Tag: Devotional

  • A Fish Tail – Lessons in Humility

    I stared off to the west at an unusually shaped cloud. It looked  just like a giant fish tail. It was as if a big fish was chasing the sun over the horizon.

    I had read Jonah recently, and that story came immediately to mind. When we think of biblical characters we want to be like, Jonah never comes to mind. He does not fare well in the biblical account. He ran from God at the beginning of the story, finally obeys, and ends up pouting because God didn’t do what he wanted.

    I thought about the places where our hearts were more like Jonah than like Christ—far more places than we like to admit. When I say our and we here, I include myself. Sometimes my heart is far more like Jonah than Jesus.

    One of the wonderful things about being a Christian, though, is that we are works in process. We are not yet perfect. Nor do we have to be.

    For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

    And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

    Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

    That means we can lighten up on ourselves a bit. I am not advocating that we keep our worldly ways, far from it. I am simply suggesting that we lighten up a bit on unneeded guilt. We do need to repent of our sins. We do need to let the Holy Spirit transform us from the inside out. Many changes need to be made in all of us.

    We simply need to accept that it is a process and we are not going to get there all at once. When we are confronted with sin in our lives, we need to take it to God. We need to work with Him to remove it. We do not need to carry the weight of it around our neck.

    True humility is not walking around with the chains of bondage around our neck, clanking like Jacob Marley and moaning about what worms we are. It is about accepting that we are flawed and truly giving those things to Jesus to change. 

    True humility is recognizing that while we are less than perfect, the one who dwells in us is perfect. It is not about being proud of how good we think we are. It is about recognizing that the goodness in us is a gift from Him.

    Take note of your faults. Give them to Christ and move forward. You cannot change the past, but Christ can change your present and your future.

    Until next time, give Him the room to work and change you.

    Kevin

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  • Busy Beaver – another helper

    We need the Holy Spirit

    Beaver

    One summer in my late teens, I worked for an oilfield service  company. I was a grunt laborer and traveled into the field doing whatever necessary and unpleasant work needed to be done.

    For a while, we had a beaver problem. Beavers are one way God uses His animals to mold and shape His creation. Their system of dam building can transform an area incredibly over time.

    This particular beaver had decided to dam a culvert on a small creek, causing the road to flood. I’d get out of the truck, don hip waders, and pull the dam apart. In a day or two, the busy beaver would have it rebuilt. Various crews tore the dam down on multiple occasions.

    The company I worked for even brought someone in to dynamite the dam and the beaver’s lodge. Even that didn’t work. The determined rodent started to rebuild. In the end, they called a trapper in and removed the beaver from the area.

    Sometimes, we can be like that very determined rodent. We slave away at things, only to have them fail. Then we do it all over again and wonder why it doesn’t work.

    Author Rita Brown once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”It’s a profound quote often falsely attributed to Albert Einstein and others.

    We try to live and serve under our own direction and power rather than relying on the leading of the Spirit. It’s a form of insanity.

    Only God’s plans are infallible. Only God’s ways will lead us to the right place. We need the Spirit.

    We were given the Spirit as a helper.

    And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever. John 14:16 ESV

    …the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14:26 ESV

    Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26-27 ESV

    But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8 ESV

    All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 1 Corinthians 12:11 ESV

    As believers, we have choices. We can work feverishly but in futility. Or we can trust the Spirit to lead and trust the Lord to produce fruit.

    I pray we are all a little less like that beaver and a lot more like Jesus.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed, 

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