Don's Devotionals: Learning to love God

A Prayer:  The Scriptures are filled with such wonderful men and women of faith.  I trust that you are familiar with all the ones mentioned below.  The Lord helped me write this prayer a couple of years ago for a conference.  I have had it on my heart to share it with you all, and trust that it will stir within you an increased desire to become everything you can be.  Regardless of our age, our focus can be sharpened enabling us to become more of what He wants us to be.  God bless you!

Oh Lord Jesus,

I pray that each of us will become

• like Joseph – that we will stay faithful to You – even when the dreams You give us, seem like they will never come true.
• like Moses – that we will turn aside when You place a burning bush in our path.
• like Joshua and Caleb – that we will be brave and courageous in the face of giants in the land..

I pray that we will be

• like Ruth – that we will live godly lives leading to incredible destinies
• like Isaiah – that in response to hearing Your call, each of us will say, “Here am I.  Send me.”
• like Esther – that we will recognize the times for which we have been created and face them with faith and courage.
• like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego – our commitment to You is not based on whether you will save us from a fiery trial or not.

I pray that we will be

• like Peter and Andrew – that we will follow You when you call us to be fishers of men.
• like the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus – that our hearts will burn within – whenever You speak to us.
• and like Paul – that the day will come, when each of us can say, “I have fought the good fight.   I have finished the race.  I have kept the faith!”

Galatians 5:22-23   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I grew up in southwestern Michigan which is an area that has been known as the Fruit Belt since the 1800s.  In the spring there are strawberries, followed in the summer and fall by cherries, blueberries, peaches, plums, pears, apples, and grapes.  The trees that produced much of the fruit all bore blossoms in the spring.  It was so wonderful to drive through the countryside and see fruit trees in bloom everywhere.

The blossoms, although beautiful in their own right, are a promise of something to come.  Whether the bearer of the fruit is a tree, a bush or a vine, the fruit is the natural result of the plant – and typically the fruit is supposed to be sweet and flavorful.

Have you ever been in an orchard where you could pick and eat the ripe fruit as you walked along?  Regardless where you find it, how pleasant it is to bite into sweet fruit and savor its taste.  Unfortunately, we’ve all probably tasted fruit that is anything but sweet and flavorful!   The typical result is wanting to spit it out.

The scriptures are clear that Christians produce fruit.  The question then isn’t, are you producing blueberries or grapes, but rather what does your fruit “taste” like?  The fruit of the Spirit listed above is sweet and flavorful.  The “fruit of the flesh” if you will, would be the antonyms of the fruit of the Spirit and characterized as sour and bitter.  Which fruit do we want taste in others?  Which fruit do we want in our own lives?  We have choices to make because good fruit doesn’t happen by accident.

Think of the blessing that others receive from tasting love; from savoring faithfulness; from encountering kindness – from experiencing any of the fruit of the Spirit.  God wants those who encounter us – His people – to be able to walk through the orchard of our lives and taste the sweet and flavorful fruit of His Spirit.  Once they do, they’ll be back for more.

Matthew 6:13a  “And lead us not into temptation,…”

Years ago I heard a Bible teacher give a very illuminating paraphrase of this verse: “Lord, let there not be anything in my heart that would cause you to put me to the test.”  We know from Scripture that God doesn’t tempt anyone.  (James 1:13)  But God will allow situations to arise that will reveal what is within us.

I think of King Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 32:31 – “But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.”  The same Bible teacher explained that the way God leaves us is to withdraw our conscious awareness of His presence.  We think we’re alone, but we’re not.

God uses these experiences in our lives for our benefit – not as ‘Gotcha!’ moments.  They are God’s gifts to us that allow us to show ourselves strong in His behalf; or to have faults within us revealed that we then can deal with.  If we have ‘termites’ or are building our ‘house’ upon sand rather than rock (Matthew 7:24-27), isn’t it critical that we find out and repent?!

Sometimes the situations we encounter reveal our unbelief or lack of faith.  When we see our deficiencies, they are not putdowns – but are revelations that enable us to change for the better.  The Holy Spirit is working within us to conform us to the image of Christ in every area of our lives.  The opportunity to repent is such a gift from God!

