Devotions

God’s secret to spiritual strength is found in Isaiah 30:15: “In returning [to Me] and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

The word for quietness in Hebrew means repose — calm, relaxed, free from all anxiety. Not many Christians today have the kind of tranquility and serenity described here. Multitudes of believers are involved in a frenzy of activity, rushing madly to obtain position, wealth, possessions, pleasure. Even many in the ministry dash about worrying, fearing, looking for answers in conferences, seminars, best-selling books. Everyone seems to want solutions, direction, something to calm their spirit, yet they seek it in every source except the Lord. But God has already spoken a word for them through Isaiah, and if they don’t turn to him as their source, their striving will end in sorrow and confusion.

The apostle Peter speaks of the adornment of “a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God” (1 Peter 3:4). Such a spirit has nothing to do with temperament or personality; after all, some people are naturally inclined to be calm and shy while others are just the opposite. No, the quiet spirit Peter refers to can only be implanted in us by the Holy Spirit. And the good news is that he gives it to everyone who fully trusts in the Lord.

Is your house a relaxed, peaceful abode or it is a place of doubt, anxiety and restlessness? When trouble comes, do you seek God diligently before any other source? This process of trusting him first in all things is not easy but is to be encouraged! Our Lord says, “You have trusted me with your salvation and now I want you to trust me with everything in your life — your health, your family, your future. Give it all to me!” Go to your secret closet and get alone with him and he will meet your every need . . . and more!  

Whenever we receive a great deliverance from God, we thank him with our whole heart. And then we make him this sincere promise, “Lord, from now on, I won’t go anywhere or do anything until I inquire of you. I’m going to pray about everything.” But when a new crisis arises, we think we can rely on our old plans and successes and we end up taking matters into our own hands.

We reason, “God has given me a good mind and I’m supposed to use it. He wants me to figure things out.” Well, that’s true, but only after seeking his direction in prayer. We can never obtain the mind of God by relying on our own reasoning. The Lord may allow our self-made plans to work momentarily, but eventually we end up in total confusion.

The apostle Paul tells us that the carnal mind cannot understand the spiritual mind: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:5-7).

It is possible that in spite of your righteous walk, your devotion and worship, you are going your own way. If this is true, turn your eyes back toward God for his discernment and guidance. Cry out to him and trust in his faithfulness. “The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand” (Psalm 121:5). Your Father longs to be the one who watches over you, guards you, and protects you.

How wonderful to know that our Lord is vigilant, protective, and he takes great joy in keeping and preserving his children. 

The Old Covenant consisted of a set of rules that said, “If you do this or that, God will give you life, but if you don’t, you’ll miss God’s blessing.” Of course, the people constantly fell short of God’s standard because his law was holy, and as a result, their lives were dogged by guilt and despair. When God gave us his New Covenant, however, he did not set up a new system with a new set of rules. Instead, he sent us a person.

God’s Old Covenant did not need to be changed in any way because Jesus himself came as the covenant — the blessing of grace! As the embodiment of the New Covenant, he shows us the impossibility of our ability to keep God’s law; in fact, his first act of ministry on earth was to make God’s law even more difficult for us. He did this in order to show us how we could never keep it without his grace and power.

In what is commonly known as The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke regarding the commandment not to commit murder: “Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:22). He did the same regarding adultery: “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (5:28). But in this same sermon he explained what it looks like to walk as his followers and live a life of blessing and victory.

Under the New Covenant, God’s law was no longer an external standard to strive for. Instead, his law would be written on our hearts, through the Holy Spirit: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). We are filled with the Holy Spirit — the very life of God himself — and because of his great gift, we are enabled to live for him without guilt or shame.

Some of you who have known the Lord for a season may have gotten to the point where you feel like you are being passed over. You possess vast biblical knowledge, you know the Hebrew meanings of words, and you have a history with God. But next to you is an excited Christian who simply believes that all things are possible with God. He has perhaps a quarter of your knowledge yet he is pressing into something that has long eluded you — something that God told you but you had a hard time believing. 

Well, you have a choice to make! I don’t know about you, but I choose to live and die on the side of faith. I choose to believe that God can do exceedingly more than we can ask or think when we pray to Him. And I choose to believe that if we will walk humbly before God, He will do something in and through us that will touch this generation!

Has God planted something inside of you? Has the Holy Spirit been whispering to your heart? Perhaps the Lord has told you something — something that He desires to do through your life. You know it, God knows it, and now is the time to agree with it. After all, there comes a time in our walk with God when there is no longer any excuse for unbelief.

There comes a point when we must trust God, determined not to sit on the sidelines in silence and unbelief. Instead, we must allow God to be God in us — doing what only He can do, leading us where only He can take us, bringing honor to His name.

That is how the Church started, and that is how the Church will finish before Christ comes to take us home! We have come to the threshold of His return and we want to finish strong, walking in faith and longing to see Him! Hallelujah!

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. 

The Word of God reveals how God delivers us from the pursuit of sin in our lives.

“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

What a wonderful, freeing truth! God comes to us in our deluded, bound condition with powerful promises of full and complete deliverance. He says, “I pledge to deliver you and keep you from sin and I will give you a heart to obey me. Now let my promises lay hold of you!” 

We are led out of our sin as we lay hold of God’s promises. Think about it for a moment. Peter is saying that the believers he was addressing in this epistle had “escaped the corruption that is in the world.” These Christians escaped sin because they were given divine power — life and godliness — through their faith in his promises!

Beloved, your Father wants you to know fullness of joy in Christ. Allow the Holy Spirit to go into the depths of your being and remove everything that is unlike Christ. Then that joy will break out! 

Pray to the Lord right now: “Oh, Father, I agree with you about my sin. The stench of my compromise has reached into heaven and I know it has to go immediately! I receive your loving, divine ultimatum and I lay everything before you. Set fire to anything in me that is wicked and let your promises take hold of my heart.”