Devotions

A lack of belief in who God says he is often results in a very unproductive life for believers. For example, God says that he's good, but we often still question, “Is he really good?” That question can lead to a lot of despair when we contemplate the future or the struggles in our lives.

We see this in the parable of the master who gave one servant five talents, another servant two talents and the third servant one talent. Two of those servants had hope; they believed that what their master had given them had purpose in their life and was ultimately for their benefit. As a result, they worked to see what they had doubled. When the master returned, he reviewed what they’d done and said to each one, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23, ESV). This is the only time where the Bible actually calls a man a ‘good and faithful servant.’

We come then to the third servant. “He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man…so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’” (Matthew 25:24-25). He buried the talent but also his gifts, abilities and potential. In a sense, he buried his life. It all stemmed from his mentality when he said, “I knew you were a hard man. I knew I could never please you. I knew I couldn't do enough for you.”

That's when people get started asking God things like “Are you really there? Do you really care? Do you love me?” The reverse of those questions, if somebody's dealing with hopelessness, would be to study God. As just one example, God is omnipresent. He's everywhere all time, but what does that really mean? Well, God is faithful; he’s paying attention to each moment in our lives, and he’s interested in personally engaging in each of those moments.

Having that knowledge of who God actually is gives me confidence. If there are troubles in my life, I can know that he’s still present with me. That means that my difficulties probably have purpose. I can move forward in hope because God is present, just and good.

I have a friend who hit a point where he didn't know what was going to happen with his job, ministry or anything that was about to take place in his life. Around that time, he wrote to me and said, “My wife and I were in a meeting in New York City, and I was hoping that the meeting would go differently. Afterward, my wife and I were walking to Whole Foods right in midtown Manhattan.”

He said, “There was fear all over us, and as we were walking, there was a lady standing there begging for money. I was thinking about how scary our future was because of what would happen to me in the meeting literally just minutes before, and I guess my face said it all. This homeless woman with a cardboard sign looked at me and yelled, ‘Fix your face. God is good.’ I’d just been rebuked by a homeless woman, and I did realize that I can fix my face because God is good. Because God is good, not only should our faces be fixed, but our faith should be full. God can help us through every storm and wave that affects our lives.”

Fear is not from God. If fear is not of God, why would God choose to allow it into our lives? How is he using this method of communication to bring warning to our life?

Fear is a revelation. It prompts us to ask ourselves, “Am I focusing on the right thing?”

Paul wrote, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:6-7, ESV). Think of that. When fear comes, it removes those three elements that are so important for every single day. We need power, love, and a sound mind to walk through every crisis that hits our lives, whether it’s a personal tragedy or a worldwide pandemic. When fear comes, it removes those three things and replaces them with weakness, selfishness and crazy narratives.

God says, “Fix your focus on me. I want to fix what's happening in you. I want to fix your faith.” If I believe that God is great and good, it not only begins to increase my faith, it begins to dissolve my fear.

^{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.}

Many Christians read the Bible regularly, believing it is God’s revealed Word for their lives. Over and over in the pages of scripture, they read about generations who heard the voice of God. They read of God speaking to his people with this phrase repeated time after time: “And God said…” However, many of these same Christians live as though God doesn’t speak to his people today.

An entire generation of believers has come to make decisions completely on their own without praying or consulting God’s Word. Many simply decide what they want to do, then they ask God to validate it. They move ahead forcefully, their only prayer being, “Lord, if this is not your will, then stop me.”

We are now living in a time referred to as the “blink generation.” People are making major decisions in the blink of an eye. A best-selling book has been written on this concept, titled Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. The theory is “Trust your instincts. Blink-of-the-eye decisions prove to be the best.”

Think about all the hurried-up “blink language” we hear every day. “This is an offer of the century. You can make a bundle overnight, but you have only a short window of opportunity. Get on it now!” The driving spirit behind it all is “Don’t make a slow and thoughtful decision. Don’t get council from others who may tell you ‘no.’ Just do it!”

