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This is the third in our series of Holy Week devotionals. The last couple of days we talked about Palm Sunday and what happened in the Temple. The middle part of this week leading to the arrest, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus doesn’t have events quite as clearly labeled, yet we know a lot of things were happening. Matthew has five chapters between the Triumphal Entry and the Passover meal. Mark has about two and a half chapters. Luke has two chapters, and John has half a chapter. So what do we find in those chapters? Jesus did a lot of teaching. He also did some praying, weeping over the city, and giving warnings to the religious leaders, but a lot of teaching took place during those days. Some of the teaching happened while He was being questioned by religious leaders trying to set Him up and trap Him, some of it happened through parables and observations in the Temple, and some of it took place as He tried to explain to the disciples what was about to happen and what would be coming in the future. In the midst of all of this, both Matthew and Mark give the account of Jesus teaching about the most important commandments in response to being questioned by religious leaders and scribes. In Mark 12:28-34 it says: One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, ‘What commandment is the foremost of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’ The scribe said to Him, ‘Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions. I for one am so thankful for the scribe that asked Jesus this question. To have Jesus so concisely wrap up all of the Law and the heart of God so clearly into these two commandments is so helpful. Because life gets crazy and busy and confusing and challenging for all us, there are times when we all feel a little lost. When we’re confused and don’t know what direction to go, this is a good place to come back to. If we remember who God is and focus on loving Him with everything in us and then focus on loving others well, that’s a great direction to start. It might not solve all of our problems. It might not give us perfect clarity on what our future should look like, but it gets pretty close. There’s a lot that we can do while honoring those two commandments, but it also helps us see that there’s a lot that doesn’t matter as much as we might think it does. As we draw ever closer to Easter, how is your relationship with God? Are you loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Are you loving others well? Let’s follow Jesus’s example and love well this Easter week.
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We are in the second day of our series of Holy Week devotionals. Yesterday we talked about Palm Sunday. The Holy Week happening that we’re taking a look at today may have happened on Sunday after the Triumphal Entry or on that next day. Matthew and Luke give the impression that this happened right after Triumphal Entry. Mark states that they went back to Bethany for the night first, and John has this account or another very similar one near beginning of his book in chapter 2. Let’s take a look at the account in Mark 11:15-18: Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. And He began to teach and say to them, ‘Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.’ The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching. Sometimes when we read this we might be tempted to think that this is an extreme reaction and find ourselves wondering why Jesus would do this. If we take time to understand what was really going on here, it might make a little more sense to us. Again, because they were getting ready for Passover the temple and surrounding areas were very busy places. God had instituted the Passover and temple sacrifices while the Israelites were still wandering in the desert. During Passover this great influx of people would all be looking to make their sacrifices. Over hundreds of years the Israelites had become more dispersed throughout Israel and neighboring areas and many had to travel for great distances to be in Jerusalem for the Passover. Possibly to help make it easier for travelers, the religious leaders had begun allowing people to sell animals for sacrifice in the temple. That also meant that people might have different currencies that would need to be exchanged so they set up areas for that as well. Sounds helpful and convenient right? First, should sacrifice be convenient? Second, even if this practice started as an idea to help, it certainly wasn’t at that point. As Jesus quoted from Isaiah 56:7, the temple was to be a house of prayer. Can you imagine being a Gentile who wanted to worship God during the Passover, and the only place you’re allowed to do that in the temple is also crowded with people buying and selling animals and trading money? That doesn’t sound like a very good atmosphere for prayer and focusing on God. On top of all that, this “helpful convenience” had become a big business. Someone could buy an animal for sacrifice at the temple, but obviously they’d need to pay the person for the animal. That sounds fair enough as long as the seller wasn’t taking advantage of the fact that the buyer didn’t really have any other options in order to make the sacrifice that was the purpose for their trip. Of course, the seller would have to have permission to be in the Temple selling the animals in the first place. The religious leaders would gladly give that permission for a large portion of the proceeds. Then there were the Romans. They were the rulers of the area. They had conquered by force and could set the laws including what religious practices were in place. They could say no Passover at all, but they graciously allowed it to happen as long as they also received a large portion of the proceeds from these sales. Sounds real helpful right? Not only was all of this buying and selling and money changing disrupting worship and violating the purpose of the temple, but it was taking advantage of people. It directly violated the heart of God, and it was being not just condoned but conducted by the religious leaders. Jesus turning over tables and driving them out doesn’t seem so extreme when we look at it that way does it? There’s a possibility that all of this was started by an idea to help people. We really don’t know, but if it started there it quickly moved from helping people to worship to taking advantage of people. We’ve all seen and maybe even experienced examples of how an idea or desire to help ultimately ended up leading down a path of damage and destruction. It’s an all too easy path for any of us to find ourselves headed down. As we prepare our hearts for worship, let’s take time to evaluate our hearts, our thoughts, our attitudes and actions. Are the things we do and say each day making it easier for us and for others to worship God or are we justifying things that are hurting or taking advantage of others? The week leading up to Easter is often referred to as “Holy Week”. The Gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke and John give us many details about what happened in the week leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. For many Christians, it is a great opportunity to spend time reflecting on those events as we approach Easter Sunday. It is a great way to prepare our hearts for Easter. So during this week leading up to Easter, instead of our usual blog posts, tips, quotes, and more, each day this week we will be sharing a quick devotional focused on Holy Week events. The Sunday before Easter is frequently referred to as Palm Sunday. The day Jesus made His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament share about this event. Here is Matthew’s account: When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.’ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your King is coming to you, Gentle, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’’ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!’ Matthew 21:1-9 So much of what is happening in these verses is a fulfillment of prophecy. We know that the streets of Jerusalem were very crowded when Jesus entered because the time for Passover was approaching. During the Passover, Psalms 113-118 were frequently recited or sung by the people. In Psalm 118:25-26 we find these words: O Lord, do save, we beseech You; O Lord, we beseech You, do send prosperity! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord; We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. These words that the crowds were shouting out as Jesus entered Jerusalem were “Hosanna” or save us and then quoting directing from this Psalm with “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” They were recognizing Jesus as their messiah and calling for Him to save them. They were welcoming him with eagerness and triumph like a king. But as we will see through the rest of Holy Week, for most of them they wanted him as the messiah they had pictured and hoped for: one who would deliver them from Rome and make them a great and mighty nation. He was coming to be THE MESSIAH. The One who would save the world from sin and oppression. The one who would reconcile us with God and ultimately restore His perfect kingdom on earth. They missed the greatness of the Triumphant Messiah in hopes of a much smaller triumph. Before we start getting judgmental about the error of their ways, let’s be careful and take a look at ourselves. How often do we impatiently want God to fix something for us that He just doesn’t seem to be fixing? We doubt and wonder why He isn’t doing what we know He can. Maybe we even begin to doubt our understanding of who He is. All the time He is actually doing something so far beyond and more amazing than what we can actually comprehend. Many of us have seen moments like this in hindsight where we see the small thing we were asking for and the amazing thing He did instead. If we haven’t personally experienced that, we certainly have plenty of examples in Scripture. You would think that would make it easier for us to trust when we find ourselves in the middle of those seemingly unanswered prayers today, but like the crowds welcoming Jesus that day we too often lose sight of Him and His greatness when we’re focused on our ideas for what we think should happen instead. I encourage you (and me) today to stay focused on Jesus and trust that what He is doing is exceedingly better than anything we can imagine. Genesis 32 contains one of the most unique encounters with God that we see in all of Scripture. To be fair, most encounters with God in Scripture are each unique in their own ways, but this interaction between God and Jacob is definitely an original. Jacob, his family, and his livestock had just fled his uncle Laban’s household, and he was about to see his brother Esau for the first time in a couple of decades. This is the same Esau whose blessing Jacob stole by deceiving their father, Isaac. Esau had threatened to kill Jacob because of this, and now Jacob was about to come face to face with him, and he was fearful. Maybe you can relate to some of these family dynamics, or maybe it makes you appreciate that even though your family has it’s own share of dysfunction you’re not quite this bad. Either way, we can all relate to tough relationships, difficult dynamics, and past regrets. We’ve all experienced having to face awkward and even fearful meetings with people. Jacob prayed. He confessed His unworthiness, recognized God’s faithfulness, and asked for God’s help. Then while spending the night on his own after sending the others ahead, Jacob had this unusual encounter: Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him and said, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And he blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.’ Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. Genesis 32:24-31 There is so much that we see happening in these verses, but it struck me that Jacob walked away blessed, but scarred. He wrestled with God and was blessed by God, but walked away with a limp. So often it seems like the scars and the blessings really do come together. It can be out of some of the most difficult, challenging things in our life that we also end up receiving the greatest blessings. In those difficult, scarring situations that we face in life, it seems like we always have a choice. We can allow the situation to stop us and make us give up, or like Jacob we can keeping going to seek God’s blessing. If we stop we’re just left with the pain, but if we persist in seeking God’s blessing in the pain then like Jacob we might be able to walk away with not just the scars, but also the blessing. Now, this doesn’t mean that we always have to stay in the situation that is causing the pain, as we seek God’s blessing we also need to seek His wise guidance. There may be times he asks us to stay in something, but at other times that is clearly not what He wants for us. Even if we leave a scarring situation though, we are still carrying the scars with us as we go. The question becomes, will we carry painful, tender scars that still hurt when bumped, or will we carry healed scars that remind us not just of the pain but of God’s blessing? Wrestling through the pain and seeking God’s blessing in the midst of it is not easy. We all want the blessing without the limps and scars that remain behind, but the growth and new understanding of who we are that comes from wrestling through these things with God are priceless. So if you are in the midst of a challenging situation or season, be persistent in wrestling through it with God. In obedience, seek His blessing and the growth comes from it, letting the scars remind you of His faithfulness.
