Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Explanation:

In this passage, Jesus is speaking to his original eleven disciples after He has been resurrected, but before He ascends to His Father in heaven. He is giving them what has come to be known as His Great Commission.

This is the first example of Evangelism, which is simply sharing the gospel. Jesus says that all authority has been given to Him in His new risen state, showing that the Resurrection has been orchestrated and accepted by the Father. With this power, Jesus directs them to “make disciples,” changing the word “disciple” from a noun to a verb. This is an active command, the goal for His disciples once He goes to Heaven. These eleven guys are responsible for spreading the good news of the gospel to all people? How overwhelming! The same can be overwhelming for us, but Jesus goes on to give us the process He wants us to use.

First, He tells them to “go.” For them, Israel was their beginning, but Jesus wants them to tell His story to all nations. For us, look around: everyone needs this message! Next, He instructs “baptizing” in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus uses the singular word “name” to show the Persons of God are three in one. He then encourages them to “teach these new disciples to obey”, which can be daunting seeing that the disciples were working to become more like Jesus themselves, just as we are today. This transformation is not a process to be finished here on earth, but Jesus commands us to begin. If we are truly committed to both being and making disciples, we can rest assured that our work will not be overwhelming because of His last statement that He is with us always, even to the end of the age. This is the most crucial element of discipleship: that we aren’t meant to do it alone. Jesus’ promise to His disciples is the same as His to us: He is Emmanuel, God with us.

Application:

1. How does it make you feel to be entrusted by God with such a life changing message for others?

2. Think of someone God has put on your heart to disciple. Ask Him for specific steps in guiding you through how He wants you to do so, and don’t forget to let Him lead!

Devo Plus:

1. Listen to the song, “Too Good Not to Believe” by Bethel Music and Brandon Lake, and be empowered to know things change on God’s authority… we’ve seen it! This message of Jesus is too good not to share!

2. Pastor D.T. Niles once described Evangelism as, “just one beggar telling another where to find bread.” Remember that we don’t have to have all of the answers; we just need to be ready to share our story when the Holy Spirit prompts us!

Prayer:

Father God, remind me today that ALL AUTHORITY is Yours. Your Son spoke those words to His disciples so long ago, but they remain true for us today: we don’t have to make disciples alone. Help us to continue trusting Your words to do all You have created us to do. Whether it be in our own families, strangers, or anyone in between, walk in front of us every step of every day, laying the foundation for us to share You. Thank You for Your commitment, Your patience, and Your love. Help us to show the same to those all around us. Amen.

Romans 9:27-33 (NLT)

And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,

“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,

    only a remnant will be saved.

For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth

    quickly and with finality.”

 And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:

“If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

    had not spared a few of our children,

we would have been wiped out like Sodom,

    destroyed like Gomorrah.”

What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,

“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,

    a rock that makes them fall.

But anyone who trusts in him

    will never be disgraced.”

Explanation:

This passage is a great reminder and even a warning to us all. I think so many times the longer we have associated ourselves as a Christian, the more of a legalistic and judgmental approach we can have to our faith. We can become like the Pharisees or even the Jewish people being addressed in this passage, and can have a “holier than thou” attitude. We often fall into the trap of believing that because I am obedient, and I follow the rules (laws), I am good and have received righteousness. However, it is not being good or following the law and rules perfectly that gives us right standing. It is only through faith in Jesus. There is nothing I can do to earn salvation. I could never be good enough to be made righteous. Only my faith in the sacrifice of Jesus can save me. We can never follow the rules and laws just right to be made right. A genuine faith and trust in Jesus is where we find salvation.

You and I are made right because of what Jesus did. We receive salvation when we believe and put our faith in Him. May this passage be a humble reminder to us all. A reminder that outside of my faith in Jesus I have nothing. The only thing that saves me is my faith. The only thing that redeems me is my faith. The only way to know I have received true salvation is my faith, my trust, and my relationship with Jesus. Without Jesus I am nothing, but with Him I am made right and saved.

Application:

1. Have you ever had times in your life where you feel as though you have “arrived” or that you have done all you can to be made right?

2. Why is it so humbling for us to know that our faith is what saves us and not anything we could do?

3. Why do we find it so hard to just rest in the fact that we receive salvation simply because of our faith?

Devo Plus:

This scripture passage is definitely one that can be harder to translate and understand. I encourage you this week to check out some commentaries or our Bible studies to help you understand what this passage is teaching us.

Prayer:

God, we are so thankful for the ways that You teach us and challenge us. It is our prayer that we never lose sight of the fact that on our own we are nothing, but when we have faith in You, we have everything. Help us to do less striving, and to find rest in peace in that fact that our faith is what saves us. Each day may our faith and trust grow stronger and stronger. We love You and long for more of You in our lives. Amen.

