Devotions

According to a study jointly conducted by the World Health Organization and Harvard Medical School, and based on more than 60,000 face-to-face interviews worldwide, the richest country — the United States — has the saddest people and is regarded as one of the unhappiest places on earth.

The happiest people on the planet? Nigerians, and they have one of the lowest standards of living. I don’t believe Nigerians have the corner on the market, though. Believers do.

In Matthew 5, Jesus gives us his prescription for how to have happiness. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3-10, ESV).

This is not what Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the Mount: Live like this and you will become a Christian. That’s impossible. What he is saying is this: Because you are a Christian, you can live like this and experience happiness.

Happiness is found in character not in possessions. Every one of these Beatitudes is something internal, not external; something you are, not something you have.

God would never ask you to do or be something that is not possible. God never makes his Word, his promises or his challenges unattainable. God never directs us into dead-ends, but he always leaves a gap of dependency. You can’t practice the beatitudes without God. Which means you can’t be happy without God.

These beatitudes are not natural for us. We need God to instill them into us and direct us. We look to God to help us, and he will. You want to be happy? Jesus shows us the way. It may take a little effort to get there, but it’s doable with Jesus beside us, helping us. The committed are willing to break out of their religious thinking and embrace Kingdom thinking. That brings us true and ultimate happiness.

_{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.}

Here is how you go to God’s storehouse to get what you need.

1.    Come boldly to his throne, and ask large for all the grace and mercy you need to see you through every temptation and trial. The devil has a million ways to make you feel guilty, fearful and confused; and he’ll tell you, “You feel this way because you’ve got junk in your heart!” However, I stopped looking in my heart a long time ago because it’s always blackened and stained, yet it’s as white as snow to my Father because it is covered with the blood of the Lamb. It does not matter how you feel. Simply look to God’s Word for what Jesus has done. He has wiped your slate clean.

2.    Remind God that it was his idea for you to come in. You didn’t go the Lord saying, “Father, I want everything you have.” He invited you in saying, “All I have is yours. Come and get it!”

3.    Take God at his Word. The Bible says that everything he has for us is obtained by faith. You need only say in faith, “Lord Jesus, flood me with your peace because you have said that it is mine. I claim rest for my soul.” You can’t work this up or praise it down. It comes from being rooted and grounded in a deep understanding of God’s love for you. This comes not in a feeling but rather in the Word that he himself has spoken: “In my house is bread enough to spare!”

4.    Take God’s Word and hammer all your fear, guilt and condemnation to pieces. Reject it all; it is not of God. You can say, “Let the devil come at me with his lies. My Father knows it already, and he has forgiven and cleansed me. There is no guilt or condemnation toward me. I am free!”

Dear ones, I believe that if you ask the Spirit right now to help you seize this truth, to become rooted and grounded in it, the coming days will be the greatest you have ever had. You can say, “Lord Jesus, I know I will make mistakes, but nothing can shake me because you have everything I need to be an overcomer.” Come into his storehouse, and claim all that is yours from your loving Father!

Are you tired of living like a pauper when everything you need has been provided? Perhaps your focus is wrong. Do you tend to dwell on your weaknesses, temptations and past failures? Does what you see when you look inside your own heart discourage you? Have you allowed guilt to seep in?

Beloved, you are to be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith! When Satan shows up and points at some weakness in your heart, you have every right to answer, “My God already knows it all, and he still loves me. He has given me everything I need to attain victory and keep it.”

“For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things” (1 John 3:20, NKJV). He knows all about you, and he still loves you enough to say, “Come on in, and get all you need!”

The doors to his storehouse are wide open, full to overflowing. God is urging you: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

How many years have you been on the outside? You have a Father who has been laying up a great treasure of provision for you, and yet you have left it unclaimed. The prodigal son’s story shows us that by going in and enjoying his father’s treasure, the son had it both ways. He could live his earthly life with the abundance that was his, and after death he would fully enjoy his eternal inheritance.

The greater sin was committed by the older brother who stayed home, walked obediently and never failed his father. Yes, it is a sin to waste our Father’s substance on sensual living and a runaway spirit, but it is an even greater sin to rebuff God’s great love by leaving unclaimed the bountiful resources he has given to us.

The prodigal was not chastised or reminded of his sin because God would not allow sin to be the focus of restoration! There had been true repentance and godly sorrow, and it was time to move on to the feast. The father said to the older son, “He was lost, but now he is in the house again. He is forgiven and it is time to rejoice and be happy!”

“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” (Song of Solomon 2:4, NKJV). In the parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11-31), the father’s joy could not be complete until he was sitting in the banqueting hall with his youngest boy. He had to make sure his son knew he was forgiven, and his sin was wiped out.

If you had looked in the window at that moment, you would have seen a young man who had just come to an understanding of God’s love. He was dancing! There was music, and he was laughing and happy. His father was glad over him, smiling at him. 

He was not under a cloud of fear. He wasn’t listening to the old lies of the enemy: “You’re going to go right back to the pigpen! You are unworthy of such love.” No, he accepted his father’s forgiveness and had obeyed his word to come in and take for himself all that he needed.

He heard his father whisper to him and to his older brother, “All I have is yours. There is no need ever to be hungry again. You never need to be lonely, a pauper, cut off from my storehouse” (see Luke 15:31).

Dear friends, here is the fullness of God’s love, the very heart of it! It is that even in our darkest times, God embraces us, brings us back in and says, “Bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:22-24).

Today we have an even better promise: “To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:19-20).

Here is God’s love promise to us: “I offer you exceeding, abundant fullness, provision for every crisis, joy throughout your entire life. You may go to the storehouse and claim it all!”

The parable of the prodigal son is about two sons: one who comes to the end of his own resources and one who would not claim his father’s resources. The parable is also about the father’s unconditional love and the provisions in his home.

The younger son went to his father and said, “Give me the portion of goods that falls to me” (Luke 15:12, NKJV). The portion he received and then wasted represents his own interests: his talents, his abilities, everything he used to manage his life. He said, “I have intelligence, good wits, a good background. I can do it on my own.”

The younger son’s attitude describes many Christians today. How soon we come to the end of our own resources when things go south. We can figure our way out of some problems, but the time comes when famine strikes the soul.

You come to the end of yourself, not knowing which way to turn. Your friends can’t help you. You are left empty, hurting, with nothing left inside to draw upon. Your fight is gone, and all that remain are fear, depression, emptiness, hopelessness.

Are you still hanging around the devil’s pigpen, wallowing in emptiness, starving to death? That is what happened to the prodigal son. He had exhausted all his own resources, and he realized where all his self-reliance had brought him. What finally brought him to the end was remembering the abundant provisions in his father’s house. He said, “I’m starving here, but in my father’s house there is bread enough to spare!” He decided then and there to return home and appropriate his father’s bountiful provisions.

Nothing in this parable indicates that the prodigal came back because of love for his father. True, he was repentant; in fact, he fell on his knees, crying, “Father, I’m sorry! I’ve sinned against you and against God. I’m not worthy to come into your house,” but he never said, “Father, I came back because I love you!”

What is revealed here is that the God’s love for us is without strings; it is not dependent upon our loving him. He loved us even when we were far away from him in our hearts. That is unconditional love.

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1).