Devotion.al

Tag: surrender

  • Clothed in Rags

    Clothed in Rags

    Psalm 94; Luke 6:27–36; 1 Corinthians 4:9–13

    Bless your enemies. Except “bless” means something more than just be nice or even help them. “Bless” means to ask for God’s divine favor to come on them.

    We all want blessings, but we are being called to ask for God’s blessings for those who make our lives difficult, miserable, or (in some extreme cases) seek to kill us. This is a high bar of . It’s a hard high bar of expectation.

    In many respects, this may be the hardest teaching of Jesus. To assuage our own feelings of anger, , and trespass, we want vengeance! We want victory! We want justice!

    “For [the Most High] is gracious to the ungrateful and evil.” (Luke 5:35)

    “That is foolish,” proclaims the world. The world is right, from the world’s perspective. From God’s perspective, however, foolish is following the world.

    Paul declared himself a disgraced spectacle that the world spat upon. Yet, Paul was determined to carry on. He chose a path to bless and to be gracious to others.

    This world could use a lot more of this, don’t you think?

    However, the problem is that we want others to do it first. This isn’t the path that Jesus set out.

    The world has taught us that a win-win scenario is false. Or to put it another way, that life is a zero-sum game. The world is correct. It is their math that this the problem.

    The world’s math does not include God. The world’s math does not include Jesus (unless he can be used to make money). The world’s math is incapable of including the Holy .

    So, why, as believers…as children of God…do we the world’s math is correct?

    Yet, we do. We say # and live as if the world’s math is correct.

    What has also become increasingly clear is that the church has long been dressed-up in the world. Now the world is handing us filthy rags to wear, and we are offended. We took the nice clothes from the world already, if the world is done with us, why would they want to us nice things?

    So, what are we to do with the rags of the world? Realize they are the rags of a world that is passing away. We still have our “clothing of white”. Even in its “not yet” state (i.e., we don’t have it yet), it is still better than the finest clothes of the world.

    ※Prayer※

    God, help us to look at the world as you do…a place that is passing away. Help us recall where we are called to live eternally and to look at the world through your eyes. Amen.

    ※Questions※

    1) What is something that you need to to the world?

    2) What is something that you need to surrender to God?

    3) How are these two things the opposite side of the same coin?

  • Kneel

    Kneel

    Matthew 16:21–28; Mark 14:32–42 (read online ⧉)

    Peter was concerned about the here on earth, not the kingdom that was ushering in. Jesus would have nothing to do with that thinking. Jesus chose the will of God the over his earthly will. It’s not as if the side of Jesus wasn’t tempted. Remember, Jesus was tempted in all ways.

    It is not accidental that a few short verses later that Jesus spoke about his disciples (e.g., Peter) having to deny themselves for the cross. By invoking the cross, it isn’t the pretty crosses many of us wear. It was the ugly cross. You died in misery, publicly, naked, and it started with you carrying the very thing upon which you died. It was shameful and for rebels. That was merely the Roman side. For the Jews, a person who died on a tree was cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:22–23).

    Therefore, Jesus tying the cross to discipleship must have come as quite a shock. Jesus was all but promising that his “true” followers would have to willingly pick up their own means of execution and shame, and be cursed. The disciples found that encouraging…right?

    When we gloss over the cross when we read about losing lives then gaining, we can miss the significance of what it means. It isn’t just about the cross. It isn’t just about the humiliation. It isn’t just about the .

    It’s about submission.

    Submission is a hard word, especially for many Americans who value their liberties. Submission, or the lack thereof, may be why we are seeing what we are seeing right now. This is not about the submission of one skin color to another. This is not about the submission of one culture to another (though there is a bit of that). This is certainly not about submission to the government (though there is a Christian response to that).

    This is about submission to Jesus Christ and then mutual loving submission to fellow believers in and followers of Jesus Christ.

    How this is to be practiced is hard. It’s really hard to figure out, especially with the focus on individuality and individual liberty that the States (and Western Culture as a whole) is so obsessed with. We often view our submission as if the “other” person wins and we lose. That isn’t Jesus’ way.

    When we lose, we win. When we submit in Christian love and mutual Christian submission, we submit to Jesus Christ, who submitted to us, by dying for our sin.

    ※※

    Jesus, as we look to you as our example, help us to ourselves to your authority. As we submit, help our hearts know that the person we submit to already died for us that we might be whole. Amen.

    ※Questions※

    1) As a Christian, who might you have to submit to in Christian love and ?

    2) Can a “worldly” Christian submit to others?

    3) While submitting to Christians should be (relatively) easy, why is it so hard? What about submitting to people of the world?

  • Calling Others

    Calling Others

    John 6:44–51; Acts 15:12–21; Romans 1:16–25 (read online ⧉)

    One of the hardest things for any believer is the understanding that a one may not be with them in Heaven. Whether one believes in Dante’s 7 circles of Hell, the Hell of endless torment, or the Hell of “merely” not being in God’s presence, or the Hell that is interim before the Great Day of Judgement and one’s final decision toward life or annihilation (Revelation 20:11–15) it doesn’t matter insofar as not having that loved one with you in eternal life.

    So, in avoidance of this hard truth, many people have developed a folk theology that there is no Hell and no eternal separation from God. It is not just Christianity that is experiencing it. In face, if one were to boil down the religions of reincarnation (mostly Buddhist and Hindu, but not exclusively), it’s that one is not good enough to not be incarnated so they get to start all over again. It’s not Hell in the Christian sense, but repeating lives until perfection can sound pretty close.

    The hardest part for all of us is the tension that we walk. Most of us aren’t “old school” knocking on our neighbor’s doors and barging into their lives to “save” them. Sometimes we are made to feel guilty because we’re not. Yet, if your neighbors are automatically resistant to Christianity because of a lifestyle choice (for example) that they “know” God “hates”, only time will ever work through that. That being said, one has to be will to work through that time.

    Family is often the hardest. Oddly enough, we won’t know all the pieces that brought a person to walk away from, ignore, or even hate and his church, and that’s even when they’re family. Sometimes, even more heart-wrenching is that some of the events that solidified our faith are the very ones that destroyed the faith of . Shared experiences do not necessarily equal the same results (part of the whole nature versus nurture debate).

    It “used to be” so much easier. We would recite a formula (as I look back on it, almost like a magic spell), and people would be saved. Or we’d follow a “road” in the Bible, that “proved” that Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is no perfect formula nor is there a perfect road that will finally bring people to Jesus, at least not one that works in every time and place, and for every person. The reality is that this often displays a sinful flaw…our desire to be the hero…our desire to save…our desire to be Jesus.

    Paul’s words seem rather harsh to our post-modern ears. Some people read them as, “They don’t believe in God? Then to Hell with them!” However, Paul is addressing a fundamental reality, “they” want proof? It’s all around them, and you (personally) will not change that perspective. This is when Jesus’ words of calling people to the Father make the most sense. The Truth is there. People’s hearts have to be open to see the Truth behind the truth. Only God does that.

    Prayer

    Father God, we know only you, through the of your Son, Jesus, and the of the Holy Spirit, call people to you. Only you can truly call. Help us to that to you. Help us remember that it is not us. Guide us into the places and conversations that you want us to have, that is part of your calling of others to live in and with you. Amen.

    Questions

    1) What was the most recent with a non-believer like regarding Jesus? When you look back on it, how does that make you feel?

    2) Do you feel responsible for someone else’s decision to follow Jesus? How is it your responsibility? How is it not your responsibility?

    3) Knowing that there is no perfect way to bring people to Jesus, how do you react to that? How does that make you feel in regards to the conversation in question 1?

  • A Time of Distress

    A Time of Distress

    Deuteronomy 4:25–31; Jonah 2:1–10; Matthew 9:35–38 (read online ⧉)

    Moses is not all that optimistic about the future spiritual health of the people of Israel. He’s downright pessimistic about what paths they will follow away from God. There is something in today’s opening verse that is important, “When you…have been in the land a long time….” We often focus on the acting corruptly piece. It is the underlying piece that we should be aware of. Being in a place for a long time breeds comfort. Comfort often produces contempt (which is seems to be the thrust of Moses’ concern). Moses continues with how their descendants would, instead of worshiping the God that rescued them from Egypt, worship lifeless idols of wood and metal. What a mess!

