Tag Archive for faith

No Fear

2016-07-26 Devotional with Hymn No comments

When nagged by uncertainties big and small –
no fear.

In the grip of illness –
no fear.

In need –
no fear.

In loss –
no fear.

In change –
no fear.

In all my weakness and boundless ignorance –
no fear.

In the darkness –
no fear.

When opposed by forces far stronger than myself –
no fear.

When assaulted by temptation –
no fear.

When threatened by suffering –
no fear.

In the valley of the shadow of death –
no fear.

For my life is hidden with Christ
in You,
my Father,
my loving Savior,
my mighty Rock,
my sovereign Lord and
my everlasting God.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: If God Is on Our Side
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

A Personal Story

2016-05-31 Devotional One comment

I had become a Christian at age 10 and had lived an active, committed Christian life. Upon graduation from high school, I elected to commute to the local state university (the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati). Though my older brother had gone to a Christian college, I knew the local university was the right place for me.

But there I began questioning my belief in the Bible and in God Himself. All the miracle stories now seemed far-fetched. So for the first two years of college, I was a sincere atheist, even though I continued to attend church and even directed the youth choir.

Over time, my intellectual struggle came to a stalemate. I realized that scientific reasoning alone couldn’t tell me whether there was a God. My mind and my senses were too limited, too small. There was so much I couldn’t observe and couldn’t know. But at that point I became convinced that God was real because I had seen Him in the lives of my parents and in many other Christians I had known.

So on that basis, without any emotional crisis, I recommitted myself to God. I have trusted and followed Him since, even through many dark and difficult times. I have never again had any doubts about His existence.

Irrefutable rational proof for God – or disproof – simply wasn’t available. In my opinion, it never is. Though faith in Him is totally reasonable, His reality cannot be proved purely by human observation and reasoning. We are tiny, brief, creatures of dust. He is an unbounded, eternal, Spirit being. Faith, not reason, is His chosen pathway to relationship with Him. He is not seeking people smart enough to perceive Him. He is seeking people humble enough to trust Him.

Seeing a Greater God

2016-04-03 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Even after many years of following You, Father,
much of my life makes no sense in light of
who You are.
You are
perfect power,
perfect wisdom, and
perfect love.
Yet the faith I live is so weak.
My thoughts and actions proclaim a God who is
only a vague shadow of You,
a God who is
limited and
unreliable.
So much of me is still unmolded by the truth of
all You are.
My daily walk is clouded by
ignorance,
fear, and
self-centeredness.

Almighty Father, I long to know You in a way that is
all-transforming.
I want to respond to You
always,
constantly,
for all You are.
I hunger to think and speak and walk
each moment
in the light of Your full greatness.

Continue to draw me to Yourself.
Through prayer,
Your Word, and
Your loving discipline, Father,
help me to
see You more clearly and
trust You more simply.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: High and Holy Sovereign God
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

If God Is for Us

2016-03-20 Devotional with Hymn No comments

If God is for us,
who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son,
but gave him up for us all—
how will he not also, along with him,
graciously give us all things?
(Romans 8:31-32, NIV)

Are you plagued by nagging fears?
Drag them out into the brilliant light of God’s presence.
Do you find anything that He cannot handle?
Is there anything you cannot now, this moment,
entrust to Him completely?
Is there anything beyond His sovereign power,
His infinite wisdom and
His unfailing love?

He conceived you,
tenderly nurtured you, and
willingly died for you.
His watchful care engulfs you every moment.
Why do you hesitate to trust Him?
Why are you ever afraid?

Listen and sing:
Hymn: If God Is on Our Side
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Eternal God

2015-06-07 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Eternal God, You overflow all the vast universe and
all human thought and imagination.
Though You are consistent,
You consistently stretch every comfortable understanding of You.

But what you require of us is amazingly, stunningly simple:
Trust Me.

As we trust You, we live in the comforting truth of
Your greatness and
our smallness.

As we trust You, we fear You
and fear nothing else.
As we trust You, all the world is a lush forest,
dense with Your life and mysterious beauty.

As we trust You, our horizons are as vast as You are.
We share Your character,
Your power,
Your goodness, and
Your unlimited future.

