Max Lucado Daily: YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED - May 10, 2023
When one of the wealthiest men in history, John D. Rockefeller, died, his accountant was asked, “How much did John D. leave?” His reply? “All of it!” No one takes anything with him. Think about the things you own—all your stuff—then let me remind you: your stuff isn’t yours.
And you know what else? Your stuff isn’t you. Jesus said in Luke 12:15 life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot. Contentment comes when we can honestly say with Paul, “I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have. I know how to live when I’m poor, and I know how to live when I have plenty” (Philippians 4:12).
You have so much. You have a God who hears you, the power of his love behind you, the Holy Spirit within you, and all of heaven ahead of you. You have everything you need.
Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Meant to Carry
Read more Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Meant to Carry
Psalm 71
I run for dear life to God,
I’ll never live to regret it.
Do what you do so well:
get me out of this mess and up on my feet.
Put your ear to the ground and listen,
give me space for salvation.
Be a guest room where I can retreat;
you said your door was always open!
You’re my salvation—my vast, granite fortress.
4-7 My God, free me from the grip of Wicked,
from the clutch of Bad and Bully.
You keep me going when times are tough—
my bedrock, God, since my childhood.
I’ve hung on you from the day of my birth,
the day you took me from the cradle;
I’ll never run out of praise.
Many gasp in alarm when they see me,
but you take me in stride.
8-11 Just as each day brims with your beauty,
my mouth brims with praise.
But don’t turn me out to pasture when I’m old
or put me on the shelf when I can’t pull my weight.
My enemies are talking behind my back,
watching for their chance to knife me.
The gossip is: “God has abandoned him.
Pounce on him now; no one will help him.”
12-16 God, don’t just watch from the sidelines.
Come on! Run to my side!
My accusers—make them lose face.
Those out to get me—make them look
Like idiots, while I stretch out, reaching for you,
and daily add praise to praise.
I’ll write the book on your righteousness,
talk up your salvation all the day long,
never run out of good things to write or say.
I come in the power of the Lord God,
I post signs marking his right-of-way.
17-24 You got me when I was an unformed youth,
God, and taught me everything I know.
Now I’m telling the world your wonders;
I’ll keep at it until I’m old and gray.
God, don’t walk off and leave me
until I get out the news
Of your strong right arm to this world,
news of your power to the world yet to come,
Your famous and righteous
ways, O God.
God, you’ve done it all!
Who is quite like you?
You, who made me stare trouble in the face,
Turn me around;
Now let me look life in the face.
I’ve been to the bottom;
Bring me up, streaming with honors;
turn to me, be tender to me,
And I’ll take up the lute and thank you
to the tune of your faithfulness, God.
I’ll make music for you on a harp,
Holy One of Israel.
When I open up in song to you,
I let out lungsful of praise,
my rescued life a song.
All day long I’m chanting
about you and your righteous ways,
While those who tried to do me in
slink off looking ashamed.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Today's Scripture
Genesis 31:19–21; 32:22–30
Laban was off shearing sheep. Rachel stole her father’s household gods. And Jacob had concealed his plans so well that Laban the Aramean had no idea what was going on—he was totally in the dark. Jacob got away with everything he had and was soon across the Euphrates headed for the hill country of Gilead.
But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions.
24-25 But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint.
26 The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.”
Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.”
27 The man said, “What’s your name?”
He answered, “Jacob.”
28 The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.”
29 Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?”
The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him.
30 Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!”
Insight
Rachel stole her father’s “household gods” (Genesis 31:19). The Hebrew word used here is teraphim. This word is used several times in the Old Testament (see Judges 17:5; 18:14; 1 Samuel 15:23; 2 Kings 23:24), but scholars are uncertain about what such household gods or idols were used for. It’s possible they were used in everything from divination practices to status symbols denoting who was the rightful heir of the household. It’s further unclear why Rachel stole them from her father, as these idols aren’t mentioned again in the rest of the story of Jacob or his offspring. By: J.R. Hudberg
Stolen Gods
You have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome. Genesis 32:28
A carved wooden figure—a household god—had been stolen from a woman named Ekuwa, so she reported it to the authorities. Believing they had found the idol, law enforcement officials invited her to identify it. “Is this your god?” they asked. She said sadly, “No, my god is much larger and more beautiful than that.”
People have long tried to give shape to their concept of deity, hoping for a handmade god to protect them. Perhaps that’s why Jacob’s wife Rachel “stole her father’s household gods” as they fled from Laban (Genesis 31:19). But God had His hand on Jacob, despite the idols hidden in his camp (v. 34).
