Devotions

Many people find it difficult to think of God as a loving father because they see him through the eyes of past experiences. God describes his nature to Moses as being “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6).

Satan loves to plant a perverted view of the Father in your mind, just as he tried with Job when Job accused God of being a “spy in the sky.” The devil tries to make you believe God is more willing to condemn you than he is to save and bless you. “For now, You number my steps, but do not watch over my sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You cover my iniquity” (Job 14:16-17). Job was saying, “Lord, you’ve been trailing me to see if I’m going to fail. You’re putting all my sins in a bag and saving them for judgment against me.”     

The truth is, God was not spying on Job at all. He was so full of love for Job that he was boasting of him. When we are in the midst of trials and difficulties, we tend to forget what God says about his own nature. Yet if we could only believe him in such times, we would have peace and assurance in our souls. Again, and again we see:

• God is ready to forgive at all times. “You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive” (Psalm 86:5).
• God is patient with us, full of tenderness and mercy. “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 145:9).
• He is slow to anger. “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy” (Psalm 145:8).

When you go before the Lord in worship, be very careful what kind of image of God you take into his presence. Be fully convinced that he loves you and that he is all he says he is!

How does a sincere believer find the “cure” for unbelief? Consider these thoughts on how to rid your heart of doubt.

Take every worry, fear and burden to Jesus — and leave them on his shoulders!

“[Cast] all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Beloved, this is God’s personal word to you: “Don’t carry that burden one hour longer. I care about everything that is happening and I’m big enough to take it all for you.”

I am so thankful that God is never stressed out or overloaded! His shoulders can carry the weight of all his children at one time; in fact, he urges us to lay everything on him. “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).

Go down your checklist of burdens right now and tell God, “Father, I give you this problem, this challenge, this relationship.” And be fully convinced that he cares!

Next, launch out in full faith on the written Word of God. Take up the Lord’s challenge to live by his Word. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). You must be able to say, “I’m going to live and die by God’s Word!”

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24). Let God take on the burden of keeping you. Just take him at his word and tell him you are going to stake your life on it. Show him you trust his every word — and be blessed!

Do you ever wonder why the disciples were so ignorant of the ways of Christ and the eternal purposes of God? Why, after three years of sitting under the blessed preaching of the Savior of the world, they remained blind, unprepared for the things to come? Why was their understanding of the cross and the resurrection so limited?

It was because they did not hear with faith! On several occasions Jesus had to rebuke them: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25).

“Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26). They had little faith — hearts that were slow to believe his Word. And they were left empty, unprepared, confused — blinded by unbelief!

If Jesus marveled at the unbelief of the disciples during his time on earth, what must he think of us today? Nineveh repented after only one sermon, believing every word Jonah preached. Yet America has heard thousands of such warnings from many prophets, but multitudes of so-called Spirit-filled believers do not heed them. They say, “I don’t want to hear that anymore.” And then they just put it all out of mind!

How much of what you have heard do you remember? How deeply has it worked into your spiritual fiber? If God’s Word is not assimilated by faith — if we do not ask him in faith to help us receive and use it — we will end up picking and choosing only what we like. And we usually pick the blessings, mercies and comforts and shake off the demands, reproofs and warnings.

Trust makes God’s Word work its way into our spirit. And faith stamps it into our personality and minds so that it is never forgotten.

Under the Old Covenant, the promise to the Israelites that God would bless them if they obeyed was all they had. But today, under the New Covenant, we have a “better promise.” “[Christ] is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6).

This “better promise” means we all shall know Him. We do not just have a high priest who goes into God’s presence. No — a veil was rent in two so we could all come into the very presence of God!

Consider all the Lord has promised us:

• His law is written in our hearts. His Holy Spirit abides in us and Christ himself is with us always.
• Reconciliation with God: healing, mercy and forgiveness through simple repentance and faith.
• Power and authority to ask anything in Jesus’ name. Power over sin and Satan. No weapon will be able to prosper against us.
• Access to the Father. He provides a throne where we can run to in the hour of need. He delivers us from overwhelming temptations. And we enjoy a continual manifestation of the presence of Jesus.
• Rest by simply asking and trusting. Peace beyond all human understanding and freedom from fear all the days of our life.

He has promised all this to us! Yet still many Christians live in fear, doubt, confusion — always fretting. They do not believe him or appropriate his precious Word; in fact, they act as though he never made such promises.

The truth is, we have much less reason to doubt and fear than our forefathers did. Our enemies today are not physical armies; they are stress, fiery temptations of the flesh, weariness of body and mind, a violent and complex society, new and subtle evils that no other generation has faced. But God has promised that where sin abounds, we have more grace to do battle than any other generation in history.

On the night before his crucifixion, at the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me” (John 14:19). What an interesting statement for Jesus to make. One of them asked, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (14:22).

Of course, Jesus had a lesson in mind. He answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ... Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. ... And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father” (14:23, 27, 29-31).

Jesus’ response here brings into focus a theme he is driving at throughout this passage — separation. In these few verses, Christ makes three clear distinctions between his kingdom and the world:

• “The world will see me no more, but you will see me” (14:19).
• “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you” (14:27).
• “The ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me” (14:30).

Until the past few years, separation was a defining characteristic of Christ’s church. Being set apart was a clear command from God’s Word and a part of every Christian’s calling. Today, however, there seems to be very little distinction between the church and the world. Let us remember that we are set apart for his kingdom purposes, to be instruments of change.