Daily Devotional

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” -Proverbs 17:22

There are so many things that keep us trapped in a moment. Fear, worry, and negative thoughts can cause us to become almost paralyzed. These strong emotions can lock us down and keep us from being productive. Another powerful fixation is the desire for perfection. It is important to seek excellence in what we do, but the self-imposed demand for perfection can keep us from moving forward and finding joy in our work and in our personal lives.

Recently, a birthday invitation for a 5th grader became a viral sensation. It captured the attention of the parents who initially received it, for a very good reason. The invitation reads…

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” -Hebrews 11:1

This past week, I, like many others, had the opportunity to attend YF Ardmore.  YF (Youth Force) Ardmore is a mission trip that blesses people in many different ways, whether it’s the youth attending, the leaders who planned the event, or the homeowners themselves.

This was my third year to attend YF Ardmore.  The camp has always been a part of my life, even before I was old enough to attend it myself. My grandparents attended YF, my parents attended, their friends went, and eventually so did my older sister. Every time my big sister (Ella Kate) would go to YF, she would go with all the excitement in the world. She would return upset that it was over.  Personally, this always confused me…

The Hebrew people had been delivered from their captivity in Egypt.  God, through Moses, led them out of a place of slavery and miraculously saved them from the powerful Egyptian army. After a long time of living and traveling in the wilderness, the Israelites are now on the boarder of the land that God had promised.

In the book of Numbers, chapter 13, Moses is commanded to send twelve spies into the promised land.  These spies were leaders from each of the tribes. They were commanded to see if the people who occupied the land were “strong or weak” and to see if the land was filled with “good fruit.” The spies went into the promised land and did just as they were commanded. When they returned from their mission, they brought back evidence of good fruit. It was true, the land was flowing with “milk and honey.”

The spies also brought back a report about the strength of the people who occupied the promised land. Eight of the spies reported that the task of taking the land from the tribes that already inhabited the land would be impossible…

Then the angel of God who went before the host of Israel moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness; and the night passed[a]without one coming near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.  The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down upon the host of the Egyptians, and discomfited the host of the Egyptians, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel; for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the Lord always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
    my body also rests secure.
For you do not give me up to Sheol,
    or let your faithful one see the Pit.

You show me the path of life.
    In your presence there is fullness of joy;
    in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

“Trust the ropes.” That is what they kept saying to us as we were preparing to repel down a four-story tower with nothing but a rope and a harness to keep us from falling to certain doom. It was a beautiful summer day and I was enjoying a great time at camp, but on this day, we were going to learn repelling. We had stepped into harnesses that would hold the ropes and put on a helmet. As we sat at the base of this tower, I was truly petrified. Anyone who has spent much time with me knows that I am not a fan of heights, to say the least. The instructors were telling us what we needed to know to make it successfully to the bottom. We were focused on every word that came out of their mouths. No matter how much I learned while sitting on the ground, I knew that fear was going to overwhelm me when I made it to the top of the tower.

I made the long climb to the top of the repelling tower and the instructor began to feed the ropes into my harness. There was no hiding it, I was scared, and he knew it…

“But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” – Psalm 86:15

I remember the first time I was pulled over by a police officer. I was only 16 and, apparently, he was not as impressed with my driving skills as I was. When he approached my car, he asked me for my driver’s license and if I might be aware of why he pulled me over. I quickly gave him my license and told him I was not sure why he was pulling me over. I sat in my car, shaking from being nervous. Because there were others in my car, the officer invited me back to his car for a moment. I had no idea what to expect! It was my first time being pulled over and my first time in a patrol car.

We sat in the front seat of the car…

Do you like to fish?  My wife likes to fish more than I do.  I can fish for about fifteen minutes and then I’m done.  She can stay the course and watch the water and wait to see what happens for half a day.  She says it’s relaxing… I lose focus.  She can watch and wait to see what happens. There is a wonderful element of faith in watching and waiting.  

In the birth story of Moses, found in Exodus 2, there is some of this going on.

“Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.” When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

Can you imagine the faith involved in putting your baby in the Nile and waiting and watching to see what happens?

“Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.” – Exodus 7:7

We are never out of time to try something new. It is never too late to change something about our life. When I was a youth in Sunday school, I remember learning that Moses was most likely 80-years-old when God used him to deliver the Hebrew people out of captivity. (Exodus 7:7) That did not mean much to me when I was a teenager, but the older I get the more impressive that seems.

Sam Kaplan recently demonstrated that age is no barrier to accomplishing something new in life. Sam had lived a wonderful life with his wife and family. He did many jobs, including running a cleaning service and owning his own telemarketing company. At the age of 68, Sam was driving down the road when he heard an advertisement for Georgia Gwinnett College. The advertisement mentioned work in film and writing scripts. This was something that had always interested Sam. He took a quick turn off the highway and within a few minutes, he was standing in the admissions office registering for the next semester…

Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded; in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, he lifted up the rod and struck the water that was in the Nile, and all the water that was in the Nile turned to blood. And the fish in the Nile died; and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts; so Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them; as the Lord had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not lay even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug round about the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile.