Devotions

One of my close friends was feeling really sick, so he went to a doctor. The doctor ran a couple tests on him, looked at them and said, “Well, here’s your problem. Your cholesterol and blood pressure is extremely high. I’m going to prescribe you some medication.”

My friend asked him, “Give me three months before we resort to medicine. I’m going to start eating right and exercising, then I’ll come back. If my cholesterol and blood pressure aren’t down, you can write me those prescriptions.”

Now I believe there's a time and place for medicine. We need to be very careful about this, but it worked out for my friend. He went back three months later, and his doctor told him his cholesterol was actually below normal. His blood pressure was down to a healthier level. His health issues were linked to his lifestyle, and once he addressed those, some of his medical issues were fixed. Now he maintains that healthy life.

A similar principle holds true for spiritual health. For example, take opioid addiction that’s tearing apart so many people’s lives right now. Leaders all around the world are saying that the opioid crisis is far beyond anything they’ve ever seen before. We can’t just tackle the addiction, though. It’s the fruit not the root. My father founded Teen Challenge because so many addicts on the street weren’t finding help in typical programs that just wanted to deal with their addiction. My dad knew that addiction or any kind of sin can only be truly fixed by addressing the deeper realm of the heart and soul.

If a broken part of our hearts or souls is left unaddressed, we will turn to other things to comfort us. Maybe it’s alcohol or drugs or the arms of someone you’re not married to or even things that are normally okay like food or hobbies. I believe addictions are caused when this soul brokenness hasn’t been mended. When we allow God to come in and do his work, when we fully surrender ourselves to him, he can completely heal and restore us. This is the blessing that we have access to as the children of God. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23, ESV).

A lot of us look at God’s Word, then we look at our lives and say, “God, you have some really great sounding promises in the Bible, but when I look around, all I see are impossibilities. I don’t see where my life is matching up with your promises.” 

I want to tell you, if you want God to awaken your soul, give him your impossible circumstances. We see this in the Bible. “And [God] brought [Abram] outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:5-6, ESV).  

Now, there have been times over the length of my ministry where I have seen people supernaturally touched and healed. I want to follow that, though, by saying that God does not always work precisely in the way that we ask him to; sometimes the supernatural manifestation of God’s presence or power doesn’t come in the way that we planned for it.  

Too often, we take our impossibilities to God, and then we tell him how he’s supposed to deal with it. 

You have to take what is most precious to you and give it to God, totally hand it over. You can only truly do this if you trust that he is a God who can not only do the impossible but also who loves what you care about even more than you do. We tell people, “Hey, if you want to serve God, you’ve got to let go of things.” Most people don’t let go, though. Most people hold on and try to handle their impossible situations themselves and control their future. Most people take what’s most precious to them and cling to it.  

When you cling to what’s precious to you, you hold up the blessings and power of God in your life.  

If you want your soul to awaken to God, you have to let go of what’s precious to you and give up trying to control your uncertain future. Your impossibilities belong to a God who does the impossible.  

_{John Bailey is the COO of World Challenge Inc. and the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. John has been serving the Lord in pastoral ministry for 35 years, ministering the gospel in over 50 nations, particularly as a pastor and evangelist in Cork, Ireland.} 

A lot of us look at God’s Word, then we look at our lives and say, “God, you have some really great sounding promises in the Bible, but when I look around, all I see are impossibilities. I don’t see where my life is matching up with your promises.” 

I want to tell you, if you want God to awaken your soul, give him your impossible circumstances. We see this in the Bible. “And [God] brought [Abram] outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:5-6, ESV).  

Now, there have been times over the length of my ministry where I have seen people supernaturally touched and healed. I want to follow that, though, by saying that God does not always work precisely in the way that we ask him to; sometimes the supernatural manifestation of God’s presence or power doesn’t come in the way that we planned for it.  

Too often, we take our impossibilities to God, and then we tell him how he’s supposed to deal with it. 

You have to take what is most precious to you and give it to God, totally hand it over. You can only truly do this if you trust that he is a God who can not only do the impossible but also who loves what you care about even more than you do. We tell people, “Hey, if you want to serve God, you’ve got to let go of things.” Most people don’t let go, though. Most people hold on and try to handle their impossible situations themselves and control their future. Most people take what’s most precious to them and cling to it.  

When you cling to what’s precious to you, you hold up the blessings and power of God in your life.  

If you want your soul to awaken to God, you have to let go of what’s precious to you and give up trying to control your uncertain future. Your impossibilities belong to a God who does the impossible.  

_{John Bailey is the COO of World Challenge Inc. and the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. John has been serving the Lord in pastoral ministry for 35 years, ministering the gospel in over 50 nations, particularly as a pastor and evangelist in Cork, Ireland.} 

Centuries before Christ was born, Isaiah prophesied that God would send a deliverer who would liberate mankind. Jesus himself stood in a Jewish synagogue one Sabbath and reminded the world of this prophecy. “And when he had opened the book, [Jesus] found the place where it was written [by Isaiah], ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.’ …Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:17-21, NKJV). 

Jesus was telling the whole world, “My mission on earth is to liberate every oppressed life.” To liberate means to set free from all bondage, to release from all slavery, to do away with everything that makes desolate. If you believe Christ is telling the truth, then you must believe he is saying to you and me, “I am sent to liberate your life, to release you from all oppression and bondage. I come to set your spirit free.” 

Paul said that Christ came to call every believer to a liberated life. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1), and he preached about "the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Romans 8:21). 

If Christ came to liberate us from a miserable life, why do we go on living the same old, miserable way? We think a life totally free of fear and guilt is too incredible. We cannot imagine life with 24-hour-a-day rest and peace, life without a heavy burden of condemnation or depression, life in the presence of a loving Savior who cares about all our needs. 

This may sound too good to be true, but this is exactly the kind of liberated life Christ wants every one of his children to enjoy. Not just a few of his children but all! This life is not just for those who break some kind of theological code, but it is for all who simply trust him for it. 

Suppose one of my sons is caught in a bear trap in the woods and lies hurt and bleeding, crying for help. As his father, do I stop to analyze the quality of his faith? Do I ask myself the question, “Does my son have enough faith in me to trust that I'll come to his rescue?” A thousand times no! I would run to my boy's side, no questions asked, because I am motivated by a father's love for a hurting child. His faith doesn't motivate me. It is not anything he does at all; it is simply my love for him. 

What kind of an earthly father would leave a child bleeding and hurt in some forsaken woods simply because the child didn't voice some kind of faith in him? In the same way, God will never leave one of his children to suffer alone. He will never shut his ear to their cries simply because their faith in him is weak. “If we are faithless, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). 

All faith must rest on the lovingkindness and concern of our heavenly Father. We are commanded to glory in the love and everlasting kindness of our Father. “But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight…” (Jeremiah 9:24). 

God so loves his children that he hears before they call like a mother who anticipates her baby's cry. That is why David prayed, “Hear my voice according to your steadfast love; O Lord, quicken me and give me life according to your [righteous] decrees” (Psalm 119:149 AMPC). He loves me and comes to my rescue when my faith is weak, when I don't deserve any answer from him, all because of his tenderness and kindness. "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy" (Psalm 103:8). 

The greatest peace has flooded my life since I have convinced myself that God loves me. He will come to my rescue and do what is right in every situation of my life. Weak faith or not, he still loves me, and nothing can hinder that love.