Max Lucado Daily: LET PRAYER BE OUR FIRST OPTION
It was a tense deacon’s meeting. Apparently there was more agitation than agreement, and after a lengthy discussion someone suggested, “Why don’t we pray about it?” To which another questioned, “Has it come to that?”
What causes us to think of prayer as the last option rather than the first? I can think of two reasons: feelings of independence and feelings of insignificance. We think, God doesn’t want to hear my problems. He’s got famine and the Mafia to deal with. I don’t want to trouble him with my mess. The last thing you should worry about is being a nuisance to God. If that’s your thought, may I share with you a favorite verse of mine? “Because He delights in me, He saved me” (Psalm 18:19).
God can live anywhere in the universe and he chose your heart. He’s crazy about you! Why don’t you talk to him?
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Judges 13
Samson
13 And then the People of Israel were back at it again, doing what was evil in God’s sight. God put them under the domination of the Philistines for forty years.
2-5 At that time there was a man named Manoah from Zorah from the tribe of Dan. His wife was barren and childless. The angel of God appeared to her and told her, “I know that you are barren and childless, but you’re going to become pregnant and bear a son. But take much care: Drink no wine or beer; eat nothing ritually unclean. You are, in fact, pregnant right now, carrying a son. No razor will touch his head—the boy will be God’s Nazirite from the moment of his birth. He will launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression.”
6-7 The woman went to her husband and said, “A man of God came to me. He looked like the angel of God—terror laced with glory! I didn’t ask him where he was from and he didn’t tell me his name, but he told me, ‘You’re pregnant. You’re going to give birth to a son. Don’t drink any wine or beer and eat nothing ritually unclean. The boy will be God’s Nazirite from the moment of birth to the day of his death.’”
8 Manoah prayed to God: “Master, let the man of God you sent come to us again and teach us how to raise this boy who is to be born.”
9-10 God listened to Manoah. God’s angel came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field; her husband Manoah wasn’t there with her. She jumped to her feet and ran and told her husband: “He’s back! The man who came to me that day!”
11 Manoah got up and, following his wife, came to the man. He said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
He said, “I am.”
12 Manoah said, “So. When what you say comes true, what do you have to tell us about this boy and his work?”
13-14 The angel of God said to Manoah, “Keep in mind everything I told the woman. Eat nothing that comes from the vine: Drink no wine or beer; eat no ritually unclean foods. She’s to observe everything I commanded her.”
15 Manoah said to the angel of God, “Please, stay with us a little longer; we’ll prepare a meal for you—a young goat.”
16 God’s angel said to Manoah, “Even if I stay, I won’t eat your food. But if you want to prepare a Whole-Burnt-Offering for God, go ahead—offer it!” Manoah had no idea that he was talking to the angel of God.
17 Then Manoah asked the angel of God, “What’s your name? When your words come true, we’d like to honor you.”
18 The angel of God said, “What’s this? You ask for my name? You wouldn’t understand—it’s sheer wonder.”
19-21 So Manoah took the kid and the Grain-Offering and sacrificed them on a rock altar to God who works wonders. As the flames leapt up from the altar to heaven, God’s angel also ascended in the altar flames. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground. Manoah and his wife never saw the angel of God again.
21-22 Only then did Manoah realize that this was God’s angel. He said to his wife, “We’re as good as dead! We’ve looked on God!”
23 But his wife said, “If God were planning to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our Whole-Burnt-Offering and Grain-Offering, or revealed all these things to us—given us this birth announcement.”
24-25 The woman gave birth to a son. They named him Samson. The boy grew and God blessed him. The Spirit of God began working in him while he was staying at a Danite camp between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Read: Nehemiah 1
Report from Jerusalem
1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.
Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
Nehemiah's Prayer
4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
Now I was cupbearer to the king.
The Prayer and the Chain Saw
By Linda Washington
Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant. Nehemiah 1:11
I respect my Aunt Gladys’s intrepid spirit, even if that very spirit concerns me sometimes. The source of my concern came in the form of news she shared in an email: “I cut down a walnut tree yesterday.”
