Devotions

A very popular verse for many Christians is “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV). The word in there that I really noticed is ‘together’ because if we think that all things in our lives will work out for our own good, we're going to get discouraged and disappointed.

However, the verse says, “All things works together…” That word ‘together’ is powerful because troubling events happen, and things don’t look good, but those trials come together with what God's doing. He’s covering our situation, redeeming and transforming it. When you look at the big picture and take in everything in our lives and other people’s lives, God always makes suffering work out for good.

Listen to this story from a young pastor. He wrote, “The past 12 years have been an extended season of trials and sorrow for me and my family. I never imagined that my college years would include caring for my ailing mother and sitting at her bedside as God took her home. I never imagined my wife and I would celebrate our first anniversary in the hospital at the bedside of our son who was born prematurely with Down Syndrome and a complex heart disease.

“I never imagined caring for a son who would go through over 20 surgeries, including five open-heart procedures. I never imagined I could feel so much sorrow and pain as a father watching my precious son struggle to be around people, struggle to communicate, eat, play, sleep, process the world around him. I never imagined that life as a husband and father would so constantly bring me to the end of my strength. I never imagined that the Lord would bring so many tears into my life."

Then he went on to say, “Yet I also never imagined that life could be this beautiful, full of joy, blessed and grace-lavished. My refuge and salvation are sure (see Psalms 18:2). For mine is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort (see 2 Corinthians 1:3). God is truly faithful.”

I want to encourage you to have more of a hunger for the Word of God in the midst of your suffering. Know that God’s plans are all working for his glory and our good, even if we can’t see him moving right now.

In many ways, the disciples who were with Jesus seemed to experience crazy situations without warning. In one case, they went out in a boat and a huge storm hit them. “They went and woke him [Jesus], saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?’” (Matthew 8:25-27, ESV). It almost seems as if this came up suddenly like a test for them.

How many of us experienced pop quizzes in school? I hated pop quizzes when I was growing up. I was one of those guys who would study for the midterm and the final. Pop quizzes, though, meant that I constantly needed to keep up and know what was happening.

Think about it. Those quizzes weren’t revelations about the teacher or the material; they were revelations about us. If we were keeping up with what we were being taught in class and knew the material, those quizzes showed it. If we weren’t, they showed that too.

Christianity doesn't work on a midterm and final test basis. It works on pop quizzes that abruptly show up and reveal where we are in our relationship with God. Wild stuff happens, and many Christians today aren’t ready for it any more than the disciples were prepared for that storm. Here comes the revelation. Jesus told his disciples that their poor reaction wasn’t a fear issue; it was a faith issue.

The wind and the waves, the things causing your fear, aren’t the problem. When you have big waves and little faith, you're going to have a fear problem. If you have big waves and big faith, you’ll rest in knowing God's got this. That's where God wants to meet us and help us. So when you’re in a turbulent moment, embrace the pop quiz life. Ask God to increase the faith in your heart. That's what God is asking us to do. Trust him, and grow in your trust of him.

^{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.}

“Then Jesus lifted up his eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?’ But this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do” (John 6:5-6, NKJV). Jesus took Philip aside and said, “Philip, there are thousands of people here. They are all hungry. Where are we going to buy enough bread to feed them? What do you think we should do?”

How incredibly loving of Christ! Jesus knew all along what he was going to do, yet the Lord was trying to teach Philip something, and the lesson he was imparting to him applies to each of us today. Think about it. How many in Christ’s body sit up half the night trying to figure out their problems? We think, “Maybe this will work. No, no… Maybe that will solve it. No…”

Philip and the apostles didn’t have just a bread problem. They had a bakery problem…and a money problem…and a distribution problem…and a transportation problem…and a time problem. Add it all up, and they had problems they couldn’t even imagine. Their situation was absolutely impossible.

Jesus knew all along exactly what he going to do. He had a plan, and the same is true of your troubles and difficulties today. There is a problem, but Jesus knows your whole situation. He comes to you, asking, “What are we going to do about this?”

