Devotions

It is the Father’s nature to give. A child who grows up in a giving home learns to share, and Jesus has His Father’s giving nature. Now Jesus is beckoning us to carry on the family name through a giving life.

To do this, Christ supplies us with a powerful image at the Last Supper. He lifts up the bread and wine and says, “This bread is my body, broken for you. And this cup is my blood, poured out for you” (see Mark 14:22-23). Note what Jesus then does with the bread: He blesses it, breaks it and gives it. In doing this, Christ demonstrates to us what a poured-out life looks like. It is blessed. It is broken. And it is given away. That’s what it looks like to be a son or daughter of the living God.

This is the central difference between the average human being, whose primary aim is to meet his own needs, and someone who has found out life’s purpose and pours himself out for others. In Christ, we are called to move from a “getting” life to a “giving” life. Jesus empowers this transition for us in the Spirit, replacing our worldly spirit with His own godly Spirit. He tells us, “You have been blessed by Me and now you are meant to give those blessings away.”

This is a glorious theology—but it’s the hardest transition we will ever make in life. Over the past few years the top-selling Christian books have focused on the “getting” side of life. Their central theme is how God longs to bless His children. We know that’s true of God because of His giving nature; He wants to open the windows of heaven to pour out His mighty resources on us. He does indeed want to bless our marriage, our health, our finances. So these best-selling books have their place, and I admit I’ve drawn help from some of them myself.

But there’s something missing in these books. There is something much better than a blessed life of getting—and that is a broken life of giving. A getting life is easy; a giving life is difficult—and rewarding.

Remember, He blessed. He broke. He gave away. Often in the church this process breaks down after the first step. Many Christians don’t get past the blessing part. They don’t allow their lives to be broken before God, so they never make it to the last step—giving. Thus they never see the fulfillment of God’s purpose in blessing us.

We live in a time when a worldwide threat of planned nuclear or chemical explosion looms. The hearts of millions of people are failing them for fear, and the Church of Jesus Christ is being challenged as never before in history. We are looking out at a world that is spinning into chaos.

As I survey all this, I ask: “Where is the voice of authority in Christ? Where are the shepherds, the congregations, the lay Christians who are thinking as Jesus does? Where are those who aren’t pursuing their own agendas, but are seeking the mind of the Lord in these times?”

Those focused only on bettering themselves are drifting away from intimacy with Christ. They may preach Christ, but they know Him less and less. And they’re opening themselves to great temptations.

I ask you: Is your church thriving, yet no one seems to be likeminded with Paul, setting their affections on Christ’s concerns? What about you? When you see someone who’s unemployed, do you pray for him? Do you seek ways to be of assistance, to serve?

Where are the young Timothys today? Where are the young men and women of God who will reject the siren call to success and recognition? Where are those who will set their hearts on fervent prayer, bringing everything in their lives under subjection to become true servants of Christ and His church?

Our prayer should be: “Lord, I don’t want to be focused only on myself in a world that’s spinning out of control. I don’t want to be concerned about my own future. I know You hold my path in Your hands. Please, Lord, give me Your mind, Your thinking, Your concerns. I want to have Your servant’s heart.” 

“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine (teaching); continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee” (1 Timothy 4:16).

It was from a jail cell in Rome that Paul wrote to the Philippian church and declared that he had the mind of Christ: “I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state” (Philippians 2:19).

This is the thinking, the outworking, of the mind of Christ. Think about it. Here was a pastor sitting in jail, yet he wasn’t thinking of his own comfort, his own hard situation. He was concerned only about the spiritual and physical condition of his people. And he told his sheep, “My comfort will come only when I know you’re doing well, in spirit and body. So I’m sending Timothy to check up on you on my behalf.”

Then Paul makes this alarming statement: “For I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state” (2:20). What a sad statement! As Paul wrote this, the church around him in Rome was growing and being blessed. Clearly, there were godly leaders in the Roman church. But Paul says, “I have no man who shares with me the mind of Christ.” Why was this so?

