Tim Hetzner – Daily Devotions

Worship Your Way Through It

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:25)

Don’t allow what’s wrong with you to keep you from worshipping what’s right with God. With their feet locked in stocks, their backs lacerated with whips, and the unjust contempt of society heaped upon them, the Bible says, ‘At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.’ They decided to stop focusing on what was wrong with their circumstances and start focusing on what is right with God. They could have complained, but they made a choice to worship God despite their external circumstances.

And that is often the most challenging and crucial choice we can make. It’s like hitting the refresh key on your computer. Doing so restores the joy of your salvation, recalibrates your spirit, and renews your mind. And it empowers you to discover something good to praise God about, even when everything seems to be going wrong. Is it simple? Definitely not. But one of the purest forms of worship is praising God when you don’t want to.

‘Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name’ (Hebrews 13:15). Note the words ‘sacrifice of praise’. And it’s a sacrifice that moves God and brings results: ‘Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed’ (Acts 16:26). When you’re in a situation with no way out, praise opens doors. When you’re shackled by lack and limitation, praise breaks chains. So, worship your way through it.

Prayer

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A Father’s Blessing

“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.” (Hebrews 11:20)

Dad, here are two Bible ingredients for blessing your children and grandchildren:

1) The power of prayer. In Scripture, a father’s blessing included an open-eyed prayer to God for his children. Isaac, who was a farmer, said to his son, ‘May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness – an abundance of grain and new wine’ (Genesis 27:28). Have your children ever heard you talk to God about them? Perhaps they have heard you say harsh words like, ‘How could you be so stupid? Don’t you ever think? You will never amount to anything!’ If so, apologize today and ask for their forgiveness. Let them hear you invoke God’s richest blessing over each of their lives. A father’s prayer of blessing over his family is a powerful thing – it’s life changing!

2) The vision of a glorious future. The Bible says, ‘When there’s no vision, the people get out of control’ (Proverbs 29:18). School counselors tell us that many of their students lack vision. Why? Because they see nothing ahead for them except economic gloom, unemployment, and hard times. They need somebody to believe in them and their future…to believe they can succeed and live happy lives…that the best is still ahead for them. Isaac didn’t wait for his boys to devise their own vision for the future. He prayed openly for their future success, their rise to prominence, and for respect and favor with family and society. Your kids don’t need you to manipulate them; they need you to motivate them. And you do that by blessing them!

Prayer

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Confess Your Sins to God

“Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Selah Psalm 32:5)

In Scripture, the word confession is comprised of two Greek words: homo, meaning ‘the same’, and logeo, meaning ‘to speak’. Therefore, confessing your sin to God means saying the same thing about it as He does. It means calling a spade a spade – not a gardening tool! Nowhere does the Bible refer to our sins as mistakes, bad judgements, and slips. However, it clearly says God forgives our sin: ‘I…am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins’ (Isaiah 43:25). So, let’s be clear.

1) Confessing isn’t about apologizing. Saying you’re sorry is appropriate and necessary at times. But you could never be sorry enough to deserve or earn God’s forgiveness. Confessing is agreeing with God about the nature, extent, and offensiveness of your transgressions.

2) Confessing isn’t about feelings. Some of us plunge into remorse, guilt, and depression over our sins. And when such feelings lead to confession, that’s good. But even when we don’t feel these emotions, our confession is just as genuine and effective.

3) Confessing isn’t complaining. Making a laundry list of your sins and telling God how terrible you are is more akin to complaining than confessing. Coming clean with God and agreeing with His evaluation of your sin is what He wants from you. Then, like David, you can say, ‘I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt…And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.’ So, confess your sins to God – then start acting like someone who has been forgiven!

Prayer

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Strong, Firm, and Steadfast

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” (1 Peter 5:10)

If you want God to restore you and make you ‘strong, firm and steadfast’, meditate prayerfully on these four Scriptures, and look for ways to put them into practice each day:

1) ‘Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time’ (v. 6).

2) ‘Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you’ (v. 7).

3) ‘Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour’ (v. 8).

4) ‘Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings’ (v. 9).

Now, here is the result God promises when you walk in the truth of these four Scriptures: ‘And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast’ (v. 10).

Note two important phrases here: ‘The God of all grace.’ Whatever you fear and whatever you have to face, God will give you the grace to handle it. ‘After you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong.’ If you are going through a season of stress, God has promised that it will lead to a season of strengthening. So, when you pray, ‘Lord, take me out of this,’ He may answer, ‘No, I will take you through it and make you “firm and steadfast”.’

Prayer

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God Will Forgive and Restore You

“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” (Psalm 51:2)

There is bad news, and there is good news. The bad news is, when David tried to hide his sin, God exposed it to the entire nation. The good news is, when he repented of his sin, God forgave him and expunged his record. And what God did for David, He will do for you. All you have to do is get down on your knees and pray, ‘Cleanse me from my sin…Create in me a clean heart, O God’ (vv. 2, 10).

If you want to know how God responds to such a prayer, here is what He said to Solomon, David’s son: ‘If you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, “You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel”’ (1 Kings 9:4-5).

Today you may feel that because of your sin you are beyond hope and redemption, that you have forfeited the opportunity to be useful to God and to fulfil your destiny. Don’t believe it! You can recover. You can be restored. You can be forgiven. You can regain your integrity. You can be healed and become whole again. You can sing: ‘There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.’ The word for today is – God will forgive and restore you. All you have to do is ask Him.

Prayer

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How to Have Peace – Part Five

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

The Bible says, ‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths’ (vv. 5-6). God wants you to trust Him. As long as you’re struggling to figure things out on your own, you’re not trusting God, and you won’t have peace. You must trust Him with your health, your money, your relationships, and your future. Everything!

