Devotions for Dieters

Psalm 68:19
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

Doris stood at the window, watching the first heavy snow cover everything outside with a blanket of white. She sipped a cup of tea and reflected on the year quickly fleeting. So many good things had happened. Certainly there had been bad, too, but mostly it was good. She couldn't imagine why she was so blessed as to have so many things going her way. The Lord had looked kindly on her this year. She had never felt so healthy and good. The year had seen weight loss every month. She finally was beginning to look like she'd always dreamed she could. The Lord could take credit for that, too. There was no way Doris could have done so well if God hadn't strengthened her.

Today's thought: I gladly receive all the benefits the Lord has to give, as long as they're not fattening!

A promise is only as good as the person who makes it. Someone has observed: " America is always a land of promise during an election." The political candidate who promises jobs and a utopia but can't deliver; the bridegroom who promises lifelong commitment, then is unfaithful to his wife; the soldier who pledges loyalty to his country but goes AWOL--all demonstrate that promises can be empty.

What Does God Say?

God promises, however, are never empty. They are totally trustworthy. It seems like you can find gracious promises on almost every page of His Book. Though many of His promises are already completed, there are loads more yet to be fulfilled. God made promises to the first couple as soon as He created them, assuring them of His provision and His purposes (Genesis 1: 26-29). When they broke faith with their Creator and sinned, their future seemed hopeless. But God promised them a Savior (Genesis 3:15). And His promises endured and flourished down through the generations of Old Testament history. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and others received promises from God, assuring them of a wonderful future, although they often didn't see the fulfillment during their lifetimes.

Now is a good time for you to take your Bible and turn to Hebrews 11:1-13. Note especially verses 8-10 and verse 13.

What was Abraham's response to God's promise (11:8)?

What was Abraham looking for in the future (11:10)?

If Abraham and others didn't see the fulfillment, what good was the promise? Well, God's promises are the soil in which faith grows. Look at Hebrews 11:13.

Does it say they died hopeless? How did they die? What had they seen in the promises God gave them? How did it make them look at this life?

Why does God delay the fulfillment of many promises? Read Hebrews 11:39-40 very thoughtfully. What does it say about "us," we who also wait in faith?

My Thoughts

This is a season to reflect on lots of God's promises because so many were fulfilled in the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings together fascinating people who were waiting for that promise--Zechariah and Elizabeth, the angel Gabriel, Mary, the shepherds, Simeon, Anna, the Magi and all who sat in darkness and the shadow of death.

But the birth and ministry of Christ Jesus added even more promises that you, as a believer, share in today. Try to find the promises that include you in each of the following verses. Jot them down.

2 Peter 1:3-4

Ephesians 1:13

James 1:12

James 2:5

2 Peter 3:13

My Part

The psalmist expressed something in Psalm 119:123 that all believers should look for--the final outcome of our salvation. Memorize this short verse from the ESV:

"My eyes long for your salvation
and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise."

And read 2 Peter 3:4-9. Our Lord is coming! Are you ready?

Too at Ease in Zion

Amos 4-6, Revelation 7
Key Verse: Amos 6:1

You've probably heard about the meeting that was called to deal with the problem of apathy--no one cared enough about the problem to show up! The better things appear to be, the easier it is to grow complacent. Yet there are dangers inherent in complacency. Ruin can set in when diligence is set aside. For example, don't worry about changing the oil in your car because it seems to be running fine. One day the warning light will come on, and it may be too late for your engine. Or as an ad for a dentist advised, "Ignore your teeth and eventually they will go away."

Complacency in the spiritual life is a great danger too. Just as a car or our physical health can suffer from benign neglect, so can our spiritual health. We may fail to see the damage that is occurring when we do not maintain our spiritual life. We may one day wake up to realize that just like ignored teeth, our spiritual life is in shambles due to our complacency.

The prophet Amos cried out to the people of Israel, "Woe to you who are complacent [at ease] in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria" (6:1). At the heart of the complacency was pride. "We have Zion, the city of God," they might have said. The people of Samaria viewed themselves as economically and militarily secure. Their vision did not match the reality of their situation. They faced judgment. God declared, "I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver u the city and everything in it" (v. 8). We can be too at ease in Zion.

"God, help me to rest in You but not grow complacent about Your Word and my spiritual life. May I rest in You but keep my walk with You vibrant."

1 Kings 9:4-5

A Solid Foundation

A very short man wanted to drive a nail in his wall to hang a picture. He stood on a chair, but it wasn't high enough. His wife placed a box on the chair, but he was still too short. Finally she placed a stool on top of the box. Balancing himself precariously, the do-it-yourself picture hanger began to tap timidly with his hammer. "Why don't you hit it hard?" his wife asked. "You'll never drive the nail that way!" Our hero looked down from his perch and replied, "How can a man hit anything hard on a shaky foundation like this?"

Great deeds take solid foundations. God reminded Solomon that if he wanted to establish a great kingdom that would live on through his descendants, he would have to build it on the solid foundation of integrity. Only as Solomon sought to live according to God's commandments and statues would he be assured that future generations of his family would occupy the throne.

Any substitute for integrity is a shaky foundation. We can't build a solid Christian life just on emotional experiences; we have to obey God's Word. We can't raise up a Christian ministry that will endure for decades unless it's done in uprightness of heart. Only integrity is able to provide a solid foundation that God will honor through the ages.

