Devotions

A few years ago, I was driving with my littlest one. It was just me and her, and when you're with Dad, you sometimes get to do stuff that Mom wouldn’t like, so she asks me, "Would you get me French fries and a vanilla shake at McDonald's?"

“Sure,” I said. “It's just once.” We get the fries, and she is sitting in the back, and that smell is intoxicating, so I said, “Hey, can I have a few of those fries?”

“Absolutely not.”

I said, “Just give me a fry. Just one.”

Nothing. Finally, I pulled the car over. "Do you know why you have those fries? Let me help you. I get up every morning at 5:00 a.m. to pray and get a word from God so I can show up at church, preach my heart out, then counsel people throughout the week. When Friday comes, they give me a paycheck. With that paycheck, I make sure you have Cheerios so that you don't starve. I make sure I pay the electric bill so you're not sitting here in the dark. I pay the heating bills so you don't freeze.”

I said, “Then with the money left over, I go into the drive-through so you can get a vanilla shake and fries. I just want one fry.” Sometimes we forget all that God has done, and we won't even give him praise. We sit there with our shake and fries while we’re singing our heart out, thinking, “I bought this.”

We didn't buy anything. God gave it to us. We sometimes need to recognize that God is working for us and how he deserves praise. Like Paul wrote, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:16-17, ESV).

There is always something to praise God about. There is always something to lift up when you raise your hands in worship. All God wants you to do is to say thank you. This is the position we should assume all through life, saying, “God, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you.” 

^{After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.}

So much distress, affliction and sorrow are caused by sickness, disease and disaster. So many hurting believers are in the world. The Bible does tell us, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous…” However, the next phrase in this verse changes the meaning entirely: “…but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19, NKJV).

David cried, “Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions” (Psalm 132:1). This godly man faced many troubles. His prayer was, “Lord, you have delivered others out of their afflictions. Don’t forget about me. Help me. Deliver me!”

The apostle Paul also endured many afflictions.  He wrote, “Now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:22-24).

Paul added, “But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses…” (2 Corinthians 6:4). Note his emphasis here “in much patience.” Have you been losing patience in your affliction? Have you become so discouraged that you’ve come to the point of casting aside your faith?

A pastor and his wife wrote to me, “We are so discouraged. We have been so mistreated and unappreciated. We are financially devastated, and we see very little fruit from our labors. We have prayed, believed and held onto faith; but now we are at the end of endurance. We do not want to doubt, but we need a miracle. We need to see at least some token for good, so we can go on.”

Any words I have to encourage the downcast seem inadequate, but this one thing I do know. We serve a kind and loving heavenly Father. His Word says he is touched by our afflictions, and it is my firm belief that he’s waiting for you to lay down all your fears, anxieties or questions and trust he will deliver you because of his loving kindness for you.

Lay hold of the scriptures, and let faith arise in your heart. God has not forgotten you.

To be a member of God’s true church, you must be known by the name of Jehovah Shammah: “The Lord is there” (see Ezekiel 48:35). Others must be able to say about you, “It’s clear to me the Lord is with this person. Every time I see them, I sense the presence of Jesus. Their life truly reflects the glory of God.”

If we’re honest, we must admit we don’t sense the Lord’s sweet presence in each other very often. Why? Christians spend their time involved in good religious activities like prayer groups, Bible studies, outreach ministries; and that’s all very commendable, but many of these same Christians spend little if any time at all ministering to the Lord in the secret closet of prayer.

The Lord’s presence simply can’t be faked. This is true whether it applies to an individual’s life or to a church body. When I speak of God’s presence, I’m not talking about some kind of spiritual aura that mystically surrounds a person or that comes down in a church service. Rather, I am talking about the result of a simple but powerful walk of faith as Paul commanded Timothy. “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7, NKJV)

Whether that spirit Paul mentioned is manifested in a Christian’s life or in an entire congregation, it causes people to take note. They tell themselves, “This person has been with Jesus,” or “This congregation truly believes what they preach.”

It takes much more than a righteous pastor to produce a Jehovah Shammah church. It takes a righteous, shut-in people of God. If a stranger comes out of a church service and says, “I felt the presence of Jesus there,” you can be sure it wasn’t just because of the preaching or worship. It was because a righteous congregation had entered God’s house, and the Lord’s glory was abiding in their midst.

Right now you may be waging a losing war against some kind of temptation. Whatever your struggle is, you’ve determined not to run away from the Lord. You refuse to give yourself over to sin’s grasp. Instead, you’ve taken God’s Word to heart.

However, like David, you’ve grown weary. Now you’ve come to a point where you feel absolutely helpless. The enemy is flooding you with despair and lies.

Your testing may become even more mystifying and unexplainable, but I want you to know that no matter what you’re going through, the Holy Ghost wants to reveal “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19, NKJV).

How is our Lord distinguished from all the other gods worshipped throughout the world? Of course, we know our God is above all others, set apart in every way; but one clear way we know the Lord to be distinguished from others is by his name: the God who pardons. Scripture reveals our Lord as the God who forgives, the only God who has the power to pardon sin.

We see this name of God confirmed throughout the scriptures. Nehemiah declared, “But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them” (Nehemiah 9:17).

Moses asked the Lord for a revelation of his glory. He wasn’t allowed to see God’s face, but the Lord did reveal his glory to Moses through a revelation of his name. “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6–7).

David gives us the same Hebrew description of God when he wrote, “For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you” (Psalm 86:5).

Our God does not abandon us in our struggles. He is standing ready to forgive and bring us back to him.

We are all familiar with Psalm 23. Its comforting message is well known even among non-believers. This renowned psalm was written by King David, and its most famous passage is in the opening verse: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

The Hebrew word David uses for ‘want’ in this verse indicates lack. David is saying, in other words, “I shall not lack anything.” When we combine this meaning with the first part of the verse, David is saying, “The Lord leads, guides and nourishes me. Because of that, I lack nothing.”

In this brief verse, David gives us yet another reflection of the Lord’s character and nature. The literal Hebrew translation of the first part of this verse is Jehovah Rohi. It means “the Lord, my shepherd.”

Jehovah Rohi is not some benign, passive figure. He isn’t a hireling who does little more than provide food and guidance. He doesn’t merely point us toward the grassy pasture and pools of water and say, “There’s what you need. Go and get it.” Nor does he turn a blind eye to our needs. He doesn’t run the other way when he hears our cries for help and sees us in trouble. No, he knows every pain we endure, every tear we shed, every hurt we feel. He knows when we’re too weary to go another step. He knows just how much we can take. Most of all, he knows how to rescue us and bring us to a place of healing. Time after time, he makes us lie down for a time of healing and restoration.

The Lord our shepherd is compelling us to follow him into his rest. The Lord says in Exodus 29:45, “I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.” The word ‘dwell’ here means “to abide by, or to settle down beside.” This word signifies not just a passing presence but a permanent one, a presence that never leaves. It’s something God imprints permanently on our soul. It’s his very near and eternal presence.

The picture here is glorious: Our shepherd offers to come to us in the midst of our pain and depressed condition and to sit by our side. His powerful and protective presence abides with us and lies down beside us. We have this confidence that our shepherd is among us.