On a recent podcast that I was listening to, the book Gently and Lowly by Dane Ortlund was not just mentioned, but highly recommended. I decided to go ahead and check it out, and I was so glad that I did. I’m guessing that most of us would say that Jesus loves us. We may have even sung “Jesus Loves Me” from a young age and memorized John 3:16. But deep in our heart of hearts, I would also guess that some if not most of us struggle to fully understand and embrace how deep His love is for us. In Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers Dane Ortlund explores the words Jesus uses to describe Himself in Matthew 11:28-30. Ortlund helps his readers to understand what it means when Jesus says that He is “gently and lowly in heart”. Through this and numerous other passages he explores the amazing love, compassion and care that Jesus has for us at all times even in our sin and suffering. Reading this book took my appreciation for God’s love for me to new depths. Ortlund’s words helped me to better understand just how much Jesus loves us and embrace it and Him in new ways. In this anxious world today, being better equipped to rest in the confidence and peace of His love for us is a sweet place to be. Gentle and Lowly helped me to do that in a better way. Just one brief quote demonstrating the multitude of encouragement I found in this book is this: “If his grace in kindness is ‘immeasurable,’ then our failures can never outstrip his grace. Our moments of feeling utterly overwhelmed by life are where God’s heart lives. Our most haunted pockets of failure and regret are where his heart is drawn most unswervingly.” So is this book for you? Take a look at who Ortland said he wrote this book for in his introduction: This book is written for the discouraged, the frustrated, the weary, the disenchanted, the cynical, the empty. Those running on fumes. Those whose Christian lives feel like constantly running up a descending escalator. Those of us who find ourselves thinking: “How could I mess up that bad—again?” It is for that increasing suspicion that God’s patience with us is wearing thin. For those of us who know God loves us but suspect we have deeply disappointed him. Who have told others of the love of Christ yet wonder if—as for us—he harbors mild resentment. Who wonder if we have shipwrecked our lives beyond what can be repaired. Who are convinced we’ve permanently diminished our usefulness to the Lord. Who have been swept off our feet by perplexing pain and are wondering how we can keep living under such numbing darkness I would say that we all find, or have found, ourselves somewhere in that description at some point and time and if you haven’t you probably will. So I would say yes this book is for you. If you want to draw closer to God, understand how He truly feels about you, or want to rest more confidently in His love for you, then I would highly recommend reading this book.
May you discern the wonder of His love in your life today! This is week three in our series on what Scripture teaches us about the value of wonder in our lives and ministries. Today’s Scripture passage is Habakkuk 1:5 (NASB) Look among the nations! Observe! God is “doing something in your days” something we wouldn’t believe. Do you really believe that statement?
