“I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” Acts 26:17-18 (NIV)

For out third devotion this week, we are looking at stanza three of the poem:

FAST from apparent darkness; FEAST on the reality of God’s light.

(Click for the entire poem and for Monday and Tuesday’s devotion.)

In this stanza, we have the contrast between darkness and light, which stands for evil and good or Satan and God. As I was meditating on darkness and light and therefore good and evil, the question popped into my head, “There’s such an obvious difference between good and evil. Why do so many people get drawn into darkness?” But then God sent the thought back to me, “Is it really so obvious to others? Remember this verse in 2 Corinthians 11:14, ‘And no wonder, for Satan masquerades as an angel of light.'”

I had forgotten about that verse. So many times Satan makes sin or darkness look like fun. I can remember many times when I was a child and wanted to do something that my parents would not let me do; I thought they were being overprotective and just didn’t want me to have fun, when in reality they could see something I could not: the inherent danger or darkness in that situation that they wanted to protect me from. As a child, I did not have the wisdom or discernment to see that; as older, wiser parents, they did. Satan often makes sin appealing, so that we will yield to it. Then the next time, it’s easier to say yes to a more egregious sin. Before we know it, we are on a slippery slide to doing all kinds of things we never thought we would do. We can see now how someone can commit an obvious sin, like murder. Probably in most cases, a person who commits a terrible crime has a long history of saying yes to lesser offenses, which lulled their conscience to sleep and set the scene for greater sins.

So in this Holy Week, we can see much darkness involved in Jesus’ crucifixion. The forces of evil thought they had won the battle, but, praise God, they underestimated the power of God, of light, to win over the powers of darkness. The Greek word for light is phos, and some of its meanings include truth and knowledge. God’s light is always the truth, the whole truth, and nothin’ but the truth, as the old saying goes. Another interesting meaning regarding light, is that we should be sharing this light and wisdom with others. Matthew 5:15 tells us that we should not light a candle and hide it under a bushel basket; no, we are to set it out so that it lights up the whole house and everyone can see it. If you doubt the power of little old you shining your light to others, try the experiment of going into a dark room of your home and lighting one candle to see the power that light has to dispel darkness!

Application: Is there a sin you have been allowing to continue in your life because you think it’s not a big deal? Let’s work on rooting out the sin the Holy Spirit is convicting us about before we reap a harvest of pain in our lives or someone else’s. Let’s also share the light we have with other people as God gives us opportunities in His perfect timing.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for breaking the power of darkness by your death on the cross. May we never take that sacrifice lightly or become oblivious to the sin in our own hearts and lives. Give us the courage and discernment to know when to share that light with others. Amen.

Image courtesy of foto76 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Follow your heart.” One often hears this adage at graduation time but is it good advice? Can we trust in the leading of our own heart? To do today’s Bible study, My Facts or God’s Truth, please click on the link.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

As we celebrate Valentine’s Day this week, I wanted to look at some of the verses in the love chapter of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. These verses are wonderful for us to aspire to. Lest we become discouraged of ever being able to live up to the standard that God gives us in these verses, however, I wanted to take a look at what these verses could look like in the real nitty-gritty details of life. I know that we all have times where we fail in trying to keep this high standard of love; after all, Jesus was the only One who ever loved completely unselfishly, but let’s look at some possible ways we could live out each verse.

Love is patient, love is kind.

• I will keep my voice in a kind tone when disciplining my children.
• I will not talk in a sarcastic manner to my spouse.
• I will listen with my full attention.

Love does not envy, does not boast, is not proud.

• I will be content with my house, with my furniture, with my clothes.
• I will not boast about all my children’s latest accomplishments to everyone within hearing.
• I will try to maintain a humble spirit when I do get something new or take that next vacation.
• I will regularly count my blessings.

 Love is not rude; it is not self-seeking.

• I will control my temper when I am driving.
• I will be courteous to slow checkout-lane clerks.
• I will wait my turn in the exit lanes of the highway and not speed up, hoping to wedge myself in at the last second so that I don’t have to wait in the long exit line.

 Love is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs.

• If my spouse responds crankily to me, I will attempt to keep my temper.
• I will not remember everything my spouse or children have ever done to hurt me. I will not hold grudges. What if God did this to me?
• I will strive to have a good relationship with my in-laws.

Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

• I will speak the truth in love to my family and remember to show them the same grace that I would want extended to myself.
• I will be truthful in my conduct at work, including how I spend my time there. Am I wasting time on Facebook or personal e-mail?

Love always protects, always trusts,always hopes, always perseveres.

• I will choose the decision that aligns itself with God’s word. I will remember to honor my family and not speak badly about them.
• I will not lose hope in God’s ability to work in every situation with myself, my family and my friends.
• I will persevere in prayer.
•  I will remember that God loves me.

