March 11 – The Priority to Pursue (Proverbs 3:1-12)

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”
(Proverbs 3:3)

IN WORD:
Solomon’s words would have had familiar connotations for a faithful Jew. In Deuteronomy 6, a landmark chapter in Old Testament theology, God told the Israelites first to love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength. Then He told them to take the words of the Law, divinely inscribed on tablets of stone, and inscribe them into the fabric of their souls. Let them be always on your hearts, He commanded. Work them into your children’s hearts. Talk about them always. Tie them as symbols on your hands and foreheads. Never be away from them (see Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
The interesting connection between Deuteronomy and Proverbs is that the Law is defined as “love and faithfulness.” It is also interesting that Deuteronomy is specific in where our love and faithfulness are first to be directed: toward God. The foremost element of a believer’s life is not obedience, not service, and not doctrine. These are important — indispensable, in fact. But they are not the priority. Love is. A passionate, vital, all-encompassing love that reaches to the depths of our being. When that is there, the rest is easy.

IN DEED:
Do you consider your heart to be a tablet? What is written on it? Do you realize that some things can be erased by the power of God, and others inscribed by that same power? It requires your full cooperation, but the junk that we’ve inscribed there — through all of the media & entertainment we absorb, the relationships we’ve had, the information we consume — can be rewritten. It can be replaced with love and faithfulness. In fact, it MUST be replaced with love and faithfulness if we are to learn the mind of God at all. This is who He is, and He insists that we become like Him. Love and faithfulness define Him. Do they define you? Let them saturate your heart.

“Put everything you have into the care of your heart, for it determines what your life amounts to.” -Dallas Willard-

March 10 – The Art of Casting (Psalm 55:16-23)

“Cast you cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.”(Psalm 55:22)

IN WORD:
What does it mean to cast your cares on the Lord? We really need to know. It’s the difference between being sustained and faltering, between faith and fear. If we’re confused on this point, we will be riddled with anxieties and phobias, afraid to face the future and far from the will of God. If we understand, we can go through anything with peace in our hearts. Our circumstances may not be easy, but we can be brought through in the safety of His hand — if we learn what it means to cast our cares on Him.
Does it mean to offer up a prayer? Not necessarily. Many prayers have been uttered without a sense of peace. Praying does not guarantee internal rest. Our requests of God can be acts of anxiety rather than acts of faith. When we’re stressed, our prayers often even accuse Him of not keeping His Word. There’s more to casting cares than asking Him to help.
Does it mean to abandon any sense of responsibility because, after all, God will take care of it? Not at all. Casting cares on Him does not imply that we cease to care. It does not involve apathy in the least, and it is not an invitation to be irresponsible. No, casting our cares on God is much more purposeful than that. It is the most proactive thing we can do.

IN DEED:
It makes no sense to cast our cares on God and then take them up again. When we trust Him with our concerns, we ask Him to manage them. We acknowledge our own futility, and we rely on His power to resolve them. We actively watch, not ignorantly wait. We expectantly believe, not aggressively intervene. We act when He says to act and sit still when He says to sit. We obey His instructions because we know He’s in charge — and we’re comfortable with that. We can go to sleep at night knowing we can do nothing more effective than acknowledging His wisdom, power, love, and lordship. We can wake up without a single burden, because our burdens are on His shoulders. We refuse to micromanage. We will hope only in Him, because He is where our cares have been cast.

“Worry is an intrusion into God’s providence.” -John Haggai-

March 9 – When The Battle Rages (Psalm 55:16-23)

“He ransoms me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me.”(Psalm 55:18)

IN WORD:
You have enemies. Perhaps you are aware of them, perhaps not. Either way, they are there, even if they are covertly operating underground without your knowledge. They may manifest themselves in people who have a grudge against you. Or they may simply be hidden in the systems of this corrupt world, with all of its false philosophies, ideologies, and temptations. And then there are the principalities of God’s archenemy who will harass, tempt, and discourage you. Sometimes your enemy is even your own flesh, the desires that compete with your allegiance to God.
If life has been a struggle, there’s a reason. The Kingdom of God that you crave is in conflict with the fallen world that you live in. You have welcomed the new while surrounded by the old. That does not make for a peaceful life.
Were you aware of this battle? If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that the Christian life, being supernatural, is not naturally easy. In fact, it’s impossible unless there’s a new birth, a constant faith, a learned dependence, and a holy ambition. Knowing the Holy Spirit is essential. Otherwise we are simply fallen creatures striving and wishing for something better.