Such thinking has begun to infect the church, affecting the decisions made not just by “blink Christians” but by “blink ministers.” Scores of bewildered parishioners have written to us telling the same story. “Our pastor came back from a church-growth conference and immediately announced, ‘As of today, everything changes.’ He decided we would become one of the popular trend churches overnight. He didn’t even ask us to pray about it… We’re all confused.”

Just a few years ago, the watchword among Christians was “Did you pray about this matter? Are your brothers and sisters surrounding you in prayer? Have you received godly counsel?” Has this been your practice? In the past year, how many important decisions have you made where you honestly took the matter to God? The reason God wants full control of our lives is to save us from disasters, which is exactly where most of our “blink decisions” end up.

No matter how unsettled the world becomes, God's people can relax and keep their joy flowing because our Lord has promised special protection when it is most needed.

Didn't God have an emergency plan for the children of Israel during the worldwide famine? He sent Joseph ahead to Egypt, promoted him to prime minister and filled the warehouses with enough grain to last out the famine. He then transported his people within walking distance of those storehouses and fed them to the full through the raging famine.

Didn't God have emergency plans for Elijah? While his nation reeled under the impact of an economic collapse and food was scarce because of severe famine as well as a wicked king who had a ransom on his head, God put his emergency plan for Elijah into effect. The Lord hid his prophet by a quiet brook and fed him by having ravens deliver his food. The survival plan also included a widow’s oil and flour that never ran out.

What about Noah? What a detailed survival plan God had for him and his family! An ark kept him and his family floating safely above all the death and destruction of a worldwide flood.

God actually sent angels to personally pull Lot and his daughters out of the doomed city of Sodom. God's hands were tied until Lot was safely out of the suburbs. It was more than a loss of his job, the collapse of an economy or the downfall of a government. It was total annihilation of his society, but Lot was delivered safely.

Paul proved God's emergency contingencies over and over. This apostle was shipwrecked, chased by thieves, imprisoned, accused of treason and plotted against by assassins. In every crisis, God had a contingency plan for deliverance. Only when God determined his race was over did the Lord call in his last contingency plan. He called this apostle to his resurrection.

We too have an emergency plan for survival, designed specifically for each believer. Let there be no question about it; God will see us through every crisis!

Jesus is not in the drafting business; his army is all volunteer. You can be a believer without carrying a cross, but you cannot be a disciple.

I see many believers have opted for the good life with its prosperity, material gain, popularity and success. I’m sure that many of them will make it to heaven. They will have saved their skins, but they will not have learned Christ. Having rejected the suffering and sorrow of true discipleship, they will not have the capacity to know and enjoy him in eternity. This is opposed to all the saints who have entered into the fellowship of the suffering.

You will have to carry your cross until you learn to deny the one thing that constantly hinders God's work in our lives: self. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24, NKJV). We are misinterpreting this message if we emphasize the rejection of unlawful things. Jesus was not calling upon us to learn self-discipline before we take up our cross. It is far more severe than that.

Millions of professing Christians boast of their self-denial. They don't drink, smoke, curse or fornicate; they are examples of tremendous self-discipline. Not in a hundred years would they admit, though, that it was accomplished by anything other than their own willpower. In some ways, we are all like that. We experience spurts of holiness, accompanied by feelings of purity. Good works usually produce good feelings, but God will not allow us to think our good works and clean habits can save us. That is why we need a cross.

Don't take up your cross until you are ready to reject any thought of becoming a holy disciple as a result of your own effort. Before you take up your cross, be ready to face a moment of truth. Be ready to experience a crisis by which you will learn to deny your self-will, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency and self-authority.

You can rise up and follow Christ as a true disciple only when you can freely admit you can do nothing in your own strength. You cannot overcome sin through your own willpower. You cannot work things out by your own intellect. Your love for Jesus can put you on your knees, but your cross will put you on your face.