Max Lucado Daily: WHERE JOSEPH STOOD - December 13, 2024
On the night when Jesus was born, I wonder if Joseph prayed, “Father, this all seems so bizarre. The angel you sent? Any chance you could send another?”
You’ve stood where Joseph stood. Each of us knows what it’s like to search the night for a light. Not outside a stable, but perhaps outside an emergency room or the manicured grass of a cemetery. We’ve asked our questions. We’ve wondered why God does what he does. If you’re asking what Joseph asked, let me urge you to do what Joseph did: obey. He didn’t let his confusion disrupt his obedience.
What about you? You have a choice: to obey or disobey. Because Joseph obeyed, God used him to change the world. Can he do the same with you? Will you be that kind of person? Will you serve, even when you don’t understand?
In the Manger
Revelation 15
The Song of Moses, the Song of the Lamb
1 15 I saw another Sign in Heaven, huge and breathtaking: seven Angels with seven disasters. These are the final disasters, the wrap-up of God’s wrath.
2–4 I saw something like a sea made of glass, the glass all shot through with fire. Carrying harps of God, triumphant over the Beast, its image, and the number of its name, the saved ones stood on the sea of glass. They sang the Song of Moses, servant of God; they sang the Song of the Lamb:
Mighty your acts and marvelous,
O God, the Sovereign-Strong!
Righteous your ways and true,
King of the nations!
Who can fail to fear you, God,
give glory to your Name?
Because you and you only are holy,
all nations will come and worship you,
because they see your judgments are right.
5–8 Then I saw the doors of the Temple, the Tent of Witness in Heaven, open wide. The Seven Angels carrying the seven disasters came out of the Temple. They were dressed in clean, bright linen and wore gold vests. One of the Four Animals handed the Seven Angels seven gold bowls, brimming with the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. Smoke from God’s glory and power poured out of the Temple. No one was permitted to enter the Temple until the seven disasters of the Seven Angels were finished.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 13, 2024
by Patricia Raybon
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Daniel 6:19-27
At daybreak the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. As he approached the den, he called out anxiously, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve so loyally, saved you from the lions?”
21–22 “O king, live forever!” said Daniel. “My God sent his angel, who closed the mouths of the lions so that they would not hurt me. I’ve been found innocent before God and also before you, O king. I’ve done nothing to harm you.”
23 When the king heard these words, he was happy. He ordered Daniel taken up out of the den. When he was hauled up, there wasn’t a scratch on him. He had trusted his God.
24 Then the king commanded that the conspirators who had informed on Daniel be thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. Before they hit the floor, the lions had them in their jaws, tearing them to pieces.
25–27 King Darius published this proclamation to every race, color, and creed on earth:
Peace to you! Abundant peace!
I decree that Daniel’s God shall be worshiped and feared in all parts of my kingdom.
He is the living God, world without end. His kingdom never falls.
His rule continues eternally.
He is a savior and rescuer.
He performs astonishing miracles in heaven and on earth.
He saved Daniel from the power of the lions.
Today's Insights
Scripture doesn’t give any details about what Daniel’s time was like when he was surrounded by the lions in their den. But we’re told what the king’s night was like: “The king . . . spent the night without eating . . . . And he could not sleep” (Daniel 6:18). The next morning, the king declared, “I issue a decree that . . . people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. ‘For he is the living God and he endures forever’ ” (v. 26). The focus is on the movement of God in the heart of the pagan king rather than on his faithful servant.
God’s Keeping Presence
He is the living God . . . . He rescues and he saves. Daniel 6:26-27
Looking at my high school yearbook, my grandchildren marveled at outdated hairstyles, clothing, and “old-fashioned” cars in the photos. I saw something different—first the smiles of longtime buddies, some still friends. More than that, however, I saw the keeping power of God. His gentle presence surrounded me in a school where I struggled to fit in. His keeping goodness watched over me—a kindness He grants to all who seek Him.
Daniel knew of God’s keeping presence. In his exile in Babylon, he prayed in “his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem” (Daniel 6:10) despite the king’s decree not to do so (vv. 7-9). From his prayerful vantage point, Daniel would remember God whose keeping presence sustained him—hearing and answering his prayers. Thus, God would hear, answer, and sustain him again.
Yet, despite the new law, Daniel would still seek God’s presence regardless of what might happen to him. And so he prayed just as he had done so many times before (v. 10). While in the lions’ den, an angel of the Lord kept Daniel safe as his faithful God rescued him (v. 22).
Looking to our past during present trials may help us recall God’s faithfulness. As even King Darius said of God, “He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth” (v. 27). God was good then, and He’s good now. His presence will keep you.
