Trusting God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotions (35 page)

When the Israelites were traveling through the wilderness, they were led by a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. When the cloud moved, they had to move. And when it hovered, they stayed where they were (see Num. 9:15–23). The Bible says that sometimes it moved during the day and sometimes it moved at night. Sometimes it rested for a few days and sometimes it rested for one day.

I seriously doubt that at night they all hung Do Not Disturb signs on the openings of their tents to let God know they did not want to be inconvenienced. When He decided it was time to go, they packed up and followed Him. And when He decides it is time for us to move to the next level of our journey in Him, we should never say,
“This is just not a good time!”

God knows best, and His timing is always exactly right. The fact that I don’t
feel
ready to deal with something in my life doesn’t mean that I’m not ready. God’s timing is perfect, and His ways are not our ways, but they are higher and better than our ways (see Isa. 55:9).

P
eter, Andrew, James, John, and the other disciples were greatly honored. They were chosen to be the twelve disciples, the men who would learn from Jesus and then carry the Gospel to the world. What I find interesting is they were all busy when Jesus called them. They had lives, families, and businesses to take care of. With no warning at all, Jesus showed up and said,
“Follow Me.”

The Bible says Peter and Andrew were casting their nets into the sea when Jesus called them, and they left their nets and followed Him (see Matt. 4:18–21). Talk about an interruption! He did not tell them they could pray about it, or consider it, or go home and talk to their wives and children. He merely said, “Follow Me,” and they did.

The disciples didn’t ask how long they would be gone or what the salary package would be. They didn’t ask about benefits, compensation time for travel, or what kind of hotel they would be staying in. They didn’t even ask Him what their job description would be. They simply left everything behind and followed Him. Even when I read this now, I must admit it seems a bit severe, but perhaps the greater the opportunity is, the greater the sacrifice must be.

I remember a time when I was complaining about some of the things God seemed to be requiring of me because I felt others didn’t have the same requirements placed on them. He simply said,
“Joyce, you have asked Me for a lot. Do you want it or not?”
I asked to be able to help people all over the world, and I was learning that the privilege of doing so would frequently be inconvenient and uncomfortable.

King Solomon said if we wait for all conditions to be favorable before
we sow, we will never reap (see Eccl. 11:4). In other words, we must give and obey God when it is not convenient and when it is costly if we want to reap our reward.

T
he more I study the men and women in the Bible whom we consider to be “great,” the more I see that they all made huge sacrifices and there was nothing convenient about what God asked them to do.

Abraham had to leave his country, his relatives, and his home and go to a place God would not even tell him about until he went there. Joseph saved a nation from starvation, but not before he was violently removed from his comfortable home and put in an inconvenient place for many years. Esther saved the Jews from destruction, but God certainly interrupted her plan in order for her to do so.

The list of individuals who entered into sacrificial obedience could go on and on. The Bible calls them people “of whom the world was not worthy” (see Heb. 11:38). These people we read about were inconvenienced so that someone else’s life could be easier. Jesus died so we could have life and have it abundantly. Soldiers die so that civilians can remain safe at home. Fathers go to work so their families can have nice lives, and mothers go through the pain of childbirth to bring another
life into the world. It seems quite obvious that someone usually has to experience pain or inconvenience for anyone to gain anything.

If you make the decision that you don’t mind inconvenience or interruption, then God can use you. You can make a difference in the world. But if you remain addicted to your own comfort, God will have to pass you by for someone who is more willing to endure the hard things in life in order to do God’s will.

Y
ou have probably heard of Sodom and Gomorrah and the terrible wickedness in those cities. But what did they actually do that was so displeasing to God?

We often have the idea that their sexual perversion finally put God over the edge and caused Him to destroy them, but it was actually quite a different situation that caused Him to act against them. I was shocked when I saw the truth behind their destruction. I discovered it while searching Scriptures about the need to feed the poor.

The problem with Sodom and Gomorrah was that they had too much and were not sharing it with those in need. They were idle and
lived excessively convenient lifestyles, which led them to commit abominable acts. We see clearly from this that idleness and too much convenience is not good for us and leads us into more and more trouble. Failing to share what we do have with those who have less than we do is not good for us, and is actually dangerous, because this selfish type of lifestyle opens the door for evil to progress.