Isaiah 49:5-6 (NLT)

And now the LORD speaks— the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The LORD has honored me, and my God has given me strength. He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Explanation:

I gave my life to Christ when I was in high school. I’ve shared this before, but it is relevant to know that I was in high school during a big culture shift, when party drugs began their hey-day and promiscuity was becoming widespread. I needed the Word of God like an athlete needs nutrition, to bring His light into my high school. In order to reflect Jesus well, I was very disciplined about rising early to read my Bible, pray, and sit in His love. 

Then I went to college to study the Bible, and I lived on a campus of people doing the same. Studying the Bible became all about putting the pieces together and gaining more and more knowledge. After two years of this approach to the Bible, I realized I was no longer reflecting Jesus; I was trying to figure Him out. You know that feeling when you put together a 1000 piece puzzle and it is a great challenge? This is what I was trying to do with Jesus. I wanted to put all the pieces together, see the finished product, and then put that knowledge into a little box to take with me into the world to help others get Him into their box.

I had quit reading the Bible for application and was instead using it as a textbook.  

I had gained a lot of knowledge, but I was missing the life-giving part.

I lost touch with reflecting Him and was working instead on presenting Him.

In today’s passage there are pieces of the puzzle, but the application is that Jesus came not just to save Israel but ALL people. You are who He is going to use to bring His light to your family, your workplace, your social life, your friendships, your neighborhood, your town, your country, and the world. 

Every single one of us has been chosen to reflect His light with our priorities, our actions, our values, our responses, our time, our money, our resources, our talents, our personalities, and our goals. There are no exceptions. 

Think of this. Three of our brightest stars are actually the planets Venus, Jupiter, and Mars. These planets don’t shine with their own light; they are bright only because they reflect the light of the sun. Likewise, the moon is beautifully bright, but it doesn’t generate light on its own, but merely reflects it. As Christ’s followers we should be moons, reflecting His light to the world.

Application: 

1. We shine with a reflected light. Christ’s light is the original; ours is a by-product. You must know Him intimately to reflect Him.

2. For the moon to reflect the sun, nothing should come between it and the sun. Our calling is to stay in the light of Jesus, and not let Him be eclipsed in our lives. As you evaluate your heart, is it clear for reflection today?

Devo Plus:

Mirror, mirror on the wall,

do you see Christ

in me at all?

Prayer:

Lord, so many times phrases and memes can really grab me and shake my soul, but I want more than a momentary spiritual gulp. I want Your Word to grow in my heart, to take root and rearrange me spiritually. Help me process the urgency of reflecting You with my tongue and my actions today. Help me be aware of the moments appointed by You to reflect You. Amen.

Romans 9:14-26 (ESV)    

         

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,  in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—  even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?  As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
    and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

Explanation:

There may be a lot of questions that arise out of a passage such as this. What is Paul talking about, God hardening hearts and creating some for destruction? When we come up against a difficult passage like this, the best thing to do is to start some context clues. Paul is in the midst of an argument that the church in Rome is caught up in, trying to explain the history of salvation. The church, being a mix of Gentile and Jewish Christians, is trying to navigate what it means to be a body together. Imagine if Ohio State and Michigan fans had to unite under one banner; there would be some tension and confusion, right?

Paul is discussing here the process of election, highlighting God’s power and God’s plan to save. He harkens back to the Exodus story when God called Israel out of Egypt. God gave Pharoah the opportunity to let His people the Israelites go, but when Pharoah said no, God exercised His power with a plague. Every time God exercised His power, Pharoah’s heart was hard, and God won each battle.

Paul goes on to say that God has the right to use and is glorified by both the salvation of some and the destruction of others. However, this does not mean that the clay has no choice in the matter, just as Pharoah’s heart was exposed in his trials from God. As God shapes and forms us, if we do not surrender to God’s leading, we will crumble and break apart in His good and merciful hands.

In our passage, some of the ethnically born Jews had rejected God and His plan for salvation through Jesus. Paul concludes by asking how can they complain that God has invited the Gentiles into salvation when they, who should have known the power and mercy of God, have rejected Him? God has every right and power to include everyone in the plan of salvation. But ALL have to choose to put their trust in Jesus.

Application:

1. Is there any area in your life where you are continuing to resist God, saying you won’t do it His way?

2. What is leading you to say no? Is it fear, worry, mistrust?

3. How does knowing that God is all powerful speak to those fears?

4. How does the promise of God’s power working to shape and mold you into something beautiful help you to change that “no” into a “yes”?

