Spiritual Security

Note: This devotional was part of a song service centered around the song How Shall the Young Secure Their Hearts? It also contains references to other hymns if you pay attention and follow the readings.

What does it mean to us to feel secure? When we have a sense of security, we feel safe. We feel protected. We feel shielded from harm. We treasure our security. We value and protect it.

We wear seat belts to feel secure in our cars, have airbags and car alarms to increase that sense of security. We invest in GPS systems to make us feel secure in unfamiliar areas. We want to live in neighborhoods that make us feel safe. We install security systems to protect our homes. We even have a Department of Homeland Security to protect us on a larger scale, or we may give a special blanket to a young child to add a feeling of security in their small world.

We trust in these products, services, and infrastructures to provide a measure of security in the unpredictable lives we have while on this world. Those who seek Christ, however, seek a refuge greater than anything man can provide. More than seeking security for our bodies or our possessions, we look after Christ to secure our souls.

• Hebrews 6:17-19 refers to our hope in Christ as an anchor that secures us against the storms of this life and calls Him our refuge.
• Psalm 46:1-3 calls God a refuge and our strength in times of trouble.
• In II Timothy 1:8-12, Paul places the foundation of our hope and refuge in God's promises, His testimony, His word.

On what do you rely for security? How do you secure your heart? In what is your anchor fastened? Upon what foundation is your refuge built? Christ and His word are our strong foundation. He is the rock in which we can secure our anchor of hope. In Him, we can truly find that peace surpassing all understanding, that peace of mind that can only be found in spiritual security.

devotional by Robert Smelser

A Spiritual Checkup

How do we measure up? We have various standards we try to measure in our lives. How fit are we financially, physically? How fit are we as families? Along with these, we should also be measuring the fitness of our faith. Are we comfortable sitting in an average standard of faith? Are we spiritually unhealthy, or do we hold ourselves to a higher standard?

Romans 14:22-23 speaks to having a healthy faith, but how do we know where we stand? How do we measure up? How do administer a spiritual check-up?

Checking On Our Faith
I Peter 1:6-7 talks about the proof of our faith, enduring under trials as purifying tests. A new faith is full of life and vigor, but the trials and troubles of life can shake that faith. If our faith is only a mood or a feeling, it has no foundation. Rather, faith is commitment, and a committed faith more easily endures the tests of our lives. Truths that we grasp in the light of day do not have to be discarded during the dark times of our lives.

Romans 14:12 says each one of us will give an account to God. Our spiritual fitness is important our entire lives.

Tens Steps to a Spiritual Checkup

• Understand Disagreements. Know that differences of opinions will exist. Titus 3:9 warns us against foolish controversies over minor disagreements. I Corinthians 12:25-26 reminds us to be united in our care for each other, and I Corinthians 1:10 warns us about divisions over disagreements.
• Balance Over Extremism. Romans 14 and Ecclesiastes 7:15-18 speaks to balance in our lives. The balance we have in ourselves will influence how we view others and how others view us.
• Accept Our Doubts. I Peter 2:1-3 invites us to always study, to always double-check our faith. II Timothy 2:5 encourages us to be diligent in our investigation of God’s word. We should always be seeking for answers.
• Be Understanding, Not Judgmental. Romans 14:10-13 warns against judgment used as an obstacle. We like to throw stones. We fall into a trap of judgmental standard. Jesus, in Matthew 7, warns us against judging more strictly than God does.
• Give and Receive Trust. We need to know each other in our shared vulnerabilities. We need to know how to give and accept help. Romans 15 admonishes us to bear each other, even during times of burden.
• Value Individuality. We all have different qualities we bring to God’s service. We use those qualities together, and Romans 12:6-8 encourages us to embrace our individual gifts and qualities.
• Serve from Love. We offer our service, not as an obligation, but as a joy because of our love for each other. Romans 12:10 calls on us to preference one another and to be devoted in service to each other.
• Be Strengthened By Trials. I Peter 4:12 reminds us we may suffer for our faith. These times can tear us down, but we can help each other survive and grow stronger. James 1:2-4 tells us these trials build up faithful endurance.
• Security is in God. From what do we derive our sense of security – our achievements, our job, our friends? Ephesians 6:6-7 reminds us that our goal is not to be great in man’s eyes. Rather, we seek respect in God’s eyes.
• A Foundation in Our Relationship with God. Instead of our faith being rooted in rituals, obligations, or social pressures, our faith must be rooted in a loving relationship with God. I John 4:7-11 speaks to the love God shows us and the love we should willingly share in return. We have a foundation of love between us, God, and our fellow man.

