Too Hot to Handle (Friday Devotional)

 

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

- Psalm 91:1

We all knew it was coming, sooner or later. When the calendar turned from May to June and graduation announcements started coming in the mail and the neighborhood swimming pool opened its gates, all the signs were there. Summer has arrived.

And if this week is any indication, it’s not going to be a mild one. We’ve entered fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk territory, the kind of heat that has you sweating before you even realize you’re outside. This is the type of summer that will have even the toughest Texan proclaiming air conditioning is a fundamental human right. In this kind of heat, a few minutes outside will have you looking anxiously for a building, any building, that has the A/C going.

In Psalm 91, the writer compares God to that sort of a shelter, a source of respite when things are getting too hot to handle. When the stresses of life are beating down on you like the midday sun, you can rest in the shadow of the Almighty and find relief. In the Father’s presence there is peace.

So the question is, why would you go anywhere else? God is the source of all comfort, the wellspring of life. He leads you beside still waters and restores your soul. In a world marked by discomfort, disappointment, and distress, find your rest in him.

Sustaining Power (Friday Devotional)

 

I lie down and sleep; I wake again,

because the Lord sustains me.

- Psalm 3:5

I turn on the faucet and water comes out. I drive down the road and the stop lights turn from red to green at the correct intervals. I step out of the blazing Texas heat and into a building and feel the cool air conditioning.

These—along with electricity, refrigerators, the Internet, and more—are modern conveniences we barely even think about anymore. We’re so accustomed to having such things that it’s only during temporary outages that we’re even conscious of them. But the moment these life-sustaining modern miracles are gone…yikes!

When we think about God’s power, we tend to go straight to the cinematic, larger-than-life moments. We are instantly attracted to the God who parts the Red Sea, who shuts the mouths of lions, who calms raging storms, and who raises the dead. That’s power.

But just as significant, if not so flashy, are the times when God sustains his people. The same God who miraculously gave manna one day in the wilderness was still doing it years later—long after it stopped feeling special. The same God who led his people into the promised land with torches and trumpets also equipped their leaders time and time again when threats came their way.

And the same God who gave you life on your first day sustains you still. Every new day is a providential gift; every breath is proof of his love for you. Whether you are conscious of it or you take it for granted, the fact remains the same: you are held up by an awesome God.

We see God most clearly in the big moments, when the world’s darkness makes his glory seem brighter than ever. But make no mistake, God is there in the smaller, everyday moments too. Thank him for his saving power, to be sure—but thank him also for his sustaining power.

More Complete Every Day (Friday Devotional)

 

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

- 1 Corinthians 13:9-12

A few years back, one of the biggest fads going was adult coloring books. Once the exclusive province of elementary school students, black-and-white pages with intricate shapes waiting to be filled in suddenly captivated the nation’s grown-ups. Moms across the country sat down at the kitchen table next to their toddlers, with the moms carefully filling each shape in their mandalas as the toddlers decided which shade of red to color Elmo.

I can’t say I caught this particular wave, but I did try one or two adult coloring pages, and I saw the appeal. There was something enjoyable, even therapeutic, about the slow, deliberate work. What’s more, it was immensely satisfying to see the monochromatic page transform into an explosion of color, little by little. With every stroke of the colored pencil, the picture moved from an incomplete fraction of its potential into what it was always meant to be.

Scripture says that we are exactly like one of those pages, growing in Christ day by day into the fullness we will know in glory. Every day is an opportunity to color in another blank spot, to learn something new about what it means to know God and live for him. Every moment you draw breath is a chance to change, an occasion for action.

Some day your page will be finished and, as you stand before the throne of glory, all the incomplete parts of yourself will be filled in. You will see the Lord face to face and know fully, even as you are fully known. But for today, continue the slow, deliberate work of adding color where you can. With the Spirit as your guide, move from emptiness to fulfillment.

The Voice of Authority (Friday Devotional)

 

The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

- Mark 1:22

In his 19 years as the anchorman for the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite was one of the most authoritative voices in America. When he gave you the news—whether it was of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the moon landing, or any other monumental event—you knew it was true because Cronkite said it. Indeed, when he declared in a 1968 broadcast that he saw no possibility for the Vietnam War to progress past a stalemate, Lyndon B. Johnson was said to remark, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost America.” Cronkite was an unimpeachable authority.

In our age of cable news talking heads, that sort of gravitas feels like a thing of the distant past. Our anchors today seem to come in three varieties: 1) the sunshine-and-rainbows anchors of morning news, who mix breaking news with cooking segments, 2) the combative, partisan shouters on cable, and 3) the mostly interchangeable, forgettable anchors of network news whose names you may not even know. Today’s anchors may give us the news, but they’re far from unquestioned authorities in our minds.

In Jesus’ day, there were certain authorities whose sacred responsibility was to read, interpret, and teach God’s Word to the people. They were respected as wise, holy men with answers to important spiritual questions, the kind of people you trusted to have all the answers. They were seemingly the experts on the things of God.

Then came Jesus with his bold proclamation that the kingdom of God was at hand, with his teachings that supplemented and at times outright corrected what the teachers of the law were saying. Again and again, he cast God in a different light than the teachers did—and again and again, his words seemed to bear more truth than theirs. While they were mere interpreters of God’s Word, Jesus was the Word made flesh. They were amazed at him—because he taught as one who had authority, not like the teachers of the law.

Today there are plenty of people who fill the same role the teachers of the law did, people who are professed authorities on the important things in life, from religion to family to politics. They talk and talk and talk, and we listen, and after a while we start to think maybe they’re making some good points.

But if you’ll listen to Jesus, you’ll hear what authority really sounds like. He is the measuring stick by which all others are to be judged; his is the voice of God; he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If you want to know whether someone is truly authoritative, compare their words—and their actions—to his.

We may not have a Cronkite to give us the news anymore, but we still have the Good News of Jesus Christ. May that gospel and the one who proclaimed it be the authority you trust the most.