As we trust You, we are unmoved by threats and
unconcerned about unknowns.
Fruitless worry disappears into peace when we see only You.

Sovereign God, You dwell in eternity,
unmoved by time.
Your promises,
Your purposes,
Your burning love
are always now, always sure, always undiminished.
You speak, and it is so.
Why do we hesitate to trust You?
Why are we ever afraid?

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Our God Is a God of Might
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Father, Save Us from Fear

2015-01-20 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Salvation, in its broadest sense, is deliverance from anything that
pinches us,
oppresses us,
narrows us, or
restricts the free flow of God’s life in us and through us.
We need this salvation not only in moments of crisis, but
daily,
constantly,
need by need.

One of our most constant temptations,
one of the greatest hindrances to our life in Christ, is
fear –
fear of anything but God Himself.

Fear threatens all the most precious gifts and graces
our loving Father longs to pour through us:
love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
generosity,
thankfulness, and
wholehearted praise.
When fear takes hold, all these are choked out.
Fear plunges us into a false reality where
God is not God.
Fear causes us to think and act as if God is not
all-powerful,
all-wise, and
all-loving.

Sometimes fear expresses itself as outright worry.
It stares us in the face and
grabs us by the throat.
But sometimes it is more subtle.
We’re not fully aware of its presence.
It simmers beneath the surface,
making us vaguely unsettled and uneasy.

As soon as anything concerns you,
no matter how big or small,
drag it out into the full light of day and pray,
“Father, I am concerned about _______.
If there is anything I should do about it,
lead me, and
I will follow.
Otherwise, I simply trust it to You.”
Pray this way every time that concern comes to mind.

Don’t let the Enemy clutter your mind and disturb your peace
with concerns that are
unexamined and
unnecessary.

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the defense of my life;
Whom shall I dread? (Psalm 27:1, NASB)

Listen and sing:
Hymn: As I Trust You
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Live as Seeing the Unseen

2015-01-04 Devotional with Hymn No comments

We tend to react only to what seems real to us. And as humans, we interpret reality primarily by what we can see. If it happens to be visible, it’s real. If not, it can’t be fully trusted.

But even science tells us that our sight perceives only a fraction of reality.  Many “lower” animals perceive the world very adequately without the sight we experience. In fact, many of them sense vast portions of reality we never notice in our heavy dependence on sight.

For example, many animals live in a world of smell. They rely on it to find food, to find mates, and to protect themselves. Pigeons and salmon can apparently use scent to navigate great distances.

Other migrating animals, including certain butterflies and birds, seem to find their way across vast distances of unfamiliar territory simply by sensing the earth’s gravitational field.

Sharks, the platypus, and other species can sense electrical impulses in the bodies of their prey. Rattlesnakes and their fellow pit vipers find their prey through an organ that detects body heat. Bats can fly with incredible agility and accuracy, even picking insects out of midair in the dark, using their built-in ultrasonic radar.

Some animals and plants can predict the weather as well as we can, or even better. They know of coming thunderstorms, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions because they can perceive electrical charges in the air, hear low-frequency vibrations, or feel tiny tremors to which we are oblivious.

Even in the area of sight, we are sometimes left in the dust. Birds of prey can clearly see what is almost invisible to us, even with our high-powered binoculars. And some insects see colors the human eye can’t distinguish.

All this reminds us that as physical beings, we humans operate on a heavily filtered version of reality. Sight alone leaves us in the dark in many, many respects. And if we perceive so little of what is real in a physical sense, imagine how little we perceive of the realities that are not dependent on matter.

That brings us to Hebrews 11. It talks about people who pleased God by trusting Him, despite the way things looked around them. Noah spent many years building an ark, based purely on God’s warnings about things not yet seen (v.7, NASB). Moses overcame all the trials and difficulties of leading Israel out of Egypt because he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen (v.27, NASB).

All these saints lived wisely and fruitfully by focusing on the reality of God’s presence. Almighty God was always with them. They knew it was true, and they acted like it, even though their eyes could not see Him.

I long to live that way, knowing and trusting that reality, living in full response to His personal presence with me. What a joy it would be to consistently act and react as seeing Him who is unseen (v.27, NASB).

