Month Two
DAY 1
VOLUNTEER SLAVES
Slave” is not a word most of us nowadays feel comfortable with. It is significant that most modern Bible translations use “servant” instead. For a slave is not his own, has no rights whatsoever, is not in charge of what happens to him, makes no choices about what he will do or how he is to serve, is not recognized, appreciated, thanked or even (except by his absence) noticed at all.
Once we give up our slavery to the world, which is a cruel master indeed, to become Christ’s bond slave, we live out our servitude to Him by glad service to others. This volunteer slavery cannot be taken advantage of—we have chosen to surrender everything for love. It is a wholly different thing from forced labor. It is in fact the purest joy when it is most unobserved, most un-self-conscious, most simple, most freely offered.
Lord, break the chains that hold me to myself; free me to be Your happy slave—that is, to be the happy foot washer of anyone today who needs his feet washed, his supper cooked, his faults overlooked, his work commended, his failure forgiven, his griefs consoled or his button sewed on. Let me not imagine that my love for You is very great if I am unwilling to do for a human being something very small.
DAY 2
PRAY HARD, WORK TIRELESSLY
Sometimes we think of these two things as in opposition. The Bible never places them so but shows how perfectly they harmonize. Prayer is one kind of work, necessary to the proper doing of all other kinds. When we pray, we are in touch with God, expectant, trusting: He is at work. He does what we cannot do. We are to be at work also, doing what we can do.
In Paul’s closing remarks to the Christians in Colossae, he includes greetings from Epaphras, whom he describes in this way: “He prays hard for you all the time. . . . He works tirelessly for you” (Col. 4:12-13).
As we pray, the Lord frequently shows us what we ourselves can do to cooperate with Him in bringing about the answer. Let us listen as we pray. Then let us go out and work tirelessly.
DAY 3
FROM START TO FINISH
The great witnesses to faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, beginning with Abel, who offered a sacrifice by faith, down to those nameless others whose stories are not success stories by any stretch of the imagination, did not know Jesus, God’s full revelation of Himself. Yet they believed. Yet they were strong in faith. It was, although they were ignorant of it, Christ on whom their faith rested. Faith depends on Him “from start to finish” (Heb. 12:2). The whole saga of human faith from Abel to us depends on Him who endured a cross. The whole story of any one individual’s faith also depends on Him from start to finish. There is no other ground anywhere. He is the Rock.
I don’t know why I keep forgetting this and assuming that somewhere along the line (or the racetrack) I am supposed to manage it by myself. It is Jesus at the start, Jesus every foot of the track, Jesus at the finish. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him.
So, through life, death, through sorrow and through sinning
Christ shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed. Christ is the End, for Christ was the Beginning—Christ the Beginning, for the End is Christ.
(F. W. H. Meyer, “St. Paul”)
DAY 4
HIS BLOOD AND MY CONSCIENCE
In the conscience of all of us sinners there is deadness from our former ways. This has its effect on our present behavior, in ways we little realize, and hinders our fitness for service to God. But there is a remedy: the power of the blood of Christ.
His blood will cleanse our conscience from the deadness of our former ways and fit us for the service of the living God (Heb. 9:14).
This morning I was troubled about what seemed to be a blockage deep down where I could not get at it. I was glad it was not too deep or too strong for the power of the blood to reach and cleanse. Satan would try to convince me daily that I am full of hang-ups that unfit me for God’s service. The blood of Christ is my answer to his challenge. It will never lose its power.
DAY 5
WHAT FITS US FOR SERVICE
Is there any Christian who does not long for some special experience, vision or feeling of the presence of God? This morning it seemed to me that unless I could claim such I was merely going through motions of prayer, meditation, reading; that the book I am writing on discipline will prove to be nothing but vanity and a striving after wind. The Lord brought yesterday’s word to mind again with this emphasis: It is not any experience, no matter how exciting, not any vision, however vivid and dazzling, not any feeling, be it ever so deep, that fits me for service. It is the power of the blood of Christ. I am “made holy by the single unique offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb. 10:10, Phillips), and by his blood “fit . . . for the service of the living God” (9:14). My spiritual numbness cannot cancel that—the blood will never lose its power.
