Failing to Protect Our Future

READ | 2 Samuel 11:1-17

Yesterday we learned that Esau sold his future for a bowl of stew. His blindness to what was truly valuable caused him to lose his inheritance. There are other people who can teach us additional lessons about protecting our future.

David was chosen by God to lead the nation, and for many years, he pursued the Lord’s plan. However, his desire for Bathsheba led him to commit adultery and arrange for her husband to die. Because he chose to gratify his own wishes instead of following God’s ways, he fell into sin. When confronted by the prophet Nathan, David sincerely repented (2 Sam. 12:7, 13), but he and his family were deeply affected by his mistake.

Samson was another one who knew what the Lord required but disobeyed—like David, he gave up blessings for temporal pleasure. Losing sight of God’s purpose for him, Samson chose instead to please his untrustworthy companion, Delilah (Judg. 16:15-17). As a result, he spend his last years in disgrace.

A final example is Judas Iscariot, who wanted Jesus to establish the kingdom of God immediately. Because he valued earthly matters above spiritual ones, he rejected Jesus’ teachings and tried to manipulate events to his own liking. He was convinced he knew what was right.

To avoid the kind of mistakes these men made, we need to be committed to setting aside our own desires in favor of God’s will. In other words, we must value the eternal over the temporal and be satisfied with what the Lord has planned.


From: Early Light Devotional

God Goes with Us

“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.”
Genesis 28:15 NIV

When God calls us into the deep valley of death, he will be with us. Dare we think that he would abandon us in the moment of death?...Would the shepherd require his sheep to journey to the highlands alone? Of course not. Would God require his child to journey to eternity alone? Absolutely not! He is with you!

What God said to Moses, he says to you: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exod. 33:14 NIV).

What God said to Jacob, he says to you: “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go” (Gen. 28:15 NIV).

What God said to Joshua, he says to you: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Josh. 1:5 NIV).



From: Max Lucado

The "Go" of Renunciation

. . . someone said to Him, ’Lord, I will follow You wherever You go’ —Luke 9:57


Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, "for He knew what was in man" ( John 2:25 ). We would have said, "I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!" Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God. Our Lord’s answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought, but on the knowledge of "what was in man." If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.

Luke 9:58 . These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, ". . . the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

Luke 9:59 . This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.

Luke 9:61 . The person who says, "Lord, I will follow You, but . . .," is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.



From: RBC - Utmost For His Highest

God's Sandpaper

Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
-Psalm 80:3 (NRSV)

A few years ago, my son and I restored an old desk that had several layers of paint on it. We gathered the necessary materials - paint stripper, putty knives, rubber gloves, and sandpaper. First we applied the paint stripper, let it stand, and scraped off the old layers of paint. Then we sanded off the remaining bits of paint, making sure to get into all the little nooks and crannies. To our delight, beautiful light oak wood began to appear under all those layers. Finally, we applied a new coat of stain and two coats of varnish to protect the bare wood. The desk was like new again, restored to its original look. It sits in my study today as a beautiful reminder of what its creator intended.

We too can be restored, to be the people that God intends us to be. But like the paint layers on that old desk, over time we have accumulated layers of sin that need to be removed. When we allow Christ into our lives, he will penetrate the areas that need forgiveness and restoration. And when we are new again, Christ covers us with love to protect us. Because of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, we can be saved from our sin.


Prayer
Renewing God, restore us to you, and make us the people you created us to be. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.


From: UpperRoom Devotionals

LIVING WITH THE WIND IN YOUR FACE

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

The winds of life blow in both directions. Sometimes with the wind to our back circumstances we encounter are encouraging, helpful, and inspiring. They push us forward with renewed vigor and determination. Then there are times when we live with the wind blowing fiercely in our face. These are the times when adversity, trials, and devastating circumstances almost consume us, and we find ourselves leaning hard upon the faithfulness of God in child-like trust.

When we are loyal and committed to God, we can rest in His providential care, His interceding for us, and His plan and purpose in our lives. So often we look at our circumstances as if God had no part in engineering them. “God certainly can’t be in this”…and we relate to them with indifference, and respond as if they were coincidental. It is “in all things” that God designs His purpose for our lives. Not all things are pleasant, but they are necessary to “bend our heart and will” to be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:28-29).

Peter tells us that “the trial of our faith is precious” (1 Peter 1:7). When the winds of life blow in our face, God may be working to impart, or bring to maturity, His grace within our lives. In either situation, we can take comfort that His hand of grace and love is upon us for our good and His glory.

