Are You Looking for an Easy Way to Serve God?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

…and run with patience the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1c

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The word “patience” here doesn’t mean the ability to thread a needle, but literally means “endurance.” It means bearing up under a heavy load, a real challenge.

Are you looking for an easy way, a cheap way, a lazy way to serve God? All honey and no bees? A life of ease? You just want to say, “Oh, I’m so happy in Jesus.” Listen, the business of running this race means that you’re going to be working at it with all of your heart. When you watch someone running, do you notice how intense he is?

You may be on a sick bed or in a wheelchair. But no one is excluded. We are to “run” with endurance. If you’re in this race, you need to pray over it, you need to weep over it, you need to study over it, you need to work over it.

ACTION POINT:

This matter of being saved and running the race is a full-time occupation. God does business with those who mean business.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Grace for Every Need

Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant. (Psalm 86:16)

Future grace is the constant plea of the praying psalmists. They pray for it again and again to meet every need. They give us a beautiful model of daily dependence on future grace for every exigency.

They cry out for grace when they need help: “Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” (Psalm 30:10).

When they are weak: “Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant” (Psalm 86:16).

When they need healing: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord” (Psalm 6:2).

When they are afflicted by enemies: “Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me” (Psalm 9:13).

When they are lonely: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted” (Psalm 25:16).

When they are grieving: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief” (Psalm 31:9).

When they have sinned: “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!” (Psalm 41:4).

When they long for God’s name to be exalted among the nations: “God be gracious to us and bless us . . . that your way may be known on earth” (Psalm 67:1–2).

Unmistakably, prayer is the great link of faith between the soul of the saint and the promise of future grace. If ministry was meant by God to be sustained by prayer, then ministry was meant to be sustained by faith in future grace.

John Piper 

If He suddenly disappeared, would you even notice?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Psalm 51:11

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When a person dies, his spirit departs. And I’m afraid that’s what has happened to many churches: the Holy Spirit has departed. 

The organism has become an organization and the movement has become a monument.

Dr. Carl Bates said years ago something that shook me to my foundation: “If the Holy Spirit were to suddenly die [now, of course, you know that's impossible. He cannot die] but “if the Holy Spirit were to suddenly die, most of our churches would meet next Sunday and go right on, never knowing the difference.”

I wonder if that’s not true about many churches. The Holy Spirit has not died, but He has departed. The Holy Spirit has left the building.

I've been in some churches where you’d think that Hallelujahs and Amens cost $100 apiece. You just can't find them. There’s a sort of barren stillness. But I believe there's something contagious about the Holy Spirit of God. The Bible says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

ACTION POINT:

We don’t have to live in either one of two extremes: we don’t have to fry in fanaticism or freeze in formalism. But we should have a burning, passionate, blazing, emotional love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

His Timing Is Perfect

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may find grace for a well-timed help. (Hebrews 4:16, my literal translation)

I know this precious verse is usually translated, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” But that is a paraphrase — a true one — to show that God shows up just when we need him. But the literal focus is on how timely the help is.

All ministry is in the future — a moment away, or a month away, or a year, or a decade. We have ample time to fret about our inadequacy. When this happens, we must turn to prayer.

Prayer is the form of faith that connects us today with the grace that will make us adequate for tomorrow’s ministry. Timing really matters.

What if grace comes too early or comes too late? The traditional translation of Hebrews 4:16 does not make clear a very precious promise in this regard. We need a more literal rendering to see it. The promise is not merely that we find grace “to help in time of need,” but that the grace is well-timed by God.

The point is that prayer is the way to find future grace for a well-timed help. This grace of God always arrives from the “throne of grace” on time. The phrase “throne of grace” means that future grace comes from the King of the universe who sets the times by his own authority (Acts 1:7).

His timing is perfect, but it is rarely ours: “For a thousand years in [his] sight are but as yesterday when it is past” (Psalm 90:4). At the global level, he sets the times for nations to rise and fall (Acts 17:26). And at the personal level, “My times are in [his] hand” (Psalm 31:15).

When we wonder about the timing of future grace, we must think on the “throne of grace.” Nothing can hinder God’s plan to send grace when it will be best for us. Future grace is always well-timed.

John Piper 

How do you inherit your Father’s wealth?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

And I will give him the morning star. Revelation 2:28

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

I remember reading a story about a wealthy Roman who had a lavish estate, and he had a servant named Marcellus. He also had a son, but for some reason there had been a falling out between him and his son. So when the wealthy Roman died, it was revealed that in his will he had written, “I’ve left my entire estate to my slave, Marcellus. To my son, I leave him only one thing. He can choose any one thing from my estate he wants, but that's all.” The son said, “Very well, I choose Marcellus.”

Here at the end of Revelation 2, our Lord gives a treasured promise to those who overcome (v. 28): "And I will give him," that is, the overcomer, "the morning star." Jesus is that morning star. What He's saying is, “You'll receive the greatest reward of all. You'll receive Me, the morning star.” Do you know what the morning star is? The star that appears just after the darkest hour of the night.

ACTION POINT:

It's getting very dark. Praise God, it's getting gloriously dark, and before long that morning star is going to appear. Jesus is the morning star. If you choose Jesus, with Jesus comes all the Father's wealth.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God’s Grace in Spiritual Gifts

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. (1 Peter 4:10)

When we use our spiritual gifts, we are stewarding grace — not yesterday’s grace, but today’s, arriving in every moment of need. And this future grace is “varied grace.” It comes in many colors and shapes and sizes. This is one of the reasons spiritual gifts in the body are so diverse. The prism of God’s gifts in your life will refract shades of divine glory that would never come through my prism.

There are as many future graces as there are needs in the body of Christ — and more. The purpose of spiritual gifts is to receive and dispense the future grace of God to those needs.

But someone may ask, “Why do you take Peter to refer to future grace? Doesn’t a steward manage a household store that is already on hand?”

The main reason I take Peter to refer to future grace is because the next verse illustrates how this works, and the reference there is to ongoing supplies of future grace. He says, “Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). The word is “supplies,” not “supplied.” As you serve, serve in the power of the ongoing supply of God’s grace to do what you need to do.

When you fulfill your spiritual gift to serve someone tomorrow, you will be serving “by the strength that God supplies” — and the supply will be tomorrow, not today. “As your days, so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25).

God goes on, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, supplying the “strength” in which we minister. He does this because the ongoing, inexhaustible supplier of power gets the glory. “Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

John Piper 

What’s ahead if you hold steady?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

But that which you have already, hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of My Father. Revelation 2:25-27

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

You’re going to find in these days churches will face more temptation to get away from the Word of God, the blood atonement, and salvation by grace through faith. Churches will also be under attack by seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. But in Jesus’ message here to the church in Thyatira He encourages then and urges, “You hold fast till I come.”

Even though it’s tough, remember this, dear friend—it’s going to happen that one day the saints are going to have their day. Look at v. 26: "He that overcometh and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations."  Are you aware the Bible plainly states that one of these days Jesus is going to come and rule this world?

The Bible says if we suffer with Him, we'll also rule and reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12). The Bible even teaches that we're going to judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).

It may not be long before Jesus comes and His millennial reign begins here on this earth. The Bible clearly says that it's going to be a powerful reign (v. 27).

ACTION POINT:

Don't give up, don't let down. Hold fast, stick to it, stay with the Word of God. Hold fast to that old truth. Hold fast to this Book and don't let go.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers