Touching heaven and changing earth

Touching heaven and changing earth

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. – James 5:16

James 5:17-18

 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years!

 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain, and the earth began to yield its crops.

Charles Grandison Finney was born in Warren, Connecticut, on August 29, 1792. He grew up on a farm with eight siblings. On October 10, 1821, while he was a law student at age 29, Charles Finney became concerned about the salvation of his soul. He entered the woods near his home to come to terms with God. That night, he had a dramatic conversion experience. In his own words, he felt “waves of liquid love throughout his body.” At the age of 29, he became a licensed minister. In 1835, he became a professor at Oberlin College, teaching systematic theology. Eventually, Finney became president at Oberlin College.

Charles Finney was not your average minister. He went far above and beyond. He became one of American history’s most influential (and controversial) revivalists and purportedly converted 500,000 people (Christianity Today). Finney is considered responsible for the Second Great Awakening Revival.

Finney was a man who believed in the power of prayer and letting God move in time. Here of some of his more well-known statements.

“Prevailing prayer is that which secures an answer. Saying prayers is not offering prevailing prayer. The prevalence of prayer does not depend so much on quantity as on quality.”

“Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. They never love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other’s hearts in prayer.”

“If the presence of God is in the church, the church will draw the world in. If the presence of God is not in the church, the world will draw the church out.”

“Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one’s will to God in deep humility.”

“A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.”

“There can be no higher enjoyment found in this world than is found in pulling souls out of the fire and bringing them to Christ.”

“You hear the word and believe it in theory while you deny it in practice. I say to you that ‘you deceive yourselves.’”

“When you come back to God for pardon and salvation, come with all you have to lay all at his feet. Come with your body to offer it as a living sacrifice upon His altar. Come with your soul and all its powers, and yield them in willing consecration to your God and Saviour. Come, bring them all along everything, body, soul, intellect, imagination, acquirements-all, without reserve.”

“Christ is not only in heaven but Christ within us, as really and truly inhabiting our bodies as we do, as really in us as we are in ourselves. This is the teaching of the Bible, and it must be spiritually apprehended by a divine, personal, and inward revelation to secure our abiding in Him.”

“Sin is the most expensive thing in the universe. Nothing else can cost so much.”

REFLECT & PRAY

No child of the King is greater than their prayer life. The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both born in and maintained by prayer (Ravenhill).

Father how I desire to touch heaven and change earth. Teach me and strengthen me to be a man with a passion like Elijah. May I hear Your voice and follow your directions.

INSIGHT

James 5:16 The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

In Greek, the word translated as effective is energoumen. Energoumen could be well translated energized. The English word energy is derived from it. Successful prayer is energized prayer.

When James speaks of effective prayer, the unspoken implication is that there is also ineffective prayer. How can we tell the difference?

By the results!

Effectual prayer is prayer that accomplishes something. More particularly, it results in the will of the Father being accomplished on earth.

Charles Finney was a man who prayed effectively. He touched heaven and changed earth.

The Father is always at work around you. The Father invites you to become involved with Him in His work. He does not ask us to dream our dreams for Him. He does not invite us to set magnificent goals and then pray that He will help us achieve them. The kingdom of God is not a democracy. It is a theocracy.

The Father already has His own agenda when He approaches us. He desires to invite us to leave behind our plans and aspirations and to accompany Him where He is working. He leads us from being self-centered to being God-centered. When the Father reveals to you where He is working, that becomes His invitation to join Him in His activity (Blackaby).

Effective prayer is a science whose laws can be learned. Effective prayer is praying the Father’s will into existence. To pray effectively, we must know what the Father wants to accomplish and pray toward that end.

James 5:17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

What is the difference between Elijah and us? This is not a trick question. There is a simple one-word answer: Nothing! Elijah knew what to pray and how to pray because he knew the Father’s plan. He heard the Father’s voice and told him what to pray and say. Elijah’s task was to pray what he was told into existence.

1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives – the God I serve – there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!”

