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What do I have to experience and how long do I need to be content before I can honestly say, “I am content”?  Hum?  For me it seems easy to be satisfied for maybe 12 hours, but it then tends to slowly drift into the fog.  Could I be compartmentalizing contentment by saying such things as I’m happy with my wife but not with the quirks in my personality, my finances or the weather changes?  What exactly is the satisfaction Paul referred to when he wrote, Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little (Philippians 4:11-12, NLT2).  

I suspect many of us have very confused ideas of its value and what makes a person content. Some have said contentment destroys initiative to improve his or her financial condition or desire for excellence or better living conditions.  The truth they fail to grasp is that when the source of one’s contentment is their intimacy with God, the work He does through that person is most fruitful and significant.  Others subconsciously live with the notion if I could have this or that good thing I would be fulfilled.  Unfortunately, that one good thing is never enough.  All such artificial satisfaction is associated with our external circumstances.

The Holy Spirit was saying through Paul that the secret of enduring contentment is its source being internal rather than external.  True contentment is not related to possessions, popularity, looks or skill-set since those factors can only give temporary satisfaction.  Authentic contentment is rooted in something far more stable than our environment or pleasantries. It flows out of a conviction deep within us.  We experience it when the external things lose their grip on our soul (mind/emotions), and therefore no longer matter very much.  Paul’s contentment had become so much a part of how he viewed life that he was able to enjoy life regardless of his external situation—his possessions, popularity, persecution or any other suffering.  Rabbi Hyman Schachtel was credited for saying, “Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.”  How very true!  If you fall short of this type of type of contentment, nothing is ever enough! 

What might it be like to be free of the ruthless tyranny of competitive jealousy, greed, envy or the nagging feeling that you want one more thing?  How does a person come to experience this level of contentment?  It requires a personal revelation that an intimate relationship with the Bible God is ALL a person needs.  If God is pleased with your core values and how you live them out, then your inner being will become like an artesian well of confidence, hope, joy and peace.  As the words of the old chorus go, “the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”. 

So, what among your cares of life have you been allowing to compete with the incredible security a more intimate relationship with our God offers you?  The symptom of that competitor is most likely linked to your base motivation for choosing how to use each of the 24 hours God has allotted to you.  Taking time to drill down to identify that counterfeit motivation and adjusting your life accordingly may very well be the most life-giving decision you will make—second only to your salvation.  Just imagine being fully satisfied with the delights within you that flow out of your close relationship with God in contrast to the restlessness of having the empty external attractions continually arousing the insatiable desire for something more. What are a few steps you can begin to take in order to discover and personally experience the secret of true contentment?

My sister reported having very strong winds with heavy rain where she lived in California.  She was obviously very afraid because she was going to have to drive my elderly father to an appointment in another city about an hour away.  Gusts of wind blew the car around but gratefully they made it to their destination and back home.  Strong winds are only welcome when they are tail winds because they can significantly improve one’s gas mileage. 

Often winds are word pictures of representing adversities in life.  Unfortunately, there are times when such winds hit a person from nearly every direction.  Job received consecutive words of livestock being stolen, his servants being killed, a fire destroying his sheep, his camels were killed and finally all his children were killed by what sounds like a tornado or sheer wind storm.  I can’t imagine how numb he must have felt after hearing of all these tragedies one right after another.  I wouldn’t wonder if he was close to having a heart attack!!  The stunning part is after hearing this incredible news, Job tore his mantel and shaved his head (symbols of severe grief in that day), fell down on the ground and WORSHIPPED God!  That is most striking in itself!! That simple response revealed the incredible depth of his love and trust in God.

God promised through his prophet Isaiah that if you have a heart to honor Him in worship, do not go your own way or seek your own pleasures and keep your tongue from idle or godless talk, Then you’ll be free to enjoy GOD! Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all. I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob” (Isaiah 58:14 MSG). 

A fundamental rule of aerodynamics is that flying into the wind quickly increases altitude. The wings of the airplane create more lift by flying against the wind.  I recently was in Mexico for several different meetings.  One morning Connie and I watched large birds soar for extended periods of time without even flapping their wings.  When they wanted to fly higher, they would head into the wind and immediately gain altitude.  I’m told that when eagles sense a storm coming, they head into the wind and rise above the storm until it moves on.  While that is a natural law, it is also a spiritual one. The winds of adversity enable you to reach heights of life and joy you cannot imagine with minimal exertion.