God wants and expects excellence from us in every area of our lives.  If we think we are only capable of mediocrity, we will be content with mediocrity.  But with the Holy Spirit we are not only capable of excellence; we are held accountable for it as well.  Not in a judgmental way, but as recipients of the greatest gifts ever given: the new birth and the Holy Spirit.  This news isn’t meant to intimidate us but exhilarate us!

God is working incessantly within us to enable us to become a glory to Him.    He is the Master Craftsman.  When people see us (the work of His hands), His intent is for them to recognize His craftsmanship.  They will see Him in us; and experience Him when interacting with us!  We are an intimate part of the process so let’s embrace it with the passion it deserves.

Mark 3:1-6  ¹Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. ²Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. ³Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”   ⁴Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.  ⁵He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. ⁶Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

It is difficult to find words to describe everything contained in these few verses. So many big things happen.  Jesus had compassion on a crippled man and does a wonderful miracle.  Jesus not only discerned the stubborn hearts of the Pharisees, he was angry with them.  The Pharisees were unable to see their own stubbornness and unbelief.  In the face of the miraculous, they were blind and deceived.  I think this is one of the most frightening things in the scriptures.  They saw Jesus and wanted to kill Him.

How could anyone see such a wonderful miracle and not be moved and humbled by it?  These religious leaders believed in God, yet the condition of their hearts made them blind to God right in front of them.  They were witnessing a demonstration of the power of God unlike any seen in the history of mankind.  Yet they failed to see Immanuel, (God with us) in their midst.

Surely they too had family or friends who were sick, crippled or in bondage.  Jesus was doing miracles everywhere.  Why didn’t they go and get them and bring them to Jesus?  Instead, the Pharisees become so angry that they wanted to kill Jesus – because He did the miracle on the Sabbath.    How could these men not recognize the wonder they were beholding?  They clung to arguments rather than recognizing the Son of God – right in front of them.

I think of Isaiah 6:9, 10   ⁹ He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
¹⁰ Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

We must recognize that the same spiritual deafness and blindness can happen to us.  We can miss God working in our lives and right in front of us through the ‘callousing’ of our hearts.

Mark 12:32 – 33  “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ³³To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Years ago, I had a friend who was a marvelous golfer.  Better still, whenever friends played golf with Jay, he made it into a golfing lesson to help us.  I really appreciated the fact that throughout the round he would give me tips and help me become a better golfer.  One day another friend of mine joined us for a round of golf.  I had told him that Jay would help him with his game.  As we started playing it became apparent that his golf game was really hurting.

We played the first few holes and Jay hadn’t said anything to him yet in terms of helping his golf game.  As we were walking down the 4^th fairway, Jay came over to me and said, “I will help him, but he’s doing so many things wrong, I haven’t figured out where to start.”

Loving God and loving one another have some interesting similarities to playing golf.  They all take practice and it’s wonderful to have friends around who will help us do it better.  We have to be around them and be willing to listen.  If we want to become better at golf, we work at it.  Maybe we take lessons.  We watch better golfers to learn what we can from them.  We find time to play more golf.  We have to be intentional about it.  The same principles apply to our faith.

How good it is when we have individuals in our lives who exemplify what scriptures teach.  But we need to know what scripture teaches in order to really recognize genuine Godliness.  In golf, we have par.  In life, we have all kinds of different things claiming to be right.

That is where scripture and the Holy Spirit are so important, along with being a part of a vibrant life giving church.  We have a lot to learn and God wants us to learn from one another.  One advantage of our faith is that we get to live and “practice” it everywhere: at work, at play, at home or out with friends.  No matter where we are, or what we are doing, loving God and loving one another applies. We need to learn to do it well.

Mark 12: 28 – 31  ²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”  ²⁹“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  ³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”

This portion of Mark describes a wonderful interaction between Jesus and a teacher of the law.  It is one of my favorites because this teacher recognized the truth.  This teacher is one of the very few leaders who interacted wisely with Jesus.  Jesus is asked to identify the most important commandment – which He does in quoting Deuteronomy 6: 4, 5.

