DEVOTIONS

Monday, September 26 – “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13) God’s faithfulness is not dependent upon your faithfulness.  I don’t know about you, but I have done enough in my life to warrant God saying, “Done with you.”  God isn’t God because of you.  God is God because of God.  God is God, regardless of who you are or what you do.  God cannot be anything other than himself.  God is the essence of “being”.  Who God is cannot be affected by anything in this world.  

Tuesday, September 27 – “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) The Hebrew word for “Wonderful” in this verse can also be translated “Hard”.  How might your understanding of Jesus be different if you referred to him as the “Hard Counselor”?  Nothing worth your time, talents and treasures is ever easy.  So, do you really want Jesus to be a counselor, who will leave you the exact same way that you have always been?  Or do you want Jesus to be a hard counselor, who will push you to learn and grow?  Push you to experience the wonderful?  Push you to get out of your own way?

Wednesday, September 28 – “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3) These are the words of God to Abraham.  They are a part of the covenant that God made with Abraham; that he would be the father of a great nation.  And that “all people” would be blessed through Abraham and his nation.  That nation is Israel. That nation included Jesus.  The only problem was that when God was speaking these words, Abraham was old and had no children.  Abraham had to take these words on faith.  Abraham had to get out of his own way. 

Thursday, September 29 – “For the sake of your name, Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.” (Psalm 25:11) You have done enough in your life to warrant God saying “Done with you”.  Yet, God doesn’t.  That fact has nothing to do with you and everything to do with God.  So, just admit your struggles, your iniquities, your sins.  Accept God’s forgiveness, that is yours through Jesus.  And then move onward and upward.  Understanding that today is the first day of the rest of your life.  Don’t continue to beat yourself up.  In other words, get out of your own way. 

Friday, September 30 – “Abraham fell face down; he laughed and said to himself, ‘Will a son be born to a man one hundred years old?  Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?’” (Genesis 17:17) You can’t really blame Abraham for his reaction.  God has been promising a child since chapter 12 of Genesis and here it is chapter 17 and still no child.  What we find funny, amusing and down right impossible, is just another day’s work for God.  With God all things are possible, even an old man and an old woman having a baby.  But why so long between promise and fulfillment?  There was no chance that Abraham and Sarah could have even thought about taking any credit.  God enabled them to get out of their own way.

Saturday, October 1 – “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.” (Hebrews 11:11) Don’t miss this: God can do all things.  But you still have to participate, through faith.  God wasn’t going to force Sarah to have a baby, against her will.  God invited Sarah to believe that, through faith in God, she could have a baby.  It’s this possibility of faith that I want you to dwell on this weekend.  Wherever you find yourself in your life, never forget that with God all things are possible.  Not that God will do anything and everything you want.  But that, through your faith in Jesus, God can and will do incredible things in you and through you.  If you get out of your own way.