A Day in the Life of Jesus

Recently I have been reading through the Gospels, particularly to watch and see the suffering and trials that Jesus endured while on earth in a human body.  The Scripture tells us that He was tempted in all points like we are, but I know sometimes I feel like I am the only one going through _______________.  Sometimes I even wonder if the Lord knows how I feel or what I am struggling with.

In Matthew 14, we get a glimpse into the daily schedule in Jesus’ public ministry.  It makes me weary just thinking of it, and it helps me know that He understands when I feel like life is swirling out of control and I am weary to the bone.

This chapter begins with Jesus learning that His cousin, and His ministry partner, John the Baptist, has been executed in prison.  Jesus immediately departs for a “desert place”.  I can imagine He wanted to be alone.  To mourn.  To process what had just happened.  Sometimes I feel like I am drowning in everything going on around me, and I can’t quite get a grasp on it because more and more keeps flying my way.  I need to take a break and have some silence.

However, Jesus doesn’t get the silence or the quiet time to pray or talk to God.  The multitudes of people follow Him, and He spends the entire day healing them and teaching them.  When evening comes, His disciples implore Him to send the people away so they can buy food.  But Jesus takes His ministry a step further and feeds the people.  He expends yet more energy to perform a miracle, provide the meal, and clean up the leftovers. 

Jesus instructs His disciples to get in a boat and go while He sends the people away.  Have you ever seen a stadium after the crowd has disappeared?  What a mess is left behind!  Or entertained another family for dinner, and after they go you don’t have energy to wash the dishes?  But I don’t imagine Jesus left the hillside a mess.

Finally, Jesus will get His quiet prayer time.  I sometimes get to the end of my days with five little people and realize I didn’t have time to pray or study my Bible that day.  I’ve been trying to make place for it all day long, but it constantly gets crowded out by the needs of others around me.

Jesus gets to His quiet place, and then He sees that the disciples are struggling in the middle of a great storm.  So He goes to their aid.  My Bible says it was the fourth watch of the night, which I understand to be 3-6 a.m.  As a mom, sometimes I cannot wait for bedtime.  I finally close my eyes in exhaustion, and the baby cries in the night.  Even far into the night Jesus hasn’t had much time to Himself or to rest or to “recharge His batteries.” 

The Lord comes to His disciples walking on the water to still their storm, but they scream in terror and assume He is an evil spirit.  No faith to believe Him or to trust that He would come to their aid.  They panic.  Were they even praying for His help?  Were they looking for His rescuing hand?

Peter musters the faith to walk on the water to go to Jesus.  But in his distraction he begins to sink, and Jesus must perform yet another task – rescuing Peter from drowning, and then stilling the storm.

The weary men finally arrive at the other side of the sea.  But the sleepy town is waking up in the wee hours of the morning, and they hear that Jesus has come.  So they bring to Jesus all the diseased people to be healed.  And so begins a new day in the ministry of Jesus.

I am not putting myself on the same level as Jesus, but I am realizing in new ways that He has experienced the same things I am experiencing.  He has walked in my shoes.  And in dependence on the Holy Spirit, He was victorious and had a successful ministry.  In His strength, I can minister to the needs of my family and others around me today, though I be weary, and though I didn’t get much time to pray, and though the demands never seem to cease.  Even though the baby had me up half the night and I never got to prepare mentally for a new day.  Jesus is there.  Am I like the disciples, of little faith,  not really expecting Him to come to my aid at all?  Or do I have faith to walk this road with Him by my side, knowing He has already traveled the road before and knows its final end?

Precious Thoughts

I often supplement my current Bible Study or devotional readings with the adoration list from Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet.  January and February the topics were all things I was wrestling through already.  I came to the 22nd when we were looking at the characteristic of God as a personal God, who knows me individually.  God really used Psalm 139 to tie a lot of things together for me.

