Devotions

When we read the beginning of Luke in the Bible, it can be easy to skim over the parts with John the Baptist’s parents. However, his mother, Elizabeth, is a really remarkable person. First off, when we’re introduced to Elizabeth and her husband, the Bible says, “They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years” (Luke 1:6-7, ESV).

Elizabeth had almost certainly dealt with a lot of judgment from the community over the fact she had no children. When God miraculously gave her a child, she admitted how hard this had been, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people” (Luke 1:25).

This trial that had lasted years of her life hadn’t made her bitter, though. She’s openly described as righteous and blameless. I’m sure she struggled some days with deep disappointment or grief. Being righteous doesn’t mean we never feel sorrow or anger. It simply means always holding on to God’s love and faithful plans, even when they’re a mystery to us.

What’s more, even in the middle of her life abruptly being redirected into motherhood, Elizabeth took time to encourage a much younger woman. Much ink has been spilled on Mary’s vulnerable position as an unmarried, pregnant teenager. Rather than grill Mary with questions or judge this young woman, Elizabeth pointed her to the goodness of God. “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45). God promises beautiful things to his people, and he comes through on his word!

Elizabeth’s words must have lifted Mary’s spirits and filled her with resolve. May each one of us be the relative or friend that others turn to for encouragement or spiritual guidance. May we lift others up by reminding them of how God sees them and their trials. May we bless them with prayer and God’s Word.

The gospel of Matthew starts with Jesus’ genealogy, and it probably seems like a very strange place to start for most modern readers. This trail of families leading to Jesus, however, is Matthew’s subtle way of pointing out the frail, sinful people who would have been considered a ‘black mark’ on his family tree.

Not only that but these genealogies include four notably women’s names that readers of the Old Testament would immediately recognize. Most genealogies in the Bible don’t include women, so why did Matthew include these four?

These women all had desperate, painful stories. Tamar was widowed then abandoned by her husband’s family until her father-in-law, Judah, slept with her. In the midst of this messy family drama, God saw her vulnerability and provided twin sons who would care for her (see Genesis 38). Rahab was the prostitute in Jericho who hid Joshua and the spies and was spared as a result, eventually marrying into the tribe of Judah. Her son would go on to shelter and marry another foreigner named Ruth who had lost everything and left her homeland (See Joshua 2 and Ruth 4). Bathsheba was required by royal decree to have sex with the man who killed her husband, and yet God promised that her son would rule Israel and build the Temple (see 2 Samuel 11).

Within each story of sorrow and abuse runs the thread of God’s redemptive work. He cared for each one of these women. He linked them into the linage of Christ. Their lives were being woven into a poetic declaration of God’s willingness to enter into the brokenness of this world.

God welcomes the weak, broken and abused into the Kingdom. Perhaps you’ve been made to feel ashamed of your family. Maybe others have judged you because of your past and the mistakes made. Remember that Jesus quite literally welcomed outcasts and sinners into his family. He has the power to restore and redeem anyone’s life, no matter what we’ve done or what has been done to us.

“You have seen it; yes, you note trouble and grief to requite it with your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless” (Psalm 10:14, AMPC).

These are some of my favorite verses: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16, ESV).

The throne of grace is the place of prayer. Aren’t you glad that God’s throne — for those of us who believe — is a throne of grace? It is not a throne of judgment or beatings. No. Grace is God’s unmerited favor and love in action. The place of prayer is the place of receiving these blessings that he has promised us. That’s where he calls us.

Remember how the book of James says, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2)? Imagine having written on your tombstone, “They lived without what God would’ve given them because they didn’t take the time to just ask him.” There are some things that God would freely give us, but we won’t ask him. Instead, we got all depressed. We called Auntie Marie and all our friends and complained.