God never makes a mistake. All that happens in your life fits into His plan for you – even the problems and miseries and troubles you bring on yourself. He fits everything flawlessly into His plan for you (see Romans 8:28). And all He expects from you is to trust Him instead of attempting to figure everything out – that you acknowledge He is in control. When you do this, He promises to ‘make your paths straight’ (Proverbs 3:6).

When we aim at directing our own lives, we follow arbitrary paths filled with indecisiveness: ‘Should I do this or that? Should I go here or over there?’ And it produces stress! But as soon as you trust in the Lord, He directs your paths and makes them successful, not stressful.

‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds’ (Philippians 4:6-7). Note the order – prayer first, then peace. So, if you’re not praying, you’re probably worrying. And worry is a worthless emotion – a waste! So when pressure starts accumulating, instead of panicking, start praying! Prayer is a remarkable stress reliever.

Prayer

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How to Have Peace – Part Four

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)

To have peace you must focus on God’s presence. What you choose to focus on either fuels your fears or your faith. The Bible says, ‘You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you’ (Isaiah 26:3). That verse could be reduced to one sentence: ‘Get your focus in order − look at me.’ The psalmist says, ‘God is…an ever-present help in trouble’ (Psalm 46:1) . Later in that psalm, He reminds us, ‘Be still, and know that I am God’ (v. 10).

These verses were written during the time of Hezekiah. Enemy armed forces had surrounded Jerusalem and the Israelites were tense, so they prayed this prayer! And five minutes before noon, God struck the Assyrians with a plague and 185,000 of them perished. Jerusalem was saved, and everyone was joyful. This psalm helps us remember that God is our refuge. No matter how overwhelming the odds seem, He is always with you to help.

This psalm informs us of two things about receiving God’s help in times of trouble. The first thing is to ‘be still’. Many of our troubles come from our inability to sit still. The second thing is to ‘know that I am God’. Did you know that in the middle of a hurricane or tornado there is a quiet center referred to as an eye? Likewise, though everything is blowing apart around you, you can have a quiet center. Be still and know. When you live this way, ‘the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds’ (Philippians 4:7). When you think about it, it’s the only sane way to live!

Prayer

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How to Have Peace – Part Three

“Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” (Psalm 119:165)

In order to find real peace, you must do two things:

1) Live by the principles of God’s Word. ‘Great peace have those who love your law.’ Peace arrives when you live in harmony with God. A new car comes with an owner’s manual. It tells you that for your car to perform well, you must do certain things at certain times. Likewise, the Bible is your owner’s manual for life. It contains guiding principles for finances, health, marriage, business, relationships, and considerably more. Just as your car drives more smoothly when you use it according to its design, so your life will go more smoothly when you live it according to God’s design.

2) Accept God’s pardon. Guilt is the top destroyer of peace. When we feel guilty, we feel haunted by our past. That’s why we read about people who make amends for a wrong they committed thirty years earlier. They say, ‘I was living in hell all those years and had to get it off my chest.’ The only way to have peace is to possess a clear conscience, and only God is able to give you that. ‘Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives…transgression?…You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy’ (Micah 7:18). Notice, Micah reveals God is eager – ready and waiting – to clean your slate. It’s His personality. He enjoys forgiving. He owns a big eraser. ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9).

Prayer

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How to Have Peace – Part Two

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Jesus said His peace is a gift. That means you don’t have to work for it, and you cannot earn it. You cannot psych yourself up for it, and you cannot ‘try really hard’ to obtain it. No, it’s a gift you must accept by faith. Jesus also said that His peace is unique from what the world provides. In the last 3,500 years or more, the world has only been free of war for 286 of them – that’s less than 9 percent. This world’s peace doesn’t last.

Jesus told His disciples, ‘I give you my own peace and my gift is nothing like the peace of this world. You must not be distressed and you must not be daunted’ (vv. 27-28). He spoke those words just before He went to the cross. So, God’s peace is not regulated by circumstances – it’s an ‘inside job’.

Have you ever heard someone say, ‘I need to get away’? This is sometimes known as a geographical cure. You think if you leave where you are and go somewhere else, you will have peace. But it doesn’t work, for wherever you go, you take yourself with you. Have you ever been so tired that your body collapsed into bed, but your mind wouldn’t turn off? Well, you can get away and find peace! How? Jesus gives us the solution: ‘You may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33).

Where can you find peace? Jesus said, ‘In me!’ Today, spend time with Him.

Prayer

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How to Have Peace – Part One

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

God will give you three kinds of peace.

1) Spiritual peace. ‘Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ That’s the foundation, the bottom line. You must have peace with God before you can have any other kind of peace. Jesus said, ‘I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give’ (John 14:27). Why? Because His peace has the hallmark of heaven on it.

2) Relational peace. Paul writes, ‘As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone’ (Romans 12:18). Relational peace decreases conflict. You know from experience that relationships can be an origin of tension. For the majority of us, our greatest problems are people problems: interacting well with our boss, family, or relatives. We consistently have to deal with competition, conflict, and criticism. And these things can steal our peace.

3) Emotional peace. ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since…you were called to peace’ (Colossians 3:15). The Greek word for ‘rule’ means ‘to umpire’. What is an umpire’s role? He maintains peace. He ensures the game is played in a smooth and disciplined way. And God will provide you with an internal umpire who will keep you at peace when everything around you appears chaotic.

Here is a great Bible promise: ‘You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!’ (Isaiah 26:3). Do you need peace today? Turn to God; you won’t be disappointed.

Prayer

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