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When Your Friend Is Suffering

Daily Reading

Job 11-13

Daily Thought

Your friend is suffering. What do you do? First, what you don’t do.

Avoid the comparisons, “It’s not as bad as that time I…,” or “My brother-in-law had the same thing.” And don’t lay blame, “Well, you had it coming…,” or “You just need more faith.” Be careful trying to explain God, “This is God making you strong.” You’re not the doctor, so don’t tell them, “I read on the internet about a special treatment.” Beware “at least,” like, “at least you’ve had a good life.” And, oh, those clichés and platitudes! “Look on the bright side.” “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

We fear the silence, so we fill the silence. Awkwardly. “If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom” (Job 13:5).

If these are the don’t’s, what are the do’s? First, show up. Job’s friends got it right …for a week (Job 2:13). Just be there. Then love them, talk relationally. And serve them, see a need and meet it. And pray, bring God with you.

Daily Prayer

Father God, you are my comfort and my refuge. You are all-powerful and all-knowing. There is nothing so big that I cannot bring it to you. You are an intimate, loving Father. There is nothing so small that you are not interested. You delight in my prayers, which is amazing and wonderful.

God, may I walk through my days with you, speaking to you always, sharing my pleasures and my pains, my desires and my concerns. Then, God, may I find peace and contentment, because I do not walk alone.

Amen

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I Can’t Solve Me

Daily Reading

Job 8-10

Daily Thought

Bildad’s callous solution to Job’s suffering is simply, “If you are pure and upright, surely then he (God) will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation” (Job 8:6); to which Job rightly replied, “Truly I know that it is so, but how can a man be in the right before God?” (Job 9:2). Job is saying, “You are right, Bildad, and that’s why you’re wrong.” Bildad believes you can be good enough before God, and Job despairs that good enough is impossible.

Job is a story of the contrast between two views of suffering, but, more importantly, two views of God. For Bildad, it is do right before God; for Job, it is be right with God. Bildad puts his faith in the character of man, because Bildad is looking for a solution. Job trusts in the character of God, because Job seeks a Savior. “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both” (Job 9:33), he cries, looking for someone to bring him together with God. As the story continues, Job’s hope will increase, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth (Job 19:25). Job is correct and his name is Jesus.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). 

I can do this means I’m seeking a solution. I can’t do this admits I need a Savior. The Gospel begins its work when I realize I can’t solve me.

Daily Prayer

My Father in heaven, You are holy. I am amazed that You even think of me, because I am not holy. Far from it. Yet You love me and seek me out. You save me, not because I have something You want or need, but You save me out of Your own pleasure. This is astonishing love.

Thank you for Your Son, Jesus Christ. Through His obedience, His life, His death, His resurrection, I am made righteous and given the certainty of eternal life with You. You have given me all I ever need, and therefore I can love others the way You love, not to receive something, but for the sheer pleasure of loving and giving and serving.

Amen

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Silence Was Better

Daily Reading

Job 5-7

Daily Thought

Job’s three friends came and sat silently seven days. In this they did well. When they did speak, Eliphaz, likely the oldest, spoke first, “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty” (Job 4:7). You must have done wrong, Job. What else explains the suffering? The other two, Bildad and Zophar, concur. This is the simple religion of easy equations. We like simple religion. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” the disciples asked Jesus (John 9:2).

The problem was Job was “a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 1:8). Those were God’s words. The friends were sure they had Job, and God, figured out. “They are ashamed because they were confident; they come there and are disappointed” (Job 6:20). They were actually sad that Job was not bad because it meant their religion was not safe from suffering and it scared them. “For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid” (Job 6:20-21).

Jesus answered his disciples question, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3). Jesus did not explain suffering, he entered suffering; Christ and a cross, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 11:2). A suffering Savior for a suffering world, who teaches us how to “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). But Job’s friends kept talking.

Daily Prayer

My God, You became like me and took the cross of my making. You bore my sin and died my death. In a world full of suffering, You gave me hope for the future. May I now become like You and embrace the suffering of others, coming alongside them and sharing this same hope.

You have taught me a deep joy and a powerful peace that strengthens me when I face trouble. I know I can rely on You because You have gone before me and overcome. You are my strength and my Savior, and in the midst of a world in turmoil, in You I can by silent and find rest.

Amen

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Zero

Daily Reading

Job 1-4

Daily Thought

Zero is quite powerful. When you add zero, nothing much happens. But try multiplying! Go ahead. Multiply anything by 0, and what do you get? Zero. Zero dominates! 12 x 0 = 0; 20 x 0 = 0; 8 billion (the number of people on planet earth) x 0 = 0. We spend our entire lives adding and subtracting, but at the end, everybody gets multiplied by zero. Does that seem disheartening? Think again. Look in your closet, your attic, your garage, your hope chest, your cupboards. Nothing we accumulate adds value to who we are. If we lose anything or everything (think Job), we are of no less worth.