For those of us in ministry, isn’t that at least part of why we got into ministry in the first place? We wanted to be a part of what God was doing. And you definitely don’t have to be in full-time ministry to feel that way. But as the home page of this website says, sometimes in the busyness of our lives and ministry we start to lose sight of the fact that God is doing things, astonishing, wonderful things all around us. And at times He is even doing those things in or through us. So why is it so easy for us to lose sight of this? Why does it become so easy to read that verse and hear a small voice in our head saying: Really? Even now? Even in…whatever mess, craziness, challenge or trial we find ourselves in at the moment? Is it possible that we’ve stopped looking and observing? Is it possible that we might be a little like Peter who stepped out of the boat with his eyes fully on Jesus only to find himself sinking like a rock when his focus shifted back to the storm? I don’t know about you, but all too often I find myself feeling this way. Those storms around us can be really distracting. We feel like they need our attention. We’re adults. We’re leaders. We have responsibilities. We can’t ignore the storms. Was Peter ignoring the storm while His eyes were on Jesus or was He trusting Jesus to help him in the midst of the storm? Why do we feel like keeping our eyes, attention, and focus on Jesus means we’ll end up missing something or neglecting what we’re supposed to do in the midst of the storm? As I ask myself that question, any answer that I come up with ultimately seems to come back to a lack of trust: being afraid I’ll miss something important, being afraid that something will catch me off guard, being afraid that people will think I’m shirking my responsibilities. All of those are ultimately a lack of trust that Jesus will walk me through the storm as I focus on Him. So my challenge, and am I guessing yours, is to stop giving so much of our focus and attention to the tasks and trials around us and trust to Jesus to walk us through as we look at Him and observe what He is doing. In our astonishment and wonder at what He is doing in our day, we might just be reminded of the joy that comes from joining Him along the way. It doesn’t take long in life, or ministry, to hit a season of difficulty and challenge. Seasons of uncertainty, fear, and grief rock us all at times.
We each have our own tendencies in how we try to get through these types of seasons. We might try to buckle down, work even harder, and just plow through. We might try to bury our heads in the sand and try to act like everything is okay. We might do our best to get through what we have to, and then distract or numb ourselves so we don’t have to deal with our thoughts and feelings. We might isolate ourselves so we don’t have explain to others what we are dealing with. We might do the opposite and vent to trusted people or anyone who will listen. We might get angry and explode on those around us. It could be that we do any one of those or possibly a mix of them depending on the situation and season that we are facing. Maybe we look for healthier alternatives though. We might seek a trusted advisor. We might try to process our thoughts and feeling through journaling. We might do some deep breathing or seek to exercise or eat healthier. We might look for some books to help us where we are struggling. We might look to spend time with friends and family. We might finally take time to rest. While these are definitely strategies that are much better for us than the first ones, Psalm 31:24 has an even better idea for us: “Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the Lord.” Read that verse again, and maybe one more time after that. I don’t know about you, but reading those words lets me just take a much needed deep breath. At the same time I find myself wanting to say: I want to be strong. I want to be courageous, but I just don’t know if I know how or if I can. There is good news. The key is in the second part of that verse: “All you who hope in the Lord.” This is where we begin. When we’re uncertain, when we’re afraid, when we’re grieving or struggling, we need to start by hoping in the Lord. Sometimes we don’t just isolate ourselves from others. Sometimes in difficult seasons of life we isolate ourselves from God too. We know that’s not helpful, but we do. So start there. Stop isolating yourself from God. He hasn’t left you. He is waiting with open arms for you to come pour out your hurt, your pain, your fears, your worries, and your sorrow to Him. Not only can He take it, but He will love you through it. He will walk with you through whatever fire surrounds you. When we go to God in difficult times, His love and His truth sparks hope in our souls. Not hope in our situation or anything else that we tend to cling to, but hope in Him. It is that hope that enables us to be strong and take courage. When we’re at the end of our rope and we can’t muster up that strength and courage on our own, it comes from hope in Him. So are you facing uncertainty, fears or sorrow today? Spend some time with God. Enjoy His presence. Pour out your struggles and allow Him to fill you hope, strength, and courage. This is week two in our series on what Scripture teaches us about the value of wonder in our lives and ministries.
Today’s Scripture passage is Psalm 77:11-15 (NASB) “I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.” “You are the God who works wonders.” Do you really believe that? What are some of the wonders you have seen God do? I hope that some things immediately came to mind. If not, I would sincerely recommend taking some time to reflect on that further. Life is tough and the psalmist understood that remembering these wonders from God can help us in those tough times. In fact, in the New American Standard Bible the heading at the top of Psalm 77 says, “Comfort in Trouble from Recalling God’s Mighty Deeds.” Why is this so important? In life and in ministry, tough times will happen. In fact Jesus Himself promised us that in John 16:33: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” Like the psalmist describes in these verses from Psalm 77, remembering the wonders we’ve seen and even the ones recounted for us in Scripture and then meditating and musing on focusing and dwelling on them help us through these tough times. It helps us remember how great and powerful God truly is. Remembering that and focusing on Him helps us to put our current difficulties in better perspective. Our problems don’t disappear, but we remember that we aren’t alone. The God who works wonders is with us. So are you struggling with things in your life? Are you dealing with struggles and difficulties in your ministry? Take time to remember the wonders that God has done. Take time to remember the God who works wonders. Remember that He is Holy. Remember that He is great. Remember that He is strong and powerful. Remember that He redeems. Today's post begins with a Scripture passage from Matthew 25:14-30. For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness: in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. As I read this passage recently two words caught my attention in a way I’d never really noticed before. Those words were “afraid” and “entrusted”.