1 Kings 17:2 The word of the LORD came to him, saying

1 Kings 18:1 Now it happened after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.”

Praying is not a shot in the dark. It is not a net cast into the sea hoping for a good catch. Praying is working with God to fulfill His divine plan (A.W. Tozer).

To pray effectively is a skill that can be learned. Any child of the King can master it. Prayer is the hardest thing we will ever be called upon to do, and being human, it is the one act we will be tempted to do less frequently than any other.

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Guaranteed deposits ∙

Guaranteed deposits ∙

For I know the one in whom I have put my faith, and I am convinced that he has the power to keep for that day what has been deposited with me. – 2 Timothy 1:12

Luke 12:42-48

 42 And the Lord replied, “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them.”

 43 “If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward.”

 44 “I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns.”

 45 “But what if the servant thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk?”

 47 “And a servant who knows what the master wants, but isn’t prepared and doesn’t carry out those instructions, will be severely punished.”

48b “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more, will be required.”

On June 16, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., or FDIC. The FDIC was established in the early years of the Great Depression after thousands of banks failed, resulting in about $1.3 billion in losses to depositors.

The act raised the confidence of the U.S. public in the banking system by alleviating the disruptions caused by bank failures and bank runs. The FDIC insures bank deposits: checking, savings, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, or CDs, for up to $250,000.

Perilous times, business failures, and bank failures disrupt and unsettle people’s lives and create fear and dread. To turn things around, a radical intervention is required.

What the Father has done for the children of the King is to provide confidence and overcome fear and dread. Is the Father capable of intervening and establishing stability? Does He have the resources? Can He be trusted?

The apostle Paul answered all these questions for all time. Paul knew the Father intimately.

2 Timothy 1:12 For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he has the power to keep for that day what has been deposited with me.

The Greek word translated as know is oida. Oidahas the basic sense of perceiving or seeing, hence know. It is in the Greek perfect tense. The Greek perfect tense involves an action that occurred in the past, and the results continue into the present. Paul has come to know the Father, and their relationship continues to the present day.

This knowing comes through person-to-person experience. It requires a close and intimate relationship. When we get to know the Father in such a firsthand way, respect, appreciation, deserved recognition, understanding, and high regard automatically flow.

Simply stated, to know Him well is to trust Him completely.

Paul’s statement is pointed and emphatic; I know whom!The impact of Paul’s statement would have been significantly reduced if Paul had said ‘what’ instead of ‘whom’ (Guthrie).

2 Timothy 1:12 For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he has the power to keep for that day what has been deposited with me.

Whom “I have believed” is translated from the Greek verb pisteuo, which means to believe, to entrust, or put faith in. It is also in the Greek perfect tense. Thus, it has the sense, “I have believed with the present result that my faith is a firmly settled one.” It is like hammering a nail through a board and clinching it on the other side. It is there to stay. So, Paul’s faith was permanently placed in his Father God. His faith was immovable (Wuest).

2 Timothy 1:12 For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he has the power to keep for that day what has been deposited with me.

The Greek term translated as convinced, persuaded is peitho. Peitho means to persuade, to have confidence, and to be convinced. It is also in the perfect tense in Greek. He is utterly convinced and is continuously reassured.

As children of the King, how are we able to not live in fear and dread and have great insecurity regarding the future? Paul’s answer is to get to know the Father and spend time with Him. Getting to know Him as a person will inevitably develop trust and confidence.

Most of us know people who take over a room when they enter. Their presence automatically engenders respect and confidence. Suppose that person was a close personal friend. How would that change things for you? Suppose that person was your heavenly Father.

Paul had just that type of personal face-to-face relationship with the Father. The result was that Paul was totally persuaded regarding the character and integrity of the One in whom He had believed. Trust was no longer an issue. He had complete and total confidence in his Father God.

“His certainty did not come from the intellectual knowledge of a creed or a theology; it came from a personal knowledge of God. He knew God personally and intimately; he knew what he was like in love and in power; and to Paul it was inconceivable that he should fail him” (Barclay).

REFLECT & PRAY

Knowing the King of the universe can make all the difference for each child of the King. Because the King of the universe is our Father changes everything. But only if we know Him intimately.

