Devotions

by Mark D. Roberts
Laity Lodge Senior Director and Scholar-in-Residence

Who Is My Audience?

READ Matthew 23:1-12

“Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels.” [Matthew 23:5]

Jewish men in the time of Jesus wore teffilin when they prayed: boxes that were attached to one’s left hand and forehead during daily prayers (see Deut. 6:4-9). They also attached tassels (zizith) to the edges of their robes in obedience to the Torah (Deut. 22:12 and Num. 15:38-41). Jesus was not criticizing the fact that the scribes (religious teachers) and Pharisees followed the law, but rather their intentions in doing so. They were making a show of their religion in order to impress others with their piety.

Though we don’t wear teffilin and zizith, we can easily be tempted to practice our faith for the sake of human approval. Indeed, we can turn the people around us into an audience for our “show.” But God looks upon our hearts. He knows if we’re living to please him or if we’re seeking applause from elsewhere. This passage from Matthew reminds us to live for God’s delight, rather than to get caught in the web of living for human approval.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Have you ever done religious things for the sake of human approval? What are some of those things? What helps you to live with God as your primary audience?

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I’m struck today by how much I seek the approval of others. Not that it’s wrong to receive such affirmation. Indeed, your delight in me is often communicated through others. But there are times, too many to count, I’m afraid, when I am living more for the applause of people than for your applause. Forgive me, Lord, for getting the priorities of my heart so confused.

May I live for your delight today, and every day. May I seek your approval above all, whether I’m at work or at home. As I go through this day, I will make you my primary audience. I’m living for you today, Lord. Amen.

Remember children are born with a decided bias toward evil, and therefore if you let them choose for themselves, they are certain to choose wrong. The mother cannot tell what her tender infant may grow up to be - tall or short, weak or strong, wise or foolish; he may or may not be any of these it is all uncertain. But one thing the mother can say with certainty: he will have a corrupt and sinful heart. It is natural for us to do wrong... Our hearts are like the earth on which we tread; let it alone, and it is sure to bear weeds.

Ryle, J. C.

Family Values
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Deuteronomy 6:6-7

In every home that Kathy and I have lived in since we've been married, we've framed or painted on the walls the five family values that we have chosen to govern how we relate to each other. They've been our family's rules, our priorities based completely on God's Word. We have intentionally and increasingly lived by these priorities God has given to us for honoring relationships within the walls of our home:

1: Love God Well, that's no big surprise. What is the greatest commandment? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart" (Deuteronomy 6:5). Our first priority is to get the vertical right.

2: Family first We're gonna be loyal to each other. We're in these lifelong relationships together. Our family relationships come first. Jesus said that closely tied to the first priority was the priority to love our neighbor--our family is our first circumference of neighbors.

3: Work hard My mother gave me her maiden name, Sherwood, as my middle name. When I was a kid doing some job around the house, my mom would pull me in close and whisper in my ear, "Sherwoods know how to work hard. Don't you ever forget your family trait." What a great vision to give to a kid! It's followed me my whole life. Now our family is working on it.

4: Tell the truth Yes, even when it's hard. Even when it's going to get you into more trouble. Just get the truth on the table. God can do a lot with any situation and with your heart when you tell the truth.

5: Be kind Think of someone else before yourself. Do the thoughtful thing. Speak the encouraging word. People matter to God.

Now these are our family values. You can have your own. But whatever you do, get some family priorities and put them up around your home. Honor them, even when it's hard. We have friends who have painted their family values in large letters across the wall in their garage so they see them every time they pull in their car.

Priorities are the driving force behind a life well lived. Your kids won't forget them when you frequently discuss what's important to you and make constant reference to them. Look at the biblical precedent for this in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Point out examples of those who are blowing off their priorities. Talk about and celebrate people that are living by their priorities. Bring your priorities up and discuss them in various settings, showing your children how they apply.

Over the years people have asked us if we had a regular family Bible study. We never did at our house but we made God and His Word priority in how we lived. We read God's Word together frequently, we prayed together often, and we talked constantly about God's priorities for this world and for our family and how they were being lived out on a day-to-day basis individually and as a family.

We made our share of bad decisions, but praise God, the pattern of our lives has been seeking God for wisdom to make good choices that come from established priorities.