The third servant in the story was was clearly operating out of a mindset of fear. He was afraid and he hid what was given to him. Sounds a lot like Adam and Eve who found themselves hiding after sin entered the world. Why was this third servant living in this place of fear? You might say that that wasn’t his fault, because he wasn’t given as much so in a way it would be easier for him to lose everything. The second servant really didn’t have much more than the third servant though, and yet he approached things very differently. I don’t know that I’ve ever really questioned that difference too much. Two were good stewards. The third one wasn’t. We should be like the first two. Seems simple enough, but why did the third guy make such a different decision? He was afraid. He wanted to protect what he had because he was afraid of losing it. It seems like his focus was on what would happen to him if he lost what belonged to the master. But the word that seems pretty important here is a word used by both of the first two servants. They both used the word “entrusted”. They both refer to the money the master gave them as having been “entrusted” to them. This word is nowhere to be found in the third servant’s explanation. Their next words seem to shed just a little more light on the mindset difference. The first two servants both say to their master “See, I have gained…more talents” while the third servant says “See, you have what is yours.” The first two viewed what they had been given as theirs to do something with. They saw that they had been trusted to make use of the money in a way that honored their master. The third servant couldn’t seem to see past the fact that the money ultimately didn’t belong to him and that something bad might happen to him if he did anything with it. Toward the end of this passage the master says: “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance”. Sometimes that seems kind of harsh. How are people supposed to get anything if only those who have get more? But then that word abundance caught my eye. It reminded me of John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The third servant didn’t seem to recognize what he had been given. He only saw what he had to lose. Sometimes it is so easy for the “thief” to get us to focus on what we don’t have or what we could lose and we end up losing sight of what we have been given and how we have been trusted. It’s the difference between living with a scarcity mindset that tells us that there will never be enough, and living the abundant life that God wants us to live. We each have to choose what we are going to focus on. Will we focus on protecting what we’ve been given, being too afraid to lose it to the point we won’t accept and use it. Or will we focus on what we’ve been given, what we’ve been trusted with, and do something with it to honor the One who entrusted it. The choice is yours today. What have you been trusted with? Will you open your eyes and recognize it and begin to use it to honor God? On Mondays for the next few weeks, we’re going to be taking a closer look at Wonder and specifically what Scripture teaches us about the value of wonder in our lives and ministries.
Today we are going to start in Exodus 15:11 (ESV). “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, Awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” This verse comes from the Song of Moses as he and the people of Israel praised God for His mighty deliverance at the Red Sea. In an earlier article, I mentioned that the definition of Wonder Is a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. The events of Exodus 14, as the nation of Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry ground with walls of water on either side only to see that water come crashing down on Pharaoh’s army, were definitely unexpected, unfamiliar, and even inexplicable. God’s deliverance was a beautiful thing of the Israelites and Exodus 14:31 says that “Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” They appropriately responded to this amazing wonder with praise to God. Do you experience this kind of wonder in God on a regular basis? Now, you might be saying: “Well, I’ve never actually seen the Great Lakes or the Mississippi River or any other large body of water part like that and certainly not on a regular basis.” Or maybe you wouldn’t say something so obvious, but deep in your soul you might be struggling to think of any wonders you’ve seen God do, especially lately. You’re not alone. I think we’ve all experienced times like that. I wonder if sometimes we just overcomplicate it. We’re waiting to experience the wonder of parted sea moments and missing an appreciation for all the big and small moments of His majesty, His awesome and glorious deeds, His wonders that surround us every day. Can we still find wonder is the sunset or sunrise? The beach or mountains or lakes or desserts? A starry sky? A newborn baby? A child’s laugh? A smile? A sweet smell? How many of God’s wonders do we miss each day while we are longing and praying for Him to reveal Himself in “bigger” more “significant” ways? I challenge you to join me this week in opening our eyes to His wonders all around us and allowing those things to remind us to wonder in God. |
