Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

- Lamentations 3:22-26 (NIV)

There have been many days when I was glad for the night to come because I knew there was a new day tomorrow. Today might have been dreadful but there is always tomorrow and as Jeremiah, the prophet said, “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; “great is your faithfulness.” 

Probably all of us are familiar with the hymn Great is Your Faithfulness. It is no surprise that we sing this in times of trouble and even tragedy as it lifts our eyes to God when we need a reminder of His faithfulness. But let me give you the backstory of the passage above. God had repeatedly warned the nation of Israel that if they did not change their ways He would destroy the nation and allow them to be taken into captivity. Now it is 586 BC and the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed and many taken as captives to Babylon.

God’s prophet Jeremiah is wandering through the devastated city: Buildings destroyed, many fire damaged, looted of any valuables - it was a total ruin not unlike pictures we see today of Syria. The city is quiet but for a few lost souls wandering aimlessly wondering what to do or where to find food and the packs of dogs that are in search of the same. Jeremiah’s heart is broken, his soul is desperately tired. It is in this state that he writes the book of Lamentations which means the passionate expression of grief or sorrow; weeping. Like the situation we face today where encouragement is hard to come by. There is no good news to be had. None! 

Except: God has great love for us and His compassions, His care and concern are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness! That is the one thing Jeremiah was sure of and it is the one thing we can be sure of today. As Paul said in Romans 8:35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.”

Because of this, Jeremiah says “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” He understood that God was enough and that “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him” regardless of the circumstances that surround them. In the end - God wins every time. And His mercies are new for us every single morning. Great is His faithfulness to us!

These are times of anxiety for all of us. This week, whenever you have an anxious thought, say to yourself, Great is His faithfulness: His mercies are new every morning and his compassions never fail. That will direct our eyes to the one place we can ground our hope.

 PRAYER

Lord, thank you for your faithfulness to me today. Thank you that your compassions are new every single morning. Help me to trust you in these days of fear and anxiety. Remind me that it is a gift to come to the place where I have nothing to trust in but you. And you are enough. Amen.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. - Matthew 11:28-30

All of us become weary and all of us have burdens. Those burdens can be public or private but they exist and they are real. Weariness comes when the burdens are hard and we have been trying to deal with them on our own and in our own strength. The burdens feel like rocks in our backpack and weariness is the result of carrying them around.

That weariness is real. A Harvard professor wrote a book called “The Body Keeps the Score.” It shows from a physiological point of view how we carry our anxieties, fears and worries in different places in our bodies. For me it is my upper back. When the burdens are heavy my muscles in my back are tense and hard. Some carry it in their chest or stomach. Weariness keeps us up at night when we want to sleep, robs us of our peace, creates tension in our bodies and shortness and irritation with those around us. It is a human condition.

But we don’t have to live with our burdens or weariness. Jesus invites the weary and burdened to come to Him and says “I will give you rest.” Are you in need of rest? Are you tired from the burdens you carry? Jesus makes a simple promise: I will give you rest!

But for this to happen we need to take His yoke on us and learn from Him. A yoke is that wooden piece that fits over oxen when they plough the fields as they did in Jesus day. You might say, why would I put a yoke on? The answer is simple: We all wear yokes. The issue is which one you wear. Many of us wear a yoke we have made as we try to negotiate life on our own.

Some of us wear the yoke of others who have a plan for our lives. Some of us wear a yoke of addiction as we try to medicate for inner pain. All of us wear a yoke.

Here is the thing about the yoke of Jesus. He says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Why? Because He is “gentle and humble in heart.” Don’t you love people who are gentle and humble? You know those people have your best interests in mind and they will not hurt you. They are kind and loving. That is our God! This is what makes His yoke easy and His burden light. And because God’s ways are pure and right, they keep us from creating burdens of our own making. He is inviting us to exchange our yokes that are burdens and wearisome for his yoke which is easy and the burden light. As we do this we find rest for our souls.

Two things are required. That we come to Him and learn from Him. That is, we make a conscious choice to come to Him, learn from Him and align our lives with His. In doing so He will give us rest for our souls and minds. Our way and our yokes create weariness and burdens. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Which do you choose today?