What exactly did we miss out on? What does God give us at the throne of grace? First, he gives us mercy. Why do we need that? The simple answer is because we mess up. I do things I shouldn’t do; I say things I shouldn’t say, and I don’t do those things I should be doing. For these things, I ask for God’s mercy, and that’s when he doesn’t give me what I deserve. We all need mercy every single day, then we won’t live in fear and condemnation. Second, he gives us grace to help us just in the nick of time. God wants to give us things we don’t deserve.

Most of us are tit-for-tat people. “You do good to me, so I’ll do good for you. You hurt me, and I’ll hurt you.” This is why we struggle to understand God’s mercy and grace, and he’s a good God, full of both. Ask God to forgive your sins, and ask him to give you want you need today.

Most of all, let’s ask God to help us have more quality time at the throne of mercy and grace!

_{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.} 

I think the majority of Christians would like to escape to some safe, quiet hideaway in the mountains to keep from being tainted by all the iniquity surrounding them. Many despair, saying, “What can one Christian do about all this moral degradation? What can one church do in a wild and wicked city?” Others think, “Is there really anything I can do, an insignificant Christian like me? I have no money, no training, no influence. I only have a great love for Jesus.”

We often expect God to move in one of two ways: by sending a large, supernatural outpouring of his Holy Spirit to sweep multitudes of people into his kingdom, or by sending judgment to bring people to their knees.

Beloved, that isn’t God's method of changing things in an evil day. His way of rebuilding ruins has always been to use ordinary men and women, filling them with his Holy Spirit and sending them into warfare with great faith and power.

God is raising up a holy ministry consisting of people who are totally committed to the Word and to prayer. They do not lord it over anyone. They are caring men and women whose hearts are stirred with no plan in mind but to seek, hear and obey God.

Next, God is calling you into immediate service. He needs the common man and woman. He uses people whom the high priests would call “uneducated and untrained” (see Acts 4:13). Scripture also says that in the Upper Room at Pentecost, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). They all became bold, powerful witnesses. This group did not just include Peter, James, John and the other well-known disciples, but also widows, young people, and ordinary working men and women!

We know that Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost, "full of faith and power” (see Acts 6:8). He was not an apostle nor an ordained minister. He served tables for the church so the disciples could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.

Like Stephen, you can be God’s witness to your city. The Lord uses all those who get alone with him, are stirred in their hearts and seek him in prayer. Go forth, full of Holy Ghost faith and power!

Paul often refers to himself as “the prisoner of Christ Jesus.” In Ephesians 4:1, he says being a prisoner of the Lord is actually his vocation, his calling! He considered this God's gift of grace to him (see Ephesians 4:7).

Paul wrote to Timothy: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God” (2 Timothy 1:8, NKJV). Even into his old age, the apostle rejoiced in having been apprehended by the Lord and taken captive to his will. “Yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you – being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ” (Philemon 1:9).

Paul could tell you the very hour that the Lord handcuffed him and took him captive. He was on the road to Damascus with letters in hand from the high priest, bound and determined to bring back Christians to Jerusalem. He was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1), full of hatred, bitterness and anger in his misguided zeal for God.

As he approached the city of Damascus, “suddenly a light shone around him from heaven” (Acts 9:3). He was struck completely blind by that light, which was Christ. Paul testified again and again how he had to be taken by the hand and led into Damascus, a helpless prisoner. He spent three days in an isolated room without sight and without eating anything. He'd been taken captive in spirit, soul, mind and body.

What happened in that room for three days? The Lord was handcuffing Saul and transforming him into Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ!

In this vivid scene, Paul lets go of his independence and submits to Christ's yoke. He stretches forth his hands to Jesus to be handcuffed for life. You can almost hear his agonizing prayer: “O, Lord, I thought I was doing your will. How could I have been so blind? I've been going my way, doing whatever I thought was right. I can't trust my own thoughts.”

My prayer is “Here, Jesus, take my hands and put your manacles on me. Take me prisoner to your will and lead me wherever you want me to go. Keep me handcuffed to your mighty right arm!”