IN DEED:
Don’t be discouraged by the fact that there is a battle in your life. There always will be until the day you pass from this earthen vessel into an incorruptible, heavenly dwelling place (2 Corinthians 5:1-4). The battle, in fact — if it is between the new and the old, the true and the false, or the gospel and the world — is evidence that you are a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
The battle comes with a promise: We are ransomed unharmed. It may not seem like we’re unharmed, but by God’s definition, we most certainly are. There is no enemy stronger than Him “who is enthroned forever” (Psalm 55:19). Your Savior reigns. Remember that when the battle is raging.

“Christianity is a battle, not a dream.” -Wendell Phillips-

March 8 – When Distress Reigns (Psalm 55:16-23)

“Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.”(Psalm 55:17)

IN WORD:
Problems can consume us. When trials strike, we can find ourselves completely preoccupied with how to deal with them. We obsess about their outcomes, and we strategize ways to run from them. We go to sleep thinking about them, and we wake up thinking about them. We think we cannot rest until they are resolved.
The context of this psalm of David is the treachery of a friend. Someone had betrayed him, and the betrayal caused others to oppose him. David felt surrounded, overwhelmed, discouraged, and defeated. We can relate. We have exactly the same reaction when life gets tough.
God hears. That’s comforting. It’s even more comforting when we consider other translations of this passage. “I will complain and murmur, and He will hear my voice” (NASB). Or “I utter my complaint and moan and sigh, and He will hear my voice” (AMP). The implication is that even when we whine & grumble, God still hears. He doesn’t necessarily like our complaining, perhaps, but He knows and is sensitive to our pain. His grace tolerates our attitudes. We don’t have a trial that God isn’t concerned with. We cannot stumble without evoking His compassion. We can’t be overwhelmed without His knowledge and without His appeal to cast it all on Him. Whatever we’re going through, God hears.

IN DEED:
We’ve all heard that before. For some of us it’s a reality, for others, just words. Some of us have heard that promise as often as we’ve heard that Jesus loves us, and though we know these things are true, we have grown numb to them. They just don’t sink in, and we aren’t affected.
Wake up to the fact that the almighty, overwhelming God is listening. Even when you complain, He cares. More than that, He hears with a plan to act. He is not passively listening, He is preparing to answer. Wouldn’t you love for Him to step into your situation? According to the Bible, He will. Watch & wait. Your distress is His concern.

“God will never permit any troubles to come upon us unless He has a specific plan by which great blessing can come out of the difficulty.” -Peter Marshall-

March 7 – Constant Growth

“Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?”(Proverbs 20:6)

IN WORD:
Billy Graham once wrote, “Nearly everyone has a spiritual mountaintop experience on occasion. For most of us, this is how we measure our spiritual maturity. We assume that the heights we’ve reached indicate the level to which we’ve grown.
But God has a different measure of our maturity. It’s not about the peaks we’ve scaled but our consistency between them. The peaks are great; we need them for an occasional boost. But they do not define us. Learning the mind of God is not a roller coaster experience. It’s a steady climb.”
This is where many Christians go astray. We let our spiritual highs determine our self-image, and we live off their memory while neglecting daily growth. We think we’ve stocked up on our Godward obligations and that He must be satisfied with us as long as we are satisfied with ourselves. A peak experience will indeed give us a satisfying feeling for a while, and we’ll gladly dwell on it as long as we can. But while we dwell there, we can lose sight of today’s needs.
Think of the inconsistency of that. Do we feast one day and then decide that we need no more nutrition for a few weeks? No, our bodies pester us with the need for daily sustenance, no matter how well we ate the day before. Our souls are more subtle. We respond to their hunger pangs with memories of past meals and expect them to be satisfied. But sporadic love isn’t love at all, and occasional obedience is an oxymoron. True discipleship is consistent.

