Archives For trust

Never Settle for Second Best with God

Their request seemed like commonsense. But it wasn’t.

“Let this land be given to your servants as a possession,” the people of Reuben and Gad said to Moses, “do not take us across the Jordan” (Numbers 32:5).

Never Settle for Second Best with God Never Settle for Second Best with God

(Photo: Land of Gilead, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

The tribes of Reuben and Gad had huge herds, and the land of Gilead and Jazer had lush pastures.

So they settled east of the Jordan River instead of crossing over into what God had promised.

Bad idea.

Their choice shows us why we should never settle for second best with God.

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Surrendering Your Will to God in Difficult Times

I have discovered that the most difficult battles in life simply mirror Jesus’ struggle in Gethsemane.

His words to the Father remain the most challenging words we could utter:

“Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” —Luke 22:42

Garden of Gethsemane olive trees tb051906423 Surrendering Your Will to God in Difficult Times

(Photo: Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus surrendered His will. Courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)

Surrendering your will to God in difficult times is often harder than the trial itself.

I have found that my greatest challenges come not from those circumstances that press in upon me, but from the internal struggle to surrender my will to God. I enter Gethsemane daily and have to drag my will to the Father in prayer.

(So do you.)

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Apply the Wisdom of Creation to Your Struggles

The awesomeness of creation exists as more than beauty for us to observe.

In spite of the chaos in our culture, the world screams of order in its origin. Its predictable seasons and trustworthy laws of nature reveal wisdom in its design.

Laser Towards Milky Ways Centre Wallpaper Apply the Wisdom of Creation to Your Struggles

(Photo by http://www.ForestWander.com (CC-BY-SA-3.0), via Wikimedia Commons)

The wisdom of creation we see is explained in the Bible we read. Wisdom played such an integral role in creation that the author of Proverbs 8 personifies it as a person present with God:

“Before the hills I was brought forth . . . When He established the heavens, I was there . . . When He marked out the foundations of the earth; then I was beside Him, as a master workman”—Proverbs 8:25–33

God’s wisdom displayed in the wonders we see also proves His wisdom in all areas of life.

Including the painful ones.

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How to Move from Fear to Faith

Sometimes fear keeps us from enjoying what God has promised.

We want so badly to have faith in what the Lord says, but fear of what we see seems more compelling than mere words.

rinderart How to Move from Fear to Faith

Photo: rinderart, via Vivozoom

Gideon longed to believe God. But the enemy army before him was enormous.

It was almost as large as the fears we face today.

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Waiting on God to Do Something

Sometimes it feels like God takes way too long.

He could stop all the pain and confusion in a moment. He could meet the need. But He doesn’t.

Waiting on God Waiting on God to Do Something

Photo: hurricanehank, via Vivozoom

Waiting on God is often confusing. He has operated this way for a long time.

When Mary and Martha of Bethany sent a message to Jesus that their brother Lazarus lay sick, Jesus stayed right where He was. When He finally did arrive, He found that Lazarus had been dead four days.

In other words, Jesus took His sweet time showing up.

Why does He do this?

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How to Struggle with God and Win

What does it take for God to change you?

In the Bible, when the Lord changed Jacob, it took a brawl. Isn’t it often the same with us?

Struggling with God How to Struggle with God and Win

Photo: yellowj, via Vivozoom

These times we struggle with the Father represent His grace, I believe.

Jacob shows us how to win the struggle.

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When Jesus Fails Your Expectations

John the Baptist struggled with his own sermon.

He had preached about the Messiah’s kingdom coming with power and justice. But instead, Jesus’ ministry centered on preaching and on acts of mercy, and John found himself unfairly wasting away in prison near the blistering shores of the Dead Sea.

Gentle Jesus hardly seemed the political Deliverer everyone expected.

Dead Sea When Jesus Fails Your Expectations

(Dead Sea shoreline, the area near where John the Baptist was imprisoned. Photo: By xta11, via Wikimedia Commons)

Unable to reconcile the contradictions and imprisoned in his thoughts, John doubted his own preaching. John sent messengers to ask Jesus, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” (Matthew 11:3).

In other words, the Expected One had certain expectations placed upon Him . . . and Jesus had failed to meet them.

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Stretching Our Prayers Past Our Pain

My prayers don’t go far enough.

Maybe your prayers need some stretching too.

Streching Our Prayers2 Stretching Our Prayers Past Our Pain

Often our prayers begin and end with asking God to change the way things are around us.

  • “Provide enough money this month”
  • “Protect us as we travel”
  • “Heal my friend from pain”
  • —etc.

These are fine prayers, and all legitimate, but incomplete.

They just don’t go far enough. Continue Reading…

Google Maps and God’s Will

Sometimes I wish Google Maps could give me traveling directions for life.

You know, what’s the will of God for—say, the next thirty years?

godswill googlemaps Google Maps and Gods Will

Imagine if we could zoom out to see the big picture. Or zoom in to get the details. Turn by turn, where we’re going, and how long it takes to get there.

For many of us, our problem isn’t our eternal destination—heaven. (Though, if you’re not sure about that, you’ll want to firm that up today.) I tried searching for “Heaven” in Google Maps, but it’s not there. But I located “Hell” in Michigan. (I guess it does freeze over after all.)

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The Long Way

aradwall The Long Way

When the King of Arad captured some of the Hebrews on their way to the Promised Land, God’s people cried out to the Lord and received a great victory. But instead of entering Canaan from the south where the people now stood, God led them east around Edom.

As a result, the people “became impatient because of the journey” (see Num. 21:1-5). Why take the long way around?

The extra miles seemed pointless.

But as the passage unfolds, we read how God gave Israel victories all up and down the King’s Highway so that they ultimately gained control of the majority of Transjordan.

This allowed them to prepare to cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land at a location far more strategic than from the south.

The long way ended up the best way after all.

Often, it seems as if God needlessly extends our journey. For years we pray for a loved one’s health, a friend’s salvation, or for a missionary to receive funds. We plug away endlessly at a miserable job with no promotion.

The long way seems the wrong way and, like the Hebrews, we become impatient because of the journey.

beitzel34 The Long Way

Yet when we look back in hindsight, we actually come to appreciate how God used the journey—and all the victories and failures along the way—to prepare us for something we felt ready for much earlier.

While we strain to see over the next horizon, God sees the map from above—and so knows the best way to proceed.

Prayer: Lord God, time and again Your mysterious leading proves wiser than my impatient pleas for progress. Would You not receive more glory from my life if I trusted You along the path of the unknown than if I saw Your purposes from the start? I follow because of who You are and not because I understand.

“So many of us are impatient with our faith. The journey we are invited to undertake is a long haul and delivers its benefits in the longer term. We have got to learn the hardest of all lessons—that we need to be patient.” —Alister McGrath 

Adapted from Wayne Stiles, Going Places with God: A Devotional Journey Through the Lands of the Bible (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2006), page 89. Image courtesy of BiblePlaces.com. Map from The New Moody Atlas of the Bible, by Barry Beitzel, map 34.