Psalm 139:17-18 – How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!  how great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

For some time now, I have started my {almost} daily prayer time with Jeremiah 29:11-14, which says,

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

I know that these verses were spoken to Israelites which were headed into captivity, and yet the Lord has used them in my life over and over again.  I have struggled with this “captivity” of temporary housing and “limbo” and transition that we have been “stuck” in for 18 months.  I have questioned why God would call us to church planting, provide for our financial needs by allowed us to reach full support after only 2.5 years of deputation, and then just drop us off to sit and wait for three months, because we can’t really get started on church planting until we have a house.  So I have asked God to help me know that His plans are good.  That His plans are not of evil.  That He does have a plan, and that He is at work, even when I can’t see it.

I don’t particularly care for sand, but I came across this picture from our very last deputation trip and I was remind that God’s thoughts are more than the sand pictured here, which is a small portion of all the sand there is in the world!

We have done everything we can to secure housing.  And now we just wait for the bank’s decision.  It is all in God’s hands, and my patience has run thin many times.  But today I read that His thoughts (good thoughts and plans according to Jer. 29), are more than the sand, and they are precious.  

As I meditated on this truth, the Lord caused me to think about my moments and days as a mom to five little kids.  It seems that my day is filled with thoughts of other people (though this in no way means I am an unselfish person…).  It revolves around what DVD the 2nd grader needs me to start for school, and did I remind the 3 years olds to go potty, and did I bake bread so that I can feed these hungry kids, and the five year old needs clean socks so I have to start the laundry, and the baby needs his nose wiped, again.  My thoughts revolve around my family and how I need to meet their needs.  Yet I am sure that if I add these thoughts up, they are no where close to the number of grains of sand on the seashore.  God’s thoughts – of me – cannot be numbered.  They are precious, and they are thinking up good plans.

I have sometimes prayed Jer. 29:11, not out of faith, but out of duty because it is on my prayer list and I know I should pray it.  But God has answered my prayer.  In bringing me to Psalm 139, He has reinforced that He is working and thinking and planning on my behalf, even when I cannot see it.  I cannot even count His precious thoughts toward me, so I could I ever see and comprehend all that He is doing right now?

I am thankful for the waiting time, because it has allowed me to learn and personalize this truth in a way I wouldn’t have without the struggle and the trial.

Update:  The Lord brought this to me on a Wednesday morning when I was sick and not feeling well.  I did not want to make the two hour trek into NYC for church, especially because I felt the Lord wanted me to share this in testimony time.  We did go, and I did share, in obedience to Him.  I think He used it in the lives of others too.  The next morning, we received word that our short sale had been approved and we were moving forward into closing…

Help

Today I was reading an adoration passage in Psalm 60.  Verses 11-12 say,

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
Through God we shall do valiantly: for He it is that shall  tread down our enemies.

I was struck with this thought…

Sometimes my enemies aren’t physical people.  Sometimes my enemy is doubt, or fear, or worry.  Sometimes my enemy is stress, or emotions out of control.  Sometimes my enemy seems like five little kiddos all demanding a piece of me at the same time (but that’s really just stress, right?)  So the question that struck me today is, where do I turn for help?  Too often I ask my husband to help, or I turn to my own creativity to solve a problem.  Start a movie for the kids.  Sit down and breathe.  Make a to-do list.  Sometimes I yell and lose control of the situation.  But vain is the help of man. 

What I really need when all of the situations hit me in the face is to turn to God for help.  When I am drowning in doubt, or guilt, or out-of-control emotions, I don’t just need another set of hands, or a fresh look at the situation – I need God.  I need to turn to Him FIRST.  I need to realize that any victory will only be through His strength.

When I shout, “HELP!” it needs to be to God first.  Sometimes He may use the help of man (or my husband, or my friend, or my kids) to help me.  But I need to turn to Him first.

The Source of Joy

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I think we could probably all answer this question without studying, but I wanted to study it anyway.  Joy comes from God.  But how do we access that joy?