As I have reflected on that, I wondered if that is what Job was doing in order to rise above the fierce winds of adversity that came his way.  There is no way of knowing whether or not he fully understood that spiritual law at that time.  However, I have learned from experience that how I respond to adversities determines how they affect my life.  My response can end in either a blessing, as it did Job, or send me down a path of loss, depression and despair.   Connie and I have been hit with winds that literally shook whatever could be shaken in our life.  On one occasion all we could do was hold each other and weep!  While we endured this devastating pain, we had enough presence of mind to go into God’s presence where we found solace and hope.  Like Job, as time passed, the Spirit of God lifted us up above the storm and gave us hope and restoration of our souls.  I also know that God has generously blessed us in every way far beyond what we even could have imagined—just as He promised through Isaiah and by what He did in Job’s life.  Winds will intimidate us and have the potential to either raise us up to soar above the storm or bring us crashing down into despair.  What happens to us is not up to God; it is how we respond to the winds.  In that light, I urge you to try to see the next heavy wind that comes as an opportunity for you to soar and then immerse yourself in intimacy with God himself. 

Why am I so afraid of failure or defeat?  Is it my pride that drives me to resist those ominous threats or is it something else? 

The Bible says But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere (2 Corinthians 2:14 ESV). That verse has intrigued me for decades!  It says as long as we remain connected to the vine or are in Christ, we will not suffer failure or defeat!  We are winners, no matter what it may appear like on the outside.   So why is it that any believer fears failure or defeat?  

Interestingly, God wins His greatest victories through apparent defeats.  However, quite often God allows it to appear like our enemy wins—for a time.  But in His time, He steps in and overturns the enemy’s apparent win.  This is exactly what happened in the book of Esther chapters 3-9 when it appeared Haman had won by building a gallows on which to hang Mordecai, the reputable Jew.  When God intervened, Haman ended up being hung on those very same gallows he had built to hang Mordecai.  God then used that radical change to empower the Jews to protect themselves from annihilation. 

It is stunning how God receives much greater glory, and we are given a much greater victory than if He had kept us from experiencing the apparent defeat.  This was true for the three Hebrew children in Daniel 3.  We applaud their standing by their convictions to honoring God rather than succumb to political correctness of worshipping King Nebuchadnezzar.  However, they paid the consequences of being thrown into the fiery furnace.  Again, the enemy appeared to have won!  It looked like the gallant servants of God were going to suffer a sobering defeat.  Can you imagine what their Hebrew friends thought and felt who watched them being thrown into the hot flames as their enemies gloated in victory as they expected to see them incinerated?   But God intervened after the apparent defeat, and none other than the angel of the Lord (an Old Testament phrase representing Christ) appeared with them in the furnace protecting them from the heat and flames.  When the king saw this miracle, He said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God (Daniel 3:28 ESV) Would God have been glorified or would they have experienced the incredible victory if He would have intervened before their apparent defeat?

Is our fear of failure or defeat actually an exposure of our lack of an authentic, intimate relationship with the Bible God?  I get the sense that when I fear failure and defeat my humanity is showing.  How about you?  This thought motivates me to seek to know more about who God is, so I can trust Him enough to minimize my fears.  Psalm 9:10 (ESV) And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

I’ve been captivated by the Live Dead missionaries’ way of thinking.  I suspect it is because, from my perspective, their thinking is most like the mindset the early disciples and believers espoused.  When prophets repeatedly told Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, …in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me (Acts 20:23, ESV), with deep felt conviction he said, …I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24, ESV).

The only way Paul could say that with such conviction was because he actually believed what he had been teaching and preaching; living it out by taking serious risks on a daily basis.  By the same token, the only way our Live Dead Missionaries can take the risks to go into countries that threaten the lives of missionaries in order to reach the unreached people groups is because they actually believe what they say they believe. 

Perhaps the reason such a perspective of life is so captivating is because 1) intuitively we know that is how Jesus lived; and 2) it is so contrary to how we normally live out our daily lives here in the USA.  Instead, we are fearful and anxious about many things.  We lean more on our own logic and emotion in making daily decisions in life, and we are more obsessed with living than dying and going to be with our Lord.  There must be a doctrinal disconnect from our default thinking therefore in the choices we make.  Whatever the driving factors have been that have led to our current mindset, our lifestyle and cultural thinking are dramatically different from that of our Lord as well as the early church believers. 