    And then…DISTRESS! Honestly, as we understand reading the story of the fall of Israel, we understand just how much distress they experienced. Reading the prophets we understand just how much contempt they had, as well. Yet, the distress was a refiners for the Israelites, and that was a good thing.

    Jonah’s distress was also self-inflicted. He ran away from his call from God. When he finally acknowledged his responsibility to the call, he was tossed into the sea and swallowed by a fish. Not quite a refiner’s fire, but perhaps the gastric juices of the fish served the same effect. Jonah, in his distress, approached the throne of God. DISTRESS! It was a good thing.

    After all the Israelites and then the Jews (the last known identifiable remnants of Israel) had been through, they were still in distress at the time of Jesus. The crowds that followed Jesus were adrift on a spiritual -tossed sea. They were abandoned (without a ). When Jesus had compassion on them, it was (in many respects) no different than God’s compassion on the lost Israelites. These people were in distress. The good news? That drew them to Jesus.

    Distress is not an uncommon thing. Sadly, it’s not uncommon at all. It is part of the human condition. It is what we do in and with the distress that is important. Distress can refine us. The refiner’s fire can often be an uncomfortable thing. We are now at a time when we all need to embrace the distress and the fire. For some, it the endless activities that have ceased. For others, it could be the shape of the that was, is, and is to come. Then there are the economic and stability that desperately need answers.

    For all of these things, and more, there are assumptions that need to be questioned. Some will be retained (and that’s okay). Others we may . There is a snarky comment directed at politicians…a good politician will never let a crisis go to waste. We shouldn’t either. In the case of a politician, it will usually be for . For us, it needs to be so that we are made, re-made, and continually re-made into the image of Jesus Christ.

    Almighty God, we our desire to control this crisis. We surrender our fears and anxieties. Help us to, most of all, surrender ourselves to your will and way. We know that you will to take our bad and turn it into good for us. Help, Lord, to embrace, accept and pursue your loving hammer and chisel that shapes our hearts of stone. Give us new that takes any part of us that is stone and unyielding to you, and turn it into living flesh that brings you glory and honor. Amen.

    1) What is the biggest “obstacle” for you right now in the current situation? Is it an obstacle that is between you and God?

    2) How do you see the current COVID-19 situation being a “refiner’s fire”? How is it not a “refiner’s fire”?

    3) What other distress points are on your heart right now? What might God be using those to draw you to him?

  • Connectional Motivation

    Mark 8:27–33, Luke 4:1–13

    up to God’s hands can be very hard. It’s interesting that explained (in basic terms) what was going to happen. It wasn’t could happen; it was would happen. Peter, emotional Peter, didn’t want to lose his friend. There also could have been a bit or, “things are going so well for you (and us). Why wreck it now?” We often look at Peter with something less than sympathy, saying, “don’t you know?” No! Peter didn’t know. He didn’t understand at all. Besides, the Messiah was supposed to be a triumphant (some form of it) figure, not a tragic figure.

    Jesus’ calling Peter out as, “…Satan…” it always interesting. Some imagine that Satan possessed Peter or whispered to Peter, and Jesus responded to Satan. Yet, the real issue isn’t so much Satan (though it is an issue), but the worldly that Peter was operating under. This worldly view was present with Jesus’ in the desert.

    When Jesus addressed Peter as “Satanas”, it was likely more a title or appellation, rather than the called Satan. We can draw this from the words that Jesus continued with afterward. Satanas means adversary or someone being in the role of adversary. One could go so far as to say that this was a temptation to worldly things presented by a friend (Peter) rather than an opponent (the Devil who tempted Jesus in the desert); harder to dismiss because of one’s feelings.

    Depending on where one is on their journey with Jesus Christ, choosing to follow God’s path can be a very hard path of suffering and cross-bearing. Depending on what one has to , it could be quite difficult (parents, spouse, children). This is not to say we are to develop some of the Eastern austerity traditions of disassociation or detachment. It does mean we are called to practice releasing to God.