For the early Christians, koinonia was not the frilly 'fellowship' of church-sponsored bi-weekly outings. It was not tea, biscuits and sophisticated small talk in the Fellowship Hall after the sermon. It was an unconditional sharing of their lives with the other members of Christ's body.

God's word is-
1. Supernatural in origin;
2. Eternal in duration;
3. Inexpressible in valour;
4. Infinite in scope;
5. Regenerative in power;
6. Infallible in authority;
7. Universal in application;
8. Inspired in totality.
Read it through, write it down; pray it in; work it out; pass it on.
The word of God changes a man until he becomes an Epistle of God.

Smith Wigglesworth

I Choose to Trust
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

Trust is the antidote to anxiety; it's the resolution of worry and the destruction of fear. Trust is the act of my will to give my burdens to God. It's like a muscle--as you exercise it, trust gets stronger.

Trust is walking forward moment by moment, having rolled your burden onto God. You've no doubt said, "I gave it to God once, but here it is again in my grip." When you sense that you've taken it back again, get back on your knees, get the burden back on God, get on your feet again, and continue to trust.

When you off-load your burden on God, you can pick up a promise from His Word. Second Peter 1:4 tells us that "he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world." There are literally hundreds of promises that apply to your specific burden. God's Word is filled with treasure.

I'm claiming Isaiah 41:10 right now for a burden I leaving at God's feet. "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." There it is! God is doing this whole thing with one hand tied behind His back. He's not stressed or strained. He's not worried about what to do. He has absolutely no capacity limits!

Isaiah continues, "Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I am the one who helps you'" (vv. 11-13).

Take a moment to read that awesome promise again. Trust means you anchor your heart in the reality of God's awareness of your situation. He sees more than you can ever see. God, who loves you and is committed to you, will not disappoint you now or in the future if you put your weight fully on Him.

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's own or real life. The truth is of course that what one call the interruptions are precisely one's real life - the life God is sending one day by day.

Unforgiveness
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors . . . For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-16

We're on one topic today and we're not getting off it till I'm sure you get it.

Nothing will cut a swath of devastation across your soul like unforgiveness. It is the absolute opposite of the life God calls you to live.

I know someone has hurt you and I'm sincerely sorry for that but you don't have to prove you were right.

You don't have to demonstrate the superiority of anything.

You've got to let it go.

Matthew 6:14-15 says, "If you don't forgive, my Father won't forgive you."

Living in unforgiveness is a barren, tortured existence. Even those of us who have experienced God's love and forgiveness need to be reminded about what we have received. It's so easy to slide into a self-centered mess of unforgiveness.

Contrary to what some might think, unforgiveness isn't private. People will seethe in silence, insisting, This is just between me and him. But that's not true. It's also destructive to innocent people around you. How many people in your life have suffered because of an unforgiveness issue in your heart that has absolutely nothing to do with them? It seeps into the tone of all your conversations. It leaks out in your impertinence and impatience, your short temper and rashness. People who you love, who have done nothing wrong, suffer because of the unforgiveness that you're holding over someone else.

Unforgiveness is sin. It will eat away at your being until you choose the crisis and commit to the process of forgiveness. But that can all change.

This could be an awesome day--you have the choice to change. You have the chance to choose. I wonder if heaven is leaning over you and wondering what choice you are going to make. Your destiny depends on it.

To clarify, you are not saved by forgiving, but forgiving is what saved people do. This is one of the litmus tests for reality. Making the choice to forgive is one of the things that prove you truly belong to God.

Father, it must grieve Your heart even more than ours to live in such a dark world where people say things and do things that wound so deeply. But by Your grace I can forgive. I can simply release the pain to You and let it go. I choose by an act of my will to trust You and Your Word. I'm not going to hold it over the person who hurt me anymore when I have to see him or talk to him. I'm not going to go over it in my mind anymore. I want to handle it as You would. I want to be a forgiving person.

Forgive me for my pride, my anger, and the pointed comments that reveal the woundedness in my heart. Cover me with Your love. Let Your grace displace all that is ugly and angry and unforgiving in me. By Your grace, I choose to forgive.

In His name. Amen.

Seek for happiness and you will never find it. Seek righteousness and you will discover you are happy. It will be there without your knowing it, without your seeking it.

The light of God surrounds us;
The love of God enfolds us;
The power of God protects us;
The presence of God watches over us;
Wherever we are, God is, and all is well!