In John 16:17-24 and 33, Jesus is trying to tell His disciples that He is leaving (referring to His death).  But He promised them that their sorrow would be turned to joy, and fullness of joy.  They would see Him again after His resurrection, and then they would receive His indwelling Holy Spirit.

Joy is this passage is a comfort.  But because the disciples were trying to conform His words to their expectations of a physical kingdom set up on earth, their disappointment blinded them to truth.  Jesus told them that “in that day” (when they would see Him again) they would ask Him nothing.  Why?  Because they would understand what He had meant. 

But then He instructed them to ask of the Father in His name, and they would receive it.  Jesus even went on to explain that the asking and receiving through prayer would lead to fullness of joy.  We are directed to ask for all that we need and all that He has promised.  And we are assured to receive it.  The blessed effect of the prayer of faith is that it fills us with joy.

“Would we have our joy full, as full as it is capable of being in this world, we must be much in prayer.  When we are told to rejoice evermore, it follows immediately, pray without ceasing” – Matthew Henry (referencing 1 Thess. 5:16 ff)

God’s gifts, through Christ, fill the treasures of the soul, they fill its joy.  So what is the source of joy?  The presence of the Savior, and God’s spiritual blessings accessed in prayer.  Nothing physical, for the disciples were sorrowful and the world would be trying to steal joy away from them.  But Jesus promised that their joy would remain full as they remained connected to the Father in prayer.

A Token for Good

I remember vividly a chapel message from Bible college.  It was on this verse,

“Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.”   ~Psalm 86:17

The preacher, who I remember not-so-vividly, explained that sometimes it’s okay to ask the Lord for a token of good.  Something little or special that the Lord does for us, or a prayer that the Lord answers, to remind us that He cares for us.  To show us that He is involved in our lives.  To encourage us when things seem hopeless and overwhelming.

My friends and I used to pray for these tokens.  Or sometimes, usually at the lunch table, we would declare, “This is my token for good!”  I think that chocolate was a frequent token for good in the girl’s dorm!  But sometimes it was something more intangible – an encouraging word, a certain verse that spoke to us in our devotions, a favorite song in the chapel service.

Last week God gave me a token for good.  I was having a bit of a rough day.  A friend came over to go over some plan for an event at church.  When she left she slid a bag across the table and said, “These are for you guys.  Hope you like them.”  It was a dozen bagels. Brooklyn bagels.  And they were delicious.  A special treat we couldn’t have afforded, especially on that day.  But it was a little encouragement to me – a token of good – that God saw everything going on in my life, and He was still there, and He still cares.

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It sounds silly – bagels are a token for good?  But at the right moment, in the right circumstances, God can use even bagels to be a token for good.  You can ask God for a specific token of good, or you can just ask Him to show Himself.  Then you get to be amazed at the token He chooses.

What is your token for good?

Thoughts on Prayer

This week was a little discouraging for me.  I found myself in a pity party and feeling ungrateful for God’s provision for us.  I didn’t really want to go to prayer meeting.  But afterward I was so glad I did.  The Lord really used the speaker, a visiting evangelist, to boost my spirits and get my perspective back on track.  The sermon was on prayer.  Everything he said was stuff I already know.  But I really needed to be reminded.

“God is not concerned with our happiness, but with our holiness.  We will have a millenia to be happy.”  My pity party had been focused on my happiness.  I needed to re-align my focus to that which is holy.

“The power source {for the Christian life} has often been short-circuited.  Because of fear of wildfire {or being labeled as charasmatic} we have ended up with no fire.”  I know I have brushed aside many a sermon on the Holy Spirit, but I am finally realizing in my daily walk just what it means to walk in the Spirit.  And I desperately need His power!

“The world continues to be more & more desperate, but the church isn’t.”

“Revival starts in God’s house.  Not the White House, the school house, or the court house.”

We normally break up into groups of two or three to pray together before going our separate ways for the night.  But our Pastor was moved to open the floor to those who would pray – as the Holy Spirit led them.  It was a very moving time.  Many eyes were wet with tears.  Many hearts were touched, I’m sure, as was mine.