Later, on that same journey, Jacob wrestled all night with “a man” (32:24). He must have understood this opponent was no mere human, because at daybreak Jacob insisted, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (v. 26). The man renamed him Israel (“God fights”) and then blessed him (vv. 28–29). Jacob called the spot Peniel (“face of God”), “because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared” (v. 30).
This God—the one true God—is infinitely larger and more beautiful than anything Ekuwa could have ever imagined. He can’t be carved, stolen, or hidden. Yet, as Jacob learned that night, we can approach Him! Jesus taught His disciples to call this God “our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
How would you describe God? How might your ideas of Him be too limited?
Heavenly Father, forgive me for seeing You as smaller than You really are. Help me embrace the reality of who You truly are.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Take the Initiative
…add to your faith virtue… —2 Peter 1:5
Add means that we have to do something. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save nor sanctify ourselves— God does that. But God will not give us good habits or character, and He will not force us to walk correctly before Him. We have to do all that ourselves. We must “work out” our “own salvation” which God has worked in us (Philippians 2:12). Add means that we must get into the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages that is difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning— to instruct yourself in the way you must go.
Beware of the tendency to ask the way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative— stop hesitating— take the first step. Be determined to act immediately in faith on what God says to you when He speaks, and never reconsider or change your initial decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do something, you are being careless, spurning the grace in which you stand. Take the initiative yourself, make a decision of your will right now, and make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you, saying, “I will write that letter,” or “I will pay that debt”; and then do it! Make it irrevocable.
We have to get into the habit of carefully listening to God about everything, forming the habit of finding out what He says and heeding it. If, when a crisis comes, we instinctively turn to God, we will know that the habit has been formed in us. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we have not yet been.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.
Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 10-12; John 1:29-51
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
WHY YOU ARE WHERE YOU ARE - #9478
A pastor I heard of was meeting one of the ladies from his large church one day, and he asked her, "What do you do?" Her answer was classic. She said, "Well, Pastor, I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ cleverly disguised as a machine operator!" I love that!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why You Are Where You Are."
Now that lady is a Christian who knows who she is and why she is where she is. She's there to be Jesus' personal representative to other machine operators! I mean, who is a lost machine operator most likely to listen to about a relationship with Jesus? Right, another machine operator! A lost mom is most likely to listen to another mom, a student, well they'll listen to a student, a computer programmer to another computer programmer, a cancer survivor to a cancer survivor, a guy at the gym to another guy at the gym. Everybody's got a tribe. People listen to somebody from their tribe.
This strategy of sending someone who lives where the unreached people live is at least 2,000 years old. In our word for today from the Word of God in John 4, Jesus is on a mission to reach the people of Samaria. So, how does He go about it? They didn't really like Jewish guys there; a lot of walls there to tear down.
Well, He reaches one of their own. He reaches a Samaritan woman at the well, who is notorious in her village, apparently, for her promiscuity. By the end of Jesus' visit, the Bible says, "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him." Why? Ready for the answer? It says, "Because of the woman's testimony." (John 4:39). It doesn't say it was because of Jesus' sermon, but because of the testimony of a new disciple of Jesus Christ, cleverly disguised as their neighbor.
It's one reason why Jesus came into your life one day; to send you back to your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, your tribe, to introduce people like you to Him. You're His chosen link between the people in your world and Him. So, how are you doing at bringing those folks together with Jesus?
The best person to tell folks who do what you do, live where you live, and face what you face about Jesus is you. In a post-Christian culture like ours, most lost people don't ever plan to go to a religious meeting to hear a religious speaker talk on a religious subject in a religious place. They will probably only be rescued spiritually if someone takes the Good News about Jesus to where they are! And who is already where they are? You are.
The woman Jesus sent back to her village could have said, as you may, "Oh, man! My past! I'm so messed up. I'm so far from perfect." Isn't it something that Jesus sends flawed ambassadors to be living examples of His great grace? This woman could have said, as you may, "Oh, but I'm not trained." Training is good. Our ministry is constantly in the business of equipping someone like you to represent Him. But your ultimate credentials are what Jesus has done in your life and your love for that lost person.
Your message is the same as part of the Samaritan woman's. She simply said to her fellow villagers, "Come, see a Man!" (John 4:29). Not a religion - a man. Your message is a person; not your religion, not your church, not your beliefs, not your rules. It's all about Jesus! Aren't you glad? You're taking someone you know in one hand. You're taking Jesus in the other hand, and prayerfully you are bringing them together forever!
What a place God has entrusted to you, divinely positioned so you can take someone to heaven with you. Where you live, what you do, well that's all just your clever disguise!