“So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.”

— Luke 5:16

When was the last time you sat still and stared into space? I’m not talking about the short daydreams that float through your mind during the day. I mean true, relaxed, uninterrupted, peaceful nothingness. Have you had any of that lately?

We lead busy lives, and because of our many commitments, we tend to keep going and going. We look for results in everything we do, and if we do something that produces nothing, we view the time spent as wasted.

But we need that time of space, of nothingness. We need to pull ourselves away from the hustle and bustle to regroup, reflect, rejuvenate. Jesus, our great example in life, often withdrew. He had thousands of people to minister to and heal. He had disciples to teach and only three short years to get the job done. Yet despite His great mission of saving the world, He took time away, spending time alone with His Father.

Life is a pilgrimage, and as we travel, we need strength along the way. This journey is a struggle, a battle, warfare. And as good soldiers of Christ, we need strength to win that battle. We don’t gain that strength by continuing to strive. We gain it by waiting on the Lord. The prophet Isaiah declared the great truth that He who gives life can continually renew it. The Scripture reads, “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:30-31). What a marvelous promise that is.

When we get physically or spiritually tired, we need quiet time with the Lord. A tree does not bear fruit always. It has seasons for blooming and seasons for growth and seasons for rest. So it is with us. We have times of service, then we need times to come away with God and allow Him to renew our strength.

Do you feel a little worn out today? Do you need strength to face the challenges before you? Then come away today. Spend some time alone with the Lord. Allow your Father to give you what you need—rest.

“Christians who don’t come apart for a while will just come apart.”
Anonymous

“Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.”

— Psalm 34:3

The doxology we sing in church summarizes well our true purpose in life: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.” The Westminster Catechism says that our chief end in life is to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

Do you ever wonder how you can glorify God? First, we honor God by giving Him the praise and worship He deserves. When we acknowledge His greatness and His provision, we bring glory to His name. But we can magnify the Lord in everything else we do as well. I believe that if we determine to use our God-given talents, time, strength, and wisdom to glorify Him, we find ourselves involved in something exciting, something bigger than ourselves. As we do our jobs well, we glorify our Father. As we strive to cultivate loving and happy families, we glorify our Father. When we share the Good News of Christ and introduce men and women to His kingdom, we glorify our Father.

By doing all for God’s glory, we fulfill God’s purpose for us. Johann Sebastian Bach certainly glorified God in his life. Many musicians consider Bach the greatest musician who ever lived. On his music scores are phrases such as “Soli Deo Gloria,” which means “To God alone be the glory.” William Wilberforce, the great evangelical statesman, brought glory to the Lord as he strove to end slavery in the entire British Empire. While God hasn’t necessarily called you to be a Bach or a Wilberforce, you can bring glory to His name whoever you are and with whatever unique talents and gifts you have. Today, seek to glorify God in all you do. This focus will give your life a grand and magnificent purpose.

“In commanding us to glorify Him,
God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”
C. S. Lewis

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

— John 12:21

Do you feel a little low, as if your spiritual gas tank is on empty? Has the fire of Christ’s joy within you dwindled to an ember? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in very good company. Many people in the Bible experienced the same weariness and loss of zeal. David cried, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation” (Psalm 51:12). Solomon said, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). Job lamented, “May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived’” (Job 3:3). Moses entreated, “I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now” (Numbers 11:14-15). Paul explained, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life” (2 Corinthians 1:8).

What causes spiritual weariness? Often we find ourselves spiritually drained because we have unconfessed and unrepented sin in our lives. I once left my car parked at the beach on a windy, humid day. When I returned several hours later, the windshield was coated with a thick, salty encrustation. I could hardly remove the salty layer with the windshield wipers. Unconfessed sin does the same thing to the soul. It clouds it and takes away its sparkle. Do you have unconfessed sin weighing you down and tiring you out?

We also grow spiritually weary when we lead hurried lives. As we do more and more for Christ, we have less and less time to spend in private devotions, our time of spiritual rejuvenation. Our lives become like the bottom of a soda sucked dry through a straw. The Bible tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Can you set aside some extra time today to rest in your Father’s arms?

