Category: Devotionals

The Book of Revelation is filled with mystery and wonder. At times it can be frightening and heavy, but it is also filled with hope. One of the most hopeful and beautiful passages in this book appears in the next to last chapter, Revelation 21. In the first four verses of that chapter, we find good reason for hope, peace, and joy in Jesus’ promise for the future.

The preceding chapters speak of war, desolation, God’s wrath and judgment. But we are also told about a time to come when Jesus will return to this earth to go to war against and defeat Satan and the Antichrist. Following that victory, Jesus will then reign on earth for a thousand years before Satan is released from the pit. Satan will then be defeated once again and cast into the lake of fire forever. While the ultimate defeat of our enemy is cause for celebration, what happens next is even more reason to celebrate.

In Revelation 21:1-4, a voice from the throne says that a new heaven and a new earth will be created. The beauty of that new earth will far surpass that of the earth we now know. It will reflect a beauty that surpasses anything we could possibly imagine. In those verses, we read that what was lost in the Garden of Eden will be restored: God’s presence among His people. As He was with Adam and Eve, God will once again be right here with us. When He dwells with us, the old order of things will pass away. No longer will there be death, mourning, sickness, or pain. No more tears will be shed. These things will be replaced by everlasting life and joy.

Sound too good to be true? Maybe that’s the reason for Revelation 21:5. In this verse, speaking to John from the throne, Jesus exclaims, “I am making everything new!” He follows that by saying what is basically the equivalent of, “You can quote me on that!” Jesus tells John to write down what He just said because the words that He has spoken are “trustworthy and true.” And, if Jesus says something, we can be assured that it must be true. After all, He is the truth!

Humility is a character trait that God desires to see in all of us. We are called to show humility by valuing others above ourselves rather than doing things out of our own selfish ambition (Philippians 2:3). But humility is not something that comes easily to many of us in this world where we are taught to value ourselves above others.

How can we develop humility? One way in which to develop a desired character trait is through a mentor who consistently demonstrates that trait. The dictionary definition of a mentor is “a wise and trusted counselor or teacher.” When it comes to learning how to demonstrate humility, there is no better mentor than Jesus. He certainly fits the definition! He is truly a wise and trusted counselor and teacher. He is also the greatest example of humility that there is.

As we read in Philippians 2:3, humility is shown by valuing others more than we value ourselves. Jesus demonstrated His humility in many ways, but His greatest demonstration of humility came when He gave His life on the cross of Calvary. Jesus could have avoided that cross. He could have walked away from it. In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night before He walked to that cross, He cried out to the Father asking Him to take the cross away. He didn’t wait for an answer to His question, but instead said, “Not My will but Yours be done.” Why did He do that? Because He valued all of us over Himself and was even willing to die for us.

We should look to Jesus to be our mentor as we seek to develop humility. For a mentoring relationship to work, the person being mentored needs to spend time with the mentor. If Jesus is to be our mentor for humility, we need to spend time with Him. We need to talk to Him and we need to learn about Him by spending time in His Word. When we do, He will show us the way to demonstrating true humility.

Our God is a God of compassion and a God of comfort. In our times of trouble, He is always there to care for us and to comfort us. He does this so that we can comfort those around us in their times of trouble. Because of the comfort we receive from God, we are able to comfort others. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

As members of the body of Christ and as children of the living God, it is our responsibility to extend the comfort of God to others who are in need of it. There are many ways by which we can do this. Comfort can be given through our physical presence in another’s life. When someone we know is going through a difficult time, sometimes just being with that person can provide comfort. It tells that person that you are there for them, that you care. That can provide much needed comfort.

We can give comfort through prayer. In my own life, I have found comfort in knowing that others are praying for and with me through a time of trouble. Sometimes a person going through a difficult situation may find it hard to pray. In times like that, we can provide comfort by lifting him or her up in prayer, seeking God’s help in the situation. We can give voice to what they may be feeling and what they need to express to God.

Comfort can be given by listening and expressing empathy. When you are going through a time of trouble, isn’t it comforting to know that there is someone you can talk to and who can understand how you feel. When we listen and show empathy for others in their troubles, we reflect Jesus. He is always there to listen to us in our times of need and He knows exactly how we feel. We can also provide comfort by sharing with others about times when God has provided comfort in our own lives.

As it says in 2 Corinthians 1:4, we are able to comfort others because of the comfort we have received from God. We should always look to extend that comfort to others.