Father thank You that I can trust You totally, encourage me to do just that with all things. Encourage me to get to know You better and better.

INSIGHT

But there’s something far more important than our bank accounts, certificates of deposit, and investments. The Father is not a bank in whom we place our deposits. We do not invest in Him. Instead, just the opposite is true. He has invested in us.

He has deposited in us great riches from his infinite reserves! He has the power to keep and protect what has been deposited within us. What is the nature of that deposit? He gifted us with untold resources and treasures. He gave us our minds, abilities, and personalities. He arranged our life experiences from before the foundation of the world. He gave us our spiritual gifts and provided opportunities to serve. With such riches come responsibilities and guaranteed results.

Each child of the King is responsible for investing and managing wisely. He expects us to be prudent, diligent, industrious, and tenacious. The two extremes of fearful conservativism and foolish, wasteful profligacy are to be avoided.

“Those who have heard and confessed Jesus as Lord are blessed above all others and may expect a wonderful future filled with privileges and even greater responsibility when Jesus comes to fully establish the kingdom of God. However, those who know fully well what Jesus demands and do not do His will receive greater punishment than those who never knew what was demanded. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (Black).

Have you buried the treasure He deposited within you? Have you wasted it on mere earthly pursuits? Or have you invested it wisely in the Father’s Kingdom and His pursuits? It is never too late to get with a judicious and farsighted spiritual investment counselor and reallocate your treasure portfolio.

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Elevating your service ∙

Elevating your service ∙

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. – Luke 9:23

2 Corinthians 8:1-5

 1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia.

 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.

 3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will.

 4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem.

 5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.

Many of these estimates are outdated, originating in 2018, decades ago in Internet time. It is estimated that there are between 5 and 10 billion pages on the Internet. There are more than 2 billion websites on the Internet. 4 billion out of the 7 billion people on earth are already online. Facebook has over 2.40 billion users, approximately 30% of the world’s population.

Internet users consume a great deal of bandwidth. In 2016 one zettabyte of bandwidth was used. One Zettabyte equals a thousand Exabytes, a billion Terabytes, or trillion Gigabytes. 85,000+ websites are hacked every day.

Each of us follows something or someone. We scour the Internet and social media for “facts” and opinions. We listen to friends, leaders, or even so-called “experts.” Some of us follow family customs or what are considered accepted societal norms. But all of us follow something.

What we follow, we serve!

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

You’re gonna have to serve somebody

Well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (Bob Dylan)

To be a servant of the Father takes more than just being one of the children of the King. Right choices need to be made and maintained.

What is the standard?

We are to serve and help up to and beyond your ability. How can this possibly be done? Paul makes it simple. He provides an example, the brothers and sisters in Macedonia. They were “all in” regarding their determination to serve and help. Nothing could keep these people from helping. They begged to help despite personal sacrifice, suffering, and their current poverty. They were determined to help.

The key to their service is found in their very first critical decision. They gave themselves to the Lord and to us (2 Corinthians 8:5). Once you give yourself to the Father, giving things, time and resources follow easily.

REFLECT & PRAY

Elevating your service successfully is not easy; it is hard, sometimes seemingly impossible. But anyone can do it!

Father encourage me to daily surrender control of my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.

INSIGHT

To be a successful servant of the Father, we must hear Him and do what He says. It is one thing to hear; it is another thing to do.

“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!” (James 1:22 – MSG)

We start where we are and acknowledge that the Father is in charge. When we accept Him as our sovereign Lord, it is not a concession. Instead, it is a confession of what is indeed fact. We choose to believe what is already true. We spend the rest of our lives endeavoring to actualize what we believe.

The Father’s intention is for Christ to have His special place in the lives and hearts of each child of the King. Sadly, many of us have snatched Christ’s special place away from Him. We have put ourselves in the driver’s seat instead. Our responsibility, as servants, is to surrender and allow Him to assume His rightful place in our hearts that we usurped from Him.

1 Peter 3:15 Reverence Christ as Lord of your heart.

The Greek term translated as reverence or sanctify is hagiazo, from hagios, which means holy, set apart. Reverence envisions an act of dedication, consecration, or commitment. It has the sense of “serving the Father with a whole heart,” “dedicating yourself,” or “giving yourself to God.”