“For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s” (2:21). Evidently, there was no leader in Rome with a servant’s heart—no one who had cast aside reputation and become a living sacrifice. Instead, everyone was set on pursuing his own interests. None had the mind of Christ. Paul could trust no one to go to Philippi to be a true servant to that body of believers.

Paul’s words here cannot be softened: “Everybody is out for himself. These ministers seek only to benefit themselves. That’s why nobody here can be trusted to naturally care for your needs and hurts—except Timothy.”

As we look around the church today, we see the same thing going on in many congregations. Ministers and parishioners alike are going after the things of this world: money, reputation, materialism, success. They are called to serve the Church of Jesus Christ, but they don’t know the mind of Christ. And Jesus’ mind-set is one of sacrifice, love and concern for others. 

If my heart is motivated by the approval of others—if that is my mindset, influencing the way I live—my loyalties will be divided. I’ll always be striving to please someone other than Jesus.

A few years after the apostle Paul was converted, he went to the church in Jerusalem to try to join the disciples there. “But they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple” (Acts 9:26).

The apostles knew Paul’s reputation as a persecutor. “[I] was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ: but they had heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed” (Galatians 1:22–23).

Barnabas helped the apostles get over their fear of Paul, and they offered him fellowship. But Paul decided to itinerate among the Gentiles. Indeed, Paul is careful to describe his calling very clearly. He states that it came “not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Galatians 1:1).

He then adds emphatically: “I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. . . . I conferred not with flesh and blood” (1:11–12, 16).

What Paul is saying here applies to all who desire to have the mind of Christ: “I didn’t have to read books or borrow men’s methods to get what I have. I received my message, my ministry and my anointing on my knees. I tell you, these things came while I was shut in with the Lord, interceding and fasting. Any revelation of Christ I have comes from the Holy Spirit, who abides in me and leads my life. I cannot allow myself to follow the trends and devices of others.”

In fact, Paul points out that before he ever considered going back to Jerusalem, “I went into Arabia” (1:17). He’s saying, in other words: “I didn’t get my revelation of Christ from the saints in Jerusalem. Instead, I went to the desert to have Christ revealed to me. I spent precious time there, being emptied of self, hearing and being taught by the Holy Spirit.”

Please understand: Paul wasn’t some proud, arrogant preacher. He had a servant’s heart and had emptied himself of all ambition, finding total satisfaction in Christ. Paul wouldn’t need a single person to show him how to preach Christ, or how to win sinners to the gospel. The Holy Spirit was his teacher! 

There are dire, awful consequences for neglecting prayer. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation” (Hebrews 2:3). How can any of us in Christ expect to avoid the consequences of prayerlessness?

I know what it’s like to have the highway of blessings in my life slowly become uncharted. I know what it’s like to have the well of living water choked at the spring and every blessing in my life dried up. That’s what happened during my periods of carelessness about prayer.

In those times, my prayer life consisted only of meditation and quiet times. I had no effectual fervency in prayer. Why? Because the cares of life robbed me of my time with the Lord.

So, what happened to me in those times? Servanthood turned to self-pity. Ministry seemed like a burden, not a blessing. And misery upon misery flooded my soul.

I battled loneliness, weariness, unbelief, a troubling sense of having accomplished little in life, even thoughts of quitting the ministry. And the blessings of God were hindered. My relationships soured, I lost discernment, and fresh revelations of Christ no longer came.

Yet I also knew the glory of returning to be with the Lord in prayer. As soon as I returned to my prayer closet, the blessings began flowing again. I had joy and peace, relationships were healed, and God’s Word came to life.

“[Uzziah] sought God in the days of Zechariah . . . and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper” (2 Chronicles 26:5). “[King Asa] sought the Lord . . . and he hath given us rest on every side” (14:7). “All Judah . . . sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and the Lord gave them rest round about” (15:15).

Scripture makes it clear that praying servants find blessing and rest on every side.

“The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:17-18).