Devo Plus:

Read Jeremiah 18 and Exodus 7

Prayer:

God, help us to trust that You hold our lives in Your hands, and teach us to respond to Your great power and Your great mercy. Help us to surrender to Your shaping and forming with faith and confidence that You are able to make us into something for a noble, beautiful, and wonderful use. You have the power and You are good, so help us to trust You in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in today. Amen.

Romans 9:1-13 (ESV)

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Explanation:

My mother retired this month after being a special education teacher for nearly 30 years. She was an amazing teacher. She is one of the hardest working individuals that I have ever known, and it is something I truly admire about her. Moreover, she had a God-given ability to care for students at an extraordinary capacity. The combination of these two qualities is what made her such an excellent teacher. A friend and fellow teacher of hers said it so well during her retirement speech for my mom when she said, “Mrs. Leitnaker has a way of making each student feel valued and included. It didn’t matter if they were her student or not; she made them feel special.” This was so true, and she will be deeply missed.

I use that example because it truly is a cry of all our hearts and souls to feel valued and included, especially when it comes to our relationship with God. I believe that God has given each of us a need in our hearts for God and His presence. Whether we recognize it or not, there is an aching inside of us to be fully known and fully loved by God. I believe that aching is part of what God uses to draw us to Him. But for whatever reason, we often choose to hush, stuff down, ignore, or self-medicate that aching for God, and this is to our detriment. When we choose to ignore our need for God, we miss out on the promise of being a child of God.

The Israelites were the first of God’s people, blessed with the opportunity to connect with the living God. Our reading today tells us that they received the first call to be His children, the reestablishment of a powerful relationship with God. They received His very words and guidance, the chance to express that aching through worshipping God and by receiving the assurance of true life. Now we have all been included in that mix, and when we call on His name, we get to experience all that is promised for the child of God. We are valued by God and included by God, and there is no greater gift than that.

Application:

1. How have you seen the aching for God in your heart and soul?

2. What is so remarkable about being a child of God and included in the promises of God?

3. How do we now get to experience all the blessings that Israel (listed in verse 4)?

Devo Plus:

1. Re-Read verse 1 from today’s reading:

2. Why would Paul be experiencing “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart for his fellow Israelites?

3. What did he have in his relationship with God that he wanted them to experience?

4. Who are the people in your life that you desire to know God as well? Spend some time praying for them right now. Pray that they do not ignore the God-ache they have inside of them.

Prayer:

God, thank You for calling me to be your child. I am learning more and more every day to live as Your child. I recognize that in me is an ache to know You and be loved by You. Help me to love You more.

Isaiah 42:5-9 (ESV)

Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,


who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
    I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
    a light for the nations,
     to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.
 I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols.
 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
    I tell you of them.”

Explanation:

In the opening lines of this passage, God states His credentials. It’s a mic drop moment; no one else can be introduced like this! Our God is the creator of ALL, the giver of all life. We could stop there and be in awe. That could be all the information He gives about Himself to us, and it would be enough for us to worship Him forever. But He doesn’t stop there! If we look at the verses before this passage, we see that God is speaking of His Servant, Jesus Christ. God goes on to speak directly to His Son, Jesus, in the verses that follow. God the Father is saying that He is with Jesus, and that He has a purpose for Him. Jesus is the lighthouse to all people, not just the Jews, and He will be the way that all can have access to the Father. Through Jesus, all can be saved and in relationship with God.

God goes on to say that Jesus will do both physical and spiritual miracles like opening blind eyes and setting prisoners free. No one else will share in His glory because no one else is worthy or able to do these things. God has declared His credentials, has proclaimed what He will do through Jesus, and ends this passage by affirming that as He has been faithful in the past, He will do what He says He will do in the future. We can have confidence because of His track record!

Application:

1. Take a few seconds to look outside. Think of 5 reasons that creation alone proves that God is God.

2. The passage we looked at today was written years before Jesus came in the form of man, yet what He will do is stated in this passage. How does that increase your faith?

3. How does knowing that God designed a plan for all of us to be in relationship with Him make you feel?

4. Sometimes we need a reminder of who God is, what He has done, and what He will do. Take a moment and thank God for those things!

Devo Plus:

I encourage you to spend some time right now in praising God. This passage is such an encouragement of what God has done, is doing, and will do. If this is odd to you, I encourage you to re-read this passage and thank God for the prophecy of Jesus!

Prayer:

God, thank You for the gift of this passage. Thank You that You are a God who has had a plan from the beginning of time, and You are faithful to Your plan. Thank You for loving each one of us enough to make a way for us to be in relationship with You. Help us to never forget the gift of a relationship with You!