IN DEED:
Our God is not the One to be appeased periodically and ignored in the interims. His love for us is constant and persistent. His character never changes. His mercy is new every morning, and His compassion does not fail. If our minds are being are being renewed to be like His, isn’t consistency a logical result? The blessings of discipleship and worship are found only in their constancy. Measure yourself not by your highs and lows, but by who you are in between them.

“By perseverance the snail reached the ark.”
-Charles Spurgeon-

March 6 – Necessary Perseverance (James 5:7-11)

“You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.”(James 5:11)

IN WORD:
Staying power. It’s a rare commodity in a microwave society. Technological advancement has made travel, communication, and daily chores incredibly time-efficient, if not instantaneous. The result is that we’re not trained in perseverance. We’re not accustomed to pains that can’t be relieved and problems that can’t be corrected. When they come, we send up prayers with almost the same expectation as when we press the buttons on our microwave. A few seconds, we think, and we should be done with it.
God doesn’t usually work that way. He is thorough and precise, and He will not be rushed. When He tries us in the fire, as He did Job, nothing can get us out. The time cannot be shortened and our growth cannot come more quickly. We must learn perseverance.
James began his letter by telling about the results of perseverance — maturity and completeness (James 1:4). There is no way to become mature Christians without trials. We may pray for Christlike character and hope that it will come by spiritual osmosis, but it will not. God’s plan for all of His people is trial by fire. It is the only way to burn away the flesh and reveal the Spirit. It is the only way to grow. No one has ever become a true disciple without perseverance, and no one has ever persevered without pain.

IN DEED:
What is your reaction to trials? Do you expect instantaneous answers to your prayers for deliverance? More often than not, you will be disappointed. Change your perspective. Rather than looking for escape, look for the benefit of the trial. Let endurance have its perfect result. Ask God what He’s accomplishing and then participate in it willingly. If you can learn perseverance, you will be a rarity in this world and well fit for the Kingdom of God.

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” -Corrie Ten Boom-

March 5 – Gold That Remains (Job 23:1-12)

“When He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”
(Job 23:10)

IN WORD:
Few of us would have the confidence Job did. We might rather assume that when God has tested us in the same manner that gold is refined, many impurities will be consumed. Eventually, perhaps, we will come forth as gold, but not immediately. Sin runs too deep and the refining takes so excruciatingly long.
Perhaps it is overconfidence that leads Job to say such a thing, or perhaps he really was that much more righteous than the rest of us. Either way, whether he is right about himself or not, he has hit on a foundational spiritual principle: God tries His servants, and the intended result is pure gold.
Just as the Cross of Jesus revealed the character of God within Him, so does the fire of trial reveal the character of God within us. Are we patient? We and the world will only know it if our patience is tested. Are we loving? It will not be seen until we are confronted with hatred. Are we full of faith? There’s no evidence until circumstances dictate against it. Every fruit of the Spirit is latent within us until its antithesis appears. Superficial joy and real joy look exactly the same until the storm comes and blows one of them away. Peace isn’t really peace unless it can survive when attacked. And deeper still: Your life in the Spirit isn’t life at all if it melts away when death threatens.

IN DEED:
We want all of the fruits of the Spirit and all of the blessings of Christlikeness, but we rarely realize the cost. Nothing God gives us is proven genuine until it is attacked by the troubles of this world and the devil. It is the only way God reveals Himself through His saints. It is the only way the authentic is distinguished from the superficial. It is the only way to come forth as gold.
Are you running from tests? Don’t. Stand firm in them. Let God do His purifying work. Get ready to shine.

“In shunning a trial, we are seeking to avoid a blessing.”
-Charles Spurgeon-

March 4 – Seize the Kingdom

“If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ “ (1 Corinthians 15:32)

IN WORD:
The carpe diem philosophy — “seize the day” — is as old as humanity. It is written of in Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, and a parable of Jesus, but its practitioners have an older history than that. They assume that human life is short and that our capacity for enjoyment is limited to our physical life span. Pleasure is a god in itself — a god with a very short reign.
This is probably the prevailing Western philosophy of our day. We hear it whenever someone remarks, “Well, as long as he’s happy and not hurting anyone, what does it matter what he does?” We see it in our arts & entertainment. And, like it or not, we believers often act as if it’s our philosophy too. Ours is not a culture that often denies short-term pleasure for long-term gain. The question for us is how much of our culture we’ll absorb.
Paul’s indictment against this philosophy, whether it’s full-fledged hedonism or simple shortsightedness, is based on the Resurrection. Because we now know that life is eternal, seizing the day for immediate gain is folly. It exchanges eternal blessings for temporal satisfaction. It forfeits the truly meaningful for the truly mundane. It’s like trading away a Rembrandt for a drawing in the sand, or forsaking life in a mansion for a weekend trip. It’s dumb.