Perhaps it would be healthy for us to commit to making notes as we read the Bible, especially the New Testament, listing the variety of choices the early believers made and beside each one write down what you think may have driven those people to make such a choice.  Ex. When the early believers were persecuted, they suddenly quit their jobs; left their homes, family and friends; and scattered to other parts of the world with hardly more than the clothes on their backs.  They didn’t have a job or even friends or family waiting for them to help them get settled and on their feet.  Nevertheless, they continued to tell those who would listen how Jesus changed their lives and thereby turned their world upside down.  Imagine what type of faith and level of love for God it would take to compel you to make such decisions. 

After you have listed a dozen or more examples in the Bible, make a list of the big choices you have made and how they have required divine faith.  Are the claims of what you say you believe about Christ, His ways and teachings, actually revealing the depth of faith the early believers lived out in their daily lives?  As for me, my faith and commitment to my Lord falls far short of that of the early believers. That makes something rise up within me to want to more diligently seek to have the same heart for Christ that Paul and the early church lived out.  Holy Spirit, please do whatever You need to do to reshape the passion in my innermost being to be like that of those through whom You forged the Church of Jesus Christ!  And, I ask that you help me to inspire and encourage more in Nebraska to do the same.

When you pray, what might be the concept of the God to whom you pray?  Is he an austere God, a Santa Claus type God who gives you good gifts, or a distant God who you are not sure even hears your prayer?  Or, is He a sovereign God who is not manipulated by the words, volume or posture you use when you pray? 

Who or what has shaped the image of God in your mind?  Was it what you read in a book or two or heard in a sermon or from a parent or friend?  Or, was it formed after reading not a verse in the Bible but the whole Bible?  Most often your understanding, and therefore expectations, were shaped by someone who modeled God in your life such as a Father or minister whom you highly revered.  Another way our concept of God may be shaped is by our own imagination—perhaps a new and improved “Christ” relevant to our self-centered times.  However, Luke wrote, …we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man (Acts 17:29, ESV).

The Bible God cannot be shaped by one or two verses but by all that the Bible tells us about God and what He does.  We love the famous verse, And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them (Romans 8:28, NLT2).  Our first response is to interpret the word “good” to mean something in our current day that is pleasant, understandable, or that makes us look good.  But what is “good” may not always feel good at the moment.

When King Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king of the 12 tribes of Israel.  Through some very interesting and insightful circumstances, 10 of the 12 tribes declared their independence splitting God’s chosen people.  Rehoboam could not allow God’s people to be divided, so he prepared his army to force them back under his rule.  About that time, God sent a prophet who said to Rehoboam, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not fight against your relatives, the Israelites. Go back home, for what has happened is my doing!’” So they obeyed the message of the LORD and went home, as the LORD had commanded (1 Kings 12:24, NLT2). What?!!  How can God do something so deplorable as that??  I highly suspect Rehoboam probably imagined such a thing would surely be contrary to His will.  He was noble enough to deny his logic and obey God!

When painful things come into our lives, based on our limited image of God we quickly say, “How could a good and loving God do that?” and then either get mad at Satan or at God for allowing it to happen.  Could there be another alternative?  Could it be the result of a foolish decision we made, truly a Satanic attack, or could it actually be God orchestrating it for “good” reasons He alone can understand at that moment in time?  How big is your God?  Is He big enough to have greater plans than we can imagine?  …plans that take us through Gethsemane and Calvary before we experience our Resurrection moment?  Indeed, we most certainly must try to rightly discern what may be behind our experiences.  However, we must never forget:  we will never be able to understand our God who created all that there is, loves us more than we can comprehend and has plans that are beyond our imagination.  He asks us to trust Him and His goodness—even when we don’t understand!!  Read God’s Word again to discover just how BIG the Bible God really is.  When He reveals His Greatness to you, it will comfort your heart and help you REST in Him.