DAY 6
SAVING OURSELVES
Today I was tempted in a new way (the tempter has a bag of many tricks) to “save” myself. This time it involved a matter of face. The Lord reminded me that I should let it go.
We are always trying to save ourselves in one way or another. It is impossible, except on the terms Jesus gave the disciples: “Let [yourself] be lost” (Matt. 16:25). It was the only way Jesus could save the world, though the people challenged Him to save Himself. “Himself he cannot save” (Mark 15:31, KJV) was what they said, uttering an eternal principle far deeper than they had any idea of. It is true for us as well. If we are going to obey the will of the Father, we cannot save ourselves. We must give ourselves up, be lost—then, and only then, will we “find” ourselves.
Lord, deliver me from the faithless desire for self-preservation when obedience to You requires self-abandonment.
DAY 7
DEATH IS A GATEWAY TO THE PALACE
To be a Christian is to be a subject—subject to a king—that is, to welcome the rule of God in one’s life. Jesus Himself became subject to the Father—“Lo, I come . . . to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:7, KJV). This meant that He had come to this world, not to gain, but to lose; not to get, but to give; not to be served, but to serve; not to obtain bread, but to be bread, the Bread of Heaven, broken for the life of the world.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: . . . he humbled himself (Phil. 2:5-8, KJV).
That puts it in very simple terms. If you want to be a Christian, see that your mind is made up as His was: Be humble, be subject, be obedient—even to death. It will mean death. Be sure of that. Death to some of your desires and plans at least. Death to yourself. But never forget—Jesus’ death was what opened the way for His own exaltation and our everlasting life. Our death to selfishness is the shining gateway into the glories of the palace of the King. Is it so hard to be His subject? Is the price too high?
DAY 8
IMMUNITY—NO GRACE—YES
Someone asked last week, “When Jim died was your walk with the Lord close enough that His love and comfort and presence were sufficient at all times—or did grief and sorrow at times overtake and overwhelm you?” My answer is yes to both questions. It is not an either-or matter. The psalmist, overwhelmed, prayed, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Ps. 61:2, KJV).
Paul, plagued by a thorn, besought the Lord three times to remove it (see 2 Cor. 12:7-8).
Jesus, “horror-stricken and desperately depressed” (Mark 14:34), prayed “O My Father—if it be possible . . .” (see v. 36).
Of none of these—the psalmist, the apostle, the Lord—could it be said that his walk with God was not close enough. There was human suffering and divine sufficiency. This is the story of our life. The promise is “My grace is sufficient” (2 Cor. 12:9, KJV, emphasis added), not “My grace will abolish your thorns.”
DAY 9
HOW TO KNOW GOD
The order of the Christian’s assignment is this: hear, do, know. If we hear the commandments and obey them, the Father will make Himself known to us. It is no use trying to know Him without doing what He says. To listen to one word and go out and obey it is better than having the most exalted “religious experience,” for it puts us in touch with God Himself—it is a willed response.
“If you really love me, you will keep the commandments I have given you” (John 14:15, Phillips). It is perilously easy to imagine that we love God because we like the idea of God or because we feel drawn to Him. The only valid test of love is obedience. Take one thing commanded and start doing it. Take one thing forbidden and stop doing it. Then we are on the sure road to knowing God. There is no other.
You are my friends, if you do what I command you (John 15:14).
The man who has received my commands and obeys them—he it is who loves me: and he who loves me will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and disclose myself to him (14:21).
There is the order: hear, do, know.
DAY 10
LET THY WORDS BE FEW
A Christian businessman who served on the board of a college with my father told me what sort of board member my father was. He would wait until others had had their say and would then rise. He felt it was important to stand, though others did not usually do so, in order to be heard clearly. With a few well-chosen words he would then state his own position. He could be counted on to say more in these few words, and to say it more clearly and simply, than any of the others. My friend said he found himself waiting for what my father would say.