I was so blessed that the very first person to stand and offer her prayer was a teenager.  So many teens and so many youth groups today are focused on the fun, and not becoming more holy.

I rejoiced with my brothers and sisters in Christ as we confessed sin, prayed for strength, gave God the glory, and sought the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.  I don’t think I can quite describe how I felt – how I was moved – by hearing my church family pray.  Their words were even more precious when I considered the current or recent circumstances in their lives.  I have seen them grow, be transformed, and claim the victory that is provided for us in Christ.  Hearing them put words to their inner struggles and victories was very touching, and humbling, and I felt so blessed to be able to call them my friends.

Some people don’t make time to attend their church’s mid-week prayer meeting.  Some churches don’t even have a prayer meeting.  But as the speaker said on Wednesday, you can tell the health of a church, not by how many attend on Sunday morning, but by how many show up for the prayer meeting.  We all need the fellowship of our Christian brothers and sisters, and the prayer meeting provides a boost in the middle of our week - the encouragement to keep going, to not be weary in well doing, and to know that others are praying for us.

In My Distress

It has been a rough week with my kiddos.  They have been sick, cranky, and tired and I have been running on empty because I’ve been up in the night with them.  Last night things came to a head.  I needed to find the nasal aspirator so I could put Nolan to bed.  I had misplaced.  I prayed.  I asked the Lord to help me.  But I still couldn’t find it.  I felt abandoned.  Why wouldn’t God answer such a little prayer for me?  Why wouldn’t He just help me out so I could put the kids to bed and rest myself?  I started to doubt and to blame God.  Silly, right?  Over a nasal aspirator? 

But I think God was just brining me to the end of myself.  And a few minutes after Nolan was soundly sleeping, I found that silly little object – in the trash can.  Today I read Psalm 18 in my devotions.  And I was struck by verse 6, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.” 

In times of distress we can always call upon the Lord.  And if we are in a right relationship with Him, then we can have confidence that He WILL hear us.  And when we march boldly into His throne room with our request, our distress, our need for assistance, we can find mercy, and grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

I’m so glad that I don’t have to solve the problem myself.  I don’t have to stress out finding the answers.  I don’t have to doubt my God and lose faith.  I just have to call, and He will answer.  The rest of Psalm 18 showed me these things about my God…

• He can answer in powerful ways (v.7-16).  He definitely makes His presence known!
• He can deliver me (v.17-19)
• He can reward me for obedience (v.20-24)
• He can save (v.27)
• He can light the darkness (v.28).  Or…He can give me treasures in the darkness (see Isaiah 45:3).  But either way I don’t have to fear when things seem dark.
• He can help me to do what seems impossible (v.29, 34, 37)
• He can strengthen me (v.32)
• He can help me to walk the path He has set before me (v.33, 36).  Just like a mountain goat, He can make my feet narrow enough for the path, or He can widen the way before me so that I can walk in His way.
• He can sustain me, even when I feel weary to the bone (v.30-31, 35)
• He can give the victory (v.38-45)

If my God can do all of these things, then why do I not call unto Him in my distress, so that He will do these things for me?

Feb. 26, 2010 Devotions

Today is my 28 month wedding anniversary.  I said it to Ben first…winning for the first time in a while.

Mark 7:6-9  He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.  7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.  8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.  9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

The Lord is using this to point some sin in my life.  I just prayed and asked Him to this morning.  In many areas I am a hypocrite, honoring God with my lips but my heart is far from Him.  In so many things I give lip service, yet my heart is not right.  Specifically He has been working on me lately regarding my attitude toward the brethren.  I go to church with an unloving spirit,  a complaining heart, a critical attitude.  Even if I don’t agree with every practice, method, sermon, song, etc. I can go and show love for my brothers and sisters in Christ.  They may not be perfect.  They may say things that hurt me, or do things that alarm me or shock me or hurt me.  But I must forgive, and I must love.