In Genesis, we read that the fall of man came as a result of one man’s disobedience. God had given the man, Adam, all that he needed. Adam could eat the fruit of any tree in the Garden of Eden with the exception of one – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, sin entered the world and so did death, both physical and spiritual. The physical death meant that they would no longer have eternal life. They would grow older and die. The spiritual death came as a result of being cast out of the garden. They would no longer be able to stand in the presence of God.  

In several passages in the New Testament, the apostle Paul uses the analogy of a foot race when speaking about our walk with Christ. Having run the New York City Marathon in 1993, I am really able to relate to this analogy.

When I made the decision in 1992 that I would run the marathon the following year, I knew that I needed to prepare myself in order to run a distance of 26.2 miles. I had to begin a regimen of strict physical training that included running several times a week at increasingly longer distances in order to build up the stamina I would need. In our walk with Christ, as we move toward our goal of finishing well, we need spiritual training. We need to spend time with the Lord, we need to read His Word daily, and we need to be in fellowship with other believers who can encourage us along the way.

My goal in running the marathon was to finish the race and receive the medal that is given to all finishers. In Acts 20:24, Paul says that his goal was to finish the race and complete the task set before him by Jesus Christ. That task was to testify to the good news of God’s grace. As believers, that should be our goal as well. We are all called to complete that very same task, a task that was given to us by Jesus before His ascension into heaven (Acts 1:7-9).

Running a marathon is not an easy task. It requires perseverance. It may also require that you get rid of things that are hindering you. The NYC Marathon is held in the month of November, which typically is a chilly month. In the year that I ran, I dressed in layers so that I would not be cold as I ran the race. But on the day that I ran, the temperatures were in the 70s. All of those layers became a hindrance to finishing the race, so I needed to throw some of them off. When our walk with Christ is being hindered by people, places, or things that are pulling us away from the Lord, we need to throw off those hindrances so that we may continue to run the race with perseverance (Hebrews 12:1).

Although it wasn’t easy and I sometimes felt like giving up, I did finish my marathon. I fought through the negative thoughts and crossed the finish line. In our walk with Christ, we must also fight that good fight, keeping our faith before us in order to finish the race (2 Timothy 4:7). As I crossed the finish line in Central Park in 1993, I was handed the medal that I was running for. While I am proud of my accomplishment and treasure that medal, it pales in comparison to the crown which we will all receive when we finish our walk with Christ here on earth. That is a prize that will last forever (1 Corinthians 9:25).

Visitors to our home will find a number of beautiful and well-crafted pieces of furniture throughout the house. These pieces were not purchased in any store and are one of a kind. They are the handiwork of my father-in-law. Each piece has its own unique purpose. There’s a China cabinet to hold our china and crystal, a book cabinet with glass doors and file drawers to hold books and files, and even a display case to hold my New York City Marathon finisher’s medal.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are the handiwork of our heavenly Father. Each one of us was masterfully created by God in Jesus Christ to do good works. The works that He created us to do are unique to us. We were created with specific gifts, talents, and abilities that make us perfectly suited to the work He planned for us to do long before we were born. God knew who we were and what we would be able to do before we were even formed in our mothers’ wombs. He created us with His purpose in mind (Jeremiah 1:5).

The furniture crafted by my father-in-law can only serve the purpose for which it was created. It has no say in the matter. Unlike that furniture, however, we can choose to fulfill our purpose, or choose not to. God created us with the ability to fulfill His purpose for us, but He also created us with free will. His desire is for us to step into our purpose, but we have to make that decision to do so. 1 Peter 4:10 encourages us to be faithful stewards of the gifts and abilities God has given us by using them to serve others, by using them for His purpose.

If we choose not to play our part in fulfilling God’s purposes here on earth, God will allow someone else to do so. His plans and His purposes will be fulfilled even if we choose not to do our part or step away from doing our part out of fear. In the book of Esther, Mordecai told Esther as much. He said that, if she remained silent and did not ask her husband, the King to come to the aid of her people, then the relief and deliverance of the Jews would come from someone or someplace else (Esther 4:14).

When God calls us to His purpose, it is because He knows that we are able to fulfill it. He created us with that purpose in mind and, when we allow Him to use us, He promises to be with us in whatever we do or wherever we go (Joshua 1:9). The added bonus is being able to one day hear Him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant!”

One of my favorite hymns is “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Written by Robert Robinson in 1758, the hymn is a beautiful reminder of the amazing grace of God. The story of the author of this hymn makes it even more poignant.

Six years before he penned the lyrics of this hymn, Robinson had gone to an evangelical meeting at which the preacher George Whitfield was to speak. Robinson did not go there to hear the Word of God delivered, but to heckle the believers there and make fun of the meeting itself. Instead, he was captured by God’s grace and gave his heart to the Lord.

One of the most beautiful lines of this hymn is found in the first verse:

                               “Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.” 

What a beautiful picture that line paints! Our heavenly Father reaching into our hearts to tune them so that we may give Him praise for the grace He so freely gives us through His Son, Jesus Christ. God’s grace is something that we should be truly thankful for.

Through God’s gift of grace, which is given to us through faith in His Son, we receive salvation from our sin. It is only through the gift of God’s grace that we are able to receive that salvation. There is nothing that we can do on our own to earn it (Ephesians 2:8). The gift of grace that God has given us is not the result of anything we have done. It was given to us by God through Jesus Christ before the beginning of time (2 Timothy 1:9).

My prayer is that my heart will always be grateful for God’s wonderful grace and that He will keep the strings of my heart tuned so that I may always sing of that grace.

Man was created to be in relationship with God. In the Garden of Eden, man enjoyed the ability to stand in God’s presence, to look on His face and to walk and talk with Him. But when sin entered the world through man’s disobedience, man could no longer stand in God’s presence. Man was banished from the Garden, from the presence of God, and cherubim and a flaming sword were placed at the entrance to the Garden (Genesis 2:23-24).

But God still desired for man to be in relationship with Him. He established a covenant with man that required sacrifice to atone for sin. When Moses built the tabernacle, the only person who could enter the Most Holy Place, the place where His presence could be found, was Aaron, the high priest. The Most Holy Place was covered by a curtain through which only Aaron could enter. But Aaron could do so only after first bringing both a sin offering and a burnt offering (Leviticus 16:3).

When Solomon built the temple, the Most Holy Place was covered by a curtain made of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen. Woven into the fabric of the curtain were images of cherubim, the very beings who guarded the entrance to the Garden of Eden (2 Chronicles 3:14). The Ark of the Covenant, on which the presence of God would rest, was placed behind the curtain. God’s presence was hidden from all but the high priest and, as with Aaron, the high priest could only enter following a sacrifice for the atonement of sin.

Through His Son, Jesus Christ, God has established a new covenant with man. When Jesus died on the cross, providing the perfect sacrifice for our sins, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Mark 15:37-38). God was removing the curtain from the Most Holy Place. Because of the sacrifice of the great High Priest, Jesus, we can once again stand in God’s presence. When we turn our hearts and our lives to Jesus, we can once again have that relationship with God that He intended when we were created.

The curtain that covered the Most Holy Place, that kept us from God’s presence, is our sin. Jesus died to take away that sin. When we turn to Him and follow Him, the curtain of our sin is removed and we can once again stand in God’s presence.

Nothing seems to last anymore. I once had a microwave oven that lasted about 25 years. When it stopped working, I bought a new one. And then another new one, and another. And that was in a span of about five years! I am sometimes convinced that things like appliances and electronics are actually designed with planned obsolescence. They last two or three years (if you’re lucky!) and then they need to be replaced. 

When God created man, He said that man was not meant to be alone. Man is meant to be in community with others. Ecclesiastes 4:9 tells us that two are better than one. We were created to help each other. We can accomplish far more for the Lord and for each other when we work together as part of a community of believers. The early church knew the importance and the value of community. In the book of Acts, we see that they worshiped together, broke bread together, and supported each other physically and spiritually.

In several of his letters to the church in various parts of the world, Paul spells out the characteristics that should define a community of believers. Romans 12:10 says that we should be devoted to each other. We are to love one another (Romans 13:8) and accept one another just as Christ accepted us (Romans 15:7). In humility that comes from love, we are to serve each other (Galatians 5:13).

When anyone in our community of believers is burdened, we are to help carry that burden (Galatians 6:2). With gentleness and patience, we should bear each other in love (Ephesians 4:2). Out of our reverence for Christ, we are to submit to each other (Ephesians 5:21). We are to instruct one another (Romans 15:14), encourage each other and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

When we are part of a community of believers, we have the benefit of being there to help each other in our struggles. When one falls, there is another there to lift him up. But a person who is not part of a community has no one to help with his struggles. When he falls, there is no one there to help him up. Two are truly better than one (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).