Focus on learning from Him. Do it actively through a daily Scripture reading, prayer and learning from good teaching. Then apply that learning to your life. Head knowledge will not give you rest. Applying it because we have chosen the yoke of Jesus does. He will be gentle and humble as He guides you to rest in Him.

PRAYER

Father, I want to exchange my yoke for yours. I give my burdens and weariness to you today and I want to learn how to live in your presence and grace - letting you take those things that burden me. Teach me what it means to live like you and help me actively apply your teaching to my life. I thank you that you are gentle and humble of heart. I need that. I need you.

Amen.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. - Numbers 6:24-26

Have you ever wondered what God’s attitude toward you is? I think many of us see God as a harsh figure who cannot ever be pleased. In fact, our view of God is often defined by our relationship with our own father. If he was distant, we see God that way. If a strong disciplinarian, we often see God that way. If abusive, we can have a hard time trusting God. If warm, connected and gracious, we tend to see God that way.

But how does God see us and what is His heart toward us? What does He want for us? Nowhere are the answers to those questions more clear than in the Levitical blessing, that is, the blessing that God commanded the priests in the Old Testament to pray over His people. This blessing was authored by God for us. It unpacks His heart for us. It is my favorite blessing in all of Scripture.

“The Lord bless you and keep you.” Here is God’s heart. He wants to bless you. To know Him is to know the source of all blessings and the One who wants to pour out those blessings on you. God’s heart is a heart of blessing. Deep in our hearts we say to ourselves, “I am not worthy of His blessing” and we often doubt that He would bless us. Here is the deal: We are not worthy, but He died to make us worthy, and whether we believe it or not, if we are Christ followers, He longs to bless us. He is in your corner and my corner. That is His heart. 

To reinforce that, the second part of this blessing is “The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.” How often do you think of God as gracious? Graciousness is kindness along with a desire not to cause hurt. It is courteous, kind and pleasant. His graciousness draws us into His presence, drives out fear and we experience His amazing kindness to us.

And then the third portion of the blessing: “The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” That is an extraordinary statement. You would think that the Lord of the universe is way too busy to pay close attention to us. Not so! The blessing asks that the all powerful, all sovereign, all holy, all knowing God literally turn His face toward us, notice us, cheer us on in our faith, pay close attention to our needs and prayers. Read these last sentences again and consider that God is looking your way in order to help you, bless you and meet your needs because of His love for you.

And part of that blessing is peace given us by God. It is His peace in times of anxiety, uncertainty, fear, sorrow, or whatever situation we find ourselves in. His gift to us is His peace. That is something the rest of the world does not have. This is God’s heart for you today!

Memorize this short blessing and meditate on it in those times when uncertainty and anxiety fill your heart. Thank God for every blessing you experience through the day, knowing that His face is turned toward you in love, compassion and care.

PRAYER

Father, thank you for every one of your blessings in my life. Thank you that your  face is turned toward me always. Thank you for having a heart of love and graciousness for me and my family. Today, I ask that your peace would flood my heart. Amen.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one - I in them and you in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  - John 17:20-23

Last words, are important words. If we know that we are leaving this life, what we say in the moments we have left are the deepest words of our heart to those we love. And those words are remembered by those who hear them. 

In John 17, we have what is often called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, or His Farewell Prayer. In this prayer, He prays first for His disciples, and then for each of us, who will become a disciple after them. Thus, He is also praying for us. And what does He pray for us? He prays that we will be one, just as He and the Father are one. Think about that! He wants us to have the same oneness, the same unity with one another that Jesus and the Father share. That is truly a profound statement.

Again, He repeats this prayer for unity when He says, “I have given them the glory that You gave me, that they may be one as we are one - I in them and You in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity.” And why is this so important to Jesus? Because, He says, “Then the world will know that You sent me and have loved them even as You have loved me.”

Here is why our unity is proof to the world that Jesus was who He said He was. How is it possible that a ragtag group of people called Christ followers - from different nations, ethnic groups, ages, socio economic status and yes, even political parties and generations, can love each other, work with each other, serve one another and worship together? It is only through the work of Jesus in our lives that this is possible. Our unity in Jesus is proof of His divinity, and thus Jesus prays that we would be unified in such a powerful way that the watching world would know that there is something radically different about us. 

