PC3 Devotions

Yesterday we explored the quiet freak out better known as worrying. We learned how quickly worrying takes one down a path leading to despair and hopelessness. We might not realize it, but the question we are really asking when we worry is if God really cares about us at all. Fear sets in when we forget that God is truly in control, is all-powerful, and has our best interest at heart. A story that highlights this human tendency can be found in Mark:

Mark 4:35-41

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

In the midst of our uncertainty we often second guess and doubt God has our best interest at heart. Just like the disciples caught in the storm, we picture an indifferent God who has little concern to the circumstances we are facing. Worry forces us to drift towards questioning God’s heart and wondering if He really cares.

Worry is produced by uncertainty in a mind that has no better alternative than what worry establishes as the dreadful reality that will follow. It takes root in faulty thinking and thrives in the vacuum of truth. If we allow our minds to be focused on the world, we will look around, and fear will surely take over.  Worry will take root, and faith will be choked out.

When our eyes are fixed and our hearts are afraid, we accuse God of being indifferent.  Can’t you see what is happening?  Do you not care? This is precisely what is happening to the disciples in today’s reading.  Looking around, they are afraid.  Their circumstances are stealing their peace and their faith.  God is questioned about the TRUTH that lies at the very heart of His character.  They can’t see it, and so it is hard to believe.  They start to freak out. Worry takes root, and fear takes over.

Yet, there is a TRUTH that they are about to encounter.  Take a moment and reread the passage again slowly. Get a picture of this scene in your minds.  Jesus gets up startled from being awaken but even more so by their question. “Do I care?  You are wondering if I care?”

He then takes a pause to calm the storm before He addresses them. “Hold on one second; let me get these gale force winds to chill and the raging sea to quiet down so we can talk.”

His question is pointed and connected. “Why are you afraid?  Do you have no faith?”

Do you notice the connection between fear and the absence of faith? Jesus reminds us that if He is with us who can be against us.  He invites us to trust that our lives lie beyond our circumstances.

Quite simply, worrying chokes out the fruitful work of God in our lives. Our need to control prevents us from letting go of our worries and concerns by trusting the life He has given. Worrying highlights one’s perspective by revealing his or her picture of God. When our concerns are converted to worry, we develop a perspective that causes one to function as though God does not exist. It forces us to drift towards questioning God’s heart.

Worry, concern, anxiety, fright, and panic are all simply different levels of fear, and they all wreak havoc on our walk. The Bible says that God didn’t give us the spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). The challenge before each one of us is how we will respond to a situation we have no control over and no knowledge of the end result. Worrying is purely about the way we define and deal with uncertainty.

God has promised us that He will be with us. This is the truth we must lean on when everything in us wants to freak out. Today, walk firmly on the truth that if God is for you that no one can rob His life in you.

Lord, forgive me for accusing you of not caring.  I use my circumstances to justify my response, and in the vacuum of truth worry rushes in.  Lord, I will fix my mind on you and trust that your peace will guard my heart and mind. All of this is for the sake of your life and not my own.  Amen.

2 Timothy 2:15

¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

As far as I can tell, only one downside exists from going on vacation and that would be the chaos you return to when you get home. Lost in the excitement to go on your journey, little thought is often given to the current state of your house. It isn’t until you open the front door a week or so later that you come face to face with the messy reality. To make matters worse, your luggage, dirty laundry and mementos you collected along the way only add to the clutter.

Maybe it is just me, but I don’t do well with a house in transition. To put things in perspective, it’s January 4^th and my house is just now getting back to order after the Christmas vacation rush. I remember coming home to chaos all around me and not knowing where to begin. It literally halted me in my tracks. I felt paralyzed. Part of me wanted to figure out a way to live in the midst of the chaos and ignore the reality of work that stood before me.

I’m pretty sure some of you are experiencing those same types of emotions in regards to picking one word to define you in 2012.  The idea of narrowing your focus to one aspect of your character which needs improvement can be an intimidating venture.

After all, in your mind there are numerous bad habits, character flaws and struggles that demand your attention. However, fight the urge to push the disengage button. It is better to do something about one thing than nothing about everything. Just like tackling a messy house, you need to start somewhere.