How imperative it is for us to be sensitive to the “working of the Holy Spirit" within our lives. How merciful and gracious God is to awaken us, prompt us, and penetrate our hearts when we need to align our lives anew to His will. Thus, the “winds of the Spirit" blow within us to focus our hearts once again on HIM alone.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “God does not give us overcoming life. He gives us life as we overcome. God never gives strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the moment.” It is in common practical everyday things that God wants to reveal to us His overcoming mercy and grace. Oh, that we might see His hand in ALL things. However the winds may blow, to the believer, it is the Lord that is in control. So let it blow as it will, for “HE doeth all things well, and will perfect, and bring to maturity, that which He hath begun” (Philippians 1:6).

As the winds of life blow, we need an intense narrowing of our interests and concerns on earth, and enlarge our devotion to God. We need to refine the direction of our heart, concentrate on His will in our life, and seek to surrender every phase of our life to the control of His lordship. Then the interweaving of the “tapestry of our life” will reflect the beauty of His design and reveal the magnitude of His abounding grace.

The cords of His choosing will include the dark colors that take us into distressing and difficult times. But these form the background and serve to highlight the glorious colors that radiate His care and compassion for us. May we yield to the “winds of the Spirit,” that we may be all He wants us to be, and the channel of blessing through which the Holy Spirit can flow freely and fully for His glory.

“He bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures” (Jeremiah 51:16).



From: Literature International Ministry - Ed Powell

Lessons From Eve’s Life

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’”
Genesis 2: 16,17, King James Version



“We who live beneath a sky still streaked with the smoke of crematoria, have paid a high price to find out that evil is really evil.”
Francois Mauriac

INSPIRATION

“The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”
C. S. Lewis

All this week, we have been studying about Eve – the first woman. She is called by some the “mother of us all.” As we have reviewed her life; we have looked at Eve’s garden home – Eden. We have found out more about Eve’s mate – Adam. We spent a day – sadly I might add – trying to better understand Eve’s hurt – the beguiling act that seduced Eve into folly and death. Thankfully we found out that an Almighty, Loving Creator – God our Father – stepped forward, when the unthinkable happened, with a plan so comprehensibly kind – that it was meant to rescue even the meanest and most vile person on earth.

This brings us to our lesson for today. The greatest lesson to come out of the Garden of Eden. And it is this lesson God wanted Adam and Eve and you and me to understand.

If you will again read the quote that begins our “Inspiration” today, words penned by the thoughtful C. S. Lewis, I find that his description of God really puts the focus where it should be in the “Eden Story.” Out of the tragedy that we call sin, God gave us a glimpse into “His compulsion” as C. S. Lewis calls it. The apostle Peter put it even plainer: “God is not willing that any should perish.”

For you and me, this is the grand lesson of Eden. God could have left the disobedient Adam and Eve to die – period. He could have walked away and said, “You thought you wanted wisdom – now you have it! Knowledge of good and evil. You are on your own.” But God didn’t do this! It is because God knows something about you and me that we still don’t like to admit-- we can’t fix ourselves. We can’t save ourselves. We can’t lift ourselves out of the pit alone. We can’t! But God can! And it is “His compulsion” to do so because His nature is absolute, complete and total love. He can’t walk by even one of His children, and leave them forgotten without putting Himself on the line, with everything He’s got, to save every wayward child. Even when it meant sending His Son to show us that the serpent really was a liar. Sin does cause death and disobedience does bring separation from God. And separate from God, I can’t live. In the words of Dag Hammerskjold, who himself searched and found the all-encompassing love of God:

“We die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance renewed daily, of a wonder, the Source of which is beyond reason.”

Ask me whether I can understand the lengths God would go to in saving me from the poison of sin, and I will tell you, “I can’t understand.” But we can believe and accept, which as we will see in upcoming weeks, was exactly what many of Adam and Eve’s offspring chose to do – right down to this very day.

But there is one last thing I would be remiss if I didn’t mention about the Eden story. God not only promised a Saviour but He delivered on His promise! Then He added that “something extra!” He promised that a day would come when there would be a “new tree.” The apostle John calls it the “Tree of Life.” In Revelation, in giving us a portrayal of God’s heavenly kingdom, this is what John wrote: “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse”… (Revelation 22: 1-3, K.J.V.).

There it is! In the last book and last chapter of the Bible, we are promised that the curse that came from Adam and Eve’s fall in Eden – will be broken. And that – dear daughters and sons of Eve – is the “compulsion” of God, to break the curse of sin in your life and mine. This is why, I believe with all my heart, that my loving Father, when He created Adam and Eve, planted a seed in their hearts. Jean Paul Richter describes it this way: “God is an utterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.” That seed when watered everyday will blossom into the beautiful life God has planned for each of us. For God, still today, continues to call His daughters and sons back to their Eden home – the home our Father originally created for us.

“Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but sin is forbidden because it is hurtful.”
Benjamin Franklin




From: CrossWalk Devotionals - Transformation Garden