This must be important to Jesus, because it is found in His last words before His death. But think of how disunified the church often is, and how we hurt one another, argue with each other, hold grudges against one another, judge fellow believers, refuse to forgive those who we have a grievance against, and even slander fellow Christ followers. Such actions must grieve the heart of Jesus who prayed that we would be one and that our oneness would point others to Him.

We cannot control what others do, but we can control what we do. For the sake of Jesus, make it your goal to live in peace and unity with one another, rather than allow a spirit of disunity and sinful attitudes to divide us. In all relationships, make it your goal to exhibit the Fruit of The Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self control. That would cause the world to recognize that there is something supernatural about us. And there is: Jesus is in us.

PRAYER

Jesus, forgive me for those times when I have contributed to disunity rather than unity. Forgive me for words spoken and attitudes harbored that don’t reflect the Fruit of Your Spirit. Help me to sincerely desire the oneness with God’s people that You prayed for. And thank You for the example of the oneness you have with the Father. Amen.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

And to walk humbly with your God.” - Micah 6: 8 (NIV)

I am a simple man. I even wrote a book called Leading From the Sandbox. You don’t get much more simple than that. So I love it when life can be clarified in a simple, clear way. This is exactly what the Lord does in these verses, where He defines what is good by His standards and what He requires of those who are His people: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. No matter who we are or what our responsibilities are, all of us can do these three things. They are God’s requirements for His people.

All three of the Hebrew words in this text are colorful and rich in meaning. The Hebrew word for “justice” here is mishpat. It means to treat people equitable regardless of race or social status. It also means that we are to give people their rights, which often does not happen because some people have more power than other people in society. 

The Old Testament often speaks of “widows, orphans and immigrants” as people who are vulnerable in society because their rights are easily trampled on. In our day, it might include the elderly, immigrants, war refugees, the homeless, single parents and racial groups. The justice of an individual or of a society is defined by how we treat those who are vulnerable and cannot defend themselves - by our commitment to defend the powerless and oppressed.  

Add to this the concept of mercy, or hesed in Hebrew. This word is often translated as “loving kindness” and sums up all the love, forgiveness, compassion, kindness, gentleness, and care of our God toward us. You can see the direct correlation between mishpat or “acting justly” with hesed, or “loving kindness.” One cannot have this loving kindness toward those around them without also always “acting justly” and defending the cause of the vulnerable in society. The two go together.

What makes this all possible? It is the third characteristic that God requires from us, which is to walk humbly with our God. Walking humbly with God is about living a life where our pride is supplanted by our humility. Where we set aside our way and choose to follow God in all things. It is a simple, humble life of obedience to the Father.

Think about the society we would have, and the quality of our relationships, if we daily chose to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. With one another, we would see a radical change in relationships as we honored one another. And with God, we would be living a life that pleases Him as we intentionally choose to follow Him in all things. It is this latter quality that makes the first two qualities possible because they are not our first inclination. This is to live like Jesus lived.

PRAYER

Father, thank You for making Your Word so practical and yet so profound at the same time. As I interact with others today, remind me of Your requirements of acting justly and loving mercy. As I make decisions today, remind me to humbly choose Your way over my way. Give me Your heart in these three areas. Amen.

“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” - 1 Peter 2:11-12 (NIV)

Of all the important documents I have, the most important most of my life, has been a passport. Every time I would enter another country, the passport identified my home country as the United States of America. Depending on where you go these days, it can be an advantage or a disadvantage. There are places like Beirut, Lebanon where it would get scrutinized page by page before being stamped to let me in. Other places, it is a cursory glance. That passport, however, gives one certain protections afforded by our citizenship, and it is a valuable document.

There is another reality for a believer. We have a passport from our country of birth or immigration, but we have another passport that is more important than our national passport. It is a passport that identifies us as a follower of Jesus and a citizen of heaven. This is why Peter calls us aliens and strangers in the world. You see, once we accept Jesus, our true citizenship is no longer our country, but heaven, and our authority is no longer ourselves, but God.

