Max Lucado Daily: WAIT ON THE LORD
Waiting is easier said than done. Waiting doesn’t come easy for me. I’ve been in a hurry all my life. Pedal faster, drive quicker. I used to wear my wristwatch on the inside of my arm so I wouldn’t lose the millisecond it took to turn my wrist.
I wonder if I could’ve obeyed God’s ancient command to keep the Sabbath holy. To slow life to a crawl for twenty-four hours. The Sabbath was created for frantic souls like me, people who need this weekly reminder: the world will not stop if you do. Isaiah 40:31 promises: “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Wait on the Lord—He will bring rest to your soul.
Isaiah 53
Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?
Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.
7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn’t true.
10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.
11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, June 02, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 1:76–79
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Insight
Today’s passage records what Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, said about his infant son and his relationship to the coming of the Messiah. John—who was a relative of Jesus (see Luke 1:36) and whose birth was also announced by an angel (vv. 5–25)—was to “go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him” (v. 76). John accepted this role and identity and gave voice to it himself. In the gospel of John (written by John the apostle, not John the Baptist), he announces his identity and role: “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord’” (John 1:23). This quote is from the prophet Isaiah who spoke a message of comfort to the people of Israel (see Isaiah 40:1–3).
Chosen to Forgive
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Luke 23:34
As a middle-schooler, Patrick Ireland first sensed God had chosen him for something. But what? Later as a survivor of the horrific Columbine (Colorado) High School massacre where thirteen were killed and twenty-four wounded, including Patrick, he began to understand an answer.
Through his long recovery, Patrick learned that clinging to bitterness causes further wounding. God showed Patrick that the key to forgiveness is to stop focusing on what others have done to us and to focus on what Jesus has done for us. Christ’s words on the cross toward His tormenters, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34), fulfilled Zechariah the priest’s prophecy of Jesus’ forgiveness (1:77). Additionally, His example revealed a purpose for Patrick, and twenty years after the tragedy, Patrick shared, “Maybe I was chosen to forgive.”
While most of us will not endure an unimaginable calamity such as the one committed at Columbine, each of us has been wronged in some way. A spouse betrays. A child rebels. An employer abuses. How do we move forward? Maybe we look to the example of our Savior. In the face of rejection and cruelty, He forgave. It is through Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins that we, ourselves, find salvation, which includes the ability to forgive others. And like Patrick, we can choose to let go of our bitterness to open our hearts to forgiveness. By: Elisa Morgan
Reflect & Pray
Is your heart open to forgive? How might you experience more of the salvation Jesus died to provide by choosing to move toward forgiving someone who has wronged you?
Dear Father, show me who I’m chosen to forgive today, and give me the strength to offer the forgiveness You died to provide.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, June 02, 2020
Are You Obsessed by Something?
Who is the man that fears the Lord? —Psalm 25:12
Are you obsessed by something? You will probably say, “No, by nothing,” but all of us are obsessed by something— usually by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our own experience of the Christian life. But the psalmist says that we are to be obsessed by God. The abiding awareness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thoughts about Him. The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God. A child’s awareness is so absorbed in his mother that although he is not consciously thinking of her, when a problem arises, the abiding relationship is that with the mother. In that same way, we are to “live and move and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28), looking at everything in relation to Him, because our abiding awareness of Him continually pushes itself to the forefront of our lives.
If we are obsessed by God, nothing else can get into our lives— not concerns, nor tribulation, nor worries. And now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying. How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us? To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.
“He himself shall dwell in prosperity…” (Psalm 25:13). God will cause us to “dwell in prosperity,” keeping us at ease, even in the midst of tribulation, misunderstanding, and slander, if our “life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). We rob ourselves of the miraculous, revealed truth of this abiding companionship with God. “God is our refuge…” (Psalm 46:1). Nothing can break through His shelter of protection.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 17-18; John 13:1-20
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, June 02, 2020
Three Healing Words - #8712
He was only supposed to be a minor character in what was then a new television series. It's called "Happy Days." It was a hit series about 1950s teenagers. And as it grew in popularity, so did the popularity of a character known as Arthur Fonzarelli, a.k.a., Fonzie or "The Fonz." With his motorcycle and his greased-back hair and his ability to have a girlfriend literally with the snap of his fingers, Fonzie became one of the best known sitcom characters ever. Fonzie was like the epitome of "cool," well, most of the time. He wasn't cool when he tried to say three little words. No, not "I love you." A strange paralysis seemed to take over his tongue whenever he tried to say, "I was wrong." Maybe you remember. It always came out something like, "I was wr-wr-wr-wr-wro-wro..." He never seemed to be able to get those words out.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Three Healing Words."
Fonzie's not the only one who has a hard time getting those words out. Most of us have a very hard time saying, "I was wrong." Hey, I did it! I said it! It's sad that we struggle so much to admit we've been wrong, isn't it? I mean, so many marriages could have been saved if someone could have said those words, "I was wrong" So many children could have been saved, so many churches, so many friendships, so many relationships - all the victims of our unwillingness to be wrong.
In James 5:16, our word for today from the Word of God, He shows us why saying "I was wrong" is so important. He says, "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." Admitting you were wrong, opening yourself up to apologizing - to saying you made a mistake, that's got the power to heal hurting and broken relationships.
Maybe you're in a situation right now where you've been just too proud or too hurt to make your part of it right. Even if the other person is 80% - 90% wrong and you're 10 or 20% wrong, can't you at least deal with your 10 or 20%? Some of us grew up around a parent who could never be wrong - I know - even when they were wrong. Did you respect them more for that? No, we respected them less.
A healthy human being doesn't care who is right, they care about what is right. And no one's right all the time. Over the years, I've had to go to the bed of my five-year old son, and say, "I'm sorry, son. I was wrong for what I said to you and what I said to your Mother." But I'll tell you, there is healing power in those words, "I was wrong."
I stood by my friend Barry's side the night that they were fighting for his daughter Cindy's life in the emergency room. She had tried to kill herself with an overdose of sleeping pills. Thank God, He answered our prayers for her life. And that night Barry went to her and he said, "Honey, I've been so wrong for some of the ways I've treated you. I've been treating you in ways that my father treated me and I hated it. Please forgive me and give me a chance to change." Well, all I can tell you is that night a beautiful father-daughter relationship was born. It had never been there before, and it's continued over these many years.
Maybe you need to be having a conversation like that. Just don't wait for the emergency room; don't wait for the divorce court. If you can't say it, write it. But when you've done things you know you shouldn't have done or when you've failed to do things you know you should have done, be man or woman enough to say the words, "I was wrong." Those little words have the power to heal so much that's broken.