Sometimes we lose our spiritual edge because we’ve taken our eyes off our Savior and Lord. As we walk across the sea of life, we can stay on top of the tumultuous waves as long as we focus on Jesus. But when we look away, the breakers come crashing in and knock us down. Do you need to refocus your spiritual sights on your Savior today?

“God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life, that I may
burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine.”
Jim Elliot
(MARTYRED MISSIONARY)

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”

— 1 Timothy 2:5

Have you ever stood on one side of a canyon and marveled at the canyon’s depth and breadth? Can you imagine what it would take to bridge such a chasm?

Our sinfulness has created an unfathomable chasm between us and God, but Christ has bridged it. He is our Mediator, the One who connects us to God the Father. How do we know this? First of all, Jesus said so. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me.” Jesus said this because He is God, the Creator of the world, the One who existed before anything else existed. He promised that one day He would come in the flesh to save us, and He did. He conquered the power of sin and death.

Second, no one else has the qualifications for the job. Sin separates us from God, and only a sinless mediator can remove it. Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius all taught that certain behaviors would enable humans to reach God, but they themselves never promised to save anybody. And even if they had made such a promise, they could never have come through. Like us, they were sinful human beings. They had no power to save, and we can never save ourselves regardless of the number of good deeds we do. The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace, by believing in Christ. Christ promises to save all who believe in Him, and He can follow through on His promise because He is sinless and because He is God.

As our mediator, Christ exercises a three-fold office. He is prophet, priest, and King. As prophet, He saves us from our ignorance of sin. The greatest prophet the world has ever known, Christ seasoned His words with grace, and the common people heard Him gladly. As priest, He saves us from the guilt of sin. He was a perfect priest because, being sinless, He could offer Himself as a perfect and holy sacrifice, paying for our sin once and for all. As King, He saves us from the dominion of sin over our lives. He is the King of kings before whom every knee shall bow.

Today give thanks that Christ has become your mediator, building a bridge between you and God the Father.

“The devil would have us set
ourselves forth as our own savior.”

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

— 1 Corinthians 13:13

Faith. What a magnificent thing it is to have faith in God. Faith lifts us to new heights. Do you believe that God is with you, that He will never leave you, that He will help you, that He will turn everything for your good? What a tremendous difference to know that you’re a child of the King, a member of the House Royal; that you will live forever; and that God will do great things through you.

Hope. How marvelous to have hope. Do you have the confidence that God will accomplish His perfect plan in your life and that He’ll bring you to Paradise to live with Him forever? That hope destroys the dark gray cloud that obscures your pathway, and it opens the view to your destination: the glorious, radiant, setting sun that will give way to that new and eternal morning of Paradise.

Love. Who is your best friend in this world? You probably cherish most the person who brings out your best. As the sonnet says:

I love you not for what you are but for what you are helping me to become Overlooking my faults and reaching down into my heaped-up heart And making of the lumber of my life, not a tavern, but a cathedral.

When others help us reach our potential, we know they love us, and in return we love them.

Faith, hope, and love produce a joyful life. As we cultivate faith, hope, and love in our Lord, He gives us joy. I encourage you to memorize Scriptures on faith, hope, and love and to speak those verses back to the Lord in prayer. Sing His praises in your daily worship. As you do these things, He’ll bring His joy into your life.

“Joy is prayer—joy is strength—joy is love—
joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”
Mother Teresa

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

— Philippians 4:13

Every time you open your mouth, think a thought, express an attitude, or take an action, you have a choice to do something positive or negative. Which do you most often choose?

Years ago, Art Linkletter encountered a little boy with an extremely positive attitude. On his television program, Linkletter asked the six-year-old boy, “Do you know why you were selected to be on my program?” The little boy said quite confidently, “Because I’m the smartest boy in my class.” Art asked, “Oh, how do you know that? Did your teacher tell you?” “No,” he replied, “I just noticed it myself.” No negative thinking there.

Do you face life with a similar positive outlook? Do you respond to difficult situations by saying, “By the grace of God I can.” Or do you give up before you start, saying, “That would be too hard for me.” A positive person will almost always find a way of turning a stumbling block into a steppingstone. In every situation, a positive person will ask, “Is there anything good about it?”

