25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island. Acts 27:25-26
We read this little nugget toward the end of Acts. This moment finds us sailing through a storm with Paul, a prisoner of the state, on his way to Rome to appeal his case to Caesar. He’s encouraging the ship’s crew.
“Keep up your courage!” he says. “God’s got it under control (which is to say, God’s just assured them through Paul that not a single one of them will die!). Now, time to wreck this ship.”
It makes me laugh every time I read it.
Courage! God is faithful. Shipwreck. What?!
We’ve been sitting with Psalm 42 most of the week. The same psalm that give us, ‘I thirst for God, the living God (v 2),’ also gives us ‘Why have You forgotten me? (v 9)’ and ‘Why is my heart so sad?’ (v 5, 11).
David is thirsty – genuinely thirsty – for God. Yet, he finds himself removed from the very place he’s meant to find Him. He can’t get to the house of God. He’s surrounded by enemies. He’s …shipwrecked. It sounds a bit like Paul on that boat. Take courage! God is faithful. Shipwreck.
It’s a psalm for those moments when you need to keep up the courage. When you know that God has a plan, that He will accomplish His good purposes in your life. But, at the moment, your life’s all shipwrecks.
It’s a psalm that gives voice to those moments when we’re thirsting for all of the right things – and yet still we are parched. When we feel forgotten.
Yesterday, we were challenged to examine our thirst. Are we thirsting for the right things? Or rather, the right One? We were invited to remember Him.
Today, we’re encouraged that He remembers us – even when we’re shipwrecked. Even when we’re dry.
Should you find yourself in the middle of your own shipwrecked moment today, my prayer for you is Paul’s prayer for those early Christians in Thessalonica: That you may know that God makes you worthy of His calling and that by His power He will fulfill your every resolve for good! (2 Thes 1:11)
Psalm 42:2…My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
Drinking and thirst are common pictures of man’s spiritual need and God’s supply. Here, the emphasis is on the desperation of the need.
We need water. We need God.
And then yesterday, Pastor Andy wrote about passion in our relationship with God.
We get so caught up in chasing after that which is not ultimately pleasing…or brings only temporary pleasure.
We lose sight of serving God first and foremost. Of passionately going after Him… of realizing that in Him and Him alone do I find what my soul is longing for.
That only God can satisfy our deepest longings, just like water can quench my thirst.
It’s amazing that most of us in our country can drink water whenever we please. We have no need to be dehydrated. Just drink water when your thirsty.
When I lived in Arizona, I learned the hard way if you ignore these signs that your body is sending you, you can get yourself in trouble.
I had been playing basketball for a few hours. I was thirsty, but more people showed up, and I just kept playing.
And I paid the price.
I became sick, and was ill the rest of the night.
Why?
I ignored the symptoms.
Many of us allow this to happen spiritually. We are thirsty, but searching for so called relief in other places.
The words of Jesus in John 4 to the Woman at the Well ring true
Look at the words of David in Psalm 63
Psalm 63:1-3–O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
People despair without the sense of life; David despaired without the sense of God’s great love.
God is God. He loves you. Your soul thirsts for Him.
Steadfast love…lovingkindness. It IS better than life!
As Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:14–
But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”,
The water He gives will keep you satisfied.
Do you feel thirsty? Dry? Like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling?
You’re thirsty! Drink again!
Following Christ is not just a one-time sip that satisfies, but a continual connection to Him.
If you “feel” dry, what are you doing that is robbing a growing, thriving relationship with God?
Are your passions misplaced?
Cling to Him consistently, persistently and your thirst will be quenched!!!
“What does a thirsty man do to get rid of his thirst? He drinks. Perhaps there is no better representation of faith in all the Word of God than that. To drink is to receive-to take in the refreshing draught-and that is all. A man’s face may be unwashed, but yet he can drink; he may be a very unworthy character, but yet a draught of water will remove his thirst. Drinking is such a remarkably easy thing, it is even more simple than eating.” Spurgeon
6Don’t let those who trust in you be ashamed because of me,
O Sovereign lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Don’t let me cause them to be humiliated,
O God of Israel.
7For I endure insults for your sake;
humiliation is written all over my face.
8Even my own brothers pretend they don’t know me;
they treat me like a stranger.
I Know This About You.
I have a core philosophy on leadership. Are you ready? It’s not easy to comprehend. Okay, maybe it’s not so difficult…here it is.
Everyone is a leader.
