Devotions

It’s often hard to do things we don’t want to do without motivation or accountability. Always going it alone without support and encouragement means all the motivation has to come from the inside. It also means there is no one around to keep us accountable. When I can’t keep up with my grandchildren, it’s usually because I’ve been allowing myself extra slices of pizza and chocolate cake. If I’m alone and feel a bad attitude coming on, I only affect myself. On the other hand, it will catch on like a virus and will have to be addressed as soon as I connect with other people.

Jesus knew the value of the buddy system. Throughout his ministry, he taught the foundational truths of spending time with God and embracing other people. He built his church on a core group of followers, many of whom were his friends and loved ones who knew him well. As he walked, worked, and ate with them, he instilled in them the importance of living in community.

We all know what it’s like to begin something new, or even to make just a few changes in our lives, without encouragement. It’s hard. Sometimes we need the feedback and support of other people to give us the confidence and motivation to keep going. A member of our staff recently ran a 100-mile marathon in the high country here in Colorado. The run lasted all day and through the night. Around midnight, a friend and fellow runner who is also on staff joined him for a couple of hours to encourage him and help him finish the race (which he did). Now that’s a buddy!

The apostle Paul spoke of this in his letter to the Romans. “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up” (Romans 15:1-2, ESV). In other words, “Build each other up! Reach out, both to help and to be helped.”

There is solace and strength in community. We are healthier in every way when we know we are not alone.

In the scriptures, believers are called to see and experience the potential offered by God in each season of our lives. One of my “verses of life,” which has been a driving force in the pursuit of God’s will for me, is found in Acts. “He raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ … For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers” (Acts 13:22,36, ESV).

Absorb this verse and search your heart by asking yourself this question: Do I serve God in the current season of my life? Or on the contrary, have I slowed down, diminished or abdicated my pursuit of his will?

What will you do in the time that the Lord has given you on this planet, wherever you are in the world? Throughout Philippians, the apostle Paul essentially asks everyone the same question: “Are you fulfilling your potential?” My dearest desire is that you will have the resources necessary to answer this question personally and honestly. I want you to see the unique potential that God has placed within you grow and be realized.

If I had to choose a foundational verse for this whole idea, it would be “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Whatever your age, there is still a potential in you that the Lord wants to develop. Whether you are a student or in the labor market, single, married, divorced, single parent, parent or grandparent, your purpose is in God’s hands.

There are works and exploits that only you, wherever you are, can accomplish. Are you ready to answer that call? It is not passive; it is active. It is not accomplished in the past or the future, it is in the present. It is not only natural but also supernatural. God has not said his last word! For every believer across the world: your calling is waiting for you. I challenge you to live your full potential for the Lord in your generation like David.

_{Claude Houde is the lead pastor of Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Montreal, Canada. Under his leadership New Life Church has grown from a handful of people to more than 3500 in a part of Canada with few successful Protestant churches.}

The paralyzed man in Mark chapter two was forgiven by God, but he was still captive to his affliction. He was relieved of all his sins but still impotent. He knew Christ as a relief but not as a resource!

It is not enough to be forgiven. Christ's part is to clear us before God, but our part is to get up and walk! We must go beyond relief from sins into the freedom of his resources.

“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins…I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” (Mark 2:9-11).

That man did not get up on his own strength; Christ imparted his strength to him. Without Christ, we can do nothing. We can overcome only through his strength and the power of the Holy Spirit!

Christ was saying to this man, “I am going to make you an example of my power over sin. Where you were the weakest, you will become the strongest. The thing that made you a prisoner, you will pick up and carry. You will overcome the very thing that held you down.”

We must live in the full power and victory of a life free from the bondage of sin. We all know our weakness, places where we are vulnerable. Satan tells us that we will always be weak at that point, and one day be overcome by it. Not so! By his glorious power, God can make us strongest at our weakest point. That is what the scripture means when it says that his strength is made perfect in our weakness.

What hinders you? An obstinate sin, a weakness, an unresolved inner controversy? Whatever it is, it must go. You can no longer be chained to a bed of failure. It is all accomplished by faith in God’s promises. The Lord wants to get you up out of that bed! He will give you all the power you need to overcome and walk in total deliverance.

What in us attracts the marvelous grace, mercy and pardon of our Savior? Is it beauty, goodness or strength? Is it a unique potential or special gift?

No! It is our great need and utter helplessness that attracts his grace. It is our weakness that attracts his strength. Our helpless condition is exemplified by the man in Mark chapter two: “Then they came to him bringing a paralytic…” (Mark 2:3, NKJV).

Here is a picture of absolute helplessness, a man without an iota of strength or power. Observe this trembling, weak, helpless creature fated to spend the rest of his life imprisoned in his own bed. He is you and me before we knew anything of Christ's power.

Jesus stood before this helpless man and did not even mention his physical condition. The Lord brought him into the Father's presence clean and cleared. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you’” (Mark 2:5). What a beautiful picture of the love of God in Christ Jesus! Here is a helpless man, too overwhelmed by his infirmity to even whimper.

Show me the child of God who struggles against a hated, intractable sin, one who is crushed beneath a load of guilt and despair, who feels helpless and weak; and I will show you the one who is the object of abundant grace. Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more (see Romans 5:20).

When you have repented, stand by faith on the finished work of the cross. Through faith in him, your sins are under the blood. You now live on the other side of the veil, seated with Christ in heavenly places, fully accepted and one with Christ and the Father. You are no longer separated from God by sin. You are more than a conqueror, living and moving in the Spirit. You are the apple of his eye, renewed in your mind and made an heir to all that belongs to Christ the Lord!

“They shall utter the memory of your great goodness, and shall sing of your righteousness” (Psalm 145:7 NKJV).

We cannot deny God’s call to praise him in all his excellencies, but we are especially called to praise him for his goodness.

Note that the Psalmist insisted on an abundance of praise in memory of the Father’s goodness; they sang the Hebrew for abundant utterances, “to gush out like water rushing from a fountain.”

In Psalm 107:8-9, David wrote, “Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.”

This truth of praising God for his past goodness struck a chord in my heart, and I have been moved to do as David did. We are called upon to celebrate his goodness.

David examines the beauty of this goodness. Notice that God is inclined to use mercy because he sympathizes with our affliction and miseries; mercy is his default sentiment toward us. David borrowed from Exodus 34:6, where God spoke to Moses: “And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.’”

Beloved, look back over the past and remember how good the Lord has been to you. Remember his compassions that have never failed to bring you through. I am finding pleasure in praising God for all things but especially for his goodness. I rejoice not only for past goodness but for those I see daily all around me.

Are you feeling “less than” today? Do you feel like mercy and grace are not for you, out of your reach? Take heart! God loves you. He stands next to you, ready to pour out his infinite blessings upon you.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6).