Devotions

“Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons – because they rebelled against the words of God...therefore he brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help” (Psalm 107:10-12, NKJV).

They were bound in affliction because they rebelled against God and rejected his counsel (see Psalm 107:11). Beloved, could this be you? You have sat under godly preaching, and the Holy Spirit has convicted you, but still you are miserable and continue to sin.

When a person willfully disobeys God, our tendency is to hide and cower in fear. We may feel that it is all over, thinking, “God can’t use me.” When you are in that condition, the devil will whisper to you, “There is no deliverance for you. You’re one of those people who never change. God has had it with you; your sin has caused him to hide his face.” 

Satan will pound you with scriptures, misquoting them all. When you sit in church, you will hear only judgment, not God’s mercy, because you are under such condemnation and fear. 

I am not referring to people who hide from God because they love their sin. Rather, I am talking about Christians who have taken a fall but still have sorrow and a hatred for their sin. Something inside them cries, “I have hurt God.”

To this Christian, God’s Word promises, “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness. . . . For he has broken the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron in two” (Psalm 107:13-16).

God never has and never will hide his face from a crying child of his. No matter how far you have fallen or how many promises you’ve made to him and broken, he will always hear your cry for help and bring you back into close fellowship with him.

“Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death” (Psalm 107:17-18, NKJV).

According to the dictionary, a fool is someone who lacks judgment or good sense, one who does silly things without thinking of the consequences.

What could be more foolish and unthinkable than indulging in sexual activity with an unknown person? The whole world knows that sexually transmitted diseases are an international problem, and yet people all over the world are still contracting them. People simply refuse to be alarmed. Women risk their lives, and men trade their futures for an hour of carnal pleasure.

Some of these diseases are extremely serious, and many people suffer serious consequences for their foolish acts. They talk about the dread they felt when they first sensed something strange in their body. They knew something wasn’t right, and suddenly a haunting memory came back to them of a reckless act in their past. It happened when they were living in sin, playing the fool.

“Because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, [they] were afflicted” (Psalm 107:17). The despair of many such Christians is unspeakable. They feel helpless, on the verge of giving up. One man said, “I feel like my life is over. There’s nothing I can do.”

“They drew near unto the gates of death” (Psalm 107:18). Beloved, you do not have to live without hope. God has given you his word that he does not walk out on fools. The next few verses shine with hope: “The they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Psalm 107:19-20). 

The Lord knows there are things we cannot change, words we have spoken or things we’ve done that we cannot undo. He is not asking us to do penance or make promises. All he asks is that we cry out to him in our desperation. He wants to heal, prolong life and provide supernatural grace.

“To infinity and beyond!” Any moviegoer familiar with the blockbuster Toy Story franchise knows Buzz Lightyear’s iconic catchphrase. Is there anything that expresses unlimited possibilities better? 

This simple concept is the essence of who God is. We’ve dressed it up, theologized it and complicated it until our brains hurt, but the simple fact is that God our creator is himself infinity and beyond. Scientists always have, and always will, spend their lives trying to pierce holes in God’s infinity. They cannot, even with pure logic, scale the truth of who God is. The higher and deeper they go, there he is in all his mystery, possibility and wonder. 

The Latin word omni is used to define God primarily in three ways: omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipresent (everywhere all at once). In Psalm 139, David traversed the heavens, letting his mind go to infinity and beyond to see if God was truly everywhere. His joy and sense of tremendous comfort pulsate through each verse as he finds God in every corner of the universe.

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there...If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as day, for darkness is as light with you” (Psalm 139:7-12, ESV).

Recently, the Sesame Street character Elmo sent out an innocent tweet: ““Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” The jaw-dropping response was a “trauma dump” from thousands of social media users expressing their sadness, loneliness and depression. One user, who said he was at his limit, received over half a million likes. This outpouring of sadness to a puppet was profoundly revealing to me. We are a world of silos with people desperate for connection and for the God who created them. Oh, that we could know the God of infinity.

If you are feeling alone, know this: there is nowhere on earth or in heaven you can go that God is not there. He is right beside you no matter where you are, and he will never leave you. You have a future filled with boundless hope because of him. Call on him today!

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened” (Hebrews 4:1-2, ESV).

This verse is referring to the ancient Israelite’s journey through the wilderness. When they came to the Promised Land, they sent 12 spies into the land. Only Joshua and Caleb came back with a good report; the other 10 spies gave a report of unbelief and disobedience. They poisoned the well with the children of Israel, and they refused to believe God’s promises to protect them. This is what God was speaking about when the writer of Hebrews said, “as he has said, ‘As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest,”’ although his works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 4:3). 

I believe that God has called us as his followers to live by faith! The only way that we can show God’s power in our lives and receive his promises like his rest is if we walk in his Holy Spirit, by grace through faith.  

If you don’t believe me, look a little further down in that passage. “For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:10). The only way that we can enter into God’s rest is if we cease from our own labors. 

Now this doesn’t mean that we come to a place of inactivity. I believe the life of the Apostle Paul testifies to this; he walked in the rest of God, and he also wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, took the gospel to much of the Roman Empire, and was a great church-planter. The rest he found wasn’t from not doing anything. It came from living in faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Our Christian life isn’t like “Well, God does his work, and I do the best that I can, and then God can produce something.” That’s not how it works. We must surrender our own understanding, strategies and creativity to God. He will do far greater things with his strategies and creativity than we could ever imagine. We simply must have faith.

^{John Bailey is the Vice President of World Challenge Inc. and the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. John has been serving the Lord in pastoral ministry for 35 years, ministering the gospel in over 50 nations, particularly as a pastor and evangelist in Cork, Ireland.}

When Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden by the tomb, she supposed that he was the gardener. Her heart was heavy and she cried out, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away” (John 20:15, NKJV).

“Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him, ‘Rabboni!’ (which is to say, Teacher)” (John 20:16). Jesus knows the names of those who love him, and he called Mary by her name.

Jesus then told her, “Do not cling to me” (John 20:17). Jesus knew Mary was not going to let go of him. Her heart was crying, “I lost you once, but I’m never going to lose you again!”

It must have taken a lot of courage for Mary to heed Jesus’s words to her. You see, he told her he was going to be gone for awhile, and she should go to the others and “…say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father’” (John 20:17).

Mary quickly returned to the disciples who had returned home after seeing that Jesus was no longer in the tomb. These simple fishermen were gathered together in one room, perhaps cleaning their old fishing gear. They were not theologians, but they had been trained for three years at the Master’s feet.

It was Mary, however, who had the revelation! These men had to sit and listen to a woman who had heard from Jesus. Can you imagine the scene? “What did he say? What did he look like?” Mary answered simply, “All I know is I saw him, and he told me to come here and tell you something!”

I love to hear devoted men and women of God say the words Mary said: “I’ve heard from him, and I have something to say!” The cry of my heart every time I prepare to preach is “Lord, if you are not going to talk to me, I am not going to talk to them.” Like Mary Magdalene, we should all have a heart so given to the Lord that he gives us his mind and says, “Go tell the brethren!”