The correct answer from Philip would have been, “Jesus, you are God. Nothing is impossible with you. I’m giving this problem over to you. It’s no longer mine but yours.”

God’s holy Word assures us, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). Rest in that promise, and then cry out in full faith, “Lord, you are the miracle worker, and I’m going to surrender all my doubts and fears to you. I entrust this entire situation and my whole life into your care. I know you won’t allow me to faint. In fact, you already know what you’re going to do about my problem. I trust in your power.”

Do you know it is possible to walk before the Lord with a perfect heart? If you are hungering for Jesus, you may already be desiring and earnestly trying to obey this command of the Lord. I want to encourage you that it is possible, or God would not have given us such a call. Having a perfect heart has been part of the life of faith from the time God told Abraham, “I am Almighty God; walk before me and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1, NKJV).

To come to grips with the idea of perfection, we first must understand that perfection does not mean a sinless, flawless existence. No, perfection in the Lord’s eyes means something entirely different. It means maturity and completeness.

The Hebrew and Greek meanings of “perfection” include “uprightness, having neither spot nor blemish, being totally obedient.” It means to finish what has been started, to make a complete performance. John Wesley called this concept of perfection “constant obedience.” A perfect heart is a responsive heart, one that answers the Lord’s whisperings and warnings quickly and totally. Such a heart says at all times, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Show me the path, and I will walk in it.”

The perfect heart cries out with David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).  

The perfect heart wants the Holy Spirit to come and search out the innermost man, to shine into all hidden parts, to expose and dig out all that is unlike Christ. Those who hide a secret sin, however, do not want to be searched or convicted.

The Lord’s heart-searching are not vindictive but redemptive. His purpose is not to catch us in sin or condemn us but rather to prepare us to come into his holy presence as clean, pure vessels. “Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart…He shall receive blessing from the Lord” (Psalm 24:3-5). The perfect heart yearns for more than security or a covering for sin. It seeks to be in God’s presence always and dwell in communion. This means talking with the Lord, sharing sweet fellowship with him, seeking his face and knowing his presence.

The Old Testament is filled with God’s miracle-working power from the parting of the Red Sea, to God speaking to Moses from the burning bush, to Elijah calling down fire from heaven. All these were instantaneous miracles. The people involved could see and feel them happening. They are the kinds of miracles we want to see today, causing awe and wonder. We want God to rend the heavens, come down to our situation and fix things in a burst of heavenly power.

Much of God’s wonder-working power in his people’s lives, though, comes in what are called “progressive miracles.” These are miracles that are hardly discernable to the eye. They’re not accompanied by thunder, lightning or any visible movement. Progressive miracles start quietly, without fanfare and slowly but surely unfold.

Both kinds of miracles, instantaneous and progressive, were witnessed at Christ’s two feedings of the multitudes. The healings he performed were immediate, visible, easily discerned by those present on those days. I think of the crippled man with a gnarled body who suddenly had an outward, physical change so that he could run and leap. Here was a miracle that had to astonish and move all who saw it.

However, the feedings that Christ did were progressive miracles. Jesus offered up a simple prayer of blessing with no fire, thunder or earthquake. He merely broke the bread and the dried fish, never giving a sign or sound that a miracle was taking place. To feed that many people, there had to be thousands of breakings of that bread and those fish, all through the day. Every single piece of bread and fish was a part of the miracle.

This second way is how Jesus performs many of his miracles in his people’s lives today. We pray for instantaneous, visible wonders; but often our Lord is quietly at work, forming a miracle for us piece by piece. We may not be able to hear it or touch it, but he is at work, shaping our deliverance beyond what we can see.

It may be that you are waiting for a miracle. You’re discouraged because things seem to be at a standstill. You do not see any evidence of God’s supernatural work on your behalf. You may be in the middle of a miracle right now and simply not see it.