Because we are now aliens and strangers in the world, and our primary identity is the family of Jesus, we are to “abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 

We are to live now by the values of Heaven, rather than the values of our world. The sinful desires that drove us in the past should not drive us anymore. In fact, we should live such good lives among the pagans - those who don’t follow Jesus - that even though they may accuse us of doing wrong, that they will see our good deeds, and when Christ returns, will acknowledge that we were different and transformed.

Citizenship is a big thing. My wife Cleo, who is from the Philippines, is in the process of becoming a US citizen. When that day arrives, it will be a day of celebration for her. But being a citizen of Heaven is far more important, and that citizenship will last forever. Because Heaven is our final home, we want to live as a citizen of heaven, so much so, that the watching world will look at us and say, “there is something different about them.” Remember, you have two passports today and the most important identifies you as a follower of Jesus and a citizen of Heaven.

PRAYER

Father, I thank You that You have made me a citizen of Heaven and a member of Your family. Remind me daily that You desire that I live a transformed life that reflects my true citizenship. Not the temporary citizenship of my country, but the permanent citizenship of my forever home and wonderful Savior. Amen.

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” John 16: 12-15

My oldest son took a year between high school and college to live and work in China. He learned a fair amount of Chinese in the process, being surrounded by people who didn’t speak much English. He was once in a store trying to purchase something and the clerk didn’t understand anything he was saying until the other clerk said, “He’s speaking Chinese stupid!” The guy he was talking to assumed that my son couldn’t speak Chinese so he ignored the fact that Jon was speaking his own language.

I suspect that this is not unusual for us, especially when it comes to God speaking to us. Many of us assume that God does not directly speak to us and as a result, we don’t hear His voice when He does. But according to Jesus Himself, He does speak to us.

In today’s passage, Jesus is explaining to His disciples that He will soon be leaving them but that when He does, He will send to them the Spirit of Truth - The Holy Spirit. Seven times in these verses Jesus talks about how the Holy Spirit will speak to us, guide us in truth, speak what He hears, tell us what is to come, take the truths of Jesus and make them known to us. 

We are familiar with speaking to God in prayer, but perhaps many of us are not as familiar with the fact that God also speaks to us. Often, it comes in a still, small voice where we feel compelled to do something, or comes when we are reading the Scriptures, or praying and something pops into our minds that we ought to respond to. I assume that all of us have had that experience from time to time.

Like the clerk in the store with my son Jon, the question is not whether God speaks our language - He does - but rather, whether we are sensitive enough to hear His voice when He speaks. I will often say to God in my morning devotions, “Lord if You want to speak to me today, please help me hear your voice.” It is often the competing voices around us, along with the busyness of our lives, that keeps us from hearing His voice. And if we sense God’s prompting in our lives, let's be courageous enough to act on it.

PRAYER

Father, I am amazed that out of the billions of people on this planet that You would want to talk to me through Your Spirit. Give me ears to hear and a mind that is attentive to Your promptings. And when I sense that You are speaking, give me the courage to respond in obedience. Amen. 

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” - Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) 

I love handcrafted things. My youngest son, Chip is one of the most creative people I know. All his life he has been creating things from wood, plastics, iron, canvas, leather - you name it. Today, he handcrafts high end canvas and leather bags for the urban crowd. There is something very special about holding something that has been handcrafted by a master, rather than mass produced. 

What Paul says in the Scripture passage above, is that God personally handcrafted each one of us. We are God’s handiwork, His creation. The word “handiwork” comes from a greek word that means a one-of-a kind work of art. And that is what we are: unique, creatively made, intentionally crafted by God. There is no one else like you and never will be. 

But more amazing still, is that God created you to do good works which He prepared in advance for you to do. In other words, not only did He handcraft you, but He handcrafted a specific role for you to play in His Kingdom activities in the world at this time and in this place. These are the good works He prepared for you and me to do. 

There are two sides to this equation. On the one hand, God created us for good works. On the other hand, we must decide to live at the intersection of God’s call on our lives and our willingness to answer that call. He invites and empowers, but we must respond and lean in.

Our world would be a different place if His people realized that they were made for greatness. Not by the world’s evaluation, but by God’s. History is God’s story from start to finish, and in the years that we inhabit this earth, He invites us to join Him in His redemptive work - on His divine stage. Life doesn’t get better than that.

