When the Odds Are Against You

READ | Judges 7:1-7

Have you ever felt backed up against a wall, with the odds stacked against you? In situations like that, Christians too often refuse to acknowledge an important truth. That is, they fail to recognize that God may actually be the one who is orchestrating their challenging circumstances.

You may think, No way. God protects me from such things. The world and Satan are doing this to me. Perhaps. Yet maybe, just maybe, God is trying to tell you something—and He first needs to get your attention.

Time and again in Scripture, we see that the Lord uses difficulties to build faith. It’s easy to trust in Him when things are going our way. However, God often removes comforts and false securities from our lives to remind us that He is the true source of our strength.

Consider today’s passage, in which Gideon was ready to lead a powerful militia of 32,000 men into battle against the enemy. However, the Lord stepped in three separate times, whittling the Israelite army down to less than one percent of its original size. We may have replied, “What? It’s impossible to defeat enemy forces with just 300 men!” That’s probably true; 300 men alone couldn’t do it. But the Lord can—which is the lesson of Gideon.

When the odds are not in your favor, don’t think that God has abandoned you. Your friends, money, and success may disappear, but those won’t win the battle anyway. Stand your ground and keep your eye on the Lord. With everything else stripped away, you’ll be amazed at what your heavenly Father will achieve.


From: InTouch Ministry - Early Light Devotional

Are You Direction Disabled?

Psalm 86:11

Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;
Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.



Following the Word of Truth


I am direction disabled. Although it wasn’t properly diagnosed until I earned a driver’s license, the symptoms were there early on. In elementary school I did well in all my subjects, but always failed the map-reading tests. As a teenage driver who necessitated more instructions than most, I tried my dad’s patience as he wrote out detailed maps and explicit directions – telling me to turn right or left at the landmarks, because North and South at street signs simply didn’t register in my off-course mind.


Although my sense of direction hasn’t improved much as an adult, I am thankful for the tools that are now available to me: an electronic compass in my vehicle, Internet sites that tell me precisely how many miles to go before turning left, and a cell phone (only one call away from my husband who knows I’d be lost [literally!] without him.)


Our culture is direction disabled, not in charting its way from place to place, but in following the path of truth that God desires for life. People seek guidance from horoscopes and talk shows, opinion polls and traditions, their emotions and gut instincts. Sin takes us off-course every time.


Thankfully, God has not abandoned the direction of our lives to guesswork or speculation! I am so thankful for the ways He leads and guides us! God has revealed Himself, shown us His truth and the way we should live, through the written Word (the absolute, God-inspired Word of Truth – John 17:17), through Jesus (the incarnate Word, the way, the truth, and the life – John 1:1-2, John 14:6), and the Holy Spirit (our Counselor, the Spirit of Truth – John 14:16-17).


David persistently prayed that God would guide him into paths of truth. Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. (Psalm 86:11) Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me. (Psalm 25:4-5) Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me. (Psalm 43:3) Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws. (Psalm 119:43) Our prayers should mirror David’s – asking God to guide us into paths of truth.


Our sinful tendencies are to trek our own course, a destination that leads to death. God desires that we walk in His truth, that leads to Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life for direction-disabled sinners.


Today’s Prayer:
Father God, show me Your ways and guide me in Your truth. Give me a heart that wants to follow You. When I get off-course, please forgive me and steer me back to Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.



From: New Wine Skin - By Lenae Bulthuis

Walking the Fence

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm- neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth. — Revelation 3:15,16

Everyone at one time or another has tried to keep his balance while walking on a fence. Sometimes we make it and sometimes we fall. When it comes to obedience, far too many Christians try to "walk the fence." They keep one foot in the Spirit while one foot flirts with the world. These are some of the unhappiest people in the world.

Charles Spurgeon once said, "I never saw anybody try to walk on both sides of the street but a drunken man; he tried it, and it was awkward work indeed; but I have seen many people in a moral point of view try to walk on both sides of the street, and I thought there was some kind of intoxication in them."

If God is God and Christ is our Savior, let us give our undivided attention and whole hearts to God. A lukewarm Christian never has the joy of knowing the fullness of God. Obedience is the key to real faith. This is real faith: believing and acting obediently regardless of circumstances.



From: CrossWalk Devotionals - HomeWord

A Finished Work

“God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished.”
Philippians 1:6

The message of Jesus to the religious person is simple: It’s not what you do. It’s what I do. I have moved in.