Note how Jesus describes loving God.  Jesus describes it as loving Him with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  This is something that you work at in accomplishing – not something that just happens.  It requires intentionality and is all consuming.  Also remember that this is the greatest commandment.  Nothing is greater.

Let’s look at it from a different perspective.  Consider loving God as an acquired skill.  It is defined by a whole set of beliefs, attitudes, motives and actions. It has standards all its own, and Scripture details what they are.  It involves learning the specific required skills in order to become good at it. In order to develop excellence, a great deal of practice is required.  We might think of it as being lifelong apprentices – we never stop learning how to do it better.

When we were born again we became new in Christ.  We were freed from the power of sin in order to become the people that God wants us to be.  Jesus’ answer describes the people we are to become – lovers of God.  But loving God goes beyond skill sets we acquire because it involves who we are as a person. Praise God, the Holy Spirit is the master craftsman, our personal trainer, coach, enabler and so much more.  He is God’s gift to us so that this might all come about.

We may start out doing many of these things because we are supposed to, but as we embrace the process, the Spirit will transform us so that it all becomes a genuine expression of a life committed to Jesus.  We more and more become that which we are doing.   Loving God becomes the passion of our lives.

Matthew 14:28  “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

Have you ever dreamed of what it would be like to be in the boat with the disciples when Jesus walked on the water?  How would we have responded to seeing Him?  Remember it was a very windy night and the disciples were struggling to survive let alone get across the lake.  In the midst of it, they saw a figure walking on the water that was about to pass them by and were terrified.  They thought it was a ghost.  But then Jesus spoke to them saying, “Take courage!  It is I.  Don’t be afraid.”

Even then they weren’t sure it was Jesus as indicated by Peter’s response, “Lord if it’s you…”  Isn’t it amazing that Jesus chose a stormy night – and not a calm one for this encounter.  (Note: God does the same thing with us.)  Imagine Peter’s excitement when he heard (above the sound of the wind and waves) the Lord say “Come”.

I wonder what went through Peter’s mind.  Did he simply want to be with Jesus?  Or was it more, “I’d sure like to do that!”  Whatever, Peter didn’t allow the risk involved to stop him.  Picture him trying to hang on to a bouncing boat as he got his legs over the side and then began to walk.  Peter experienced an incredible wonder – before he began to sink.  Remember the water wasn’t flat or calm but was wind-swept waves.   Peter did walk on the water and came toward Jesus.

Then his focus shifted from Jesus and the wonder of what he was doing, to the adverse conditions around him.  Although he did succumb to fear and begin to sink, Jesus was right there to rescue him.  Peter experienced the miraculous because he responded to the opportunity that Jesus gave him.  He didn’t allow fear to keep him in the security of the boat.

God uses the same principle in His dealings with us.  In the midst of our often difficult circumstances, He will give us opportunities to respond to Him.  We have to have ‘eyes’ to see the opportunities and the willingness to respond.  In spite of the safety of the ‘boat’ – our lifestyle and circumstances that we are comfortable with – will we overcome our fear and the risk involved to respond to the Lord bidding us to come?  It’s amazing the wonders He has for us to experience if only we will respond to Him.

Note: My favorite author is John Ortberg.  He has a wonderful book on this very subject that I highly recommend titled, If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat.

Psalm 19:1  The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

When I was a little boy I had a book about Grandpa Bunny Bunny.  He was the founder of Bunnyville and the father and grandpa of many little bunnies.  He was dearly loved by them all. He taught his children and grandchildren how to paint Easter eggs and spring flowers and autumn leaves.  People would see the incredible beauty around them and wonder where it all came from.  But the little bunnies would laugh, because they knew it was Grand Bunny Bunny’s doing.

Then came a day when Grandpa Bunny Bunny told all the little bunnies that it was time for him to leave – and then he was gone.  A few days later, after a rain, there was a sunset of incredible color.  All the little bunnies who loved him so, knew that he was still painting.  The colorful sky was the work of their beloved Grandpa.  In my family, we referred to such colorful sunsets as “Grandpa Bunny Bunny” skies.