You are a leader. If no one else, you are leading your family. Most likely you are leading beyond this. It could be coaching ball team, managing a few people at work or running an organization.
You are a leader.
With the Positives…
I’ve found there are a lot of positives with leading. Along with finding pleasure in those under me doing great work, there is also the simple fact that more gets done without me involved. My household is a great example.
Kia and I have delegated some of our household chores to our kids – dishes, laundry, some meals, etc. It’s incredible after years of doing all of these things to have them done without my involvement (though breaking up disputes is a regular occurrence).
I remember the pleasure when all my children were able to dress themselves. Now I can tell them to get up, get dressed and have no part in the process.
As much as that sounds like parenting…it’s really leading. I’m leading my kids to adulthood – responsibility, autonomy, decision making, etc.
You are a leader.
…Comes Responsibility.
Yet with all of the positive that comes with leading, there also responsibility. It’s why so many people don’t like the idea of leadership.
I’ll be honest with you. Most of the time, I don’t feel the full weight of the responsibility on me. I don’t mean the day to day, get-the-job-done responsibility. I feel that. I mean the larger, these-are-my-people responsibility. Too often, I miss it.
Recently, I got a (good) wake up call.
O God, you know how foolish I am;
my sins cannot be hidden from you.
Don’t let those who trust in you be ashamed because of me,
O Sovereign lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Don’t let me cause them to be humiliated,
O God of Israel. -Psalm 69:5-6
As parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, Sunday School teachers and even friends of children, we are in a precious place. We are leading children – not just into physical and emotional maturity, but more importantly, we are lead children into spiritual maturity.
As I read those verses from Psalm 69, I realized my mistakes, can lead them astray. My words, my actions, even my thoughts, can destroy the faith of a child.
I hope that’s a wake up call for you too. You are leading your child’s spiritual life.
You are a leader.
Will you lead well?
Let me give you one piece of advice on how to lead your child well spiritually. I’ve become more and more aware of this in the last several years. It became super clear in a book I read about intimacy last year.
Donald Miller, in his book Scary Close, made this observation about the teenage and adult children of his friends. The ones who were the most mature (held your eye, had real conversations, weren’t overly dialed into their phones) had one thing in common. They all had parents who were open, honest and vulnerable with their children.
My advice? Be vulnerable. Share your weaknesses. Be honest about your mistakes.
Kids are dying to know we are human. They need to see it. God already knows we are foolish; they need to see it too. When you do, faith will become real in their lives.
When we are open and honest about our small mistakes and short-comings, something amazing happens. We are less likely to fall into large, image shattering sins.
This week, I challenge you to find one opportunity to be real with your family. Show a weakness. It’s okay. It’s better than okay. It’s leading well.
16But as the Ark of the lord entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the lord, she was filled with contempt for him.
17They brought the Ark of the lord and set it in its place inside the special tent David had prepared for it. And David sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. 18When he had finished his sacrifices, David blessed the people in the name of the lord of Heaven’s Armies. 19Then he gave to every Israelite man and woman in the crowd a loaf of bread, a cake of dates, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people returned to their homes.
20When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!”
21David retorted to Michal, “I was dancing before the Lord, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord, so I celebrate before the Lord. 22Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes! But those servant girls you mentioned will indeed think I am distinguished!”
Their gifting seemed above and beyond the normal person. They taught themselves the physics of flying, figuring out lift, thrust and other aviation theories with little or no help. They built a motor from scratch. They constructed multiple airplanes by hand. Orville and Wilbur seemed to have an unnatural ability – unfair to everyone around them.
Then I listened to an interview with another author, Malcolm Gladwell.
Charlie Rose interviewed Gladwell after the release of this book Outliers. In Outliers, Gladwell studies people like Bill Gates and the Beatles. He wanted to know why they were successful when so many from their generation with the same advantages (or more) were not. Orville and Wilbur were not a part of the study, but they easily could have been.
In the interview, Rose asks the question, “Aren’t some people just much more naturally gifted, talented, able?”
The Story of Saul and David
It’s a wonderful question. Aren’t some people successful because they have something more than the rest of us?
I’ve been reading the stories of the first two kings of Israel – Saul and David. From a distance, appears this is the case with them. David has something more than Saul. So David is wildly successful, and Saul is a bumbling misfit.
Gladwell gave a surprising answer to the question.
Yes, some people do have natural abilities or talents that others don’t, but it’s not the difference maker. Intelligence, talent, ability – this all make up a minority of why people succeed. It is far from the majority of why people succeed.