God, help me to not to be overwhelmed with all the changes that need to take place in my character. Allow me to focus on one area of my character and trust that this attention will spread to other parts of my heart. Amen.

In our minds, retreating or running away while in battle appears very cowardly. Some might see this as a display of weakness or admitting defeat. When it comes to our battle with lust, the act of fleeing needs to be seen in a different light.  This action should not be a last resort, but rather a key tactical step used to gain a stronghold on the things that currently hold us captive. Consider these words:

2 Timothy 2:22

22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

1 Timothy 6:11

 11But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

By taking the defensive posture you are actually going on the offensive. What is more foolish: not stepping foot in the areas where traps so easily entangle or going into battle with a few arrows of self control or pure will while the enemy has a full arsenal at his disposal?

One of the reasons it is so difficult for us to see fleeing as an option is that we have yet to admit there is a raging battle going on in our hearts and mind for control. This causes us to be passive and lazy as we go on with business as usual. If you stand still in the middle of the battlefield, you are placing a huge bull’s-eye on your back.

The thing is our walks with God were never intended to be passive. There is a deep level of pursuit attached to this relationship. Reread the two passages again and take special note of the action verbs Paul uses in his letters to Timothy: flee, pursue, fight, and take hold. If movement does not define your walk then chances are good that you are currently on the losing end of your battle with lust and purity.

In order to produce movement, maybe the first step for you to take is the act of fleeing. Is there a difficult temptation you constantly struggle to resist? When you do find yourself most vulnerable: time, location, situation, and emotional state? What would fleeing this situation look like for you? Understanding the times to run will enable you to take action in the fight.

Lord, open my eyes so that I might be aware of the areas of my life where I struggle with lust. May I flee anything that is not of you.  It is my hope that my movements will be defined by repentance. Allow me to turn from the sinfulness of my actions towards a pursuit of your own heart. Amen.

When reading the Bible, a submissive heart and attentive ears are a must. Top this off with a heavy dose of vulnerability and transparency, and it is easy to see why we aren’t tuned into the Spirit speaking to us through His Word. To taste and see that the Lord is good means we have to approach the text with not only our heart and mind, but our life as well. We have to be willing to allow God to speak to us on His terms and according to His purposes. Proverbs 3:3 tells us we must read His word with tenacity and consistency:

Rroverbs 3:3 (NASB)

³ Do not let kindness and truth leave you; BIND THEM AROUND YOUR NECK, WRITE THEM ON THE TABLET OF YOUR HEART.

This can be a scary venture. Scripture has the ability to reveal where we are resistant to faith as well as exposing our heart. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of Godmay be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  Tucked away in that verse is a promise. Scripture can change us. It can make us competent and equipped for every good work. Christ’s heart can become our own.

The charge is not merely to read more of God’s word, but to take it a step further and examine what these truths say about your heart. The Bible is not a tool to sharpen religious competence, but it is living and active. It divides, separates, clarifies and judges. Scripture helps frame a way for us to see the world from a proper perspective and our role within it.

By guiding and illuminating our path, it helps us walk securely on our journey. In the midst of our walk, scripture provides a way to measure our growth as well as correct those places inside our heart we are resistant to hand over to God. However, we only experience these benefits if we are willing to read deliberately, think clearly, pray honestly and live obediently to His word.

The author of Psalm 119 says that his soul is consumed with a longing for God’s law at all times (Psalm 119:20). But, we have to understand why he hides God’s word in His heart and why in Proverbs 3 we are charged to bind the truth around our neck. He meditates on scripture day and night so he can walk according to God’s ways (Psalm 119:3). In other words, the author attentively searches scripture so his life will reflect the heart of God. This seems to echo the call all believers receive in James:

James 3:22-25 (NIV) 

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

It doesn’t move His heart when we approach scripture just to regurgitate information. God doesn’t want obedience out of obligation. He has no desire for us to go through the motions. It is a pointless venture developing a system of belief void of a relationship. We read scripture submissively and relationally in order to love freely. God speaks to us in order to draw us towards Him. He desires transformation in our life based off of intimacy in our relationship with Him. Loving God requires us to be transformed. This can only happen when we trust in the relationship by binding His truth around our neck and writing it on the tablet of our heart.

