Devotions

Joshua and Caleb were among the twelve spies sent to spy out the Promised Land. When they discovered enemies in the land, they didn't shed tears, bemoaning the conditions they had found. Rather, they rejoiced after searching out the land and came back full of hope, faith and vision.

Do you know Christians like this? They are always rejoicing. You know they are enduring awful trials, yet they seem to know how to get hold of God in the midst of their situation.

What about you? Are you always down, always complaining? Perhaps your personal problems or family situations have possessed you and eaten up your soul. Beloved, no matter what you are going through, you are precious to God. If you come to him with a repentant heart and a hungry soul, he will give you his vision and hope.

Joshua and Caleb had a revelation of their value in God's eyes, and they knew Israel was special to the Lord. That was the key to their hopeful, victorious spirit. Joshua said, “If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us” (Numbers 14:8, NKJV). In other words, “Because he delights in us, we are as good as in the land already.”

This is the same revelation David had: “He brought me out and delivered me because he delighted in me.” Likewise, every victorious Christian today has this same revelation of the loving heavenly Father. “We can't fail! All our enemies are meat for us because we are precious to the Lord. He delights in us.”

Let me reveal to you the great mercy of God in the preaching of Joshua and Caleb. Israel had spent the night in rebellion, wallowing in unbelief, weeping as though God had forsaken them, and finally appointing a captain to lead them back to Egypt. Yet the Lord sent Joshua and Caleb to them, and they told the people, “Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them” (Numbers 14:9).

In Numbers 13 and 14, we see that Israel had sent twelve spies to search out the Promised Land. When these spies returned after forty days, they planted three lies in the hearts of God's people.

1. “There are too many people in the land, and they're too strong for us.” 
2. “The cities are walled too high. The strongholds are impregnable.” 
3. “There are giants in the land, and we are no match for them. We are helpless!” 

These lies took the heart right out of Israel, and the people endured a night of despair. “And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night” (Numbers 14:1, NKJV). Can you imagine this scene? Think of what it must have sounded like. More than 2 million people were weeping, wailing, moaning, focusing completely on their weaknesses and inabilities. Those wailing sounds of unbelief bombarded heaven.

Beloved, take a good, hard look at that scene, and you may see yourself in the midst of it. Have you ever spent a night like that one, wailing and moaning because of demonic lies that were planted in your spirit? You may have cried out to God, “I've had it; I can't take any more. This trial is too much. These strongholds in me will never come down. I'll never make it. I've lost the battle.”

The devil throws these same three lies at all of God's people, “Your temptations are too numerous. Your lusts are too overwhelming. You are too weak to resist the powers coming against you.”

The word that God spoke to Israel is for us today: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people; for all the earth is mine” (Exodus 19:5).

Dear one, remember this: “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 14:2).

In Jesus’s time, people would travel once a year to the Temple. Rabbis tell us that those people would observe a certain pilgrim ritual in the huge courtyard of the Temple. When they went up all the steps to the Temple inner court’s gateway, a priest at the top would tell them, “Go to your right and walk around the courtyard that way to worship and praise the Lord, but if you’re grieving or feeling broken, go to the left.” 

So all the people who were feeling victorious and encouraged, or maybe faking it, would go to the right. All the people who were hurting and broken would go to the left, and tradition tells us that the people who chose to walk around the courtyards to the left were always lesser in number.  

Sometimes, the people walking around to the right would see the people walking the opposite direction, and they would break off from the crowd and stop to ask a person walking the other way, “Tell me what’s hurting you. Let me share your pain.”  

To break off from the crowd and help someone else is not an easy thing to do. Most of us don’t want to mess around with messed up people. We tend to think, “I got my profession, my nice home, my happy family, and all these other people are going the wrong way.” We want to stay in the crowd that is uplifting, but the Bible shows us that Jesus was one of those people who breaks away from the crowd to speak with the broken, the grieving. 

Today, do you need to go to the left? You have the comfort of knowing that Jesus is going to meet you, especially if you feel like the only one who’s grieving or you feel like everyone around you is celebrating and victorious. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:3-4, ESV).

Are you someone who can confidently go to the right? Praise God! With that, though, ask him who he wants you to stop and comfort. Keep your eyes open for those who have been forced by life to walk the other way. 

“Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines…. The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, ‘Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.’” (1 Samuel 4:1-3, ESV). 

Keep in mind that at that time the nation of Israel was morally corrupt. They were living in rebellion against God. The high priest, Eli, was not the most spiritually acute person. His had two sons serving with him who were scoundrels. The only decent one was Samuel, growing up back in Shiloh. He was the only who was walking with God; there were other hidden ones, like there always are, who really knew the Lord. Overall, though, the nation was corrupt. 

Why? They have the covenant of God, and they think, “Oh, we’re superior to the nations because we’re the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” That’s what Jesus had to battle in his day. The corrupt religious leaders took pride in who they were: “Abraham is our father!” Jesus said, “God could take stones and raise up children for Abraham.” 

These people in 1 Samuel were trying to cover up their weak spiritual foundation with a symbol of God. You know how some people wear a cross to ward off evil spirits? If you’re a Christian and have Christ in your heart, you don’t need that. You want to wear a cross, wear it; but it’s not going to ward off anything. 

Here’s another one. I love dedicating children, but I caution the parents, “Listen. You care about these children knowing Jesus? Great, but christening them and bringing them to church on Sundays doesn’t mean good luck for their life. How you live and talk in front of them means so much more.” 

How are you living? Are you walking with the Lord? Are you walking in the light even as he is in the light? Do you have fellowship with him? There’s no physical object that’s going to stand in for God. We have victory through our relationship with Christ. That’s it.  

^{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.}

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:1-2, ESV).

Between these two verses, David moved from describing God’s power as heavenly and majestic to invoking an image of the lowest, most helpless state possible. There couldn’t be a greater distance between these two points, from the highest reaches of the cosmos to the lowest cry of a baby. 

At first glance, the second verse seems like a totally separate sermon from the first, which extols God’s awesome majesty. Don’t be fooled because this is not a change of subject. The opening two verses of Psalm 8 are intricately related.

I believe that David had a revelation that brought forth high praise from his heart and mouth. His revelation was, “Lord, these are your battles, not mine. The fight belongs to you. I can have peace.” Nothing is as helpless as a baby, and yet its cries can call down the greatest power in existence. 

What is causing anxiety for you? What are you wrestling with? What worries are stressing you? They aren’t your battles. Lay them all down. Bring them to Jesus, casting your cares on him, for he cares for you. Tell him, “Lord, these are your enemies, and you triumph over them.”

Your current enemy may be a disease, financial pressures, marital stress, or strained relationships. You can’t conquer them in your own wisdom and strength. You have to trust the direction and power of the Holy Spirit to deal with them. Often, the right weapon for our warfare is simply a correct understanding of who God is. That’s what makes the simplest cry of a babe a powerful statement of faith that can reduce our enemies to nothing. 

God often demonstrates his strength through things the world sees as small, weak and insignificant. Through our weakness, God shows his power over obstacles that seem insurmountable. He is bigger than we could ever get our minds around, and his omnipotence is far beyond what our finite minds can imagine.  

^{This devotional has been adapted from Gary Wilkerson’s book, The Altar of Our Hearts: An Expository Devotional on the Psalms.}