A young minister recently said, “I know I may not be correct about this, but I’ve wondered at times if the anti-Christ is actually a person.”  He observed the term antichrist is not capitalized in the Bible and often referred to in pluralistic language such as 1 John 2:18 (ESV), Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.  He thought perhaps the antichrist may be those spiritually passively-resistant within a church who push back against missions, aggressive soul winning or a serious discipleship model that intentionally shapes the hearts of believers to come …to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4:13, NLT2).

Wow!  I had never even considered that line of thinking before!!  I was caught off-guard and virtually silenced with his thought process.  In the midst of that, although I haven’t been able to completely process that idea, I can say it keeps returning and challenging me to reflect on it!  It was true within each of the seven churches that had letters written to them in Revelation.  There were at least two types of believers within each church, overcomers and non-overcomers; the latter perhaps very similar to the passively-resistant within a church today.  I had never considered the potential influential power the current day non-overcomers within a church might have on the overcomers in what they believe about God and how they live out their faith in Him. 

I have observed their negative witness on unbelieving young people seeking authentic hope as evidenced in genuine life-change.  These seekers are looking for something our society cannot offer them, something they heard Jesus exhibited.  Therefore, they hardly look twice at what appears to be as spiritually impotent as a secular club might look.  I have also observed the most intense “fights” or resistance within churches is led by those content with talking the Bible but not seriously investing their time, energy, skill set or money in turning their part of the world upside down.  Unfortunately, I’ve observed this group of supposed mature church members literally sucked the spiritual passion out of a new believer over time. 

I’m not sure exactly what to make of that concept, but one thing I am sure of; I do not want to be one or among those who refuse to be “all in.”  I do not want to be among those who won’t take risks to obey the Spirit’s whispers and instead passively rely on their natural thinking or giftings or cultural methods more than on their passionate intimacy with God.  Nor do I want to be seduced into chasing rabbit trails that sound spiritual yet fail to produce the same spiritual heart Jesus reproduced in His disciples.

Instead I want to be among those whose faith in God forces them to take risks to accomplish the work of His kingdom based solely on the authentic leading of the Spirit and the working of His Spirit through them.  We have the very same Holy Spirit Jesus had to do what He did, so I believe the Spirit can do through us today the same work He did through Jesus’ humanity.  So, let’s rise up and do the supernatural, life-changing work Jesus did with His calling and anointing!    

When going through my recent stint with kidney stones, I wanted to learn as much as I could through all the pain and humbling experiences.  One thing I was reminded of is my love, appreciation and respect for Connie, my amazing wife.  She certainly shines much brighter than I, and I’m very proud of her for doing so.  I have deeply loved her for decades, but it was in my pain I saw how awe-inspiring of a woman she has been in my life.  Interestingly, as I reflected on those things, I found my feelings of love for her rise to the surface and bubble over the edges of my thinking and feeling.  Just experiencing that brought me great pleasure and warmth within.

Something I then had read in my devotional time emerged through my foggy mind.  Our love and appreciation for friends and fellow workers in our life also have a way of losing their luster.  In fact, the old axiom can even be true that familiarity breeds contempt.  We’ve all watched a young couple fall in love and get married.  But then, instead of happily riding off into the sunset for the rest of their lives, the cares and disappointments of life began to cloud the romantic stars that once sparkled in their eyes.  These stars disappeared as their partner began to fail to meet their suitcase full of unspoken, subconscious expectations.  Some go so far as to become embittered and end their relationship in divorce.  Through counseling I’ve found it possible to lead them to again fix their eyes on the great features of their spouse.  When they did that, the debris would clear enough for the bright stars to return to their eyes—but for a few, lasting only several months because they would fall back to their old selfish ways of focusing more of their spouse’s faults than on their admirable qualities.

How might that be so different in our relationship with our God?  At our salvation we were dazzled by God’s love and goodness.  This lasted until we felt He stopped fulfilling our subconscious expectations of Him due to our convoluted thinking that God is always good based on our definition of that word.  It is like children whose parents give them virtually whatever they want until what they want could hurt them.  The parent’s word “no” then makes them angry!  Once God says “no” to us, it will be only a matter of time before our talk of loving God with all we are begins to die and fossilize just as it can happen in our marriage. 

Stretched by his pain, Job’s humanity became frustrated with God.  One of his better friends, Elihu, actually begins to challenge his thinking by saying, among many other things, Listen to this, O Job; Stand still and consider the wondrous [awe-inspiring] works of God Job 37:14 (NKJV).  God’s words to Job that followed Elihu’s words stunned Job.  Through this life-changing, eye-opening encounter he again saw the awesomeness of God and then very humbly said I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand Job 40:4 (NLT2).   

