Tag: God’s Will

Devotionals

Back where you belong  

Loring Schultz

Read: Zechariah 10:6-12 ESV – “I will strengthen the house of – Bible Gateway

“I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them.” Zechariah 10:6 ESV

Photo by jesse ramirez on Unsplash

Are there periods of time in your life when you feel out of place? You are not where you’re supposed to be. Maybe through a fault of or own, or not, but you are out of place. Perhaps some sin drew you to this place of discomfort and though you don’t want to admit it, you know it’s true. You either put yourself there or the Lord put you there to chastise you, or both. There is a way out, there is good news on the horizon for those who know and trust God. You are not rejected forever if you are His child. When you call out to God in repentance, asking for forgiveness He will answer you and you’ll soon be back where you belong.

Both the ten tribes of Israel in the north, and the tribes of Benjamin and Judah in the south were taken captive to a place they didn’t belong. Both due to their continual sin against the Lord God and refusing to obey His commandments. The Lord has promised to restore them fully as if He had never rejected them. The southern tribes were returned to their land seventy years after captivity but never again had full autonomy. The northern tribes never regain their self-governing either. But one day, as God has promised, both will be restored again as one nation in the millennial kingdom.

God’s promise to the children of Israel is a promise all Christians can hold to as His chosen people in Christ. The Lord will have compassion on you as you seek and obey Him bringing you back where you belong, in His will.  

Devotionals

Submissive to God’s Will         

Loring Schultz

Read: Daniel 3:8-30 NLT – But some of the astrologers went to the – Bible Gateway

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you.’” Daniel 3:16 NLT

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

The well-known Bible story of the three Hebrew boys thrown into the fiery furnace is applicable for all Christians today. Really?! The familiar names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego not only have a ring to them, but they represent all Christians living in a pagan society. They held positions of rank in the Babylonian government, were under the king’s rule, but they were also followers of the Lord their God, the God of Israel. Christians today hold jobs in a secular pagan society, are under the authority of the government, and we are followers of Jesus Christ.

The government of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar, issued an order for all people within the boundaries of the empire to bow down and worship the golden image he had erected. Bowing down would be recognizing the gods of Babylon and the king as a god by being obedient to the order given. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when called before the king for not bowing did not need to think it over, but told King Nebuchadnezzar they didn’t need to defend themselves. Their actions were intentional. Their minds were made up, and they would not bow but rested on the Lord their God to deliver them from the king either in death or by rescuing them from the fiery flames of the furnace. They submitted to the will of God.

We may not be put in a fiery furnace situation as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but we are beginning to see increase pressure to suppress Christianity across the world, and even in the United States. When those moments come, will we be able to be as intentional as the three Hebrew boys and be submissive to God’s will whatever it may be, or will we bow down to gods of this world.

Devotionals

Your Will or God’s Will Be Done?

Loring Schultz

“‘Abba, Father,’ he cried out, ‘everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.’” Mark 14:36 NLT

FreeBibleimages.org

Yesterday our devotional study focused on the two-step process in how to make God’s desires our desires. Today’s devotion falls along those same lines but with a twist. God promises our hearts will be filled with our desires when they match God’s desires for us. How well then do you handle God’s desires and His will for you when it brings pain and suffering into your life?  

Jesus, the God-man, faced the reality of following His Father’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. He knew of God’s plan of salvation for each of us before the world began and He followed every detail. The time had come for the payment of sin to be completed. The sacrifice for sin would be made in a few short hours. Jesus was about to experience the most excruciating pain and suffering imaginable as the sins of the world would be laid upon Him. His Father would turn His back on Him causing Jesus to call “out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’” (Mk.15:34 nlt)

In the garden that night Jesus knew His Father was capable of an alternative plan if it was His will to do so. Jesus prayed for this to be so. “‘Abba, Father,’ he cried out, ‘everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me.” (Mk.14:36a nlt) The physical pain in the ‘cup of suffering’ will be accompanied by the spiritual separation from His Father that was forthcoming. Jesus asked that it be taken away, but then said, “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Mk.14:36b nlt)

Whatever your pain and suffering may be, it is understandable to ask the Lord to remove it and He will not fault you for that. There are times when He will remove it completely or partially, and times when He does not. Knowing that God desires your heart to be filled with His desires and for His will to be done wouldn’t you rather God’s will than your own will? May we all be able to say with the Lord Jesus, “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Mk.14:36 nlt)

Read: Mark 14:32-42 NLT – Jesus Prays in Gethsemane – They went – Bible Gateway

Devotionals

Our Call to Love and Obedience

Loring Schultz

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the LORD your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. And you must always obey the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.” Deuteronomy 10:12-13 NLT

Photo by Peter Laing on Unsplash

Some Christians today struggle with God’s call on their life and understandably so. I’ve been there along with many others of our generation and those of generations past. We’re conflicted by what may or not be a sign from God in a certain direction. We put out feelers to those we trust confiding in them our struggle. Afraid of missing God’s calling or being unable to fulfill all He has for us; we drift along anticipating that bolt of lightning to strike us making clear His will for us. Sometimes it happens that way but don’t waste precious time waiting for lightning to strike.