Love never fails.

• God’s love never fails. SO, I will extend grace to others and myself when people fail and disappoint me, or when I disappoint myself.

Do any of these verses speak to your heart? What are some ideas you could share with us on living out the love verses from I Corinthians 13?

Happy Valentine’s Day, and pray on!

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Praying scripture is a powerful way to pray for yourself and others. I often use this way to pray when I find a scripture that seems to speak directly to a person or situation.

For example, I’ve often prayed Jeremiah 29:11-13 for my children. I pray that they will know that God has a plan for their lives, to give them a future and a hope, and that they will seek God with their whole hearts. These words of God filled with hope and affirmation seem just right to pray for my children.

Recently, I’ve realized that I can also take some of the scriptures that are warnings or admonishments and pray them for myself and others as well. I’ve not often used some of these words in prayer because of their negative connotation, but the Holy Spirit prompted me to pray the opposite of them.

For example, a few months ago I was reading in 2 Timothy and came across verse 7 “ Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” (NKJV). This verse perfectly describes a friend of mine who loves to study and learn, but thus far has rejected the truth of God’s word. I began praying the opposite of this verse for my friend. “God, thank you that you have given ______ an incredible mind that is always seeking, always learning. I pray that he will be always learning yet able to accept your word as truth. Amen.”

Another example of praying the opposites came to me just a few days ago as I was reading in Isaiah chapter 1. Verses 5 and 6 are talking about how the whole person has been stricken with sickness due to rebellion. Note: I am NOT saying that anyone who is sick is rebellious! In this particular case God was talking about rebellious Judah and how most of the people were in such rebellion that the “whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint,” (v 5). Verse 6 goes on to say, “From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it only bruises, welts and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil,” (NASB).

These words struck me, because if any of you have been reading a blog for Andrea Vellinga (For the Love of Andrea), a survivor of the Indiana State Fair tragedy, which her brother has been writing for her, one of the ways he has been asking people to pray for Andrea is a complete “head-to-toe healing.” As I read these verses in Isaiah, I thought, “That’s where his prayer came from!” Then I realized what a wonderful way this is to pray for anyone who is sick, no matter what the illness is. We can pray specifically for, say, someone’s diabetes to be healed, but if we also include prayers for healing from the “sole of their feet to their head,” we can also be praying for problems we don’t know about that may exist and could be contributing to the diabetes. And, these verses also refer to the whole person—the” whole heart,” so we need to remember that praying for spiritual healing or emotional healing is just as important as physical healing, and sometimes they are connected to each other.

Now, I don’t shy away from some of these “hard” verses, realizing that I can use them to “pray the opposites” for myself and others.

What about you? Do you have an opposite verse you like to pray for others? Feel free to share it below.

Pray on!

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net (image of Bible and praying hands)

As 2011 has kicked off, I’ve been evaluating my life and what I want to do for this year. I’d already been thinking about this for a few days when I was in church on January 2. My pastor Dave Rodriguez introduced a type of praying that was perfect for the mindset I was in. It’s called the Prayer of Examen. Richard Foster has a chapter on this type of prayer in his book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.

Basically, the Prayer of Examen is an inward spiritual practice, where we analyze what is going on inside of ourselves. It has two components:

1.     The first is where we examine how God was working in or through us throughout our day and how we responded to Him, and

2.     We examine our conscience to see where we need to be cleansed, purified and healed. See Psalm 26:2,3.

An important thing to remember, however, is to do this with God. Prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to reveal things to you. God can help us to see the truth, but also He will do it in a loving way.

So, as I was in church, Pastor Rod suggested we all go through the Prayer of Examen in the context of looking over the past year of 2010. Here are the questions he suggested we answer.

1.     Looking over the past year, for what am I most grateful or thankful?

2.     When or where in the past year were you cooperating most fully with God’s action in your life?

3.     When were you resisting?

4.     Beginning today, how do you want to live your life differently?

Take some time to prayerfully answer these questions. What do you want 2011 to look like for you?

While my church did this in the context of one year, many people pray the Prayer of Examen on a daily basis. You can ask yourself these same questions using the last 24 hours as your context. Here are some ways it may help you to do this on a daily basis, or at least semi-regularly.

Perhaps you take a walk every evening; you could answer these questions as you’re walking. Or maybe you like to journal, and you can journal your answers. Perhaps you want to mentally run through the prayer as you’re lying in bed at night.

Whatever way you decide, incorporating the Prayer of Examen into your life may help you to grow spiritually as you invite the Lord to help you analyze your heart.

Pray on!

Resource

Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home By Richard Foster / HarperOne

Freedom is a precious gift! True freedom is found only in Christ. To do the Take 5! Study “Freedom” just click on the link!