Time Out! Devotions

Antiques and children – that is not a good combination. It is, in fact, an invitation to disaster. Like that lovely antique teapot my wife had out years ago when the kids were little. Well, you know what happened; one moment a teapot, the next moment pieces of a teapot. But my wife quickly rallied to remedy the situation. No, she did not disown one of our children. She sent me out for a tube of some sort of super glue. And amazingly, she put those pieces together and recreated that old teapot, and that glue has held it together to this very day!

There are times when you and I can use a little “super glue” because it’s us that’s going to pieces. And that spiritual glue is available to you right now, if you know where to get it and you know how to use it.

In fact, our word for today from the Word of God is all about this powerful agent that can hold you together, no matter what. Hebrews 4:16 puts it this way: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” I studied that “grace to help us” phrase in the original Greek words of the New Testament and I discovered that the word translated “help us” is used only one other time in the Bible – in Acts 27:17. Paul is on a ship that’s literally being blown apart by a violent storm. The Bible says “they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together.” There’s that “help” word from Hebrews 4:16, except here it’s about literally keeping the ship from coming apart in the storm.

God says that’s what His grace is able to do for you, to help hold you together when the storm is intense and things seem to be breaking apart. He invites us to “approach the throne of grace with confidence.” That word “confidence” means boldness and frankness. So when you start to pray, you go to your Lord boldly, talking, not in some fancy “prayer-ese” language, but with straight talk. You tell Him how it really is, how you really feel, and how much you need Him.

The Bible says that when you do that, you can “find grace.” I like the deeper meaning of the Greek word that we translate as “find” here. It means to “come upon” or to “discover.” There’s almost an element of surprise in it, “Wow! Look what I just found! All this grace – lots of grace to hold me together in this situation right now!” When the verse says “grace to help us in our time of need,” the original language is saying help that comes at just the right time, not before you really need it, not after you really need it, but right on time.

So this is one power-packed invitation from the One who rules the galaxies from His “throne of grace” – to come into His throne room boldly and honestly, reaching out to put in our hands the exact resources we need for this moment, this challenge, this situation, or this need. He will respond with a flood of grace, just the kind of grace you need right now: suffering grace, waiting grace, deciding grace, grieving grace, single grace, physical grace, emotional grace, or financial grace.

But the grace doesn’t just come to you automatically. You have to go for the grace that this moment requires! And so often we don’t. We struggle and worry and scheme, never going to the Grace Throne for the answers or resources we need. We could be rich, but we live in unnecessary poverty. We need to accept this incredible invitation many times a day and pray aggressively, not passively; boldly, not timidly; specifically, not generally. And it’s all available to us because of Jesus. We come there because He died to make it possible for us to get this close to the God of the universe.

So there is never any reason you need to go to pieces. The grace glue of your God can hold you together, no matter what hits you!

(by Ron Hutchcraft from Christianity.com devotionals – A Word With You)

(continued from previous post)

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14 – NIV)

Most of our prayer lives could use a tune-up. Some prayer lives lack consistency. They’re either a desert or an oasis. Long arid, dry spells interrupted by brief plunges into the waters of communion.

Others of us need sincerity. Our prayers are a bit hollow, memorized and rigid. More liturgy than life. And though they are daily, they are dull.

Still others lack, well, honesty. We honestly wonder if prayer makes a difference. Why on earth would God in heaven want to talk to me? If God knows all, who am I to tell Him anything? If God controls all, who am I to do anything?

Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer in in the One who hears it and not the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.

I experienced a kindred truth many years ago. My daughters and I spent a Saturday desk-hunting. I needed a new one for the office, and we’d promised Andrea and Sara desks for their rooms. Sara was especially enthused. When she comes home from school, guess what she does? She plays school! I never did that as a kid. I tried to forget the classroom activities, not rehearse them. My wife, Denalyn, assures me not to worry, that this is one of those attention-span differences between genders. So off to the furniture store we went.

When Denalyn buys furniture, she prefers one of two extremes – so antique it’s fragile or so new it’s unpainted. This time we opted for the latter and entered a store of in-the-buff furniture.

Andrea and Sara succeeded quickly in making their selections, and I set out to do the same. Somewhere in the process Sara learned we weren’t taking the desks home that day, and this news disturbed her deeply. I explained that the piece had to be painted and they would deliver the desk in about four weeks. I might as well have said four millennia.

Her eyes filled with tears. “But, Daddy, I wanted to take it home today.”

Much to her credit, she didn’t stomp her feet and demand her way. She did, however, set out on an urgent course to change her father’s mind. Every time I turned a corner she was waiting for me.

“Daddy, don’t you think we could paint it ourselves?”

“Daddy, I just want to draw some pictures on my new desk.”

“Daddy, please let’s take it home today.”

After a bit she disappeared, only to return, arms open wide and bubbling with a discovery. “Guess what, Daddy. It’ll fit in the back of the car!”

You and I know that a seven-year-old has no clue what will or won’t fit in a vehicle, but the fact that she had measured the trunk with her arms softened my heart. The clincher, though, was the name she called me: “Daddy, can’t we please take it home?”

The Lucado family took a desk home that day.

I heard Sara’s request for the same reason God hears ours. Her desire was for her own good. What dad wouldn’t want his child to spend more time writing and drawing? Sara wanted what I wanted for her, she only wanted it sooner. When we agree with what God wants, He hears us, as well (1 John 5:14).

Sara’s request was heartfelt. God, too, is moved by our sincerity. The “earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power” (James 5:16 – TLB).

But most of all, I was moved to respond because Sara called me “Daddy.” Because she is my child, I heard her request. Because we are His children, God hears ours. The King of creation gives special heed to the voice of His family. He is not only willing to hear us, but He loves to hear us when we come to Him.

It doesn’t matter how old you are or what problems you are facing in your life. You have been given the lifelong chance of a lifetime: to come before the God of the universe, to approach Him in all of His power and glory, and to be received as His child, His precious son or daughter whom He loves with all of His heart.

Prayer: It’s the lifelong opportunity of a lifetime. Let’s get started on learning how to make the most of it!

(from Discovering the Power of Prayer by Max Lucado)

(more to come in the next post!)