Not only are these things not good for us, but they are offensive to God. He expects us to be channels for Him to flow through, not reservoirs that hold everything we have for ourselves.

We appreciate all the conveniences that are available to us today, but in some ways I think Satan is using them to destroy any willingness to be inconvenienced in order to obey God or help others in need. We have become addicted to ease, and we need to be very careful. Like most people, I like nice, comfortable things, but I have made an effort not to complain when I don’t have things the way I want them. I also realize that inconvenience is almost always part of helping others, and I know I am called by God to help people and do so with a good attitude.

J
esus did not waste His time, so we can assume that everything He did was very meaningful and contains a great lesson to be learned. Let’s think about the time He decided to wash His disciples’ feet (see John 13:1–17). What was that all about?

Jesus was and is the Son of God. Actually, He is God manifested in the second person of the Trinity. So it suffices to say that He is really important and certainly would not have to wash anyone’s feet, especially not guys who were His students. But He did so because He wanted to teach them that they could be in authority and still be servants at the same time.

Peter, the most vocal disciple, vehemently refused to let Jesus wash his feet, but Jesus said if He did not wash Peter’s feet, the two of them could not be real friends. In other words, they had to be doing things for one another in order for their relationship to be healthy and strong.

I decided a few years ago that I was not willing to have any more one-sided relationships—relationships in which I do all the giving and the other person does all the taking. That kind of interaction is not real friendship, and it always eventually causes resentment and bitterness. Not only should we do things for each other, we actually
need
to do things for one another. This is part of maintaining good relationships.

Giving does not always have to be a response to a desperate need. We may be led to do something for people who don’t seem to need what we can do for them at all. If there is no need, then why do it? Simply because giving of any kind prevents us from becoming greedy, and it encourages people and makes them feel loved—and we all need to feel loved, no matter how many “things” we have.

W
e took the band Delirious? to India with us on a mission trip, and Stu, their drummer at the time, was given a little strip of leather from a poor girl who wore it as a bracelet. The small gesture of love from one who had so little was life-changing. Stu has said publicly that as long as he lives, he will never forget the lesson it taught him. If someone with so little was willing to give, what could he be doing? Yes, little things can have a huge impact.

What little thing could you do? Below is a partial list of some things the Bible says we can and should do for one another:

• Watch over one another
  
• Pray for one another
  
• Be friendly and hospitable
  
• Be patient with one another
  
• Bear with others’ faults and weaknesses
  
• Forgive one another
  
• Comfort one another
  
• Build up one another—encourage and love them through their weakness
  
• Be happy for people when they are blessed
  
• Believe the best of one another
  
• Meet people’s needs
  

This is a partial list. Love has many faces or many ways it can be seen. The ideas listed here are relatively simple things we all can do if we are willing. We don’t have to make special plans for most of them, but we can do them throughout the day as we encounter opportunities.

W
e often think of love as a thing or a feeling, but the word
love
is also a verb. Love must
do
something in order to remain what it is. Part of the nature of love is that it requires expression. The Bible asks, if we see a need and close our heart of compassion, how can the love of God live and remain in us? Love becomes weaker and weaker if it cannot be demonstrated; in fact, it may become totally inactive. If we keep it active on purpose as we do things for others, we can keep from being selfish, idle, and unfruitful.

The quintessential act of love is that Jesus laid down His own life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. That sounds extreme, doesn’t it? Fortunately, the great majority of us will never be called upon to give up our physical life for someone else. But we have opportunities every day to “lay down” our life for others. Every time you put aside your own desire or need and replace it with an act of love for someone else, you are laying down your life for a moment, or an hour, or a day.

If we are full of the love of God—and we are because the Holy Spirit fills our hearts with love at the new birth—then we must let love flow out of us. If it becomes stagnant through inactivity, it is good for nothing. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son (see John 3:16). Do you get it? God’s love provoked Him to
give
!

I
once read that we believers are like ships that God wants to turn out to sea to sail wherever the wind and waves carry us. That sea represents the freedom we have in God, and the wind is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. But as new believers, we are tied to the dock because that is the only place we can avoid becoming shipwrecked until we learn how to follow Him. When we learn to follow those inner promptings of the Holy Spirit, we can be untied from the dock and sail the seas of life under His leadership without the fear of becoming lost.