Conclusion
How do we measure up? How would God measure our spiritual fitness? Each day, we should be working up to God’s standard. Today’s home runs won’t matter in tomorrow’s game. How are we growing in faith? We should be going after our faith with our entire heart, and, if we are doing that, we can help each other with their spiritual fitness. Our foundation and our attitudes will determine the success or failure we have in measuring up to the Bible's standard of faith.

lesson by Mike Mahoney

Elijah and Discouragement

Through I Kings 18-19, Elijah experiences an emotional roller coaster. Elijah brings a drought to the land through God’s power, and, when he comes to see Ahab again, the king is very hostile toward Elijah. In turn, Elijah proposes a challenge: set up two alters, one to Baal and one to Jehovah, and Baal’s priests would pray for their God to consume their sacrifice in fire. Elijah would do the same. Baal’s priests cry out, dance, and cut themselves to no avail. Elijah then evokes God with a small, quiet prayer after having his alter deluged with water, and fire from God incinerates the sacrifice and alter.

The people enthusiastically turn to God, praising Him and killing the prophets of Baal. The drought ends. It is a monumental victory, but it is very short-lived. By chapter 19, Jezebel proclaims death on Elijah and promises his end within a day. Elijah flees beyond the political influence of Ahab and Jezebel, collapses by a juniper tree, and asks God to take his life.

Causes of Spiritual Discouragement
James 5 reminds us that Elijah is simply a man like you or me – subject to times of triumph and times of despair. He is no more a stranger to discouragement than any of us. We see him despairing his life, but God is there to provide the cure to Elijah’s discouragement, but how does a prophet as successful as Elijah go from such success into the depths of discouragement?

• Emotional Stress. Elijah feels the stress and strain of trying to convert a godless nation. The king and queen are set against him. He feels alone as we might when we see those we know and love rejecting God, when we feel that our faith is rejected at every turn.
• Exhaustion. Elijah does a great deal of traveling in I Kings 18 alone, before and after the strenuous events on Mount Carmel. He is also worn out from the constant pressure of resisting the pressures around him. Likewise, we are always over-booked and overextended. We don’t take time to be still, to pray, to feed on God’s word, and to meditate. Like Elijah, we just wear ourselves out.
• Great Accomplishments. Think about what Elijah accomplishes by the end of I Kings 18. How does he maintain that momentum? How can he top that? Elijah feels personally responsible for keeping the tide turned, and, when he cannot maintain that success, he feels a failure. The highs in our lives can lead directly into lows when we realize the difficulty in maintaining that momentum.

How then does this discouragement manifest itself in Elijah? First, he isolates himself in I Kings 19:3-4. “I just want to be alone.” However, it is not good for us to be alone in our discouragement. Then, Elijah loses perspective in I Kings 19:10 when he expresses he is the only one seeking God in Israel. He knows otherwise, but he pushes that knowledge out of his own mind in despair. Finally, Elijah descends into self-pity, and, when we pity ourselves, we become self-centered and selfish.

Curing Discouragement
We can relate to the causes and effects of discouragement we see in Elijah’s lives. How do we move on, though? We can begin by looking at the way God brings Elijah out of his despair.