It’s true of Saul and David.
Saul is no less anointed or gifted than David. Saul is described as tall, dark and handsome (seriously). Men easily follow him into battle. He is a warrior. On top of all of that, read what 1 Samuel 15:17 has to say about him,
And Samuel told him, “Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? The lord has anointed you king of Israel.
The Spirit of God is on Saul. I believe Saul never really believed this to be true. He never could see himself as the man everyone else around him saw. Add these things together, and Saul became a rudderless leader who squandered opportunity after opportunity to be truly successful.
David was also gifted, and no more than Saul. David was also anointed, and no more than Saul. But David was the greatest king of Israel – far greater than Saul
How Bad Do You Want It?
Malcolm Gladwell describes in both the book and the interview a story about young Bill Gates. As a teenager, Gates discovered the nearby University of Washington had a mainframe computer. This super computer sat unused between the hours of 2AM and 6AM every night.
In his passion for programing, Gates would wake himself up every night at 1:30AM, get out of bed, walk 2 miles to the university and program for 4 hours.
Gladwell admits Gates had both ability and access others didn’t. It isn’t what made him successful. What made Bill Gates a success was his passion and desire to program. His passion drove him out of bed in the middle of the night to walk 2 miles and sit a computer. His drive created Microsoft.
David wasn’t better than Saul. He had more passion for God.
David longed to be in the presence of God, and the opening story sums up his desire for God. David was willing to dance in the streets in underwear. He was willing to be a fool. He was violently passionate for God.
It drove him not just to be the greatest king in the history of Israel, it also led him to be called, “a man after God’s own heart.”
As a believer in Jesus, you have the same anointing as David. The Holy Spirit on you like it was on them. The question is how passionate are you for God? What will you passion drive you to do, be, say?
Yesterday, Pastor David asked the question,
“What can you bring to the Lord?”
Today, I ask the same question, but with a twist.
“How passionate are you to bring that thing to God?”
Today’s devotional was written in the 1800’s by a Scottish pastor by the name of Robert Murray M’Cheyne. His question is still as potent as it was asked 200 years ago. – Pastor David
Micah 6:6-8
What can we bring to the LORD?
What kind of offerings should we give him?
Should we bow before God
with offerings of yearling calves?
Should we offer him thousands of rams
and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Should we sacrifice our firstborn children
to pay for our sins?
No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.
“What can I bring to the Lord?”
An unawakened soul never asks that question. A natural man has no desire to come before God, or to bow himself before the High God. He does not like to think of God. He would rather think of any other subject. He easily forgets what he is told about God.
A natural man has no thoughts of eternal things, because he has no heart for them. He has no desire to come before God in prayer. There is nothing a natural man hates more than prayer. He would far rather spend half an hour every morning in bodily exercise or in hard labour, than in the presence of God. He has no desire to come before God when he dies. He knows that he must appear before God, but it gives him no joy. He had rather sink into nothing; he had rather never see the face of God.
Ah! my friends, is this your condition?
How do you know that you have “the carnal mind which is always hostile to God.” You are like Pharaoh—”Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?” You say to God, “Depart from me, for I desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.”
What an awful state it is to have no desire after Him who is the fountain of living waters!
An awakened soul feels that his chief happiness is in coming before God. This was unfallen Adam’s happiness. He felt like a child under a loving Father’s eye. It was his chief joy to come before God—to be loved by Him—to be like a mote in the sunbeam—to be continually basked in the sunshine of His love—no cloud or veil coming between. This is the joy of holy angels, to come before the Lord, and bow before the High God. In His presence is fulness of joy. “The angels do always behold the face of My Father.” On whatever errand of love they fly, they still feel that His eye of love is on them—this is their daily, hourly joy. This is the true happiness of a believer.
Hear David (Psalm 42:1-2),
“As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?” He pants not after the gifts of God—not His favors or comforts—but after Himself. A believer longs after God—to come into His presence—to feel His love—to feel near to Him in secret—to feel in the crowd that he is nearer than all the creatures. Ah! dear brethren, have you ever tasted this blessedness? There is greater rest and solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour, than in an eternity of the presence of man. To be in His presence—under His love— under His eye—is heaven, wherever it be.
God can make you happy in any circumstances. Without Him, nothing can. – Robert M’cheyne
How would you answer Robert’s question, “What can I bring before the Lord?”
