Week 46 Devotions

November 12 - - None of us can imagine the tremendous power Jesus had to heal, or the wisdom and charisma with which Jesus spoke. Jesus clearly understood where he had come from, why he was here, and the source of what he did, and who he was (John 13:3). With all the people he healed, all the people who hung on his every word, and all the nice things those people said about him, Jesus never lost sight of his purpose. “My food, my nourishment, that which really gets me going, is doing the will of God and completing what God gifted me to do” (Jn.4:34). “I have no desire to glorify myself” (Jn.8:50). “I do what the Father requires of me” (Jn.14:31). “I brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to do” (Jn.17:4).Should our lives be any different from that of Jesus? Whatever natural talents, advantages, opportunities, spiritual gifts, intelligence, or abilities God has blessed us with (John 19:11; I Cor. 4:7; Deuteronomy 8:18), He did so in order that we might bring glory to Him. Herod thought his privilege and riches were all because of what he had done. He refused to give God the glory for his life and as a result, he suffered terribly (Acts 12:21-23). On the other hand, Paul and Barnabas healed a man who had been crippled from birth (Acts 14:8-10). When the crowd saw this miracle they wanted to give glory to Paul and Barnabas. But, Paul and Barnabas reacted totally opposite from the way Herod did. Instead of accepting the people’s praise unto themselves as Herod had done, they gave glory to God. “Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings like yourselves. We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God....” (Acts 14:15). God has gifted and empowered each of us for the purpose of bringing Him glory (Matthew 5:16; Genesis 12:1&2). Will we be like Jesus and use what God has given us for God’s glory (John 13:15), or will we selfishly use them for our own glory? In other words, will we respond to God’s grace and be like Herod, or will we respond to God’s grace and be like Paul and Barnabas? God will continue blessing those who rightly understand their privilege in the light of their responsibility (Matthew 25:21,23). Do you? November 16 - - As a pastor, it is easy to wonder at times if what we are doing is having any effect or impact on people’s lives. Most businesses can easily measure success or failure by sales, production, inventory, etc. In the church, however; conversion numbers, attendance numbers, and even stewardship numbers don’t always adequately reflect change in a person’s character. Success in ministry isn’t always as easy to see or measure as it is in the business world. That is why it is so encouraging when someone will say, “Hey, I just talked to a member of your congregation and they are really on fire for their faith.” Or, “I’ve got to tell you the neat thing someone in your congregation did.” Such good reports are sent by God at just the right time to encourage those who faithfully labor and live for Him (I Corinthians 15:58). The apostle Paul must have often wondered what kind of impact his ministry was having. Rarely, did he spend much time in any one place so he couldn’t see for himself whether people’s lives were changing or not. He often had to rely on the reports he received from others. When the church at Thessalonica encountered severe suffering, they faced it with a joy that could only come from the Holy Spirit. When Paul heard what was happening, he couldn’t help but write them and encourage them, even as he had already been encouraged by what he heard about them. “You, yourselves became an example to all the Christians in Greece. And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Greece, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God” (I Thessalonians 1:7&8). When we “let our light shine” for God (Matthew 5:16), when we “express our faith” through acts of love we do for others (Galatians 5:6), and when we demonstrate in our character, the evidence, or fruit of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives (Gal.5:22&23), we are a HUGE encouragement to many, many people. We have no idea the impact our faithfulness has not only on unbelievers, but also upon those who introduced us to Jesus Christ, those who have faithfully prayed that we might find Christ and grow in Christ, those who have taught us in the faith, and most importantly, we are a huge encouragement to God. Paul put it another way in his letter to the Corinthian Christians: “Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it - - not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives - - and we publish it. We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this - - that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation” (II Cor.3:2-4; The Message) Let us commit ourselves to be “living sacrifices for Christ” (Romans 12:1) and in the process, not only bring praise and glory to God, but a good report and encouragement to others.