Just prior to the children of Israel entering the promised land God gave His requirements (His will) for them. His will for them was to fear Him, live for Him, love Him, and serve Him with all their heart and soul, and of course to always obey the Lord’s commands. Israel was at the starting gate and their call was to love God and obey Him. This was foundational for their own good and even survival. Love and obedience were the springboard in seeking God’s will going forward.

A good place for us to start in seeking God’s will is to put ourselves in the starting gate with the children of Israel. What does the Lord require of us in 2024? Very simple, the same requirements He had for His chosen people Israel He has for His chosen people in Christ, our call to love and obedience. If we start there, with the basics, we will be in God’s will. Over time as we grow spiritually the Lord will reveal His plans for us going forward and they will be as clear as a bright sunny day with not a cloud in the sky.

Read: Deuteronomy 10:12-22 NLT – A Call to Love and Obedience – “And – Bible Gateway

Devotionals

Is there anything you can’t do?

Loring Schultz

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20 NLT

Photo by Los Muertos Crew on Pexels.com

There are plenty of things I can’t do, I can’t sing, I can’t bake a cake, and I can’t speak French just to name three. There is a lot I can do by God’s grace and His giftedness in me. Most of the things I can’t do fall into two areas, the Lord has not given me the natural ability to do it, or I am uninterested in learning something new. When I have taken an interest in learning something, the Lord has always helped me to be good at it if it was His will for me. The end of Paul’s second prayer to the church at Ephesus got me to thinking how much I can accomplish, as Paul puts it, “through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Eph. 3:20nlt)

If you are struggling in an area of your life where you are lagging not being able to put your best foot forward even with the ability to do it, are you allowing God’s mighty power to work in you? Perhaps you’re at a point where you sense you are not going any further, you have reached your limit. One thing you can’t do is limit what God can do through you. Another thing you can’t do is neglect to ask God for His help in your struggles. He can do more than you will even ask Him for, especially in what He has called and gifted you to do.

There are plenty of things we can’t do, but there is nothing we can’t do if it is God’s will for us as He works in us. It is beyond our imagination of all that God can accomplish through us if we ask Him and give all the glory to Him, ‘more than we might ask or think.’

Devotionals

Become Something You Have Never Been

Loring Schultz

“Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been.” Oswald Chambers

I recently celebrated a birthday. No, it wasn’t a milestone, but getting close to another milestone as the years go by. To use a sports analogy, I am in the fourth quarter and the clock winding down and out of time outs. Having retired from full time employment at the end of 2022, it has been a weird year for me the last 14 months. The Lord is good and has opened new opportunities for me, this ministry website being one. But at times it is hard to adjust my mind and body to something completely different from what I’ve done for 45 years.  

The devotional I read on the morning of my birthday was Oswald Chambers entitled ‘What’s Next to Do?’ It contained these words, “Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been.” It got me thinking the way I was feeling over the past year was probably natural due to the duration of my employment. And it also got me to realize it was where God wanted me to be for those years, but that time has ended and the game isn’t over, there’s one quarter to go.

Just as God’s will for me included a 45-year career in retailing, He has His will for set me in these milestone years for something that I have never done. Looking over my shoulder at what once was is being disobedient to God who has a new call on my life. The same is true for each one of you no matter what stage of life you are in. When it’s time for God to move you out from where you have been, don’t look back, but look forward to where God wants you to be, and become something you have never been.

“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:13-14 NLT

Devotionals

Called to be a Faithful Servant

Loring Schultz

“Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.” Psalm 4:3 NIV

            What has the Lord called you to do? There are some who can respond immediately and positively as to the Lord’s calling on their life. There are others who struggle with this not being able to pinpoint an explicit calling. They wonder if their life as lived is God’s calling and according to His will. Then there are others, like myself, who throughout our lives note a specific turn in direction. This directional turn is due to changes in employment, family situations, ministry opportunities, retirement, and other events planned or unplanned.

            Knowing God’s calling and His will for your life is a challenge for most Christians, but one explicit calling is not hard to understand. It is God’s command to be faithful. Being faithful is God’s calling on every believer in His Son, Jesus Christ, and that is one thing that every Christian can do without exception. Is it easy? No, not in our own strength. But, “Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.” (Ps. 4:3 NIV)

            In our modern times of the 21st century it is becoming increasing difficult to take a stand for a Biblical worldview without being ridiculed or shamed into silence. But the Lord calls us to be faithful and that we must be. We have been set apart from the world into His Service for His Glory. We are to live lives that glorify God by following Jesus’s example. We should not be afraid or intimidated to speak the truth of God’s Word and we ought to live as faithful servants that attract the world to our saving Lord. May we be faithful in our call to be a faithful servant.