Such reverence or commitment in your hearts involves continual deep-seated confidence that the Father is sovereign and that the Lord Jesus Christ reigns as Lord of lords and King of Kings.

1 Peter 3:15 can be translated as “In your hearts give Christ a unique place” (Barclay).

Children of the King who have enhanced their service are people for whom the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are of prime importance in life. For them, their relationship with the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ is their most precious possession.

If people set their hearts on earthly things, material possessions, happiness, pleasure, an easy life, and comfort, they, of all people, are most vulnerable. Life in our fallen world is unpredictable. They may lose these things at any moment. Such people are desperately easily hurt (Barclay).

On the other hand, when the Children of the King give the Lord Jesus Christ His unique place in our lives, things change dramatically. The most precious thing for us becomes our relationship with the Father. Nothing can take that from us. Therefore, we are completely secure.

Suffering is part of the human condition. No one escapes suffering, but for children of the King who are serving the Father with their whole hearts, suffering cannot touch the things that matter most of all. Suffering cannot rob us of the most precious things in life (Barclay).

The fear of suffering is mitigated by elevating our service. “Only he who can say, ‘The Lord is the strength of my life’ can go on to say, ‘Of whom shall I be afraid?’” (Maclaren)

The Father is looking for servants willing to really serve Him, not merely go through the motions. A special delight awaits His servants. One day He will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!” (Matthew 25:23)

Trust the Lord Jesus Christ wholeheartedly and allow Him to take control.

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Forgiven and wiped clean ∙

Forgiven and wiped clean ∙

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. – Psalms 32:1-2,5

Psalms 32:1-11

 1 Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin

is put out of sight!

 2 Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!

 3 When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.

 4 . . . My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

 5 Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

 11 So rejoice in the LORD and be glad, all you who obey him! Shout for joy, all of you whose hearts are pure!

Guilt and remorse for what we have done have terrible, haunting consequences. We are plagued with memories, sometimes vivid images, shame, and fear.

In his play Macbeth, Shakespeare vividly captured the horrible emotions of a guilt-ridden conscience. Lady Macbeth convinced her husband to kill the King of Scotland, but her conscience was racked with guilt. She hallucinated and saw blood on her hands. She repeatedly describes the imaginary stains of her guilty conscience. But her incessant washing and washing is never able to remove her guilt. Eventually, she goes insane.

Almost every child of the King has suffered from agonizing guilt. And no matter what we do, nothing seems to remove it. Human effort and repeated attempts to clean ourselves are inadequate and ineffective to relieve a conscience tormented by guilt.

Have you ever asked yourself, “Why is this so?” The Father created physical and spiritual laws by which the material and immaterial worlds are governed. They are always at work. When we break the Father’s spiritual laws, we experience real guilt. It is unavoidable. Whatever we sow, we reap!

What is the answer? How can such a terrible, haunting, recurring sense of regret and remorse be adequately dealt with? Are freedom and relief possible? If so, where and how?

REFLECT & PRAY

Galatians 6:7-8

 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Father the guilt and dread of the past torment me. I long for release! Thank you that you sent the Lord Jesus Christ to die for my sins and cleanse my conscience from the guilt that I may serve You. As I freely acknowledge and confess my wrongdoings and offenses, thank You that you have promised to forgive me and wipe the slate clean once and for all.

INSIGHT

“Confession clears our hearts spiritually and makes it possible for us once more to experience deep fellowship with God. Unconfessed sin makes us weak, discouraged, and ultimately miserable” (Stanley).

The Lord Jesus Christ died for all our sins, transgressions, and iniquities. If that were not enough, He also died for our guilt and shame. His shed blood is the Father’s answer for each child of the King. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ washes away our sin and shame and cleanses our guilty consciences.

Isaiah 53:4-12

 4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!

 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.

 10 But it was the LORD’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin . . ..

 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.