Religious rule-keeping can sap your strength. It’s endless. There is always another class to attend, Sabbath to obey, Ramadan to observe. No prison is as endless as the prison of perfection. Her inmates find work but never find peace. How could they? They never know when they are finished.

Christ, however, gifts you with a finished work. He fulfilled the law for you. Bid farewell to the burden of religion. Gone is the fear that having everything done, you might not have done enough. You climb the stairs, not by your strength, but his. God pledges to help those who stop trying to help themselves.



From: Max Lucado

LOVE DOES NOT ENVY

“Love suffers long, love is kind; love does not envy.” 1 Corinthians 13:4

It is such a joy to see the "simplicity of truth" gracefully lived in a believer. You wonder, “Why can’t this be true in all of our lives?” Then, reality sets in, and we realize how the slightest rationalization of truth or principles of God’s Word to fit our life-style, turns the beauty of a life into the repulsive figure that it is.

We see this when the malignancy of envy invades a person’s life. It’s seeds spread and produce jealousy, greed, selfishness, and prevents the Holy Spirit from leading us into all that God wants to do in our life. It grudges the success, possessions, or personal traits in another person’s life that we desire, but do not have. It always seeks that which others possess that we want for ourselves.

Envy, when given but an opportunity, consumes our best intentions and is devastating, defeating, and deceivingly sinful. It is injurious not only to ourselves, but also to others. Envy creates wrathful and vindictive plans and it controls our mind.

The brothers of Joseph are prime examples of this. From the moment they were enslaved by envy, all of its vines of hate, jealousy, and bitterness began to find expression through their malicious acts. It culminated in their conspiring to kill him, cast him into a pit, and finally selling him as a slave to a passing band of Ishmaelites.

Saul also displays malicious envy after David had killed Goliath. The women proclaimed with joy…“As they danced, they sang: Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands. Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. ‘They have credited David with tens of thousands,’ he thought, ‘but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?’ And from that time on Saul; kept a jealous eye on David” (1 Samuel 18:6-9).

Saul was so blinded by envy, that he could not see the excellence and integrity of David’s character and the intimate relationship he had with God. He was so infatuated with envy that he sought by many devious means the death of David. The tentacles of envy know no bounds and are satanic. Envy creates uneasy sensations throughout our entire being, and lies deep within, out of reach of any common remedy. It renders us as unlike God as possible.

How can envy be subdued? First, we must acknowledge our own vileness…the wretchedness of our sinful nature…and let God cleanse our hearts. Secondly, we need to be filled with His love that desires to be manifested to others. God’s love replaces the devastating malignant envy, and reaches out with compassion, understanding, and grace to others. It leaves the cynical self-centered envy mortified, put to death daily, by the power of God living within. Christ must be in control.

This is so important, because the focus of our life will determine our attitude, thoughts, actions, faithfulness, perseverance, and the whole of our life. Not only are we to turn from, and put to death, this evil envy, but Paul says, “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkeness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and envy. Rather CLOTHE YOURSELVES with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Romans 13:13-14).

Filled with Christ…focused on Christ…led by Christ…there will be no room for these envious thoughts. So should we live!


From: Literature International Ministry - Ed Powell

We Are Rich!

Cast all your anxiety on [God], because he cares for you.
-1 Peter 5:7 (NRSV)


I had taken out a commercial loan to help support the construction of a hospital we needed in our community. The time to repay this large amount of money was approaching. I became anxious and unhappy because I did not have the money to pay the loan.

Then I stopped to think about all the blessings in my life. I thought of my wife and my children, my house, my work, my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, my parents, all the beautiful experiences of my life. I am rich! I told myself.

I felt ashamed. Kneeling, I gave thanks to God and asked for forgiveness, casting all my anxieties on God. After my prayer, I felt at peace and happy, as if everything had been taken care of.

Days later, I received a letter from my sister in Ohio. Since she was going through some rough times in her life, with her husband and her daughter in the hospital, I opened the letter with some trepidation. To my surprise, inside the letter was a check for exactly the amount I needed to repay my loan. My sister was repaying me for a loan I had made to her and forgotten.


Prayer
Lord, remind us every day that you are willing and able to supply all our needs if we trust in you. Amen.



From: UpperRoom Devotionals - Angel M. Mattos-Nieves