Text: Joshua 14:11
“I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength
now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming.”
A friend told me about a retired missionary he visited many
years ago. At her calling, she had pledged away her whole
life to the Lord to serve Him all her days. And now, in frail
old age and lacking the physical strength for the vigorous
work of teaching and caring, she had returned home to
England. But she received strength to continue in her
service, this time in a different form: spending hours daily in
prayer. Midway through the visit, the old saint signaled that
it was time to pray. She was silent for quite a while, after
heads had been bowed, before she began to pray out loud.
She literally stopped at every station of concern and trouble
in the world to bring each matter to God. What my friend
thought would be a very few minutes of prayer took all of
two hours by the time the last Amen was intoned.
Caleb’s wholehearted faithfulness had been rewarded with a
promise from God that he would be given the land of
Hebron. Forty-five years passed. Caleb reminded Joshua of
the Lord’s promise. He was allocated the land and then
successfully drove out the giants to take possession of it.
God, who made the original promise, came to his help,
strengthened him and gave him the ability in his old age to
fight and take the promised land. Whom the Lord
strengthens will likewise receive grace to gain God’s specific
promises to him or her. Even in old age. The grace of God
is always sufficient to bring His promises to fulfilment.
Prayer Dear Father, in all our weaknesses be our strength in Christ’s name, Amen.
Pastor Greg Obong-Oshotse a former journalist, was a Marxist and an atheist before he came to faith in Jesus Christ and was called to preach the gospel. He trained for the Methodist ministry at Wesley House Cambridge and has degrees in theology from the universities of Cambridge and Wales. He and his wife live in the United Kingdom. Pastor Greg is the author of If the Angelic Postman Never Knocks on My Door: Christian Commitment in a Confused World.
Call Upon Me Day 6 Devotional
Psalm 91:14
“I will protect him, because he knows my name.”
1 Kings 18:24a
“And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD,
and the God who answers by fire, he is God.”
Banned from loving Romeo because of his name, Juliet
laments in frustration, “What’s in a name? That which we
call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Maybe.
However, in God’s Kingdom, names cut to the identity of
the named. God places an all-important value on names.
Abram becomes Abraham because he will be the father of
many nations, and Sarai becomes Sarah (Genesis 17). God
Himself has names and He has revealed them to us so that
we may know Him. He is so vast in His being that one name
will not nearly enough convey who He is to us. Each of His
many names provides us with a slice of His identity. And He
has invited us to call upon Him for our salvation. Elijah did
and was victorious in his battle against the prophets of Baal.
It helps to know His names. Here are a few: Jehovah Jireh (The
Lord who Sees and Provides) Genesis 22:8-14; Jehovah Nissi (the Lord our Banner)
Exodus 17:15; Jehovah Tsidkenu (The Lord our Righteousness) Jeremiah 23:6;
Jehovah Rapha (The Lord our Healer) Exodus 15:26; Jehovah Adonai (The Lord
our Sovereign) Genesis 15:2, 8; Jehovah Shalom (The Lord our Peace) Judges 6:25;
Jehovah Elohim (The Lord the Eternal Creator) Genesis 2:4-5; Jehovah Raah (The
Lord our Shepherd) Psalm 23:1; Jehovah Shammah (The Lord is here) Ezekiel
48:35; El-Elyon (God Most High) Genesis 14:18-20; El-Shaddai (God
Almighty) Genesis 17:1; Abba (God our Father) Romans 8:15; Immanuel (God
with us) Isaiah 7:14. Like Elijah and the Psalmist, we too may call
upon Him. And be heard. And helped.
Prayer Abba Father thank You for revealing Your names to us in Christ’s name, Amen.
Pastor Greg Obong-Oshotse a former journalist, was a Marxist and an atheist before he came to faith in Jesus Christ and was called to preach the gospel. He trained for the Methodist ministry at Wesley House Cambridge and has degrees in theology from the universities of Cambridge and Wales. He and his wife live in the United Kingdom. Pastor Greg is the author of If the Angelic Postman Never Knocks on My Door: Christian Commitment in a Confused World.
Day 5 More Than Enough
Text: 2 Peter 1:3-4
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by
which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through
them you may become partakers of the divine nature . . .”
Many ancient societies relied on a good harvest for survival.
They would work hard during the sowing and growing
seasons, and even harder during the harvest to bring in the
crops before they were lost. Between one harvest and the
next, families did a lot of economics to make sure they never
ran out of food. A full barn was usually the main guarantee
of food security. Although many societies still go through
that seasonal cycle, science has given humanity better ways
to achieve food security.
In the spiritual life, we can hardly escape the seasons. They
provide the architecture for our many liturgies. We roll from
Advent into Christmas, and then through Lent into Easter
and Pentecost with gaps for ‘downtime’ in between. Now a
New Year has just begun and, as with other years, this one
comes with its own challenges for which we’ll need spiritual
muscle. The apostles John and Peter provide us with
assurance that our spiritual barns are full. The Lord came to
bring us abundant life, says John. And through the knowledge
of the Lord, we have access to all things that pertain to life and
godliness, says Peter. There’s no lack of spiritual nourishment.
Go daily to the barn for nourishment, and you will always
have enough strength for the challenges that you’ll face.
Prayer Dear Father, we praise You for our full barns in Christ’s name, Amen
Pastor Greg Obong-Oshotse a former journalist, was a Marxist and an atheist before he came to faith in Jesus Christ and was called to preach the gospel. He trained for the Methodist ministry at Wesley House Cambridge and has degrees in theology from the universities of Cambridge and Wales. He and his wife live in the United Kingdom. Pastor Greg is the author of If the Angelic Postman Never Knocks on My Door: Christian Commitment in a Confused World.