I knew from our home training how valuable time was to him. He was deeply conscientious not to waste it, whether it was his own or (especially) others’.
He did not like to waste words. They were tools to be used skillfully and carefully.
God is in heaven and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few (Eccles. 5:2, KJV).
DAY 11
THE NECESSITY TO COVER
There are things that it is our duty to cover in silence. We are told nowadays that everything ought to be expressed if we are truly “honest” and “open.”
Proverbs 11:13 says, “He who goes abroad as a tale-bearer reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing hidden.”
Jesus sometimes refused to reveal the truth about Himself, even when it would have seemed to us “an opportunity to witness.” He did not always answer questions. He did not always say who He was. He told some of those He healed to tell no one about it.
For every activity under heaven its time: . . . a time for silence and a time for speech (Eccles. 3:1-7).
A man of understanding remains silent (Prov. 11:12, RSV).
Lord, deliver me from the urge to open my mouth when I should shut it. Give me the wisdom to keep silent where silence is wise. Remind me that not everything needs to be said, and that there are very few things that need to be said by me.
DAY 12
THE HOPE OF HOLINESS
The “openness” that is often praised among Christians as a sign of true humility may sometimes be an oblique effort to prove that there is no such thing as a saint after all, and that those who believe that it is possible in our time to live a holy life are only deceiving themselves. When we enjoy listening to some Christian confess his weaknesses and failures, we may be eager only to convince ourselves that we are not so bad after all. We sit on the edge of our chairs waiting to grasp at an excuse for continuing to do what we have made up our minds long ago to do anyway. The Lord is ready to forgive sin at any moment and to make strong servants out of the worst of us. But we must believe it; we must come to Him in faith for forgiveness and deliverance and then go out to do the work He has given us to do.
“Charity . . . rejoiceth not in iniquity” (1 Cor. 13:4-6, KJV). Let us be willing to call iniquity what is really iniquity, rather than to call it weakness, temperament, failure, hang-ups, or to fall back on the tired excuse, “It’s just the way I am.”
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me (Ps. 51:10, KJV).
DAY 13
ALL THINGS SERVE THEE
During Addison’s terminal illness, everything in our lives was changing. The cancer had spread with a speed that startled the doctors. I found during those hard days and nights strength in the ringing words of the liturgy, proclaimed aloud as the congregation knelt: “Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.” I could hold on to those immutable facts.
The psalmist found the same strength in the Lord’s infrangible decrees: “This day, as ever, thy decrees stand fast; for all things serve thee” (Ps. 119:91). The Lord is not subject to vicissitudes, exigencies and contingencies. “Accidents” are, in fact, subject to the Lord of the universe, the blessed Controller of all things.
Thy promise endures for all time, stable as the earth which thou hast fixed (v. 90).
He fixes, that is, He sets in place, the whole Earth. Surely He can fix and establish my heart. Every “happening” serves Him.
DAY 14
HIDDEN WORK
Few of us accomplish without delay or interruption what we set out to accomplish. Plans are made, and they fail. We dream dreams, and they are not fulfilled. Even what seem to be soberly realistic schedules are interrupted by unforeseen demands. Often we are tempted to quit our efforts altogether, to take a careless attitude or to give in to helplessness, despair and frustration.
When the apostle Paul’s itinerant ministry was brought to a standstill by his imprisonment in Rome, he had plenty of human reasons for giving up. He wrote to the Christians at Philippi, who themselves were suffering persecution, reminding them of the humble obedience of Christ and exhorting them to do the same:
You too, my friends, must be obedient, as always. . . . You must work out your own salvation in fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you, inspiring both the will and the deed, for his own chosen purpose. Do all you have to do without complaint or wrangling (Phil. 2:12-14).
Imprisonments, persecutions, late planes, an attack of the flu, an uninvited guest or an unpleasant confrontation—never mind. Be obedient as always! Such a simple directive. So hard to carry out—unless we also remember that we are not by any means alone in our effort. God also is at work in us, always accomplishing what we could not accomplish if left to ourselves: His own chosen purpose.
