Devotion for October 12

This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand… 1 Samuel 17:46

The words are David’s. They were spoken while he was a shepherd come to visit his brothers serving in Israel’s army only to find the entire army immobilized for fear of Goliath. After telling King Saul that he would fight the giant, David shrugged off the King’s armor as too unwieldy to wear and, facing the well armed giant of a man, David declared that God would prevail through him.

One of the great stories of the Bible, David’s victory over Goliath teaches us that reliance on God will make the seemingly impossible possible.

But first, David had to believe it. In fact, believing it meant that David would stake his life upon it. This was no flight of faith. David had faced lions and bears in the wild before facing the giant Philistine soldier seasoned in battle. God had been with him in battle before and he was delivered. Now, there was no reason to believe that God wouldn’t do again what God had already done. In one sense, David’s encounters with wild beasts had equipped him to face Goliath.

Believing also means speaking. David had to not only trust God in his heart, he had to declare that trust. According to George Barna, “on any given day about one-third of adults, and a higher proportion of teenagers and college students, report that they are feeling ‘stressed out.’” We have become, according to research, a worried nation.

Perhaps now is the time for Christians to trust God with our lives and livelihoods – and say that – first to ourselves and then to others. Something happens when we declare our faith to ourselves. Years ago I learned that if we say to ourselves something, aloud, we will remember it much longer. So, today I am encouraging you to join me in saying, “Lord, I’m going to trust you. You worry about what I need. You worry about what all of us need. I’ll trust you and do what I need to do for today.”

Devotion for June 2

So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Matthew 7:34

There is a blessing in these seemingly stern words from Jesus. The blessing is that our Lord knows God will only send us what we can deal with one day at a time, one moment at a time. In a world that can bring an avalanche of changes, it’s hard to focus on “today’s troubles.” So we glance up from the issues of today and look down the road to many tomorrows – and get overwhelmed.

I have heard it called “borrowing trouble.” I like that term. After all, few troubles are ours permanently. In point of fact, most, if not all, are temporary. When we realize this fact, we are able to deal with today’s challenges in such a way that they don’t define us. When we allow our troubles to be a permanent part of our lives, they, in fact, begin to clarify how we see life and our abilities to deal with it. They shape not only our outlook but our “in-look”, how we see ourselves.

If all troubles are limited by time and present events, then all troubles are actually “borrowed.” That means that we can use them to our advantage. We can see our challenges in a new way.  The struggles in life are not defining us, we can define them. No matter what their source or their outcome, we can use them to help forge our faith and character by diligence, perseverance and courage. As the old saying goes, “There is nothing that can happen to me today that God and I cannot handle.” Or, to say it a bit differently, “There is no trouble today that God and I can’t make good use of.”

The teaching of Jesus above is empowering. We are empowered to take control of how we view trouble and what we will do with it by understanding that, no matter how big it may seem, it will end.

Lord, help me remember that every challenge is temporary so that I can face it with courage and deal with it openly. Amen