I want to live and serve that way, to pray and worship, to think and talk as being immediately with Him always and forever.

We walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7, NASB)

Live in response to Sovereign God,
not in response to your childish fears.
Walk in the light of all He is,
not in the shadow of your own smallness.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: In Simple Response to You
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Let Life Come to You

2014-12-30 Devotional with Hymn No comments

“Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34, NASB)

Even when outward circumstances are at their best,
I find myself with an underlying tension,
a subtle uneasiness about the present and future.

On one such day, the Lord stopped me short and said:
“Quit chasing life.
Let it come to you.
You know that I will lead You at all the right times.
I’ve shown you that I will.

“I will provide all your needs.
You know that.
I’ve freed you to fully enjoy the present moment.
Live in it.
Enjoy it.
Be thankful for it without worrying about the future.”

Thank You, my Lord!
You are so good!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: A Life of Thanksgiving
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

I Trust You with My Time

2014-11-25 Devotional with Hymn No comments

“Who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?”
(Matthew 6:27, NASB)

Creator of all eternity,
Lender of my life,
I trust You with my time.
Help me relax and listen,
letting You be the Master of my moments,
accepting each one from Your hand
as I receive each borrowed breath,
each meal,
each joy,
with appreciation and anticipation.

Teach me to walk in all the freedom Your love provides.
Thank You, my Father.

My times are in Your hand. (Psalm 31:15, NASB)

Listen and sing:
Hymn: My Mind Is Yours
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

I Am Your Creation

2014-10-28 Devotional with Hymn No comments

During some periods in my life, I’ve lived in a vague uneasiness about myself. I’ve felt a restlessness, an unsettledness within that was hard to pin down or identify.

Eventually I realized this stemmed from a clouding of my relationship with God. Though I had not totally rejected Him, I was reluctant to face Him, afraid to stand before Him unhidden. Perhaps I had let Satan steal my confidence through his false accusations. Or perhaps sin had crept in, and I knew deep within that I hadn’t been living as I should. As a result, guilt had separated me from a full, joyful relationship with God. I was hesitant to look into His face.

If you’ve ever experienced these feelings, try something with me. Close your eyes and bow your head, and see yourself standing before Him right now. In your heart look Him straight in the face and say, “God, I am Your creation.”

Go ahead, try it.

Listen. How does your heart respond when you say that?

I have a sense of being a child, standing before my Father, with my arms outstretched, looking up into His face. No matter what my struggles, He understands me. My sins and failures have not dampened His love. I’m enveloped in acceptance, an affection, a belonging that goes deeper than my childish inadequacies.

When our children fail or get in trouble, we don’t want them to hide from us or go to other sources for help. It hurts and frustrates our hearts when they won’t share themselves with us, even when they fall. We long for them to come to us and be assured of our love, understanding, and total support, no matter what they’ve done. Our Father is the same with us. We are His. Though sin brings a cloud and a separation from Him, the separation is on our end, not His. The love and acceptance still exist. He yearns for us to turn to Him again.

As I stand before Him as my Creator, realizing I am His very own, worship becomes a living relationship. At such times, words are unnecessary. Communication lines are open from heart to heart, without the formalities of speech. The love I sense for Him is worship. That trust growing within me is the adoration He desires.

Standing there, I long to live always in His presence, in that unbroken fellowship with Him. Sin appears now as foolish and destructive, soiling that beautiful, living relationship. I want Him to seal all my affections forever as His very own. I want to live fully and freely before Him—naturally, as His love designed.

And in that love, I want to glorify Him in every way I can. Creation so beautifully and lavishly glorifies Him, singing constantly of His power, His wisdom, His love. As His creation, I want to take my place in that symphony.

We are His creation, His children. That warm, open relationship is what He wants most for us, and with us. He only asks that we trust Him—trust Him enough to come to Him immediately and repent when we have sinned; trust Him enough to bring Him our needs and concerns; trust Him enough to obey His words of love.

He is a wonderful Father!

O Lord, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8, NIV)

Listen and sing:
Hymn: I Quiet Myself in Your Love
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

« Older Entries   Recent Entries »