How do you respond to wrongdoing? Do you respond with criticism, condemnation, or gossip? Or do you respond with prayer, knowing that God can use you to bring His grace to another person’s life?

If you find yourself tipping over into the negative side of the positive-negative continuum, I have good news for you: Attitudes aren’t biologically determined. We don’t come into this world destined to look at life one way or another. Instead, the Bible says that old things can pass away and all things can become new. That includes our attitudes. For that reason, we need to immerse ourselves in God’s Word, the greatest accumulation of positive thinking the world has ever seen. As we read God’s Word and seek Christ first, He makes us new, positive, and joyous people.

Do you anticipate a potentially negative situation today? If so, good. You have an opportunity to develop a positive attitude toward challenging situations. Today, allow God to work in your heart to grant you a positive outlook on life.

“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much
by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles
which he has to overcome while trying to succeed.”
Booker T. Washington
(Former Slave)

“. . . for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind . . . he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

— James 1:6, 8

Have you ever heard the old song, “You gotta accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, and don’t mess with Mr. In-Between?” Today, let’s talk about how we can avoid negative thinking, because if we harbor negative thoughts, sooner or later they’ll destroy our lives.

One day a man tried to start his car with a jumper cable. Instead of connecting the correct part of the cable to the positive pole of the battery, he connected it to the negative pole. That mistake sparked a terrible explosion, and because of it, the man became permanently blind. In the same way, many people blind themselves by connecting to the negative pole of life.

Negativity is like a witch’s wand that attaches itself to a person’s forehead. The wand kills and destroys whatever it points toward. It may point toward the person who wears it, or it may point to others. You probably know people who walk around with that wand permanently pointed at their own lives. You can recognize them immediately by their negative thoughts: “I’m nobody . . . I really don’t amount to much . . . I don’t have many friends . . . I’m not too smart.”

Others take that wand and point it outward. These people fail in life but blame their failures on others: their parents, their spouses, their bosses, the system, the corporation. They never accept responsibility for their own downfall. Some even point the wand at God. They say, “God could never love me. I wonder if there even is a God.”

We all have negative thoughts at times, and often we don’t recognize them. While we can’t avoid all negativity, we can turn our attitudes into more positive perspectives. Today ask God to show you your negative thoughts and to give you the ability to look at the bright side of life.

“I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed,
and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people
who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed.”
Booker T. Washington
(Former Slave)

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

— 1 Peter 5:8

Have you ever done something sinful, something that seemed so exciting and promising at first, only to feel empty after actually doing it? When we pursue sin, we’ll always feel that way—left high and dry.

This empty sensation reminds me of a story told by the preacher Clovis Chappel. Once there was a Christmas party in an orphanage. Beneath the tree were all sorts of beautifully wrapped packages. With all the children gathered around him, Santa Claus passed out the gifts. As he did so, everyone excitedly opened his or her present, enthusiastically examining each new toy. Everyone, that is, except for one young man, who was often picked on by the others. With no package to open, he sat, crestfallen, in the corner. Upon realizing his bad fortune, everyone became quiet, and all the children stared at him. Just at that moment, the man pretending to be a benevolent Santa Claus reached behind the tree, pulled out the biggest box of them all, and handed it to the unfortunate boy. The young man’s face lit up! Excitedly, he tore away the ribbons and wrapping paper and pulled off the lid only to find an empty box. As he stared despondently into it, all the children laughed. How cruel.

But there is a sense in which we are like that unfortunate boy, when we willfully try to grab Satan’s empty boxes. Life is filled with empty boxes, and we each take our turn at playing the fool. “Give me the goods,” we say, and Satan hands us a beautifully wrapped but empty box. What are these empty boxes? Sin. Satan says, “Oh, just one little lie” or “one little look” or “Everybody’s doing it.” But when we give in, we realize he has taken us again, promising the world but delivering nothing.