Lord, I ask you for direction and attentiveness to your whispers.  Help me to not be resistant to your Truth.  May I incline my ear to your words and submit my actions to your commands. Allow me to be vulnerable as your Spirit speaks to my heart. Amen.

How willing are you to let the Bible be a living and active document that speaks into your life? How open are you to letting the Spirit open your eyes to parts of your heart you’ve ignored or not addressed?

A few days ago my oldest daughter asked me to read her a Choose Your Own Adventure book before bedtime. As I flipped through the pages, it became clear why kids are drawn to these types of books. They do not fret over what tomorrow holds or let every moment paralyze them with fear. Deep down inside each one of us wants to live their life like a character in one of these tales.

Yet, while we yearn for adventure in life that requires deep faith, we don’t like the uncertainty and instead attempt to arrange our lives more according to Paint by Numbers. Just think about the advantages: the security of having the lines drawn, knowing where the colors go and having the ability to see the entire picture before you start.

No wonder many of us love the ending of this verse:

Proverbs 3:6 (NASB)

⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him, AND HE WILL MAKE YOUR PATHS STRAIGHT.

It’s very easy to read that ‘He will make your paths straight’, breathe a sigh of relief and think that saying would make a great bumper sticker. We figure if we surrender control of our heart by acknowledging Him that our life will now be a smooth ride lived on ‘auto pilot.’ There will be no bumps or potholes along the path. Everything will make sense and go our way. This is the problem with reading verses in a vacuum and not reflecting on how it lines up with the whole of Scripture. We create a distorted perspective of how we see the world.

God never promises a life without problems or difficulties. In fact, Jesus tells His disciples that in this world there will be trouble (John 16:33). Notice that Jesus doesn’t say we might have trouble, but instead says we will face trouble in this world. At one time or another we all will encounter uncertainty because uncertainty is the only certainty of life. How can this be if He makes our paths straight?

All of a sudden there seems to be more questions than answers and worry begins to creep back in the picture. Our mind begins to race over what the future holds: how are the kids going to turn out? What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life? What if my spouse gets sick? How will I ever manage to pay the bills? What if this relationship doesn’t work out?

Worrying keeps us frozen in the present due to the concerns of the future. It takes us down a path that leads to despair and hopelessness.  Quite simply, worrying chokes out the fruitful work of God in our lives.

You can’t have a walk with God where you fight to have your entire life mapped out. This requires no guesswork, no courage, but most importantly no faith. We have a tendency to make so much more out of moments in the future (how the kids are going to turn out, what I am supposed to do with the rest of my life, where is this relationship going, etc.) that our entire focus is spent thinking about events that haven’t happened yet. The energy that is spent doing this robs us of the opportunity to take note of where God is moving in our life right now and the moments we currently have to be courageous.

Psalm 119:105 says God’s word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. Even though we desire a gigantic spotlight that illuminates the entire way, God only gives us a flashlight to enable us to see a few feet ahead. We desperately want the end of the path to be clear and in a direction we desire before we even consider moving. What we fail to realize is the purpose of the path is our formation. God just wants us to take the next right step. The proceeding steps along the path are in the future. But, you can never get there if you don’t take that next right step which is presented to you today. As we seek His face and meditate on His word, we become more confident in taking each step regardless of the uncertainty we might face.

God has a purpose for each person that crosses your path and in every circumstance you encounter. Since He knows what our future holds, we should trust that each moment shapes where we are headed. In Jeremiah 29:11, He tells us: “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” All God is asking is for you to be concerned about the here and now and respond to each moment according to the purpose you were designed for: to display God by having his life and heart fully formed in you.

This requires motion and movement. It begins by stewarding each moment and viewing it as an opportunity to work towards expressing God’s love to those around you. The Bible says that God didn’t give us the spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). The challenge before each one of us is how we will respond to a situation we have no control over and no knowledge of the end result. With each step of faith we take, the more courageous we become and the less we let circumstances determine our response. Success is no longer seen as an arrival point, but rather in each moment we take a step of faithfulness.

Lord, you have promised to guide me. When I am confronted with uncertainty, help me to remember all you ask from me is to take that next right step of faith. Guide me in every choice I make.  Tune my ear so I can hear your voice. Amen.

What does that next right step of faith look like for you? What keeps you standing still? Why do you hesitate to move?