Devotions

I remember shoveling snow off the basketball courts on Saturday mornings when I was young. I had just learned some new moves, and I was doing okay, but I needed to do this crossover better. I needed to follow through a little better. I would shoot 50 or 75 foul shots. You always have to keep improving; you never stop.

Peter talks about this mentality in our spiritual life. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:5-8, ESV).

We already have faith, but it's telling us to make every effort to add these to our faith. There’s no special order to these qualities, as far as I can make out; but he’s saying that these are godly qualities the Spirit grows in us. Not only that, Peter was saying, “Add to them.”

These verses also tell me that you can be a Christian and be ineffective because you’re not growing. You reached some point in your Christian walk and thought, “Okay, I made it. I know the Bible well enough. I’ll stop here.” You can’t. The moment you try to stop, you go backward. Also, don’t be content with just being strong in one area. Some people are great at giving, but their temper is out of control. Other people know their Bible very well; they’re devoted to the scriptures, but they’re tight as a crab, no generosity.

This is why Peter said to make every effort to grow! Now, here’s the mystery. God has to do everything in us, but we must make every effort. Remember, “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). God doesn’t bless people who don’t reach after him.

Let us say, “God, give me grace. I want more. I have some wisdom you’ve given me; I want more. I’ve learned to pray, but I want to do it better. Help me to make every effort to grow and add to what you’ve already given me.”

Any believer who wishes to please God with his prayer life will have to settle this question: “Does God have all I need? Or do I need to go elsewhere for my answer?”

This appears to be a simple question, one that should not even need to be asked. Most Christians would immediately answer, “Yes, of course I believe God has all I need.” The fact is, though, that many are not fully convinced. We say we believe it. We sing hymns and preach about it. However, when a crisis hits and God does not seem to answer, we do not really believe he has what we need.

Paul states, “And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19, NKJV). The Lord has a storehouse of abundance with which to meet our every need.

Why did the troubled woman in Jesus’s parable keep bothering the unjust judge, asking him for justice? It was because she knew that he alone had the power and authority to solve her problem. She could go to no one else (see Luke 18:1-8). Oh, if only we had such an inner knowledge that God alone has all we need, we would never turn in vain to any other source. The Lord is a just and holy judge, and he has all the wisdom, power and authority to solve any problem we face.

God spent forty years trying to convince Israel that they would never lack anything, that he would be their constant source and supply. “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing” (Deuteronomy 2:7). God was saying, “There is no scarceness, no shortage with me. I have all you will ever need.”

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land…in which you will lack nothing…when you have eaten and are full…” (Deuteronomy 8:7-10, 12).

Today, the Lord has brought us into our Promised Land in Christ! Jesus is to us an abiding place where there is never any lack. He represents the fullness of the godhead bodily.

This is one of my favorite scriptures: “Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted. But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (Isaiah 49:13-16, NKJV).

God says I am engraved in the very palm of his hand! The Hebrew word for “tattooed” means indelible, inerasable. He cannot stretch out his hand without being reminded of me! I believe with all my heart that I am a royal crown, a diadem in his hand, a delight to his soul. He is not mad at me; he delights in me!

Dearly beloved, I want to assure you with these words. You may go through trials and sufferings. You may be far from what you wish to be in the Lord. However, you can know one thing more than anything else, that you too are a delight to him.

Listen to this wonderful promise. “I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have considered my trouble; you have known my soul in adversities, and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a wide place… Oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men!” (Psalm 31:7-8, 19).

God has given you all you need to be free and victorious. He sees your condition, and he cares. He cuddles you as you call on him, and he is ready to come forth to help you any moment of the day.

Every four years in January, America inaugurates a president to what is called “the most powerful office on earth.” His signature turns bills into law. He commands the world’s most powerful army. He can simply push a button and bring destruction upon nations. The power he holds is nothing compared to the power Jesus has given to you and me!

We have absolute access to the very presence of the living God. “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19-22, NKJV).

That access came only after Jesus was crucified, died and was resurrected. It came at the moment the veil in the temple was rent in two. When that happened, it meant that man could go in, and God would come out. We could now meet with him face to face!

The word “boldness” in this verse means “with open, undisguised publicity.” Beloved, that “publicity” is for the devil’s sake. It means we can say to every demon, “I have a right by the blood of Jesus Christ to walk into the presence of God and talk to him and he with me.”

Do you believe that God is willing to come out and meet you? Let us draw near to him with a heart full of the assurance of faith. We do not come by the blood of animals but by the blood of our Lord Jesus. “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the Most Holy Place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:12-14).

Nothing thrills the heart of God more than when his children come to him in boldness, without timidity. He wants us to come, saying, “I have a right to be here. Even if my heart condemns me, God is greater than my heart! (see 1 John 3:20).

God desires to speak to you as if you were sitting down to dinner with him. He wants to converse with you, heart to heart, on any and all matters. The Bible says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20, NKJV).

This verse often has been used when speaking to the unsaved. We speak of Jesus standing at the door of the sinner’s heart, seeking entrance. But, no! The context shows that Christ is speaking to the believer, those who are clothed in white apparel (righteousness), who have bought gold tried in the fire, whose eyes are anointed (opened), who are loved, reproved and humbled (see Revelation 3:15-19). These are repentant, holy people who want to know the voice of God.

As I read verse 20 in this passage, three words leap out at me: “Open the door. Open the door!” The Spirit of God spoke clearly to my heart, “David, the reason you haven’t heard me as I want to be heard is because your spirit is not wholly open to hear.”

As I see it, this door represents a commitment, one that many Christians have not yet fully made. Most believers pray, “Lord, all I need is a little advice, a few words of direction, a quick reminder that you love me. Just let me know whether I’m doing right or wrong. Please go before me and open the doors.”

However, Jesus answers us, “If all you want from me is direction, I can send you a prophet or a preacher. The problem is that you are missing me.”

Jesus wants your closeness, your deepest emotions, your locked-up room. He wants to sit down with you, to share all that is in his heart and to talk with you face to face. Revelation 3 is a wonderful picture of this. It speaks of love and intimacy, of sharing secrets, of tender voices.

When Jesus comes in, he brings food and bread, in other words, himself. When you feed on him, you will be wholly satisfied.