Satan thought he could take everything away from Job and Job would curse God.  “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face” (Job 1:9-11).

It is incredibly powerful to realize that our worth comes from nothing more and nothing less than being a child of God made in his image. And Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

Take it all; I still have my God. Nothing can touch that! No one can touch that. Not a demeaning boss, nor a degrading father, nor a disloyal friend, nor the devil himself. When we delight in God we find rest, contentment, peace, significance. Nothing can rob us of that, because God is not going anywhere. Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for you! If God is for me, who can be against me.

Daily Prayer

Father in heaven, you are the creator of all things. I give you all glory and honor and praise. What a world you have created! Forgive me for focusing on the trivial when the majesty of your creation is forever in front of me. Oh Lord, may I be content in you.

Faith, hope, and love, these are essential. And the greatest of these is love. Out of my faith in the God of truth, out of my hope in the God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, may I love you with all of my heart, my soul, my mind, and my might. And may I love others, and thus display my love for You to the world.

Amen

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Behind the Scenes

Daily Reading

Esther 6-10

Daily Thought

The players in this story include King Ahasuerus of Persia, his queen Esther, her cousin Mordecai, and Haman, the king’s right-hand man. God is hidden behind the scenes. Haman hated Mordecai. The first half of the story of Esther ends with the plan of man, Haman’s “wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, ‘Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it. Then go joyfully with the king to the feast.’ This idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made” (Esther 5:14). 

The following verse opens Act Two, the plan of God, “On that night the king could not sleep” (Esther 6:1). Haman had gallows built fifty cubits high, and you can sense the coming irony. These gallows meant by Haman for righteous Mordecai are meant by God for wicked Haman. God is not mentioned, but God is not absent. In chapter 2, Mordecai had done a good deed unrewarded, and on this night in chapter 6 the king could not sleep. He asked for the reading of the Chronicles (a cure for insomnia?) and learned how Mordecai had rescued the king, and here I will spoil the ending. “So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai” (Esther 7:10).

“The righteous is delivered from trouble, and the wicked walks into it instead.” ~Proverbs 11:8

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, over and over again You remind me as I sow, so shall I reap. I should live life accordingly. Looking ahead, I shall do today what will produce a good tomorrow. Thank You for teaching me what is right, and for changing my heart so that I now desire Your ways instead of my own, some of the time, at least, and more and more as I make a habit of holiness.

Help me remember always that this world is Your creation and Your design and it works Your way. I enjoy life when I enjoy You and live according to the joy of Your Word.

Amen

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Do It Anyway

Daily Reading

Esther 1-5

Daily Thought

Ahasuerus, king of Persia, “loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen” (Esther 2:17). It is a time of national peril for Israel and Mordecai appeals to Esther to approach the king, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). The book of Esther is more political than religious, the name of God not found on its pages, but God’s providence fills the pages. Esther’s response, inviting her countrymen to fast on her behalf, acknowledges God behind the scenes. This story is of godly action more than words.

Courage cannot be ignorant and Esther knew the danger of Mordecai’s request, “if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law–to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter (Esther 4:11). “Do it anyway,” is Mordecai’s response, even as he knew the danger, for he also had stood courageously. Mordecai is not careless of her life. He loves her and has cared for her since childhood, but cares more deeply for her soul. To keep silent when courage is called for may (or may not) save your life, but you will die inside. Esther understood, “I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16). This is no statement of despair, but of devotion to her nation and her God.

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” ~Luke 9:24

Daily Prayer

God, wonderful Savior, I will be prepared always to stand for You, as You stood for me in my place at the cross. I will be prepared, putting on Your armor daily, the faith in Your care, the hope of eternity, the love which You showed me. I will be prepared, pouring into Your Word, always ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope I have in You.

You set the time, I’ll be ready.

Amen

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Cleaning House

Daily Reading

Nehemiah 12-13

Daily Thought

Nehemiah led the effort to rebuild Jerusalem. He returned the Word of God to public reading, reestablished the worship, the Sabbath, and the festivals of the Jewish faith, and rededicated a confessing people to follow their God. Then he left for a time, traveling to Babylon to visit her king. He returned after who knows how long, but it was too long, because sin had moved back into the city. Tobiah, an Ammonite enemy of Israel and God, was living in a room in the temple. Evil doesn’t ask to be in charge, but tolerated, because then it’s in charge. The temple was neglected, the Sabbath was ignored, and the people were marrying foreign women who worshipped foreign gods. “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin” (Nehemiah 13:26). Purity cannot abide evil. A child dropped his ice cream cone upside-down onto the dirt. It ruined his ice cream. Didn’t bother the dirt at all.

So Nehemiah cleaned house, literally. “And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber” (Nehemiah 13:8). There is a time for tantrums because there is such a thing as too much tolerance. “And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair” (Nehemiah 13:25). It reminds me of a man who walked into a temple and began turning over tables.