It reminds me of a quote by Charles Spurgeon that I used to have on my refrigerator (perhaps I should put it up again):

“He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more. He overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it.” ~Charles Spurgeon

I have also been feeling convicted about honesty.  I am prone to exaggeration, which some excuse as easily as a “little white lie.”  (I wonder do we call it white because we do not consider it to be sin, and therefore black?)  I was upset when Dad told me to leave the purchase price of the car blank so that the new buyer could decide how much they want to pay taxes on.  But yet I don’t want to claim the income from selling the car on my taxes.  That is hypocritical.  I need to be honest and upright in every area of my life.

Feb. 22, 2010 Devotions – Help My Unbelief

Leviticus 10:10  And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;

While I may not “be” holy as God is, yet He looks upon me as holy when He sees Jesus Christ.  I am to live a “holy” life before Him, and before others, that they may see a difference between the holy and the unholy.

Mark 4:40 “And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”  This is what Jesus said to His disciples just after the storm.  He was in the boat with them the entire time, yet they thought that they were about to perish, and awoke Him in fear.  Sometimes this idea of living in Brooklyn, of moving, of making it financially, of raising a family in the City, of being a Pastor’s wife, make me very fearful.  Like giants of doubt and failure breathing down upon me.  And what is His response (when I finally bring my burden to His feet)?  “Why are you so fearful?  Where is your faith?”  I pray with the man of Mark 9:24 - “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”  I want to have stronger faith.  I want to trust my Lord and rely upon His promises…as a way of life and not just as a last resort.  Lord – help my unbelief!

Mark 5:36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.

Prayer

Daily Devotions Feb. 16, 2010

Mark 1:34-37  And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.  35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.  36 And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.  37 And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.

These verses need no other commentary.  They are a peek into the personal prayer life of Jesus Christ.  He has been serving and healing and working miracles – pouring Himself out to the people.  He Himself, yet being God, needed to replenish His spiritual life through prayer alone.  So He arose early and spent time with the Father.  He refueled, and then He was ready when the disciples came to Him and notified Him of the waiting crowds.  I cannot give to others what I do not possess myself.

Feb. 12, 2010 Devotions

Another double day.  Busy with BSF yesterday.

Exodus 32 – the golden calf

vs. 20 – there are always consequences for sin, even if we repent, and even after God has forgiven us.

Praise the Lord for Moses who acted as an intercessor on behalf of the children of Israel, that God did not destroy them in His anger.  Who am I bringing before the Lord, pleading that He give them another opportunity to turn to Him, or to accept Him?  We see illustrated here the vitality and influence of the intercessor.

Exodus 33:13-17 “ Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.  14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.  15 And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.  16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.  17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.”

What a precious promise regarding the presence of the Lord!

Exodus 34:6-7 “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,  7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

What a description of the Lord I serve!

Feb. 9, 2010 Devotions

Exodus 28 – Instructions for the High Priest’s Garments & Work

How wonderful it is that I can come before the Lord without the mediating work of a High Priest!  I have the Best High Priest – Jesus Christ the Son of God.  In vs. 29 Aaron was to bear the names of the twelve tribes into the throne room of God.  Christ bore my name before God the Father when I accepted Him as my Savior.  Now I bear His name and I have access to the Holiest at any time, from any place.  Praise the Lord for my High Priest who offered Himself as one sacrifice for sins forever and finished the work of salvation!

Feb 4, 2010 Devotions

This is a double day, because I missed my Bible reading yesterday.

Exodus 18:11  Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.

Could this be a reference to the fact that God showed Himself strong by attacking the various gods of Egypt?  I.e., He showed His power over the sun god by the plague of darkness, etc.?  Moses had just finished rehearsing the Egyptian plagues to Jethro when Jethro made the statement in vs. 11.

Exodus 20
The children of Israel were blessed to have contact and communication with God through the persons of Moses first, and later the priest.  How much more blessed am I to have direct access to God as a believer-priest.

Hebrews 4:14-16  Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.  15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.  16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.