What are you attempting to build today? Is it a family? A ministry? A marriage? A life? Check out your integrity level. Make sure that everything you do is consistent with God's Word. This will not only provide a firm foundation for yourself but will be a blessing to your children as well.

Nothing to Hide

The most important knowledge in the world is the knowledge of God. The second most important is the knowledge of yourself. To know God, we must know Jesus Christ as our Savior (John 17:3). In his prayer, David makes two basic requests that should also be our prayer.

Our prayer should be that we want God to know us. This doesn't mean we want God to get information about us; it means that we have nothing to hide from Him. We hide from God with our words. When we lie to other people, we're lying to ourselves, and we are lying to God.

God has purposes for us to fulfill. He wants us to explore new territory and expand the horizons of our lives. Let God put you through the furnace (if He needs to) to remove the dross from your life. Let Him prepare you for what He has planned for you.

Our prayer also should be that we want God to guide us. We can't flee from God or fight Him, so we might as well follow Him. Jeremiah said, "O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his steps" (Jer. 10:23).

When we are willing to obey, God is more than willing to reveal His way to us. He guides us through His Word and through prayer. Don't be stingy with God, giving Him only a minute or two of your time every day. He also guides us through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, through circumstances and through His people. How glorious it is to have Christian friends with whom you can pray and to have a pastor who prays for you and ministers to you.

* * *

If you want God to know you and guide you, He will. You'll know yourself better and know Him better. And then He will guide you and lead you in an everlasting way.

Fire on the Prayer Altar

Colossians 4:12,13

We often pray out of a sense of duty, paying a sort of lip service to what we believe. The average prayer meeting today is a sad event for this very reason.

Sometimes we who are there scold those who are absent, and we look down on them. Sometimes those who attend the prayer meeting feel themselves to be better than those who do not. This attitude hinders real prayer.

We are inclined to say the same things over and over again without really ever getting down to the real business of praying.

Prayer is one of our weapons against sin. But if we remain indifferent to the seriousness of sin, our prayers will lack fervor, and we will not care about those who are lost or the interests of God. We just do not know how to pray.

Paul told us in Romans 15:30: "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me."

Paul encouraged his readers to pray fervently and to strive in prayer. This involved agonizing and wrestling in prayer.

Ephesians 6:12 says, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

When these things confront us, we need to know how to pray fervently. That is why Paul said in Ephesians 6:18, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (Eph. 6:18).

Satan's Imitators

Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.

Of all the brother teams in the Old Testament, Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Hophni and Phinehas, etc., perhaps none was so outstanding as Moses and Aaron. Together they were called upon to undertake the impossible dream--the exodus of Israel from Egypt. Jehovah had made Moses a god to Pharaoh and brother Aaron was his prophet. As a team they stood before the Egyptian king and demanded the release of God's people Israel.

During the new kingdom period the power of Pharaoh was unsurpassed among contemporary nations. At times his kingdom extended as far as the Euphrates River. For Moses and Aaron to appear at the royal Egyptian court demanding that the people of Israel be set free was a challenge to Pharaoh's power. From the start the king's attitude was one of arrogant defiance. Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go"(Exodus 5:2).

But the Lord had forewarned Moses and Aaron of Pharaoh's attitude, informing them that when the king asked for a miracle to prove God's power they should cast Aaron's rod to the ground and it would become a serpent. When Pharaoh questioned them, Aaron obeyed God and, as God had promised, the rod miraculously became a serpent. However, much to the surprise of Moses and Aaron, the king of Egypt called upon his wise men sorcerers to do the same and their rods too became serpents.

Apparently these Egyptian magicians knew the secret of paralyzing a snake by applying pressure on the back of the neck. This would make the serpent become rigid and the pompous Egyptian sorcerers would stroll along the streets using the paralyzed snakes as walking sticks. When they cast the snake to the ground, releasing the pressure, the snake would begin to crawl. Capturing the snake was a simple matter of grabbing it by the back of the neck, renewing the pressure, and making the serpent rigid again.

Such was the case in the contest between Moses and Aaron and the magicians of Pharaoh's court. However, as the Egyptians imitated the miracle of God they did not have opportunity to grab the serpents by the back of the neck and reapply the pressure. Before they could do so Aaron's rod-serpent swallowed them up.

Rather than be stunned by the defeat of his magicians, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Thus the Lord instructed Moses to "Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning" and to demand that the people of Israel be released (Exodus 7:15). Early the next morning the confrontation took place and as a result of Pharaoh's refusal the Nile River, long worshiped by the Egyptians, turned to blood. Thus began the great plagues of Egypt.

Although in the first two plagues God allowed the Egyptian magicians to imitate His miracles, by the third one they had run out of tricks. Candidly they had to admit to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God" (Exodus 8:19). This did not end imitations of God's power, however, for Satan is the great imitator of God. He has been imitating God through the centuries, and many have been deceived by some clever counterfeits which seem to be of God, but actually are of the devil.

Today the world is deluged with deception. Satan is on a rampage imitating the acts of God. This is why Christians are cautioned to "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). Moses and Aaron were not fooled or intimidated by the imitation miracles of the Egyptian magicians. Believers today must not be fooled or intimidated by the power of Satan, "because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

MORNING HYMN
Thy Holy Spirit, Lord, alone,
Can turn our hearts from sin;
His pow'r alone can sanctify,
And keep us pure within.