Day By Day #12

Day by Day #12

MORNING/MIDDAY OFFICE

Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:7–10

In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Devotional

The painful disappointments in our past and the hardships we face in the present are often the last places we look for God. They appear to hold us back and limit our future. However, if we fail to look for God in these limits and sufferings, we often bypass him.

When we look for God in our limitations—instead of putting all our energy into trying to eliminate or get around them—we begin to see that our very limitations have the potential to become our greatest source of strength. Remember the words of the apostle Paul? God’s power is made perfect in our weaknesses, not in our strengths (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Consider these examples from Scripture:

        •     Moses was limited by the fact that he was slow of speech and his past was filled with failure. God makes it clear that he is present in and through Moses’ limitations: “Who gave human beings their mouths? . . . Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Exodus 4:11–12). Moses then leads two to three million people for the next forty years in the power of God.

        •     The prophet Jeremiah was limited by a melancholy disposition and repeated rejection. He cursed the day he was born and wanted to die (Jeremiah 20:14–18). Yet God was present in and through the limits of his temperament and life situation, giving him insights about the heart of God that still touch and teach God’s people today.

        •     Abraham was limited by Sarah’s barrenness and decades of wondering if he would ever have a rightful heir. He suffered under that reality, yet he met God in extraordinary ways through his journey of faith. When ninety-year-old Sarah became pregnant with Isaac, God fulfilled his promise to make Abraham the father of many nations, including all of us (Genesis 17:4, Romans 4:17). Abraham’s story provides us revelations of who God is—all of which came out of Abraham’s hardships and limits.

The limits and wounds we carry are often the arena in which God demonstrates his power and gives us his gifts in disguise. It is one of the most counterintuitive and difficult truths in Scripture to embrace because it flies in the face of our natural tendency to want to be in control and run the world.^a And yet, it is precisely in these difficult places that God longs to teach us, provide for us, and reveal himself to us.

Question to Consider

How might a present limit or past failure be God’s gift of love for you, and a gift you can give to the world?

Prayer

Lord, you know I resist limits and looking at painful disappointments. They are the last place I want to look for you. Help me to see how the painful parts of my past or present might be opportunities for me to see you clearly and discern how you might want to use me in the future. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)

MIDDAY/EVENING OFFICE

Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)

Scripture Reading: Mark 15:33–39

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”

Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

Devotional

When we courageously face the wounds and failures of our past and our family of origin, it can fill us with fear or dread. “Where was God?” we wonder. “Why did he allow these things to happen?” It can be a painful and confusing experience.

When Jesus cried out to God on the cross, the Father did not answer. Yet, God was powerfully present in the silence. Jesus remained with his Father even though he didn’t “feel him”—and in the process, he teaches us what true faith is.

True faith allows us to call on God even when we do not feel his presence. On the spiritual journey, we can become so dependent on feelings that when we don’t “feel God” in the way we think we should, we give up or take matters into our own hands. But growing up spiritually requires moving past loving our feelings about God to loving God for who he is—even when he seems silent and distant. For this reason, Scripture teaches us that God’s silence, very often, is actually a gift and an expression of his love for us. In fact, we discover that when God seems most absent, he is closer to us and more powerfully at work than ever.

Question to Consider

How might you hold on to God when he is silent and you don’t “feel his presence”?

Prayer

Father, it is easy for me to let my feelings or my circumstances be the indicator of whether you are present or absent in my life. Help me to see that even though I may not feel you in the ways I would like, you are still working powerfully in my life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)

^a Peter Scazzero, The Emotionally Healthy Leader, 204–205.