    As long as we live in the world, the world will upon us to put it first, along with what it values. God calls upon us to value God first. If we are properly oriented in that direction, other concerns and cares will take their appropriate place.

    1) In what ways are you currently struggling with what the world wants and what you believe God wants? How do you what God wants?

    2) Where and when have you been guilty of responding like Peter, putting what you think God should want versus what the world expects?

    3) Why would detachment or disassociation from the world be bad from a Godly perspective?

  • Trust and Temptation

    Genesis 3:1–20, James 1:12–16, Hebrews 2:13–18 (read online ⧉)

    The reality is that humanity has a hard time God. The story of Adam and Eve is a great allegory of humanity and trust. Adam, especially, should have trusted God wholeheartedly. Eve, too, should have trusted God and should have trusted Adam. However, Eve listened to the serpent. Adam, in turn, listened to Eve. They who had access to God as they did still trusted someone else over God. Part of this, it seems, is immediacy. The serpent was in their immediate surroundings. This is why the world can be dangerous to our spiritual well-being. We are in it. It has immediacy in our lives. It can pull us away from God. Even when we fully believe that we trust God, the world can still pull us away. Sometimes it will be little things. Sometimes it will be big things.

    This awareness becomes important as we go through life. One of our big temptations, as we saw in the story of Adam and Eve is to blame other people. However, if we do that too much, people begin to avoid us. We, needing affection, will often turn to something else to blame. Sometimes we’ll blame political parties or government (yes, it involves people, but generally people who are disconnected from our daily lives). Sometimes we’ll blame chance. As James points out, however, we also blame God. People have blamed God for the of Adam and Eve. “God should have known and prevented it,” they’ll say. “And, since God didn’t prevent it, God cannot be good, and must be …” Yes, it goes downhill quickly. James is making that exact point. For once it is God’s fault that we are tempted, the slippery slope down to God is evil comes into play. It’s not that you couldn’t stop there, but that many can’t. There are certain traditions that say (in effect) that while God perfectly controls all things, and while God is not evil, there is still evil, so it’s a .

    That doesn’t, let’s be honest, work very well. It also put into doubt as shown by the passage in Hebrews. None of us want to be tempted. So, if (the Son of God, and part of the Triune God) is tempted, that would mean that God wants God to be tempted. If we, who are fallen and sinful, don’t want to be tempted, why would God want to be tempted? It is here that we have to make a turn. God’s holiness isn’t diminished by temptation, it would be diminished if temptation was succumbed to. As Jesus didn’t succumb to temptation, Jesus’ holiness wasn’t diminished. So, what does this have to do with trust? Jesus, as a man, trusted God’s plan, and leaned on that and his of God and his that God loved him. Jesus was tempted in alignment with God’s plan, not because God wanted the temptation to occur, but to show that Jesus was both God and man, showing people that God loved the and was willing to die for it.

    1) How do your own temptations inhibit your trust of other people? How about your trust of God?

    2) How does temptation and blame go together? Why do you think that is?

    3) Other than the basic, “God is not evil,” why is it a dangerous practice spiritually to blame God?

    : Decide on one (and only one) temptation to place before God. Surrender it. Pray about it and surrender it every day.

  • Living in Surrender

    Luke 2:21–39, Ephesians 2:11–14, Philippians 2:5–11 (read online ⧉)

    The “rush” of a newborn child and all the angst that went along this particular child’s birth should have settled down a little. The day of ‘ circumcision was a day of law and ritual. Instead, two prophetic messages happen. In many respects, this is the last gasp of the documented miraculous and supernatural until Jesus steps into his adult ministry. Just in case Mary and Joseph could possibly forget God’s call on their lives over the last few days, the events surrounding Jesus’ circumcision would have certainly recalled it.

    The significance surrounding circumcision cannot be ignored. The circumcision was established prior to Israel. For any Jew (descended from Israel) this was a physical tie to their entire history and the manifestation of God’s covenantal . To have a prophetic statement—let alone two—tied to that would be engraved on their hearts and minds.

