2 Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
When Corrie Ten Boom (author of “The Hiding Place”) was a little girl in Holland, her first realization of death came after a visit to the home of a neighbor who had died. It suddenly impressed her that someday her parents could also die. When Corrie went to her father about her concern, he comforted her with these words of wisdom. “Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?” “Why, just before we get on the train,” she replied. “Exactly,” her father said, “and our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things too. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need–just in time.”
Many of us don’t think about it but we, as humans have such a problem with fear — fear that God won’t come through when we’re in need. We want insurance — insurance for our cars, insurance for our houses, for our health, and for our lives. We want to be ensured that we’ll be okay if something happens. It has become our way of life in the western world.
Now, we’re not saying go and cancel all your insurance plans — but at the same time, God wants us to trust in His provision in our time of need!
Recently, in our time while we’re ‘re-deployed’ in the States, we are truly learning the meaning of ‘never early, never late.’ We’ve been in the States longer than we’ve been in 18 years, and we’ve not been scheduling any speaking engagements more than two weeks out. And yet, we’ve not gone a single weekend where we were not speaking and sharing.
Every single day since we have been here our faith has been tested and time and time again, God has provided for us in ways we could never conceive — physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, and in every other way — never early, never late — always just when we need it.
We need not fear anything that is before us. God will give us the strength to endure anything that comes our way. He has our ticket!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]One of my favorite passages in the Scriptures is Psalm 1, and clearly this psalm holds an important key for our lives as believers to be fruitful and prosperous. That key is meditation. The psalmist describes the one who prospers as one who meditates “day and night”; a continual meditation developing the Godly habit of disciplining one’s mind in divine truth.
There were thousands of people bundled up in freezing New York weather to witness a few short seconds during which a descending ball of light announces the arrival of a New Year — 2023. These hardy people endured the freezing air to mark the passage of time, but even more, because they were anticipating a “new beginning!” Saying goodbye to a tumultuous 2023, they were looking forward to making a fresh start in 2024!
Approaching a new year always seems to carry a sense of adventure and expectation, although that attitude is not normally mixed with the level of trepidation we might be feeling just now. Moses’ successor Joshua, one of two faithful spies, seems to have embodied this sense of courageous expectation much of his life, but even he needed an extra dose of Divine encouragement as the Lord commanded him to cross the Jordan and take possession of the promised Land.
As we approach the New Year, we’re back to making New Year’s resolutions … but this year is a bit different, since it’s not only a New Year but a New Decade! During the past ten years we’ve seen such radical changes in our society; the definition of marriage, millennia-old norms of gender identity, bath and locker-room privacy, have all been affected by court decisions as a sea change in social mores has swept through the western world. People of Biblical faith are witnessing the fulfillment of Isaiah’s warning, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” [Isaiah 5:20]
Charles Swindoll wrote about these men who bring in animals from Africa for American zoos. They say that one of the hardest animals to catch there is the ringtailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it’s simple. They’ve been catching this agile little animal with ease for years.
Once upon a time, there was a prince who received a very rare and beautiful bird. He named her Goldie and placed her in a lovely, 14K gold cage. But the poor creature was not impressed by the gold at all. She pleaded for her freedom but the prince loved her much too much to part with her. Still, she continued to beg. In final desperation, she asked that he at least allow her go to her relatives and tell them that, though captive, she was still alive.
I came across an old legend about three cowboys crossing the desert on horseback by night. Suddenly, as they reached a rocky spot, a voice came from heaven and commanded them: “Friends, pick up some pebbles, put them in your pockets and do not look at them till morning.” The men looked at each other in astonishment and began to do as they were told. The voice went on to promise that if they obeyed, they would be both glad and sad. The perplexed men put a few pebbles each in their pockets and went on their way.