Devotions

The gospels give us a great insight into Christ’s parables: “All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable he did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: ‘I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.’” (Matthew 13:34–35, NKJV).

To many Christians today, the parables sound very simple. Many believers skim over the parables quickly. They think they see an obvious lesson and quickly move on. They dismiss a parable’s meaning as not applying to them.

According to Christ, though, each parable holds an incredible secret. There’s a hidden, kingdom truth in every parable Jesus told. That truth is discovered only by those who diligently seek for it. The Bible states clearly there are secrets of the Lord. “His secret counsel is with the upright” (Proverbs 3:32). These secrets have been unknown from the foundation of the world, but Matthew tells us they’re buried in Jesus’ parables. These hidden truths have power to truly set Christians free. Despite that, few believers are willing to pay the high cost of discovering them. Consider with me one of the Lord’s parables.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matthew 13:45–46).

Jesus is the pearl of great price. He’s of incalculable value because the merchant sells all his other possessions to gain him. Christ is the treasure chest in the field. In him, I’ve found all that I’ll ever need. No more trying to find purpose in ministry. No more looking for fulfillment in family or friends. No more searching for ways to please people.

I give up my filthy rags of self-reliance and good works. I lay aside my worn-out shoes of striving. I leave behind my sleepless nights on the streets of doubt and fear. In return, I get adopted by a King. This is what happens when you seek the pearl, the treasure, till you find him. Jesus offers you everything he is. He brings you joy, peace, purpose and holiness.

When King David was right with the Lord and in good fellowship, none of his enemies could stand before him. When David sinned and became estranged from the Lord, his enemies grew bold and triumphed over him.

After one of his greatest victories, David’s sin of adultery immediately followed. This great man of God, basking in the glory of a great victory, began to lust after Bathsheba. He killed her husband Uriah and committed adultery with her. “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Samuel 11:27, NKJV). The Lord sent the prophet Nathan to David. The prophet did not come to counsel David on how to handle his guilt and condemnation. Rather, Nathan got right to the heart of the matter. “You have despised the commandment of the Lord. You have done evil in the sight of the Lord. You are guilty of secret sin.”

Ultimately, David fled into the wilderness. He was a weeping, barefoot, cowardly man, shorn of his power and courage because of sin.

Sin causes Christians to become craven cowards who live in humiliating defeat. They can’t stand up with courage against sin because of the secret sin in their own lives. They excuse the sins of others because of the disobedience in their own hearts, and they can’t preach victory because they live in defeat.

I have no simple solutions. I do know there is much comfort in the Bible for those who are fighting battles between the flesh and the spirit. That said, many Christians today haven’t had the fear of God planted in their hearts. The writer of Proverbs declares, “In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; and by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil” (Proverbs 16:6). The ‘fear of God’ referred to here indicates much more than reverential awe and respect. We can’t receive the full revelation of God’s truth until his fear is deeply rooted in us. All revelation is tied to his holy fear.

I’m convinced that without the fear of God, we cannot experience lasting deliverance from sin. Embrace the holy fear of the Lord, and don’t allow sin to steal your power in the Spirit!

Solomon, one of the wisest men in the world, wrote, “This, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 5:16, NLT).

You can read that verse two different ways. Somebody comes into the world, but when they leave the world, they are no better off. They have not learned or grown. They have not lived a life for the benefit of others.

Paul wrote about this kind of person to Timothy. “Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5, ESV). That’s a person who leaves this world no better off than when they came into it.

A second way you can look at this is when you die, you’ve not left the world a better place. Your life has not been meaningful in a significant way to change where you serve or work. Your family, friends, community and church are not worse off without you. None of us wants to live either one of these types of lives, so what’s the solution? What do we need to do to avoid having this kind of terrible epitaph on our lives?

When it comes to leaving an impact on the world, nothing changes lives more than genuine generosity. Giving is at the core of the gospel. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

A radically giving love is at the core of God’s actions. We rejected God, and he still sacrificed himself to make a way for us to know his love. If we’ve been touched by that love, we should want more than anything to introduce others to that love and mercy. I want to let other people know about that kind of hope. I want to live larger than my own little story.

What changes the world is beholding the glory of God. In scripture, there are a few people who had really intimate revelations of God’s glory. I know that sounds mystical, but it’s not really. Sometimes, beholding God’s glory can be so natural. The Bible shows us this with both people who are actively seeking God and others who aren’t.

When Moses was walking in the desert, he wasn’t saying, “God, I want to see a sign from you!” A burning bush appears anyway, and he has this great revelation from God. Now Caleb and Joshua were seeking God, and they were the only ones to survive the entire desert wanderings and go into the Promised Land. Jesus sought out the apostles who were just going about their daily lives; many people came looking for Jesus because they’d heard rumors about God’s authority in him.

One of my favorite stories is the woman at the well. She absolutely was not seeking Jesus. The woman at the well was born into sin and living in sin, and her life was broken, but Jesus doesn’t say to her, “Well, if you could just keep the law, I’ll work in your life.” Instead, when you read that story, it’s as if Jesus was saying, “Do you see who I am? If you ask me, I will give you living water.” She has this revelation, unsought for, of God’s heart, and she becomes the first missionary in the New Testament.

What you see over and over in scripture is that when people have these intimate moments of seeing the glory of God, there’s a great work that the Lord does in them and through their lives. Moses took the children of Israel out of bondage. Joshua and Caleb took Israel into the Promise Land. The woman at the well brought her town to see Christ. The apostles took the gospel to the known world.

If you ever feel like “I just don’t have a great capacity; I’m too flawed”, one thing that is consistent in scripture is this: God uses a lot of broken people. Every one of us has our weaknesses, but we also have the giftings that God has given us. As we behold God’s glory, as we walk with the Lord, he will bring those gifts into their full use and change the world around us.

Many commentators call Jeremiah the weeping prophet, and that’s certainly true of him, but this man also brought us the most joyous promise in the Old Testament. Through him, God gave his people this incredible assurance, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me” (Jeremiah 32:40, NKJV).

Now, that’s good news. The prophecy Jeremiah gives is full of mercy, grace, joy, peace and goodness. The personal history behind each of Jeremiah’s words here, though, includes a brokenness far beyond the capacity of any human being.

Jeremiah wrote, “O my soul, my soul! I am pained in my very heart! My heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war” (Jeremiah 4:19) and “Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jeremiah 9:1).

The prophet was weeping with holy tears that weren’t his own. Indeed, he actually heard God speak of his own broken heart. First, the Lord warned Jeremiah that he was going to send judgment on Israel. Then he told the prophet, “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, and for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation” (Jeremiah 9:10). God himself was weeping over the judgment to come upon his people, and Jeremiah shared in that lament.

What happens when we share God’s burden of weeping? The Lord shares with us in turn his very mind and thoughts. Jeremiah testified of this. He was given a discerning knowledge of his times that enabled him to see what was coming. “For the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced doom against you… Now the Lord gave me knowledge of it, and I know it; for you showed me their doings” (Jeremiah 11:17-18).  Any broken, Word-saturated saint will be given a discerning sense of the times but also a joyous recognition of God’s promises.

Precious men of God are privileged to share in the feelings, the joy and pains of the eternal heart of God.