    Circumcision was a major barrier for both Jew and Gentile. thought it was wrong, and Jews thought it was essential. This is why Paul focused on breaking the tie between circumcision and a relationship with God. Through Jesus, Gentiles are brought into relationship with God (this is an oversimplification, so don’t read too much into that), and the circumcision is no longer required. For Jews, circumcision transforms from an essential component to cultural . Thus a barrier (appropriate for a time) was removed.

    There are lots of things Jews had to “surrender” to be in fellowship with Gentiles, just as Gentiles had to “surrender” things to be in fellowship with Jews. In both cases, they had to submit one identity to the authority of another. For both, that meant surrendering part of their core to another. When Paul speaks of Jesus emptying himself, Jesus surrendered his identity to become . That takes real humility and obedience. That is our example.

    When we talk about personal identity, we too have much we need to surrender to Christ. It can be hard. We are very much tied to our identity, and much of our identity is what American and/or Christian culture holds up as that which is valuable.

    Over this New Year, we will each be called to surrender pieces of our identity to Christ. It is not a one-time thing. As we continue to become more Christ-like (for that should be our goal), we will constantly be finding new things to surrender. Sometimes the things we need to surrender might not seem so obvious, especially within the context of Christian culture. For example, surrendering leadership or pride often seems obvious. On the other hand, taking on a leadership role and taking (Christian) pride in doing it (i.e., fulfilling the ) is often not taken as surrendering one’s identity. If one has been in the background (and likes it that way), it actually is a form of surrender to become a .

    For almost 33 years (less the time we know of a 12-year-old Jesus at the temple), the big event for Mary and Joseph was the birth and circumcision of Jesus. Joseph was likely dead by the start of Jesus’ ministry. Mary, on the other hand, had to surrender part of her to the world. Jesus was no longer only hers. He was something far more. After his death and resurrection, Jesus also was no longer just the Jews’. He was for the whole world. For Mary, Jesus’ siblings, and Jesus’ followers, this was also a needed surrender.

    1)Think about the last year. What has made you the most upset? What does that tell you about what you need to surrender to Jesus this year?

    2) When you think of your self-identification, what do you call yourself (i.e., political part, national identity, cultural identity, blood identity, etc.)? How do each of those contradict or work in harmony with the Christian walk?

    3) It can seem contradictory that surrender may involve picking up something. What might be something that you need to pick up this year? Why? How does it fit into walking with and following Jesus?

  • Humble Joy

    Proverbs 15:29–33, Zephaniah 2:1–4, Luke 1:26–38

    Yesterday, it was hinted that is a requirement to experience true (Godly) . If you didn’t catch that (or didn’t read yesterday’s devotional), that’s perfectly fine. Humility as part of Godly joy is front and center today.

    In Proverbs, we read two things to focus on today. First, that God is far from the wicked. This is one of those strangely worded passages that doesn’t mesh well with how we actually view God. God is always present, even among the most wicket of all. It is the wicked whose hearts, souls, and minds are far away from God, and in typical pride, it must mean that God is far away from us. This is why the (as is understanding truly who God is compared to who we are) of God and humility are so important. If we are so arrogant so as to believe something of God that is really about us, then we have a lot to .

    Humility seeks God before self, which makes things much easier for us when asked by God to do hard things. It also makes it easier when we have to decide between the world and God. As Zephaniah says, when we submit to God in humility, recognizing who is God and who is not, we to God so that God will do great things.
    Mary is a symbol of that humility. She didn’t understand what was happening. Let’s be honest with ourselves, we wouldn’t be any better than she was. However, her humility meant that God moved into the world in a new way through her. While we should not elevate Mary too much, she is still a example to follow when it comes to aligning ourselves with God’s plans.

    Ultimately, Mary’s humility gave her a Godly joy that none of us could ever truly understand. Mothers get a large portion of it, but not even they can say that they were the mother of God or the Messiah.

    1) Have you ever been asked by God to do something that required submission of your will in deep humility? Did you follow it? Why or why not? What was the result of that decision?

    2) We look back on Mary’s and read what we’ve learned and believed into it. Why does that often minimize Mary’s actions and ?

    3) What is the difference between humiliation and humility? Why do we often confuse the two in regards to our decisions?