Daily Prayer

Holy God, I love Your Word. Everything in it tells me about life, how it should be lived and Who it should be lived for. It displays Your goodness, Your righteousness, Your holiness. Your grace and mercy. Your love.

God, I commit myself to You. Set me apart from the sin around me. Surround me with others who love what is good. Keep me good, keep me righteous, keep me holy by Your Word. Forgive me when I stray, and lead me back to the right path.

Amen

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All In

Daily Reading

Nehemiah 10-11

Daily Thought

“On the seals are the names of Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these are the priests. And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Bani, Beninu. The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, Malluch, Harim, Baanah” (Nehemiah 10:1-27).

How many names did you skip when you read this passage? Most? None? Some? All? It is just a list of names, right? But if you were Hacaliah, your name on this list is a big deal. That goes for Kadmiel and Azgad and Zadok and all the rest. Each signatory sealed the deal, each said I am all in, committed. It’s like signing the Declaration of Independence only bigger because that was against the British and this is before God. “If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth” (Numbers 30:2). The signers say they will each “join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes” (Nehemiah 10:29).

It’s like marriage. The essence of marriage is “I Do,” and “I Do” changes everything. It means I’m all in. Each name on this list is the backbone of Jerusalem, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part.

Daily Prayer

My God, You gave Your Son the Name above every name, that all would bow before Him. I bow. He is my Lord, my God, my Savior, the King of kings. There is no One better to put in charge of my life, and I willingly and eagerly serve Jesus Christ.  Thank You Jesus for leading me to life, the true life I seek, a life overflowing with peace and justice and purity and love. You have all authority, and when I walk in Your Name, I have the confidence of heaven.

I am so glad that You know my Name, that it is signed and sealed in Your Book of Life. I am a citizen of heaven, a bride of Christ, an ambassador of God, a saint. And all I did is sign under Your Name, You did all the rest. Thank You for salvation in Your Name.

Amen

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The Journey

Daily Reading

Nehemiah 8-9

Daily Thought

When the Word of God is open, we read the story of God and us. We see the ebb of our disobedience and rebellion and the flow of God’s discipline, his grace, and his mercy. We begin to understand ourselves and our God. “And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel” (Nehemiah 8:1). Ezra read from the book all day, every day for days, and when he stopped reading, the people confessed their sins and worshipped their Creator, “You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you” (Nehemiah 9:6). They worshipped their Savior, “You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them” (Nehemiah 9:17). They worshipped their God, “the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love” (Nehemiah 9:32).

Jesus said to his disciples, “Follow me,” because transformation is a journey. It happens over time and trouble. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1:6) is God’s promise of process, persistence, and perseverance with us. If it is not good yet, God is not done yet, because “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). When the Word of God is open, we see the big picture of our God, who is faithful and wonderful and mighty and merciful. God is the author of life and, therefore, “the joy of the Lord is our strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

Daily Prayer

My God, I celebrate Your goodness, Your love, Your grace and mercy, Your majesty. I sing loudly with joy, because You are good and You are my God. The joy I find in You gives me strength to overcome, because nothing compares. Certainly not the cheap pleasures of this world. May I wake each day, delight in Your Word, and walk in the joy set before me.

Keep my memory fresh, God, of the ways You have worked in my life. May I draw on Your faithfulness when times are tough, when my strength wavers, when it is dark. I know You are with me, help me remember You always will be.

Amen

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God and People

Daily Reading

Nehemiah 7

Daily Thought

So far, Nehemiah has been about rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. The book begins with the report to Nehemiah, “The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire” (Nehemiah 1:3). Nehemiah is cupbearer to the king, believes he can do something about it, and does. Six chapters later, “the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days” (Nehemiah 6:15). End of story? Hardly. Nehemiah has 13 chapters; we are only half-way there. The wall only got us to the heart of the story, the heart of Nehemiah, which is all about God and his people.

Chapter 7 begins, “Now when the wall had been built” (Nehemiah 7:1), and the rest of the chapter, the rest of the story, is about a people and their God, because Nehemiah is about God and people, not walls. Walls are monuments of pride built by people who love their own name. Nehemiah wasn’t building a wall, but a city of 42,360 people who love the name of their God. After the wall was built is when the story really begins, “and when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns” (Nehemiah 7:73). Israel had returned home.

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, deep in my heart I know I belong to You. I can sense eternity, that there is more to this life, and that I am more than flesh and blood. You have told me that I am specially made and I believe it because I know my Maker and You are good. This world is not all there is, and someday all things will be renewed and there will be a new heavens and a new earth, and someday I’m going home. I look forward to that Day.

I live my life today with eternity in mind. I pray my life will be a reflection of that eternity, of You, that I might show You to others. I suffer the pains of this world knowing they are short compared to forever, and that they will end. I walk confident in the sure hope of Your sovereignty, that You are King of kings, that You are my King and my God and my Father forever.

Amen