The devil is the great illusionist, the great liar. He promises all manner of delights. He promises excitement, but in the end he clothes his victims in filthy rags, hunger, and misery. If these people decide to turn around and return to their Father’s house, Satan sends all the bloodhounds of hell after them to overwhelm them with temptations and pull them down into the miry clay. How foolish is the man or woman who believes the promises of the father of lies. Every good gift comes down from above, not up from the pit with its hook that pulls you into the lake of fire.

Have you opened any empty boxes lately? If so, ask God to forgive you and show you how to pursue His righteousness. As you seek God, He’ll help you discover the excitement and abundance of living obediently in Him.

“We must not so much as taste of the devil’s broth,
lest at last he bring us to eat of his beef.”
Thomas Hall

“… He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.”

— Mark 16:6

What does it take for you to believe something that seems out of the realm of possibility? Most of us need to see some hard evidence before we lend credibility to the incredible. This is also true when people hear of Christ’s resurrection. In fact, many people will develop all sorts of theories before believing that God incarnate rose from the grave.

Have you ever heard of the “Fraud Theory”? This theory asserts that Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead, but rather, the disciples stole His body from the grave and then proclaimed Him risen. But the Fraud Theory doesn’t mesh with the facts. For example, something happened to the disciples that changed them instantly from cowards to courageous men. The disciples credited this change with seeing the risen Christ, and despite numerous retellings, they never changed their story.

Dr. Principal Hill, a nineteenth-century theologian, put the Fraud Theory to rest when he said:

You must suppose that twelve men of mean birth, of no education . . . formed the noblest scheme which ever entered into the mind of man . . . You must suppose, also, that men guilty of blasphemy and falsehood, united in an attempt the best contrived, and which has in fact proved the most successful for making the world virtuous; that they formed this single enterprise without seeking any advantage to themselves . . . with the certain expectation of scorn and persecution; that although conscious of one another’s villainy, none of them ever thought of providing for his own security by disclosing the fraud, but that amidst sufferings the most grievous to flesh and blood they persevered in their conspiracy to cheat the world into piety, honesty and benevolence. Truly, they who can swallow such suppositions have no title to object to miracles.

How true that is. The Fraud Theory cannot stand against the evidence of the disciples’ passion and steadfastness for the cause of Christ. You and I can rest assured that Christ’s resurrection is no fraud. Christ has risen indeed.

“The resurrection of Jesus Christ and
Christianity stand or fall together.”
Josh Mcdowell

“And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain . . . But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

— 1 Corinthians 15:14, 20

Are you afraid to die? If so, you’re not alone. That fear is quite natural. But Jesus has solved this problem, the most incredible problem humankind has ever faced, generation after generation. Death has endured since humanity’s fall, and people have asked, “If a person dies, will he or she rise again?” By rising from the dead Himself, Jesus gave us irrefutable evidence that the answer is “yes.”

But people have doubted the truth of Christ’s resurrection. Some of the most brilliant and skeptical minds of the last two thousand years have attempted to disprove it. But all those efforts have yielded nothing but the truth—that Christ rose from the dead. Let’s consider some of the facts that these skeptics have had to address. First, the Christian Church has endured and grown until it has become the largest organization on the planet today. That growth began in the first century, when the apostles began to preach that Jesus had risen from the dead. Next, to disprove the Resurrection, skeptics have had to explain the empty tomb; the broken Roman seal (if someone broke a Roman seal, he or she received the death penalty); and the Roman guards, who faced sure death if they left their posts or fell asleep on the job. Most important, skeptics have had to dispute Christ’s appearances after His resurrection. The people saw Him, heard Him, touched Him. He fixed breakfast for his disciples. He ate fish with them. He appeared to five hundred people at one time. Furthermore, the apostles were transformed. One day they huddled in an upper room fearing for their lives, but soon after that they boldly proclaimed Christ’s resurrection in public. And all except John died for what they proclaimed, sealing their testimony in their own blood.

For these reasons and many more, we have a sure foundation for our faith in Christ’s resurrection. Because we know the Resurrection really happened, we know Christ has conquered death, and we no longer need to fear it.

“. . . the evidence speaks for itself. It says very clearly—
CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED.”
Josh Mcdowell