Devotions

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, ESV).

I could do a ten-year series on how to get involved in ministry and it would have zero effect. But remembering the cross and what Jesus endured there causes the heart of the servant to spring up within him. You cannot come to the cross a broken, dirty, worthless sinner and be redeemed, sanctified and loved by our Savior without being changed. When you come to this cross of Jesus, you realize, “I am crucified with Christ.”

When you live in the power of the crucified Christ, you are incapable of not serving Him. You don’t have to be asked to be a servant; in fact, nothing can stop you from signing up for ministries. You will have to carefully schedule your life because serving will just naturally come out of you.

We cannot change by going on a guilt-trip and telling ourselves we just need to try a little harder. No, we can’t do it by ourselves, but the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus gives us power to lay down our lives for Him and for others. We look around and see that many people are in need — people who are searching for a church that is full of love. They may have had a horrible week, but when they walk through the doors of the Lord’s church, they must see and feel that there is something different about that place.

Because we have been “crucified with Christ,” our servant-heart can reach others with His love and help them also to be changed.   

Happiness ebbs and flows based on our changing circumstances. A new baby or grandchild is born, and we’re all smiles. We win a free vacation, and we’re ecstatic! The boss gives a big raise just when we need the extra money, and we’re elated. But the euphoria is only temporary. Inevitably something changes and takes our happiness with it. The baby gets sick; our vacation gets rained on; our job is eliminated by a corporate merger. The positive feeling is fleeting. At best we’re left feeling empty, and at worst, even angry.

So how do we get our happiness back when the situation changes? We can’t wish happiness back. We can’t chase it. Trying harder to regain it only produces frustration. If circumstances alone make us happy, then our situation has to change in order for us to be happy again. Yet, that’s precisely the reason we’re unhappy. We don’t, and never will, have control over the things that make for “don’t worry, be happy.”

Happiness is circumstantial and elusive, but joy is not circumstantial. We can have joy even when we’re not happy. Some may hear Christians talking about joy and think that joy is just a religious word for happiness. But joy differs from happiness. If the situation is right, anyone can experience happiness. Even people who don’t know God or who curse God can be happy. But they don’t have joy, for that blessing in life has a totally different source.

According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit produces joy. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23, emphasis added).

Isn’t it interesting that joy is mentioned immediately after love? Obviously God doesn’t want us to live depressed, cranky, bitter lives. He knows that happiness is fleeting, so through the Spirit, He gives us supernatural joy that transcends our circumstances. Joy is a beautiful gift that accompanies salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It is a gift imparted by the Holy Spirit to our innermost being. 

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. 

Isaiah prophesied, “Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:2–3).

This prophecy speaks of the last days, a time that began when light — Jesus Christ the Lord — came into the gross darkness. Isaiah was speaking of a great, widespread outshining of the glory of Christ into the darkness. Multitudes throughout the whole Gentile world would come into His light.

Think of it: there was no darker time in history than at Jesus’ birth. The great Roman Empire had become a materialistic, covetous society. Sexual perversions, drunkenness and gluttony were the norm. Indeed, the whole known world at the time was shrouded in darkness.

Also during this time, hypocrisy ruled the day. Priests robbed widows of their houses, and the lowly and uneducated despised their so-called spiritual leaders. Simply put, the blind were leading the blind.

It was into this gross darkness that Jesus came forth as a shining light. And we know that since that glorious day, multitudes have come into His light.

You may say, “But look around today. Gross darkness still covers the earth.” Yes — this present hour may be the worst in human history. The darkness hovering over all nations and peoples can actually be felt. Nuclear threat, genocide, widespread sex trafficking — it all wreaks havoc on the heart.

Yet Jesus is still the light of the world. Isaiah saw down to the darkness of our day and cried out: “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1).

Once again, in the world’s darkest hour, God is going to manifest His power. He will draw in a significant ingathering of lost souls in the days ahead. He will stir the souls of many and we will see the glory of Lord.

In Second Chronicles 20 we read that King Jehoshaphat received a frightening message: “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria. . . . And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah” (2 Chronicles 20:2–3).

Terrified, Israel’s King Jehoshaphat called together a great prayer meeting: “Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord” (20:4). As the people came together to seek God, Jehoshaphat prayed, “Lord, we don’t know what to do. But our eyes are on You!” (20:12)

Here was perhaps one of the darkest hours for Israel. They were facing annihilation and had no way to stop the invading enemy. What was God’s answer to His people in that hour? “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15).

When the people heard this word, something stirred inside them. They had heard a word from the Lord. Now, during their darkest hour, faith rose up in their hearts — and they began to praise (2 Chronicles 20:18-19).

The Spirit of the Lord appeared in the midst of the congregation. And as the people’s praises ascended to heaven, the Lord sent a powerful angel to ambush the approaching enemy. Imagine how one angel of God slew that entire army!

In a single, swift moment, victory was theirs. What seemed to God’s people a dark hour became for them God’s hour of deliverance.

When Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2), He was giving His disciples — and His Church to come — an illustrated sermon. Our Lord never did anything or spoke any word that wasn’t eternally significant. Everything that Scripture records about Him points to the unchanging nature and workings of God.

Jesus’ “hour” (John 2:4) had to do with something that was happening at the feast. That is, His hour of power came when there was no wine left in the bottles. This happens to us when we are empty of solutions, when all our human efforts are in vain — and only a miracle can solve our problem.

We find this principle at work throughout the Bible: In man’s darkest hour, the Lord has a history of manifesting His power. When we come to our wits’ end, God has already prepared a great work of deliverance on our behalf.

Scripture gives us examples of this principle. Judges 6 finds Israel in a period of awful impoverishment. Year after year, God’s people were rendered helpless by a marauding enemy: the vicious Midianites. When this enemy arrived, God’s people fled to the hills for safety, hiding in caves. Meanwhile their enemy stole their crops and herds and destroyed everything they’d built, leaving Israel completely “without sustenance” or in a spiritual death.

Israel’s impoverished condition continued year after year. Yet it was in this dark hour that God manifested His power on behalf of His people. Indeed, the Lord performed His deliverance by choosing the poorest man from the poorest family in the poorest tribe in Israel: Gideon. His cry reflected the pain of the people of Israel. “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles?” (Judges 6:13).

You are probably familiar with his story. God sent an angel to Gideon and along with three hundred other men, using only trumpets and torches, the men broke the power of the Midianites and Israel was miraculously delivered!

Their hour of darkness became God’s hour of power!