DAY 15
TIT FOR TAT
He that would have friends must show himself friendly (see Prov. 18:24).
If you sow sparingly, you will get a scant harvest (see 2 Cor. 9:6).
This is the way things generally work. There is another verse that falls into the same category but that, being sometimes interpreted as a command instead of a description, has led to confusion: “Pass no judgment and you will not be judged” (Matt. 7:1). Jesus was not promising an escape from divine judgment for those who refrain from making judgments on others, nor was he asking us to suspend our critical faculties. He was simply pointing out the responsibility we assume when we judge. To say, for example, “Don’t lie” or “Lying is a sin” is to lay oneself open to scrutiny in this matter. Do I lie? Is it sin for me? Be careful. Jesus said, “As you judge others, so you will yourselves be judged, and whatever measure you deal out to others will be dealt back to you” (v. 2). A willingness to submit to the same moral law by which we judge is the prerequisite for judgment.
In a time when every man does that which is right in his own eyes (or at least feels good), it is no wonder we prefer to interpret Jesus’ words as a command: “Judge not.” We thus absolve ourselves of responsibility for making any moral distinctions in the behavior of others or of ourselves. “If I don’t call what they do ‘sin,’ they can’t call what I do ‘sin.’ ”
This is comfortable for both of us. If I let him keep his “speck,” he’ll let me keep my “plank” (see vv. 4-5).
Jesus commanded us to remove both—the plank first and then the brother’s speck. Submit, in other words, to treatment. Accept the consequences. To be judged is the consequence of judging, and to recognize one’s own need is prerequisite.
DAY 16
OBEDIENCE IS NOT CONTINGENT
The making of comparisons is a dangerous business for a Christian. Each of us must give account, not of his neighbor, but of himself, to God. To the workers who, under the guise of a concern for fairness, objected to an equal wage being paid to those who began the job at different hours of the day, the owner said, “Why be jealous because I am kind?” (Matt. 20:15).
To the brother of the prodigal son, put out because this wastrel was being wined and dined, the father said, “My boy, . . . you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. How could we help celebrating this happy day?” (Luke 15:31-32).
To Peter, hesitant to follow the Lord until he found out what was going to be required of the other disciple, Jesus said, “If it should be my will that he wait until I come, what is it to you? Follow me” (John 21:22).
The spirit of godly obedience is not in us, our wills have not been unconditionally turned over to the Master, as long as we determine our own action by what others do. To husbands, God says (unconditionally), “Love your wives” (Eph. 5:25, NIV). To wives, He says (unconditionally), “Submit to your husbands” (v. 21, NIV).1 If each lets his obedience be contingent upon the other’s, there is a standoff. The command to husbands is the business of husbands. The command to wives is the business of wives. Let each mind his own—direct his attention to the thing required of him—and harmony will be the result.
There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds (Matt. 5:48, emphasis added).
DAY 17
TAKE STRENGTH
These strong, simple words can be spiritual adrenaline for us when we need them. They were written by a man who knew what he was talking about, as he himself was in prison. He was writing to a young minister who was also suffering and evidently tempted by doubt, fear, even uncertainty of his call. The older man admonished him very lovingly to take his share of suffering, take his share of hardship like a good soldier and to “take strength from the grace of God” (2 Tim. 2:1).
Where shall I ever find the strength I need to get through this experience, this ordeal, this day, this week? The answer is, Take it! Take it from the grace that is ours already, in Christ Jesus.
“Here it is,” He is saying. “Will you have some?”
“Yes, thank You, Lord. I’ll take it.”
DAY 18
GIVE WAY TO TRUTH
Through a disagreement with my husband, Lars, yesterday, I suddenly recognized an instrument used powerfully by the enemy to drive a wedge between two people who love each other (and there is nothing that fills the enemy with such glee as destroying unity). It is reason. I had good reasons for my argument and so did he. Reason comes very close to being an idol to me at times, and I am tempted to make sacrifices on its altar.
“Be faithful to reason!” whispers the destroyer. “Do not let go!”
“Be faithful to Me,” Christ says, “give up your reasons, give way to truth.”