 12 He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

The Father longs that each child of the King be clean and free. When the Lord Jesus Christ came, He shed His blood and died as the ultimate sacrifice of the innocent. As a result, anyone who believes in Him will not perish because of their sins. Their sins and guilt are paid for, forgiven, and wiped clean.

But there is more!

Hebrews 9:13-14

 13 If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity.

 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can serve the living God.

The Father sent the Lord Jesus to cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we might serve Him with a clean and pure heart and no regrets. “That is to say, he did not only win forgiveness for past sin, but he also enabled men and women in the future to live godly lives” (Barclay).

It is as though each of us is like a ship loaded down with a heavy cargo of sin. Further, the ship was firmly tethered in place by the anchor of our conscience.

The death of Christ has done more than unload the sin we carried. He has allowed us to be set truly free from the anchor of our conscience. What external rituals could not do, the Lord Jesus Christ did inside our hearts. Our conscience is now wiped clean of the soil of sin and self. A radical transformation has occurred within. The Father has purged our conscience from its “awareness of failure” (Guthrie).

“What Jesus did puts us right with God, and what he does enables us to stay right with God. The act of the cross brings the love of God to us in a way that takes our terror of him away; the presence of the living Christ brings the power of God to us so that we can win a daily victory over sin” (Barclay).

In Psalm 32, David opens up and lays bare his soul and heart before the Father. He confesses his sin with Bathsheba and all of the collateral damage it wrought. His decision to confess rather than to try to maintain a cover-up came after his encounter with the prophet Nathan.

Sin blocks fellowship with the Father. Without repentance, unconfessed sin prevents us from experiencing the Father’s goodness and enjoying the sweetness of His presence.

“When you find yourself discouraged because you have repeated a certain sin, turn to the Father in prayer. Ask Him to apply His forgiveness to your life and receive His mercy. He loves you and wants to enjoy your fellowship once again” (Stanley).

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© Dr. H 2022

Spent, daring greatly ∙

Spent, daring greatly ∙

I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know. – Acts 20:27

1 Samuel 17:23-58

 23 Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came out from the Philistine ranks. Then David heard him shout his usual taunt to the army of Israel.

 24 As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they began to run away in fright.

 26 David asked the soldiers standing nearby, who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?”

 31 Then, David’s question was reported to King Saul, and the king sent for him.

 32 “Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!”

 33 “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.”

 37 The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the LORD be with you!”

 41 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him,

 42 sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy.

 43 “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods.

 45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies– the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

 47 This is the LORD’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

 48 As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him.

 49 Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.

 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword.

Theodore Roosevelt, no stranger to criticism or boldness, wrote: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.”

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause.”

“Who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Too many of us do not want to get involved. We tend to hold back and wait on the sidelines, watching life go by. We do not error by trying and failing; we error by not trying at all. The Word of God recounts the stories of average people accomplishing great deeds with the Father’s help. Courage is an inner dynamic available to all people who possess Biblical faith.

It is not what you have that matters; instead, what matters is that the Father has you. In our struggle, we are never alone. Our good Shepherd is always with us, watching over us. He is at hand to care for us and carry us when necessary.

I am like the sheep that strays from the rest of the flock. Unless the Good Shepherd takes me on His shoulders and carries me back to His fold, my steps will falter, and in the very effort of rising, my feet will give way (St. Jerome).

REFLECT & PRAY

Instead of being critical of those who do, do!

Father give me the wisdom to know when to act and the courage to do so.

INSIGHT

Courage takes many forms. Sometimes courage advances boldly. At other times, the courage is to show up and remain constant and unswerving.

Courage is the quality of mind or spirit, mental or moral strength that enables a person to face and persevere difficulty, danger, pain, uncertainty, or intimidation without fear. Spiritual or moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of widespread opposition, shame, scandal, discouragement, or personal loss (Richard Zinbarg, Ph.D., Psychology Today).

Father, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference (Niebuhr).

The Scriptures are replete with stories of courageous people who did extraordinary things as they were encouraged and powered by the Father.

Acts 7:55-60

 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

 56 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”

 59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

 60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.

1 John 2:28 And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.

Revelation 3:2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing (Edmund Burke).

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© Dr. H 2022