Devotions

A man once told me, “After I give ten percent of my income to God, I do whatever I please with the rest. And I expect God to bless me as he promised — because I tithed.”

My experience has shown that if a person is grudging with his giving, he will also be grudging with his time, his energy and his work for the Lord. But I want to tell you, if you are stingy with God, he will be stingy with you. By that, I mean that you are cutting yourself off from God’s blessing by your actions and your attitude.

Our attitude should be, “How much of myself can I give to my Lord?” Our joy should be in how much we can give, not in how much we can keep for ourselves.

We read in the Word, “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich” (Proverbs 11:24-25). The fact is, the more strength and energy you spend for God, the more he will pour back into you. 

The apostle Paul experienced every emotion and trial that we experience, yet through it all he had a revelation of the resources available to him. When he was overwhelmed, his faith laid hold of all he needed to bring him through with victory! He drew on the resources of his heavenly Father and rebounded again and again with new faith and new strength to go on.

In making the commitment to give yourself wholeheartedly to the work of God, you are putting yourself in a position of being blessed. If you are thinking about giving up, I encourage you to stay in the battle, for it is in the heat of warfare that God comes to you generously, showering you with his resources and strength. Only those who are involved in the battle receive his great provision!

The words you speak reflect what is in your heart! “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

Whenever I said something naughty as a child, my mother washed out my mouth with soap. But it wasn’t my mouth that needed cleansing, it was my heart. You see, your tongue speaks only what is in your heart. Jesus said that loose, careless, evil talk can come only from an evil, unclean heart.

As believers, we have not yet taken seriously what our Lord has said about taming our tongues. He has made it a heart issue — a matter of life and death. Not only does your careless tongue discount all your supposed spirituality, it also makes you face the indisputable fact that your heart is unclean, defiled.

If you engage in gossip, unkind remarks, criticism, lying, filthy language, angry outbursts, you can be certain that something in your heart has not been dealt with by the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives this matter serious thought when he says, “If you are careless with your tongue — quarreling, complaining, murmuring, tattling — you have a serious heart problem and it goes very deep.”

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bring forth evil things” (Matthew 12:35).

No minister or Christian is exempt from this warning of the Lord. Jesus says to check your heart and find out why you still speak carelessly. Do not be casual about the words you speak. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of something you have said, I urge you to repent and then allow him to turn your negative words into blessing. Cursing and blessing cannot proceed out of the same mouth (see James 3:10).

The secret to getting victory over your tongue is knowing him! Draw close to his presence and let him reveal what is in your heart.

God never intended for us, as his children, to be spiritual paupers, poor in the things of the Lord. On the contrary, he wants us to be his bountiful servants who enjoy a revelation of all the great provisions he has prepared for us!

“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

Paul is telling us, “Our forefathers could not begin to comprehend all the great provisions God prepared. It never entered into their imagination. But there is no reason for us to be blind about these things, to go about not knowing what is ours. Our eyes must see, our ears must hear, it must enter into our hearts and minds. Because we are the people for whom God has prepared it all and the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us!”

“Now we have received ... the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. ... But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God ... because they are spiritually discerned” (2:12 and 14).

The Bible says we are to seek him for the revelation of his great provision but I believe most Christians have not honestly faced the power of these promises. We have read them many times, but they are simply dead letters to us. We need to cry out, “Lord, reveal to me what you have prepared, so I can claim them for your glory.”

Do not be easily discouraged or weary in well-doing. Spend time with your Father and let his promises penetrate your heart, filling you with faith and hope!  

Do you ever feel as though you have fallen into a pit? Your “pit” could be a difficult relationship, a financial hole, an illness that you have fought for a long time. Your once close walk with Christ might seem like a distant dream and you are tempted to fall back into an old sin habit or unhealthy life pattern. Well, be encouraged! God has something powerful to say to you about where you are.

Joseph’s story in Genesis 37 tells us a lot about pits. In fact, two words are repeated throughout the Genesis narrative regarding Joseph: dream and pit. Almost every time Joseph had a dream it led to a pit; the first time was when he dreamed about ruling over his brothers. In his youthful enthusiasm, he shared his dream with them, but it didn’t go well. These men became so consumed with rage that they threw their little brother into a pit. However, God used this as a means of accelerating the process in placing Joseph in a position to achieve his kingdom purposes. Joseph was chosen! 

Think about the incredible trajectory of the life of this teen-aged shepherd, this dreamer, who became second-in-command of the world’s greatest empire. His path to fulfilling God’s objectives was not smooth, but along the way he was willing to endure every test faithfully as God strategically positioned him for his destiny.

Many believers are afraid to dream in faith. They would rather stay in their present pit than risk a move to higher ground. They know there is a cost to following God, a sacrifice that involves the unknown, and they tremble at having to pay it.

I encourage you to pick up the dream God has given you! Ask the Father to exchange your fear for faith and to use you in spite of your lingering anxiety. He will delight in your faith and you will be on his path to greatness.       

God made some verses in 1 Thessalonians come alive to me. Like most ministers, I had studied Paul in hopes of gleaning the secrets of such powerfully effective labor for Christ. I already knew his unchanging message — the gospel of Jesus Christ. I had also analyzed his methodology: he depended totally on the Holy Spirit. Daily he was led and strengthened by the Spirit’s power.

But now a third truth began to jump off the pages of my New Testament — Paul’s motivation. In reminding the believers of his visit to Thessalonica, which resulted in their conversions and the founding of a Christian church, Paul said, “As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children” (1 Thessalonians 2:6-7). The picture here in the original Greek is of a mother nursing her baby. What a tender picture of love and devotion. When a mother nurses an infant, it’s all about the baby, not her. Paul declared that was how he was while among them — all the attention and concern was for them, not him. The apostle's motivation was a fervent love for the believers in Thessalonica that could only be explained by God’s own love controlling him.

But then he went further: “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” (2:8).

“We loved you so much,” Paul said, “that we didn’t want to share only the gospel with you, but our own lives as well!”

No wonder Paul’s messages reached the hearts of the people. His words were not only from his mouth, but also from a tender heart. What would make a minister want to give not just sermons to people, but his very life as well? It was love — God’s love!   

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.