Reason is one of God’s great gifts. We have intelligence and the faculty of reason, to be employed in the service of God and other people. Faithfulness to Christ (who is truth) does not negate reason but purifies it and raises it to a higher level.
“Pure” reason, logical argument, stood between my husband and me, as it stood between Job and his friends, and Jesus and the Pharisees.
Knowledge gives self-importance—it is love that makes the building grow. A man may imagine that he understands something, but still not understand anything in the way he ought to (1 Cor. 8:1-2, JB).
DAY 19
WE DO NOT BELONG TO DARKNESS
There are times when we cannot see our way, and it seems that darkness is about to overcome and hold us. It must have seemed so to the Christians in Thessalonica. Paul spoke of their grave suffering because of having welcomed his message. Must the coming of the light of God’s truth bring suffering? Yes, often it does, and the one who has received it with joy is plunged into darkness. But darkness is not his master! He does not “belong” to it (1 Thess. 5:6) but is in fact a child of light, having been given word of things to come—resurrection, the sound of an archangel’s voice, God’s trumpet call, the descent of the Lord Himself (see 4:16-17; 5:5). “God has not destined us to the terrors of judgement. . . . He died for us so that we, awake or asleep, might live in company with him” (5:9-10). A small child is at peace even in the dark if his father or mother is with him. He has company. How different the darkness feels then.
Take the Word of the Lord in your darkness. If He died to let us live in His company, is He likely to abandon us just because things look dark?
DAY 20
HOPING UNDER THE LORD JESUS
When Paul was in prison, he wrote a very beautiful letter to the Christians in Phillipi, a letter of joy, love and tenderness. It contains many little human touches that give us glimpses of a Paul who is quite different from the popular image. Here we see, not a stern and redoubtable theologian and authority figure, but a kind man with simple and thoroughly childlike trust. His heart is warm and open to these dear friends who are so important to him as he lies in chains in his cell, his every human feeling utterly submitted to the Lord for whom he is glad to suffer. Naturally he hungers for news of them and hopes Timothy will be able to bring it. Even such a common human desire is placed matter-of-factly under the authority of his Master: “I hope (under the Lord Jesus) to send Timothy” (Phil. 2:19).
If it is possible, if it works out, if it is God’s will—even this small detail he offered to the Lord Jesus for His permission, like the psalmist who prayed, “Lord, all my desire is before thee” (Ps. 38:9, KJV).
Let our hopes for today be under the Lord Jesus—screened by Him who loves us and can work them all out if they are good for us and for all concerned.
DAY 21
WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?
Christ is the answer” has been a wall motto and, more recently, a bumper sticker. Somebody added, in small print, “What was the question?”
In the final analysis, it does not matter what question we are asking. All questions come under one of three headings:
1. Way—we need guidance
2. Truth—we need a norm
3. Life—we need sustenance
Jesus said, “I am” all of these things (see John 14:6). Let us bring everything that baffles us into His presence, holding it up before Him by faith. In His light, the look of things will slowly begin to change; and as we humble ourselves to receive the true answer, our eyes will be opened. We learn to know Christ, then, as we walk in His way, obey His truth and live His life. He Himself, a living, loving Person, is our answer.
DAY 22
GOD’S SECRET PURPOSE
Whatever the enemy of our souls can do to instill doubt about the real purpose of the Father of our souls, he will certainly try to do. “Hath God said . . . ?” (Gen. 3:1, KJV) was his question to Eve; and she trusted him, the enemy, and doubted God. Each time the suspicion arises that God is really out to get us, that He is bent on making us miserable or thwarting any good we might seek, we are calling Him a liar. His secret purpose has been revealed to us, and it is to bring us finally, not to ruin, but to glory. That is precisely what the Bible tells us: “His secret purpose framed from the very beginning [is] to bring us to our full glory” (1 Cor. 2:7).
I know of no more steadying hope on which to focus my mind when circumstances tempt me to wonder why God doesn’t do something. He is always doing something—the very best thing, the thing we ourselves would certainly choose if we knew the end from the beginning. He is at work to bring us to our full glory.