• Get Up. In I Kings 19:5-8, the angel twice instructs Elijah to rise. Verses 11-15 record God twice giving Elijah direction to “go.” God tells the prophet to get up and take positive action. Sometimes a small shift in the right direction makes all the difference. When we are down in the depths of discouragement, the first thing we should do is get involved in positive service.
• Grow Up. I Kings 19:11-13 records God drawing Elijah’s attention to His presence in the quiet things. He reminds Elijah to spiritually grow up and stop looking for God in his own way. Paul makes the same admonition in I Corinthians 3:1-3 when he calls for Christians to grow out of physical jealousies. Sometimes, we simply need to work to maturation.
• Gird Up. Toward the end of I Kings 19, God reminds Elijah there is still work to be done, and he will need help to do it. We need to be able to accept help. We need our own Elisha to help us change our outlook at times. I Peter 1:13 calls on us to gird our minds for action in God’s service.

God has given us reason to trust and hope in Him. We are no strangers to discouragement and struggles, but we can always look up to Him who loves us and created us. As Romans 8:31-39 reminds us, nothing can separate us from God’s love. None can oppose us when God is with us. We can take confidence in our God and face our discouragements with the knowledge that He is with us.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Miracles & Spiritual Needs

Isaiah 61 is a prophecy of hope and redemption. It is a passage of spiritual healing and promise of a Redeemer. Selections from this chapter are read from by Jesus in Luke 4:16, and He tells those listening that these verses are fulfilled in Him. He heals the blind and the lame. He gives comfort to those in grief. He proclaims the year of the Lord. In all of this, His focus remains intent upon the spiritual needs of the people He came in contact with every day.

In Matthew 9:35-38, as He is teaching and performing miracles, we see Jesus’ compassion on those around Him and the urgency He feels for their souls. While healing their bodies, He recognizes their need for spiritual healing. We know of Jesus weeping over the state of Jerusalem in Luke 13:34, their rejection of Him and their denial of their own spiritual sickness. He cares for the people, not just for their physical troubles, but for their souls and their need to be spiritually healed.

Spiritual Healing in Physical Miracles
John 9 records the apostles wondering over sin leading to blindness, and Jesus redirects their attention to where they should be focused – on doing God’s work, on being a light in this world. When the events surrounding the healing of this blind man draw to a close, Jesus addresses the man’s spiritual needs in verses 35-41. Yes, he heals the man’s blindness, but He is first concerned about the man’s soul.

In Mark 2, some friends bring a paralyzed man to Jesus, so determined to reach Jesus they lower him through the roof of the house Jesus is in. Before healing the man, Jesus proclaims his sin forgiven. Jesus then heals him of his physical ailment to demonstrate His authority over spiritual ailments.

John 5:6 has Jesus approaching another paralyzed man, this one wishing to find healing within waters believed to have healing powers. Jesus asks the man, “Would you be whole?” Jesus then both heals the man of his paralysis and, in verse 14, He tells the man he is now whole, instructing him to sin no more. In making the man whole, Jesus heals both body and soul.

In John 11, Lazarus is ill and dies before Jesus makes it to his home. As Jesus approaches the home, Lazarus’ sister Martha comes out, despairing that Jesus had not arrived soon enough. In the conversation to follow, Jesus calls Himself the source of all resurrection and life. Any who believe on Him will live eternally.

The Gratitude of the One
In Luke 17:11, ten lepers cry out to Jesus for mercy. Jesus tells them to go present themselves to the priests, and, as they journeyed, they find themselves healed. Ten cry for mercy. Ten are healed, but only one returns to give thanks and glory to God. Nine are interested in what God can do for them. One recognizes what he now owes God for deliverance. He recognizes the spiritual implications of the miracle that healed him.

We come to Jesus unclean, blind, crippled, and dead in our sins. Jesus says to each of us, “You are healed. You are cleansed. You are alive.” What do we do then? Do we go on living our lives for ourselves, or do we understand the deeper spiritual devotion we now owe? Jesus shows His glory in us. Now it is ours to demonstrate His works in our lives. Will we be like the nine who go their own ways, or will we be the one who returns to praise and honor His name, gladly willing to serve and obey?

lesson by Tim Smelser