or friend who doesn’t seem to be growing or maturing in Christ?

As you size up that person, are you using your own concept of Christ for their lives? Have you drawn your own circle of what it means to be a true follower of Christ and you don’t see your loved one moving in that circle? Is it possible that you are limiting Christ? Is your Jesus so tightly circumscribed that you can’t believe his Spirit may be doing a deep, hidden work? Do you condemn others for not measuring up to your standards? Do you believe that God is big enough to work on them in ways that are unseen?

Consider this as you go to your prayer closet on this person’s behalf.

The Bible makes it clear that there is a fear of the Lord that every believer is to cultivate. True fear of God includes awe and respect, but it goes much further than that.

David tells us, “An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes” (Psalm 36:1, NKJV). David is saying, “When I see somebody indulging in evil, my heart tells me that such a person has no fear of God. He doesn’t acknowledge the truth about sin or about God’s call to holiness.”

Some may try to say that the fear of God is just an Old Testament concept, but we see godly fear mentioned throughout scripture. Paul quotes the Old Testament in his letters to the early church, “’There is no fear of God before their eyes’” (Romans 3:18) and adds, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).

The fact is that godly fear gives us power to maintain victory in wicked times, so how do we obtain this fear? Jeremiah answers with this prophecy from God’s Word: “I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me” (Jeremiah 32:39-40).

This is a wonderful promise from the Lord. It assures us that he will provide us with his holy fear. God doesn’t just drop this fear into our hearts in a supernatural flash, though. No, he puts his fear in us through his Word.

Does that mean God’s fear is planted in our hearts when we merely read the Bible? No, not at all. Scripture tells us how godly fear came upon the priest Ezra: “Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10).

True fear of the Lord comes when we consciously decide that we are going to obey every word we read in God’s Word.

Jesus tells us, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14, NKJV). His statement here is about much more than just doing ministry. It extends beyond teaching, preaching or passing out tracts. Christ tells us very plainly, “You are the light.” He’s saying, “You are not just a reflection. You’re not a mere conduit. You are a light, and the intensity of your light depends upon the intensity of your walk with me.”

Do you see what the Lord is implying here? The world recognizes those who walk closely with him. Your neighbors or coworkers may not know about your daily communion with Christ, your faith in him, your utter dependence upon him. They do, however, see the light that shines from you because of the life you have with him.

So who exactly are these lights set on a hill? Where do we see them?

They are people not usually found in the limelight. They aren’t among the self-centered, self-promoting people who live for recognition in this world. They are not among those self-important church cliques who pretend to be holy but gossip, murmur and complain.

Through the years, I’ve seen many believers who appear godly but in truth are spiritually lazy. They tell others about their failings and weaknesses, thinking this makes them humble, yet they are quick to judge others. They don’t possess the true, loving, servant-like spirit of Christ. On the contrary, the “light” they have is actually darkness. Jesus says, “If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23). Where there is no true transformation from Christ, there can be no light for others. As long as you allow nothing to hinder your life in Christ, though, your light will continue to shine in the darkness.

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). Jesus is saying, “I have put you on display to the world. People are looking at you because I’ve made you a spectacle. You’re a light that is not meant to be hidden.”

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). The reason that we are to let our light shine forth to the world is that God may receive glory.