Reflect & Pray
What past trial tested you? How did God kindly sustain you?
Looking back, dear Father, I see Your kind sustaining presence. Thank You for keeping me now too.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 13, 2024
What to Pray For
Jesus told his disciples… that they should always pray and not give up. — Luke 18:1
You cannot intercede in prayer for others if you don’t believe in the reality of the redemption. If you intercede without believing, you’ll wind up turning intercession into pointless sympathy. Sympathy never leads people to God; it only makes them more content to stay out of touch with him.
In proper intercession, you bring the person or circumstance that’s weighing on your mind before God until you are moved by God’s attitude toward that person or circumstance. Paul gave the model for intercession when he wrote, “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24). This is why there are so few intercessors. Most of us, when we intercede, try to put ourselves in the place of the person for whom we pray. Never! We must try to put ourselves in God’s place.
As a worker for God, be careful to keep pace with him as he communicates things to you that require your intercession. If you seek to know more than he wants you to know, you won’t be able to pray because the condition of humanity is so crushing that you will be crushed and unable to get through to his reality.
Our work involves coming into contact with God about everything. We shirk this duty when we pursue busywork instead of intercession, even busywork for God’s ministry. Many of us will do tasks that can be easily checked off a list, but we won’t intercede. Yet intercession is the one thing which, spiritually speaking, has no pitfalls, because it keeps our relationship with God completely open.
The thing to watch for in intercession is that no soul is blocked because of us. Every individual soul must get into contact with the life of God. Think of the number of souls God has brought across our path that we have dropped by failing to intercede! When we intercede on the ground of the redemption, God creates something he can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.
Hosea 12-14; Revelation 4
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Awe is the condition of a man’s spirit realizing Who God is and what He has done for him personally. Our Lord emphasizes the attitude of a child; no attitude can express such solemn awe and familiarity as that of a child.
Not Knowing Whither, 882 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 13, 2024
Sandal Security - #9895
My car started this morning. You say, "Big deal." Well, it is - it starts every morning no matter how cold it is or how wet it is. That's especially good when you realize the old girl's got, you know, something like 150,000 miles on her. I don't have nearly that many miles on me, and I'm having increasing trouble starting in the morning myself. Actually, all our cars have been like that since we began in the ministry many years ago, and they just keep working. And I don't credit the automobile company with it; I credit the manufacturer - no, THE manufacturer.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sandal Security."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Deuteronomy 29:5. God is speaking through Moses and reflecting on the 40 years that He kept the Israelites in the wilderness. Seemingly there's going to be no place where they're going to be able to get what they need. There aren't too many resources out there in the wilderness. But He says, "During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out nor did the sandals on your feet..." "...and your car kept starting." (No, no... I added that part. That's the Hutchcraft translation.)
Jewish sandals! The sandals didn't wear out on your feet. This is another insight into your Heavenly Father who is called Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides. See, God has so many creative ways to meet the needs of His kids. He seldom does it the same way twice. Sometimes it's manna from Heaven. The supply comes in a form you've never even known before. Sometimes it's water from a rock. "Where are we going to get water, Moses?" Wait! Water doesn't come from rocks. Oh, really?
Sometimes God supplies for you through a totally unexpected source. Sometimes He sends the ravens, like He did for Elijah, as He sent them every morning and evening with his food. Surprising deliverers of His supply will be the ones who sometimes bring it to you. They just weren't even on your radar. Who would have guessed it would have come from them? And you know what? God usually does it on a daily bread basis; just what you need for that day. Sometimes He does loaves and fish; he makes a little go farther than you ever dreamed it could. But He always keeps His promise in Psalm 23, "The Lord is my Shepherd" - say it with me - "I shall not want."
Sometimes there's a different kind of supply miracle. He simply makes things last, like those Jewish sandals. Our repairman said that about our washing machine. He said, "This thing should not be alive." But it was still going - there's those Jewish sandals, sandal security.
Now, God could have had it rain sandals if He wanted it to, but instead He just preserved one pair, and they're walking every day for 40 years in those sandals in the wilderness. See, we get in a rut of looking for manna all the time, and God may want to do it through some miracle like that. We miss those miracles of things that just last because they're not as dramatic. Well, take care of what God gives you, and pray for His preserving miracles as well as His delivering miracles. Let God do it in any creative way He wants, and live knowing that you always, always will have what you need.
His Word in Philippians 4:19 is, "My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Look around you. I'll bet somewhere God is meeting your need through a miracle of manna right now; just a miraculous, out-of-nowhere provision. But I'll bet somewhere you've got the modern equivalent of those Jewish sandals. Either way, every need is supplied. You're living hand-to-mouth; His hand to your mouth. Wow! Talk about security!