You must understand that my chainsaw-wielding aunt is seventy-six years old! The tree had grown up behind her garage. When the roots threatened to burst through the concrete, she knew it had to go. But she did tell us, “I always pray before I tackle a job like that.”
While serving as butler to the king of Persia during the time of Israel’s exile, Nehemiah heard news concerning the people who had returned to Jerusalem. Some work needed to be done. “The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire” (Nehemiah 1:3). The broken walls left them vulnerable to attack by enemies. Nehemiah had compassion for his people and wanted to get involved. But prayer came first, especially since a new king had written a letter to stop the building efforts in Jerusalem (see Ezra 4). Nehemiah prayed for his people (Nehemiah 1:5–10), and then asked God for help before requesting permission from the king to leave (v. 11).
Is prayer your response? It’s always the best way to face any task or trial in life.
Father, Your Holy Spirit reminds us to pray first. Today, we commit to doing so as Your Spirit prompts us.
Make prayer a first priority, instead of a last resort.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
The Key of the Greater Work
…I say to you, he who believes in Me,…greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. —John 14:12
Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).
Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do…” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).
There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
The Wind That Changes Everything - #8288
Years ago we were just beginning the process of building our Ministry Headquarters. At that point, all that was on this field was the footings for the building and a barn that was on the property. Volunteers were in the process of renovating and weatherproofing that old barn for storage when some friends donated a truckload of office furniture to our ministry. It was going to be a few days before we could bring that furniture into the barn, so we had to leave it next to the barn, which meant it had to be covered to protect it, right?
Well, wouldn't you know, that moment came at a time when I was out of town and there was no one available to get that tarp over the furniture except my dear wife. Yeah, well we're talking here strong and resourceful farm girl, so she thought nothing of it, but getting that tarp up and over all that furniture turned out to be quite a challenge for one person; especially for a woman alone. And she realized that all her pulling and straining wasn't going to do it. She had a wonderful gift from God all of a sudden – a strong wind suddenly came up. Suddenly that wind was lifting the tarp up and over the furniture, just where it needed to go. Isn't that awesome? That wind blew strategically several times until the job was done; leaving my dear wife, and me when I heard about it, again amazed by God.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Wind That Changes Everything."
What an incredible picture of how God gets things done. What a picture of what He wants to do in your life right now; especially in some challenges where all your pulling and straining just isn't getting it done.
Listen to these familiar, encouraging words from our word for today from the Word of God. They're found in Isaiah 40:29, "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." Okay. You feeling weary? You feeling weak right now? Great! That qualifies you to receive God's strength for your weariness, God's power for your weakness. Isaiah goes on: "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, (Yes, we do. Oh, wait...) but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
I've watched soaring birds; eagles, hawks, and even turkey vultures. I never see them before mid-morning, when the air is warm enough to start rising and creating those thermal updrafts. And those birds don't get where they're going by frantically flapping their wings. They ride the winds of God. That's what my wife ended up doing that day when her efforts couldn't get the job done; she let the winds of God carry her. That's how we're all supposed to live – not frantically flapping our wings, but relaxing and letting God carry us where we could never fly in our own strength.
Some of us are such driven, type-A, "make-it-happen" people (Notice I said us.) that we miss the miracle of being carried by a God who makes it happen. We get all stressed, brittle, frustrated, exhausted, and depleted because we don't allow the God-takeover that's where the power really is.
Paul seemed to understand this mysterious synergy between our effort and God's energy. He said in Colossians 1:29, "I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me." Yes, I work hard, but I'm doing it in His strength, His energy, not mine.
I just can't forget that picture of my wife struggling with that tarp by the barn and a wind from God suddenly lifting what she couldn't carry, moving what she couldn't move, helping her do what she could have never done otherwise.
You know what? The wind of God is blowing your way today to lift you, to empower you, to do what you have not been able to do. You see, it's the wind of God that changes everything!