How long has it been since you stood still in your pain and taken time to absorb the awe-inspiring attributes of God?  The lack of such encounters in believers is evident in the waning fear of God and His authentic Holiness in their daily attitudes, words and choices.   

Have you become discouraged and subconsciously found yourself with disappointed expectation, comparing your experiences with others and maybe even trying to justify or rationalize why you “left your first love” for Him?  God’s solution for each of us in these times is the same as His answer to the Ephesian believers, Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches Revelation 2:5 (NLT2).  Holy Spirit, please position us to again Stand still and consider the wondrous [awe-inspiring] works of God.

Connie and I have been watching When Calls the Heart where it is evident a few in the community of Hope Valley do not share the same value for integrity the majority do.  No doubt that TV series reflects similar values of our world today, albeit I suspect the percentage in a typical community who value integrity has significantly shifted.  What is it that motivates a person to deceive, cheat, misrepresent themselves or leverage their position for personal gain rather than the good of others?  I’m sure the answer to that is complex, but fundamentally it seems the motivation is to somehow take shortcuts to achieve their dream.  That dream may simply be to be recognized as someone better, wealthier, more powerful or wiser than they really are.  Their shortcut may amount to living above their means or shaving or embellishing the numbers on an IRS return or a sales or business report.  Not too long ago it was reported that Wells Fargo had developed an elaborate scheme to make them look bigger and better than they really were.

In the Bible days, scales represented justice or honesty not just in business but in character and therefore speech and decisions.  The idea was that something was to be weighed in order to ascertain either its quantity or its value.  Scales or balances are the symbols of justice or equity as Solomon wrote, “The Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights” (Prov. 11:1 NLT2).  Of course, God detests dishonest scales since He is Truth.  He therefore expects humans to be truthful in their words or business dealings.  That’s certainly correct, but is that the only reason?  I now realize there is even more to it than that.  I was intrigued when I connected that truth with Jesus’ words, But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matthew 6:30 ESV).  Jesus reveals our anxiety is triggered by lustfully looking at things we want but do not have.  This leads us to use any form of dishonest scales as a shortcut to attain or obtain whatever we dream of having.

Jesus’ rationale was more profound than simple truth as crucial as it is.  Did you notice Jesus’ words, …will he [God] not much more [provide clothes]…, if we simply love and genuinely and patiently trust Him to provide what is best for us?  Why then should we fantasize about shortcuts we could leverage to gain a little more for ourselves?  God already has so much more He will give if we remain faithfully and fully committed to Him and don’t compromise!  The idea of using dishonest scales exposes far more about unbelief in our heart and how big/weak and loving/irrelevant the god is we envision in our heart. If we see Him as the Bible describes Him, we can be at perfect peace while someone else has more than we do whether that be in a checking account, fame, power or position in a larger church or business. 

It is no wonder why God hates dishonesty in whatever form it takes.  He sees it as finite man’s way of attempting to dismiss God’s desires to provide for His children.  What humanly contrived means or methods might we subconsciously default to or knowingly use in order to attain whatever we consider represents success when God doesn’t seem to be giving us what we want?  Do we seek better leadership skills, manipulation of whatever sort, faddish looks or technology in order to attract the attention of the world, gain greater political power, etc., etc.?  It is not that any of these are necessarily inherently wrong in themselves.  However, they become wrong when we invest more time and money strategizing or otherwise seeking them more than we do seeking to know, trust and love God more intimately.  Wow!  That is a very thought-provoking challenge.  In what ways have you and I been tempted to take shortcuts to achieve or obtain something either God knows would harm us rather than help us or something He plans to give us in His time and way? 

I was reading in 2 Chronicles 32 of when Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, surrounded Jerusalem with his army.  At that time Judah’s little army was a hopeless match for the world’s most powerful army.  I suspect that might be like the US Supreme Court ruling that your church must allow child molesters to oversee your children’s department. It would be an insane and unfair confrontation. 