In Psalm 39:4, David says, “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.” David wanted God to continually remind him that life is short and it was up to him to invest his life in ways that God would approve. This is our challenge every day. We have been invited to join Him in His work. Our job is to show up, realize the opportunity and not take it for granted. Remember, He handcrafted you for a purpose.

PRAYER

Father, I thank You that You cared enough about me to handcraft me for Your purposes and to join You in Your work. On a daily basis, show me the good works that You have for me. May those good works bring glory to You. Amen. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” - Proverbs 3:5-8 (NIV)

I bet that if I took a survey of those who called themselves Christians and asked them, “Do you trust in God,” they would all say, of course. It is how I would answer. The question, though, is whether it is always true. The truth of the matter, is that we often think we have the answers to life and trust more in our own wisdom than the wisdom of God. Maybe you can think of a time when trusting in your own wisdom rather than God’s caused you trouble. I certainly can.

We have an almost unlimited capacity to trust in our wisdom rather than God’s, which is why Solomon says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” How do we do this? By acknowledging Him in all of our ways. This is following His precepts and principles for life that we find in Scripture. When God gives us clear guidance in His word and we choose to do something else, we are trusting in ourselves rather than in God. The end result is that we often find ourselves in a ditch. When we do follow His will, however, Solomon says that God will make our paths straight. How many detours in life might we have avoided if we had done that in the past?

What gets in our way is our own ego! Our belief that we know better than God. So the writer says, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.” We would never say we know better than God, but when we choose not to follow Him, we do just that. The classic definition of sin is found in Isaiah 53:6: “We like sheep have gone astray, each of us has gone our own way.”

The promises attached to these verses are significant. He will make our paths straight, where God goes before us and smooths out the bumpy path ahead. And in the second verse, he says that obedience brings health to our body and nourishment to our bones - a Hebrew way of saying a place of peace and well being.

On any given day, we have numerous opportunities to follow Him or go our own way. It might be as simple as expressing anger toward someone when we should be patient and loving. It could be stopping and giving someone a word of encouragement on a busy day when we are tempted to walk past. Trusting God is a matter of action more than anything. As you walk through your day today, trust Him by doing what He desires you to do and being who He desires you to be.

PRAYER

Father, remind me often that at its most basic, trusting You is acting on what You have told me in Your word to do. Help me to trust You by choosing obedience, even in the small things. Curb my ego that would want to go my own way. Amen.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23 

Rarely does a sentence convey more truth than this short Proverb. Whether we pay attention to it will determine the course of our life and the decisions that mold us. It is why Solomon begins by saying, “above all else.” He is saying, this is the most important thing you can do. Don’t ignore it or take it for granted. This is critically important because everything you do flows from your heart. Guard it, and good things will flow from our lives. Neglect it, and bad things will flow from our lives.

Jesus Himself put it this way: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6: 43-45)

It is not by accident that Jesus talks about those who store good or evil in their hearts. What is deposited in our minds ends in our hearts and each of us has a deposit there, good or bad. And that is what overflows when we least expect it. Everything flows from the contents of our hearts.

I have a friend with a very tough exterior. I actually call him Crusty in jest. But if you are in trouble, he is the first to come to your side. The first to encourage you and help you figure out what to do. In fact, some years ago, when I was in a bad place, he came beside me and kind of adopted me. He may seem tough, but the love of Jesus flows out of his heart because that is what is stored there. I talk to him almost every day.

In Romans 12:2, Paul says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” That transformation comes as we spend time in God’s word, with fellow believers and intentionally seek to follow Jesus closely. Every time we take a step of obedience, we store up God’s good in our hearts. Every time we say no to sin, we store up God’s thinking in our hearts. 

Choose not to conform to the thinking and patterns of this world, but to those of Christ. As you do this, you store up His character in your heart and that will spill over from your life to the lives of others. In doing so, you will be guarding your heart. It is the source that everything else flows from.

PRAYER

Father, I ask You to help me guard my heart and fill it with Your character and goodness so that it literally overflows to those around me. Remind me not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but rather to You. Amen.