Devotions

Anyone can keep his joy when he’s riding high in the Holy Ghost, not being tried or tempted. God wants us to keep ourselves in his love at all times, especially in our temptations.

The apostle John tells us very simply how we can keep ourselves in God’s love: “we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16, NKJV). The word ‘dwell’ here means “to stay in a state of expectancy.” In other words, God wants us to expect his love to be renewed in us every day. We’re to live every day in the knowledge that God has always loved us and will always love us.

In reality, most of us flit in and out of God’s love according to our emotional ups and downs. We feel safe in his love only if we’ve done well, but we’re unsure of his love whenever we’re tempted or have failed him. That’s especially the time we’re to trust in his love.

Jeremiah 31 offers a wonderful illustration of God’s love. Israel was in a backslidden state. The people had grown fat and prosperous and were indulging in all kinds of wickedness. Suddenly, their lusts turned sour. They lost all pleasure in fulfilling their sensual appetites. Israel cried out, “You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained bull; restore me, and I will return, for you are the Lord my God. Surely, after my turning, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated, because I bore the reproach of my youth” (Jeremiah 31:18-19).

Listen to God’s response to Israel. “…’For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him,’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20).

God was telling his people, “I had to chasten you and speak hard words of truth to you. Even then you sinned against me, doing so despite the grace and mercy that I extended to you. You turned against my love, rejecting me. Nevertheless, my heart of compassion was moved deeply toward you. I remembered you in your struggle, and I will surely have mercy on you. I’ll freely forgive and restore you.”

One thing that can keep us going in the coming hard times is an understanding of God’s glory. Now, this may sound like a lofty concept best left to theologians, but I’m convinced the subject of God’s glory has very real value for every true believer. By grasping it, we unlock the door to an overcoming life.

The glory of God is a revelation of our Lord’s nature and being. You may recall from the Old Testament that Moses got a literal glimpse of God’s glory. Before then, the Lord had sent out Moses with no explanation of himself other than the words, “I AM.” Moses wanted to know something more of God, so he pleaded with him, “Lord, show me your glory.”

God responded by taking Moses aside and putting him in the cleft of a rock. Scripture says that he revealed himself to Moses in all his glory (see Exodus 34:6–7).

I believe this passage is essential to our understanding of who our Lord is. The revelation of God’s glory has powerful effects on those who receive it and pray for an understanding of it. Up to this point, Moses had viewed the Lord as a God of law and wrath. He trembled with terror in the Lord’s presence, petitioning him, crying out to him, pleading with him on behalf of Israel. This had been the basis of his face-to-face relationship with the Lord.

At the first sight of God’s glory, Moses was moved to worship. “Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped” (Exodus 34:8, NKJV). Do you see the incredible truth scripture is showing us here? True worship arises from hearts that are overcome by a vision of God. It’s based on the revelation that God gives us of himself, his goodness, his mercy, his readiness to forgive. If we’re to praise God both in spirit and in truth, our worship must be based on this awesome truth about him.

Once we receive a revelation of God’s glory, our worship can’t help but change. Why? Seeing his glory changes the way we live! It affects our countenance and behavior, changing us from “glory to glory,” making us more like him. Each new revelation of his love and mercy brings supernatural change.

One particular time, I was stirred by the Holy Spirit, and he led me to this passage: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 1:20-21, NKJV). As I read, I heard the Spirit whisper, “David, you’ve never come into the fullness and joy of my love.”

The Bible is filled with the truth of God’s love, but at times I allow myself to wonder how the Lord could ever love me. It’s a failure on my part to keep myself in the knowledge and assurance of his love.

The revelation of God’s love comes in part when we are born again. If you were to ask most Christians what they know about God’s love for them, they’d answer, “I know God gave his Son to die for me.” Few Christians, however, learn how to be kept in God’s love. We know something of our love toward the Lord; but if you were to ask most Christians to find biblical passages on God’s love for us, they could point to only a few.

Multitudes grow spiritually cold and lazy because they’re ignorant of the Lord’s love for them. They don’t know that their greatest weapon against Satan’s attacks is to be fully convinced of God’s love for them, through the revelation of the Holy Ghost.

In his final prayer on earth, Jesus said, “Father, I desire…that they may behold my glory which you have given me; for you loved me before the foundation of the world…. I have declared to them your name, and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:24, 26).

The implication here is that when the Father loved Jesus before eternity, he loved us too. “Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4).

How long has God loved you? He’s loved you since he has existed because God is love. It is his very nature. He loved you as a sinner. He loved you in the womb. He loved you before the world began. There was no beginning to his love for you, and there is no end to it.

One of the earliest letters to the church was from the apostles to new Gentile believers, and in it, the authors said, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:28-29, ESV).

Rather than weight down new believers with endless rules like the Jews had, Paul simply commanded, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, ESV).

It was the Holy Spirit’s inspiration speaking through them, saying, “Come on, church. Whether or not there’s a specific law about it, don’t engage in things if you’re not certain whether they’re biblically compromising.”

When I was a youth pastor, the kids would come up and always ask me a question like “How far can I go into the things of the world and still be a Christian?  Like, okay, I know I can’t have sex, but can I do this?” For adults, it’s often questions like “I know I can’t get drunk, but do three beers count as drunkenness? How about two beers? How close can I get to the world?”

That’s totally the opposite of what the Holy Spirit is calling his church into! We should be saying, “How close can I get to Jesus? What can I let go of to get closer? If there’s any former association in my life that has a sense of dabbling in the old way of living, how far can I get from this?”

In the church, we should hear the Word of the Lord and say to ourselves, “I want to be circumspect in heart. I want to be pure in my conscience. I want to obey the Word of the Lord. I will stop at nothing to win the prize for this race I am running.”

God will take a simple salvation prayer, a simple prayer for protection, a simple prayer for healing, and he will add power to it. He will go above and beyond what I ask for or could even think of. You don’t have the capacity, but the Holy Spirit in you does. All this pressure is not on you. God’s saying, “I’ve got my hand on this. I’m going to take this farther than you’ve ever gone.”

It all depends on who’s hand is on you. It goes like this: A basketball in my hand is worth about 19 dollars; a basketball in LeBron’s hand is worth about 75 million dollars. A tennis racket is useless in my hand, but a tennis racket in Serena Williams’ hand is a French Open or Wimbledon. It all depends on whose hand it’s in.

Two fish and five loaves in my hands are just two fish sandwiches; two fish and five loaves in Jesus’ hands will feed five thousand people. A nail in my hand may produce a house burning down, but a nail in Jesus’ hand produced salvation for the entire planet throughout all of history and the future. It just depends on whose hands it’s in.

We are in God’s hands.

Some of you may have said, “I don’t know how to pray.” That’s the truth. Fortunately, the pressure’s off of us. The Spirit knows how to pray. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26, ESV).

How ridiculous is it to think our prayers depend on us saying the right words? There are so many dumb prayers that come out of my mouth; thank God he doesn’t answer those prayers! If God answered every prayer just like we wanted him to, life would be a train wreck. He sifts through our prayers and makes them right. That should give us confidence. Every one of us can and should pray.

As you’re being led to pray, God says, “Perfect. I’ll take your flawed prayer, correct it and put power to it. I will push it beyond what you can even imagine.”

^{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.}