Hezekiah, the king of Judah was a righteous, God-fearing king.  He had the Jews take some defensive measures, but every logical person knew the situation was hopeless.  In that context, Hezekiah told the people, With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah 2 Chronicles 32:8 (ESV).  That last sentence triggered the question in my mind, would church attendees take confidence if their church that had been allowed to deteriorate to the point they needed 1 million dollars to restore it, and their pastor stood up on Sunday and told them something like what Hezekiah told his people? 

Most likely people today would try to figure out a way to sell their building, borrow the money, or tear down what was too broken, so the restoration costs would not be so great—anything to save their church.  I must admit, that would be my initial default way of thinking. I may even feel sorry for the pastor being so naïve and think he was just trying to spiritualize an unsurmountable natural problem.  How about you? 

The reality is the default thinking of most of us is to look to what the Bible refers to as
the “arm of flesh” or human ingenuity to solve our problem where it is when we or someone we love, develops a sudden life-threatening illness or a financial crisis.  Keep in mind, there is a big difference between God using humans to solve problems when He genuinely guides them to do so and when a believer’s default thinking is to resort to human ingenuity without seeking God’s guidance.

I was sobered when I read what God said through the prophet Jeremiah, …Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD Jeremiah 17:5 (ESV).  How might we have inadvertently fallen into that very trap too.  We figure out creative ways to solve big or little problems or do what we think sounds spiritual.  We have even convinced ourselves we are doing so for the cause of Christ.  Unfortunately, we can’t see what we have done until over time the fruit of our labor begins to reveal it is not as sweet as we had hoped.  It’s even hard then to admit our misguided choice, so we double down and find another “arm of flesh” we believe will stabilize or hopefully restore whatever is showing signs of failure.  As the verse says, such default responses are subtle ways of turning away from the Lord!  I’m sobered and humbled because far more often than I would like to admit, I stand guilty of that type of thing. 

Oh God, forgive me and PLEASE bring me back to where I first trust in You and seek your wisdom when I face a Goliath in my life.  Do whatever needs to be done in me to reset my default to running to You and thereby find my confidence restored in hearing Your words to me!  If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor  Exodus 33:13 (NLT2).  Is that your prayer as you start a new year too? 

I watched the Christmas animated movie, The Star, with my daughters and most of their children and grandchildren.  It was about a donkey who was supposed to carry Mary but did a very poor job of it because he thought so selfishly as many of us do.  The thought that struck me as I watched was how God used various common, fallen humans and even a misguided donkey in that episode of Jesus’ life.  I doubt that was the intended impression for the movie, but it did incite some very thought-provoking issues.

One question it raised for me was, “Do I believe God could use me to do what Mary, Joseph, Elijah, Paul, or even Joshua did?”  Somehow it seems we think a person must be exceptionally holy in some way in order for God to use them in a profoundly dynamic way.  After all, who am I to even think I could be a Moses or Peter?  Who am I to even imagine God might guide me or speak to me, much less that I should do something like a great Bible hero?”  Have thoughts of that nature ever crossed your mind?

But then I remember what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write, Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV) Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  My false humility messes with my trust in who God’s Word describes Him to be.  While I may feel like my humble thoughts honor the greatness of God, in reality they DISHONOR Him.  It is His greatness that is precisely what makes it possible for Him to choose anyone or anything He wants to use.  What He might choose to do through Mary, Joseph, Paul, me or you, has very little to do with who we are or what we are or are not naturally gifted to do.

To be very candid, after God has used me in the past, there have been times when I have had to talk myself down from thinking I was someone special.  Have you had to do something like that?  Since God can speak through Balaam’s donkey if He chooses, He can speak through me regardless of my slowness of speech or even if I momentarily had a silver tongue.  In fact, I’ve observed those with a silver tongue struggle more with erroneously thinking others should speak like they speak or be as culturally sensitive as they are. 

When Jesus asked if a father of a demon possessed child could believe, the father “cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).  I now see that to be a much healthier response than withdrawing in unbelief hiding behind false humility.   

Oh God, please keep reminding me that I am most effective when I am cognizant of the fact it is only YOUR power working in me, in spite of me, that is able to do any profoundly dynamic spiritual work.  Help me to relax when I’m positioned to speak on your behalf and get out of Your way so You can do whatever supernatural things that needs to be done.   Help me to believe You will use me to do things like Elisha, John, or any other Bible hero, not because I’m gifted, but because You are wanting to flow Your power through me for reasons known only to You.