DAY 23
DISCERNING THE WILL OF GOD
The primary condition for learning what God wants of us is putting ourselves wholly at His disposal. It is just here that we are often blocked. We hold certain reservations about how far we are willing to go, what we will or will not do, how much God can have of us or of what we treasure. Then we pray for guidance. It will not work. We must begin by laying it all down—ourselves, our treasures, our destiny. Then we are in a position to think with renewed minds and act with transformed natures. The withholding of any part of ourselves is the same as saying, “Thy will be done up to a point, mine from there on.”
Paul gives four important steps to discerning the will of God:
1. “Offer your very selves to him” (Rom 12:1).
2. “Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world” (v. 2).
3. “Let your minds be remade” (v. 2).
4. “[Let] your whole nature [be] thus transformed” (v. 2).
“Then you will be able to discern the will of God” (v. 2, emphasis added).
DAY 24
NO LOVE WITHOUT GRIEF
Tell us, fool, who knows more of love—the one who has joys from it or the one who has trials and griefs? He answered: There cannot be any knowledge of love without both of them.
RAMON LLULL, THE BOOK OF THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED
When I imagine that I want to learn to love God—and to love my husband and others whom God has given me to love—let me test the desire of my willingness to accept trial and grief. If I can welcome them—Yes, Lord!—and believe God’s purpose in them, I am learning the lesson of love. If I cannot, it’s a fair indication that my desire to love is a delusion.
DAY 25
RICH ENOUGH
This morning I was praying about three very complicated matters for which I have a share of responsibility. I could not see my way through them and realized, as I prayed, that because I could not see a way, I was doubtful that there was a way. My limitations became, in my mind, God’s limitations. Then my reading fell on Romans 10, in which Paul speaks of the same sort of error (though much more far-reaching than mine)—that of the Jews having supposed that they must find the way of righteousness by themselves and that Gentiles could not possibly find it. The way is and always has been God’s and only God’s, open to those who trust Him. For “the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich enough for the need of all who invoke him” (Rom. 10:12).
“Rich enough!” I had been praying as though my own needs might exhaust God’s resources.
Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring,
For His grace and power are such
None can ever ask too much.
(John Newton)
DAY 26
FAITH IS HOLDING OUT YOUR HAND
Sometimes when I was a child my mother or father would say, “Shut your eyes and hold out your hand.” That was the promise of some lovely surprise. I trusted them, so I shut my eyes instantly and held out my hand. Whatever they were going to give me I was ready to take. So it should be in our trust of our heavenly Father. Faith is the willingness to receive whatever He wants to give and the willingness not to have what He does not want to give.
I am content to be and have what in Thy heart I am meant to be and have.
(George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul)
From the greatest of all gifts, salvation in Christ, to the material blessings of any ordinary day (hot water, a pair of legs that work, a cup of coffee, a job to do and strength to do it), every good gift comes down from the Father of lights. Every one of them is to be received gladly and, like gifts people give us, with thanks.
Sometimes we want things we were not meant to have. Because He loves us, the Father says no. Faith trusts that no. Faith is willing not to have what God is not willing to give. Furthermore, faith does not insist upon an explanation. It is enough to know His promise to give what is good— He knows so much more about that than we do.
DAY 27
WHAT’S MY SCORE?
I was tempted this morning—no, not merely tempted, I actually did it—to pray, “Lord, I’ve been disobedient in many things, but I’ve been obedient in the ‘big’ things, haven’t I, Lord?”
“What would you call loving Me with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Is it a little thing?”
“Oh, Lord, no.”
“And is it a little thing to love your neighbor as yourself?”
“It is a very big thing, Lord—especially when I try to include you know who.”
“These two things are all I require. Do them and you will have fulfilled all the law.”
Silence. So much for my self-righteousness.
“Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
DAY 28
THE DESIRES OF MY HEART
I had been praying for something I wanted very badly. It seemed a good thing to have, a thing that would make life even more pleasant than it was and would not in any way hinder my work. God did not give it to me. Why? I do not know all of His reasons, of course. The God who orchestrates the universe has a good many things to consider that have not occurred to me, and it is well that I leave them to Him. But one thing I do understand: He offers me holiness at the price of relinquishing my own will.
“Do you honestly want to know Me?” He asks. I answer yes. “Then do what I say,” He replies. “Do it when you understand it; do it when you don’t understand it. Take what I give you; be willing not to have what I do not give you. The very relinquishment of this thing that you so urgently desire is a true demonstration of the sincerity of your lifelong prayer: ‘Thy will be done.’”
So instead of hammering on heaven’s door for something that it is now quite clear God does not want me to have, I make my desire an offering. The longed-for thing is material for sacrifice. “Here, Lord, it’s yours.”
He will, I believe, accept the offering. He will transform it into something redemptive. He may perhaps give it back as He did Isaac to Abraham, but He will know that I fully intend to obey Him.
DAY 29
I WILL NOT BE AFRAID
News reports come every day concerning economic and political calamities about to befall us all, not to mention famines, tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanoes, things that may at any moment strike us or people we love. There are always plenty of good reasons to be afraid—unless you know that things are under control. A Christian has this inside information. Things are, in fact, under control. God is our Refuge, our Strength, our Mighty Fortress. Nothing will get by the moat of His protection without His permission. To be afraid of what happens today or what may happen tomorrow is not only an awful waste of energy, is not only useless, but is also disobedient. We are forbidden to fear anything but the Lord Himself.
When Christians in China were being hounded to death in the 1930s, one of them (I am told) wrote this simple song, which has helped me in countless times of fear ever since I learned it as a high school girl:
I will not be afraid.
I will not be afraid.
I will look upward, and travel onward,
And not be afraid.
Willpower, of course, will not always overcome human emotions. But willed obedience to the One who is in charge, coupled with prayer for His help in vanquishing our natural fears, is something else.
DAY 30
LEAVE THE RESULTS WITH GOD
Scripture does not promise that obedience to God will always be attended by earthly success and never by difficulties. Someone asked me again last week if I am not bothered by the negative results attending our opening up the Auca tribe to the gospel. “Of course I am bothered,” I said. We messengers of the gospel are sinners like the Aucas—God has chosen to work through sinful human beings—and while we offer to them the Bread and the Water of Life, which are priceless, we also introduce to them new varieties of sin and disease. We pray for protection from such things—for ourselves and for them. We must do the thing commanded—preach the gospel—and we must trust God for the results. If we wait until we are sure we shall do a thing purely and perfectly, we shall never accomplish the will of God on Earth.
Negative results are not by any means always the fault of God’s messengers. Recall the warnings Jesus gave His disciples when He sent them out to preach the Kingdom—they could expect to be rejected, arrested and flogged. Families would turn against each other. “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34), He said. Recall, too, the death of innocent infant boys as a result of the birth of One who the king feared might supplant him. God is engineering a master plan for good. Only He sees the end from the beginning.
DAY 31
THE DANGER OF NOT KNOWING GOD
We are meant to be witnesses for God—people who have seen and known Him and are willing to speak of what they see and know. Sometimes there is danger for such people—as in Russia, where it can mean forced labor, banishment, death. In China in the early 1930s a missionary couple, John and Betty Stam, were captured by Chinese Communists and marched through the streets of the village to a chopping block where each was beheaded. If they had been willing to recant their Christian faith, their lives would have been spared. Given their commitment to Christ, such a choice was unthinkable. They placed not only their lives but also the life of their baby, Helen Priscilla, in the hands of God, confident that God could protect them if He chose, and if He chose not to, it was safer to be in those hands than anywhere else in the universe. Like thousands of Christians before them, they preferred the sword to disobedience, believing that the danger of not knowing God is infinitely greater than any other danger.
Lord, be our Sun and Shield. Shine on us, protect us as we seek to live and witness to Your truth. Forgive us (especially those of us who have never faced lions, fire or sword because of our faith) for our fears of petty loss. Remind us that it is in losing ourselves that we find You.