IN DEED:
As Christians, we must frequently take an inventory of our life. Are we living in light of eternity? Or are we offering up our most valuable resources for a momentary benefit? To know the difference, we must be sensitive to the motivations behind our actions. Are our morals based on eternal considerations? Why do we spend our money the way we do? Is it for today alone or for the Kingdom of God? What about our time? Our energy? Our talents? Know yourself well, and rearrange your life, if you must. Seize the Kingdom. It lasts.

“He who provides for this life, but takes no care for eternity, is wise for a moment, but a fool forever.” -John Tillotson-

March 3 – A Kingdom Pursuit (Proverbs 3:13-18)

“Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.”(Proverbs 3:13-14)

IN WORD:
Solomon speaks from experience. One night early in his reign, God appeared to Solomon and asked him what divine favor he would want. Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge, and because his heart’s desire was not material but godly, God gave it all: wisdom & knowledge, plus riches, honor, victory, and more. When Solomon says wisdom and understanding are more profitable than silver and gold, he knows. This is not hypothetical, and it is not simply to impress others with his godliness. It is truth based on real life.
In a sense, we have the same choice available to us. No, God hasn’t appeared to us in the dark of night to ask us what favor we would seek. But we do choose what things in life we will pursue. Do we value understanding more than wealth? If so, we are in the minority. Most people believe more money is the key to more happiness. More money means — in theory only — less work, more vacation time, more time-saving technology, hired help, more conveniences, more luxury. The opposite is actually true. More money means more maintenance, more details, more uncertain investments, more to manage, more headaches. Understanding, however, has the opposite dynamic. More is better. Always.

IN DEED:
Isn’t the choice God presents Solomon with remarkably similar to what Jesus taught His disciples? “Seek first [God’s] kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). Solomon sought a kingdom commodity, and all the rest was added. We would be fools not to seek the same agreement with our Lord. He offers it; why would we not accept it? Examine the things you pursue. Make sure they are ultimately worth it.

“There is a deep wisdom inaccessible to the wise and prudent, but disclosed to the babes.” -Christopher Bryant-

March 2 – Fit For Glory (Psalm 19)

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my redeemer.”
(Psalm 19:14)

IN WORD:
Psalm 19 is all about the glory of God and the perfection of the things He has ordained. It ends with David’s desire to live consistently with God’s ordinances. In such a glorious creation that proclaims God’s goodness from the rising of the sun to its setting, David knows how tragic it would be not to fit in. He prays for forgiveness and for protection from willful sins (verses 12-13). And then he gets to the heart of the matter: the purity of words and thoughts. Most of us can maintain righteous behavior most of the time. Our deepest struggles are in our thought life and the words that proceed from it. James even goes so far as to tell us that anyone who has mastered the tongue has become perfect (James 3:2). Why? Because the tongue is a barometer for the mind. It measures what is going on inside our heads. Sooner or later, it will tell the truth about us — that we have pride, prejudices, impurities, petty agendas, and a strong self-will. If we can keep ourselves pure within, we will be pure in our speech and in our actions as well.

IN DEED:
Are you fit for glory? Do your thoughts and your words reflect the truth of who God is? Do they admire His ordinances? Anyone who is honest will have to admit that, many times, our inward thoughts lie to us about God — His love, His purity, His care for us, the goodness of His plan. And, many times, those thoughts slander His ordinances. We want to violate them in ways that will be pleasing to us or that will satisfy our personal agendas. We constantly need to ask ourselves whether our words and even our thoughts fit with the God of glory & truth.
Follow David’s example. Marvel at the glory of God’s creation. Praise the wisdom of His statutes. Count on His forgiveness. And then ask that He might grant you the blessing of having meditations and speech that is pleasing to Him.

“Holy Spirit, think through me till Your ideas are my ideas.”
-Amy Carmichael-