So many people are blind to the wonder of creation.  Others, instead of recognizing the heavens as evidence of His existence, struggle with questions that deny the reality of what they are seeing.  The heavens declare God’s glory – but they are also designed to provoke a response in each of us to find the One who created them.  The “creator” wants to be found by the “created”.

When we look at the stars and the skies; when we see a glorious sunset or enjoy the beauty around us – we get to recognize them as the work of our beloved Lord.  They are not the work of some omnipotent, unknowable, distant being.  We are able to view the wonder in the context of our love relationship with Him.

While God’s greatness and power are beyond our imagining, it never ceases to amaze me that through Jesus, we belong to Him – and that He loves us so! As I sit and write this, I’m laughing and grinning with joyous wonder because He made me His.  The God who made the heavens knows my name and made me one of His sons.  WOW!  The wonder of the heavens pales in comparison to that!

Psalm 34:18  The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

In church on Sunday we sang a song that had a verse that really touched me.  It spoke of the tired and weary, the lost and lonely, and the brokenhearted.  All of us have probably experienced all these things at one time or another.  Hopefully in those times, we have experienced the closeness of the Lord and been blessed by His love and presence.  But each of these can be formidable things to deal with.

The thing that I was particularly struck by was the thought of all those around us, who may or may not know Jesus, who are experiencing one or more of these things.  Take a moment to think of those in your circle of relationships.  Are there any who are tired and weary?  I don’t think this is talking about physical tiredness that comes from working hard or doing something physically demanding.  It seems that it is referring to a weariness of spirit, which would be similar to one being lost or lonely, or brokenhearted.  Typically, these conditions come with discouragement.

An illustration that has really been helpful to me is that of an outrigger on a canoe.  It is there to stabilize the canoe in turbulent water.  I’ve found that there are times when we are able to come along side of a friend or coworker who’s going through difficulties and the Lord enables us to function like an outrigger on their canoe as they go through “whitewater” in their life.  We’re there to encourage; pray with them; listen to them; give help and advice if asked; possibly share our faith.  The Lord gives us the opportunity to help them keep their “canoe” from tipping over.  We’re there to help them get through the difficulties.  It’s all about loving them.

It’s not about evangelizing – it’s about being the fragrance of Christ.  It’s about being salt and light.  It’s about loving those around us – being able to touch them with the love of God.  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted – and sometimes He wants us to be the ones, through whom, they experience Him.

Psalm 25:12  Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD?  He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

I went to Brazil in August 2006 to visit our John & Fabi and their girls Becca & Gabi.  It was a marvelous time with them.  One of the blessings of the trips there is the wonderful times that I have with the Lord.  Their apartment is on the ocean and there is just something special about having quiet times in the hammock on the balcony overlooking the ocean, hearing the waves and feeling the breeze.  It is as wonderful as it sounds. (I think their record cold is 68 degrees)

The Lord really spoke to me about today’s and yesterday’s verses on that trip.  As I noted yesterday, when it talked about making my plans succeed, I couldn’t identify what my specific plans were.  I wanted His plans for me – for my plans to truly be his plans.  It is a faith issue.  He has plans for all our lives, and by faith we follow Him.  We trust Him to guide us.

On that trip, I was really wrestling with the whole issue of His specific plan for me.  Then I read this verse and saw the incredible promise that it contained.  God will instruct the man or woman who fears the Lord in the way chosen for them.  We don’t have to know the specific details.  Our confidence is in Him – that He will instruct each of us in the way He has chosen for us.  We simply have to fear the Lord and look to Him in faith.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     So many of the characters in the Bible have such twists and turns in their walk with God.  So many things happen that are unexpected or seemingly negative – yet they are part of God’s plan for them.  The same is true for us.  In this verse, He has given us a rock to stand on.  As we fear the Lord, our God will guide us in the way He has chosen for us.  This is something for us to claim with faith and thankfulness.