1 John 4:7-12 (NLT)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Explanation:

God loved us when we were the most unlovable, and gave us the most precious thing He had: His only Son. There can be no further questions of the strength and reality of His love. In a trial, when the witnesses have been thoroughly examined and all evidence presented, the attorney tells the judge, “no further questions, your Honor,” and rests his case. In the same way, God the Father gave so fully and sacrificially on His part that there can be no further questions of His love for us. He has demonstrated it to the utmost. His perfect love should cast out all our fears! God’s relationship with us can hold our full weight, because His love has been fully manifested. Don’t timidly tiptoe around in your life, unsure of your standing with Him or afraid of angering Him one too many times today. We should hold our heads up high, and stride forward in absolute confidence of the fact that we possess the full force of our Father’s love. Let us live our lives saturated in the knowledge that we are so thoroughly and unquestionably loved, and by the God of the universe no less!

Furthermore, the challenge this passage presents to us is, in light of our Father’s love for us, we should love one another. Verse 7 in the Amplified Bible puts it this way: “Beloved, let us [unselfishly] love and seek the best for one another, for love is from God.” It poses a challenge to us because our fleshly nature tends to evaluate others, to first test if they are worthy of love before we act lovingly. However, we should love others not because they deserve it or have earned it… but because we are the recipients of such a lavish and free love from God our Father. When we love others freely, sacrificially, and in incredible ways, His love is perfected and made complete in us. If we are truly reflecting God’s love, there should be no question in the hearts of our spouse, children, families, friends, or acquaintances about our love for them.

What do people encounter when they see you? Do they run smack into an active expression of God’s love? This passage says “No one has ever seen God,” but when people interact with us, “if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.” Is your love a sacrificial, lavish love that reflects the heart of the Father? Let us not be selfish in our love, parceling it out slowly drop by drop, when those around us are so thirsty for Him. Let’s quench their thirst for God today by being a mirror of His sacrificial and perfect love.

Application:

1. Spend some time in prayer, asking God to help you understand how much He loves you. Until you experience the depths of God’s perfect and unchanging love, you can’t love others as He wants you to.

2. How do those around you experience your love? Does your heart manifest the magnitude of God’s love?

3. Choose one person you love, and implement one tangible way to show how much you love them today.

Devo Plus:

Listen to the song “Good and Loved” by Travis Greene and Steffany Gretzinger, and allow it to remind you of the active love of God toward you.

Prayer:

Father God, help me love others in a way that reflects Your lavish love, so they can see YOU through my love today. Amen.

Titus 3:3-7 (NASB)

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He richly poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Explanation:

In this passage, Paul is focusing on our conditions and actions, as well as God’s. First, he starts out by trying to show us that our condition is wrong, that is, our hearts. He notes that we are foolish, deceived, enslaved and hateful. He contrasts that by sharing with us the heart of God, which is kind, loving, and merciful.

Next, Paul points out that our actions are wrong: disobedient, spending our lives in malice and envy, and hating one another. He contrasts that by showing us the good actions of God, that He is saving us, washing and renewing us, richly pouring out on us, and justifying us.

What then is the solution to these differences between us and God? Differences we can’t overcome by “deeds which we did in righteousness.” Paul gives us the answer. Simply stated, “He saved us.” In spite of our actions and condition, God acted because of His condition, and brought us to Himself. Paul keeps making the point that it was God’s actions, and His alone, that rectified the differences that existed between us. And that happened when “He saved us,” pointing out that it had nothing to do with our “deeds which we did in righteousness.”

In today’s devotion, we were to focus on the phrase “He richly poured out upon us.” Poured out means to flow freely, unrestricted. In other words, the action of God's grace wasn't initiated by our deeds done in righteousness. Nor was it withheld by the foolish, disobedient, and deceived things we did. We don’t control or influence the action of God's kindness, love, mercy, the working of the Holy Spirit, or grace. He did it all when “He saved us.”

Application:

1. What should we do then, now that we see what God has done for us? Romans 2:4 tells us that “the kindness of God leads you to repentance.” It should send us to God with sorrow over our sin but thanksgiving in our hearts that God has done this great thing for us. God took action because of His condition, in spite of our actions and our condition that had separated us from Him.

Devo Plus:

Romans 3:10-18

Prayer:

Our prayer should be the words of the song Amazing Grace. It points out the results of our condition, and shows us the results of God’s action.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me,

I once was lost but now I’m found,

Was blind but now I see.

Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Explanation:

Paul uses this one sentence to communicate a list of ten things that cover the span of anything that could ever potentially remove us from God’s love. He uses extreme opposites like height and depth to help us visualize that the tallest of tall or the deepest of deep is still covered by God’s love. There’s nowhere He isn’t. That’s so different than our lives in the physical, isn’t it?

Last year, we all experienced a season of physical separation. We were advised to stay in our houses as much as possible and avoid contact with other humans. We were separated. Isolated. Apart. Disconnected from the outside world. Thinking of it now brings back that miserable feeling in my gut that I never want to experience again.

As an extrovert, I value connection. I need to see your face, to hug your neck, and to “be” present in the moment with others. I need that physical connection. Last year, earthly circumstances caused us to be separated in the physical. How much more can we appreciate that God’s love will never be taken from us, regardless of the circumstance? There is no virus, no politics, no wars, and no evil that will ever be able to take God’s love away from us. What a powerful and peace-giving promise.

Application:

1. When you think about Paul’s list above, what comfort can you find in knowing you cannot be separated from God’s love?

2. Why do you think Paul uses a “negative” perspective in this list, incorporating “neither and nor” instead of placing it in the positive?

3. Can you think of an experience you’ve had where you know God’s love has reached you, no matter where you were?

Devo Plus:

Today’s Devo Plus is a throwback to 1986. An old-time gospel singing family, the Nelons, had a popular song called “Nothing Shall Separate Me.” It’s an upbeat tune that commits today’s scripture to memory. I encourage you to give it a listen!

https://www.invubu.com/music/show/song/The-Nelons/Nothing-Shall-Separate-Me.html

Prayer:

God, I thank You for Your far-reaching, boundless love. Thank You for allowing me to know that I am never separated from You, no matter what the situation here in the physical. Help me to always turn to You when I’m feeling isolated here on earth, knowing that Your love spans the universe and reaches me where I am. Thank You for giving us the promise of eternal love, and eternal life.

Romans 8:35-37 (NLT)

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say (Psalm 44:22), “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.


Explanation:

Last week, I visited an assisted living facility that is completely understaffed due to COVID. A lovely 89-year-old lady named Jackie lives there. Jackie is held in the ravages of a disease that exhausts her with tremors and spasms, frequently causes her to go rigid, robs her of sleep and the ability to eat, and greatly affects her ability to socialize. Yet she has organized a group of widows, who lost their husbands to Alzheimer’s, to go into Memory Care and lead a sing-along each week. I participated in the sing-along, staring directly at the room my father died in...where Jackie’s husband died. When we were done, I accompanied Mom back to her room and then realized I forgot to help Jackie with her phone.

When I went in search of her, I found her wedged in her wheelchair, on wet towels on her bathroom floor, unable to move forward or backward, unable to get to her phone or get an aide to help her, and out of reach of her shot that she needed so desperately. There were several more indignities I won’t go into, but as I realized how degrading this whole situation was for this once gorgeous, athletic, capable, independent woman, she looked up at me and said, “It’s in all my weakness that I feel his love the most and through which his light shines the brightest.” That reminded me of Corrie Ten Boom's famous statement after she survived Auschwitz. “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”

Jackie has personally served the God who never leaves us in our trouble, calamity, persecution, hunger, destitution, danger...and is right there on the other side of death. Her disease must make her feel a version of every one of the seven things Paul listed as the deal breakers of life, yet she feels His love stronger still.

If we are truthful, our physical circumstances highly influence how we feel God is postured toward us. Because we all exist in a punitive world, it is hard to fathom a relentless, undeterred, bottomless love that never ends. 

Surely in the story of God’s love for His own, there is some fine print...escape clause...loophole…the kind you have missed more than once in life and lost out.

Not with God. 

Never. 

Ever.

For any reason.

Zero.

None!

Application:

1. Only the power of Christ can bring sweetness out of bitterness, strength out of weakness, triumph out of tragedy, and blessing out of heartbreak. Will you embrace His love, or push Him away?

2. Death with its terrors, life with its allurements, things present crashing in on us, things to come that are arousing fearful foreboding...despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through the limitless love of God. Like an exhausted toddler fighting a nap, you too can resist. Could I persuade you today to take a new approach, and open your heart to His rebuilding, reviving, energizing love?

Devo Plus: 

'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,

Just to take Him at His Word;

Just to rest upon His promise,

Just to know, "Thus saith the Lord!"

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!

How I've proved Him o'er and o'er;

Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!

Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

I'm so glad I learned to trust Him,

Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;

And I know that He is with me,

Will be with me to the end.

Prayer:

Lord, I want to be a person who stands firm and trusts You wholeheartedly. I want to be unshakable and resilient, but that can only happen by believing You love me. Develop that deep trust in me. I desperately need it, and want to rest in Your love and trust You more. Amen.