Time Out! Devotions

Romans 12:1-13 (NCV)

¹ So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. ² Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect. ³ Because God has given me a special gift, I have something to say to everyone among you. Do not think you are better than you are. You must decide what you really are by the amount of faith God has given you.⁴ Each one of us has a body with many parts, and these parts all have different uses.⁵ In the same way, we are many, but in Christ we are all one body. Each one is a part of that body, and each part belongs to all the other parts.⁶ We all have different gifts, each of which came because of the grace God gave us. The person who has the gift of prophecy should use that gift in agreement with the faith.⁷ Anyone who has the gift of serving should serve. Anyone who has the gift of teaching should teach.⁸ Whoever has the gift of encouraging others should encourage. Whoever has the gift of giving to others should give freely. Anyone who has the gift of being a leader should try hard when he leads. Whoever has the gift of showing mercy to others should do so with joy.⁹ Your love must be real. Hate what is evil, and hold on to what is good.¹⁰ Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves.¹¹ Do not be lazy but work hard, serving the Lord with all your heart.¹² Be joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes, and pray at all times.¹³ Share with God’s people who need help. Bring strangers in need into your homes.

Do you feel ill equipped to serve the Lord? A sense of inadequacy is one of the many excuses people use to avoid ministering for Him, but it is not a valid one. Failing to follow His call has three consequences: 1) we hinder God’s work on earth, 2) we miss a blessing for obedience, and 3) we lose out on rewards in heaven.

Jesus Christ knew all about the human tendency to feel inadequate. That is why He assured His followers they would receive a Helper—the Holy Spirit—who would come to abide in them forever. The Spirit enables, energizes, and equips believers to serve the Lord. One of the ways He aids us is by providing spiritual gifts, which are special capabilities given to believers.

Our heavenly Father has a ministry in mind for each of His followers. Therefore, necessary spiritual “equipment” has been selected to help us carry out His work. These gifts will complement and augment the natural talents our Creator built into us before birth. It is His purpose that we combine the two in order to serve Him with all of our heart. Even the smallest job contributes to the Great Commission and the strengthening of Jesus Christ’s body, the church.

The Lord has a plan for every believer. To ensure that we can meet the Lord’s expectations, He first builds natural talents into us. At salvation, He adds a spiritual gift. Then God opens doors of opportunity and the Holy Spirit manifests His power so that we can carry out the work set before us.

(devotional by Dr. Charles Stanley from the February 2010 issue of In Touch magazine)

And it was right and proper that God, who made everything for His own glory, should allow Jesus to suffer, for in doing this He was bringing vast multitudes of God’s people to heaven; for His suffering made Jesus a perfect Leader, one fit to bring them into their salvation. We who have been made holy by Jesus, now have the same Father He has. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers.

Hebrews 2:10-11

Jesus’ suffering made Him a perfect Leader (Hebrews 5:8-9), and our suffering can make us better servants of God. People who have known pain are able to reach out with sensitivity to their hurting brothers and sisters. When you suffer, ask how your experience can help you serve Christ better.

And it was necessary for Jesus to be like us, His brothers, so that He could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God, a Priest who would be both merciful to us and faithful to God in dealing with the sins of the people. For since He has now been through suffering and temptation, He knows what it is like when we suffer and are tempted, and He is wonderfully able to help us.

Hebrews 2:17-18

Knowing that Christ suffered and was tempted helps us go through our own suffering. We know He understands our struggles and we trust Him to help us survive suffering and overcome temptation. When you face trials, go to Jesus. He understands your needs and is able to help (Hebrews 4:14-16).

(from the Life Application Bible – Living Bible edition)

(from Crosswalk.com)

Seven-year-old Mencia Abreu and her brothers, Alex—age five—and Ricky—age two—slept wherever their parents laid them down. Sometimes on the streets of Queens, New York. Sometimes in a shelter or a grimy room in a cheap hotel. They played in alleys, parking lots, and dark hallways that smelled of stale liquor.

But one day, the Abreu children’s fragile world was shattered when Jose, their dad, was arrested on drug charges. Suddenly they were fatherless as well as homeless.

In jail, Jose was devastated. Overwhelmed by guilt, he had no hope that he could ever make things right again.

Then, in his most desperate moment, Jose met the God of mercy and forgiveness. Jose accepted Christ as his savior.

He grew rapidly in his new faith and eagerly shared it with his wife, Mayra. But Mayra was hopelessly addicted to cocaine and wanted nothing to do with her husband’s Jesus.

But God had other plans.

On Christmas Eve, the Abreus heard a knock on the door. “There was a UPS guy with a big box,” Mayra explains. It said, “from Jose Abreu.” But how could that be? Jose was in jail. Then Mayra remembered Angel Tree.

The kids were ecstatic. There were gifts from Dad!

As Mayra recalls: “I cannot describe to you the joy that my children and I felt when we opened [the presents]. I thanked God right there. I cried, and went on my knees. This is when I knew that God loved me, and I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into my life.”

She also prayed that God would free her from her addiction to cocaine. And He did—believe it or not—on the spot.

That story took place 16 years ago. But even more amazing is what happened afterward. Reunited after Jose’s release, Mayra and Jose devoted their lives to serving prisoners and their families through Prison Fellowship and its great program Angel Tree. They even took children of prisoners into their home while their mothers were in prison, adopting numbers of them.

Jose went home to the Lord in 2008, but Mayra continues her work of love.  And it all started with a knock on the door—because someone cared enough to send Christmas gifts, and the Gospel, through Angel Tree.

This year, we need you to be part of the next miracle in someone’s life. We have an extraordinary challenge ahead of us. Churches across the country have committed to reach more than 300,000 prisoners’ kids with gifts and the Gospel this Christmas.

But as of right now, we have 50,000 children signed up for Angel Tree who live in remote areas of the country where there are no churches. And we need your help to reach them.

But you can help. Please go to AngelTree.org. For each donation you make of $35.20, we will send a prisoner’s child a Christmas gift, an age-appropriate book containing the Gospel, and actual greetings from their parent in prison.

When you go to AngelTree.org, you can even specify the age and gender of the child you’d like to reach. And of course, you can reach more than just one child if you are so led. It’s so simple, but so important.

And, like the Abreus, it can even bring a whole family into the kingdom of God.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-24 (New International Reader’s Version)

⁹ God didn’t choose us to receive his anger. He chose us to receive salvation because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done.

¹⁰ Jesus died for us. Some will be alive when he comes. Others will be dead. Either way, we will live together with him. ¹¹ So cheer each other up with the hope you have. Build each other up. In fact, that’s what you are doing.

[As you near the end of  a foot race, your legs ache, your throat burns, and your whole body cries out for you to stop. This is when supporters are most valuable. Their encouragement helps you push through the pain to the finish. In the same way, Christians are to encourage one another. A word of encouragement offered at the right moment can be the difference between finishing well and collapsing along the way. Look around you. Be sensitive to others need for encouragement and offer supportive words or actions.]

¹² Brothers and sisters, we ask you to have respect for the godly leaders who work hard among you. They have authority over you. They correct you. ¹³ Have a lot of respect for them. Love them because of what they do. Live in peace with each other.

[Think of your pastor and other church leaders. How can you honor them? Express your appreciation, tell them how you have been helped by their leadership and teaching, and thank them for their ministry in your life. If you say nothing, how will they know where you stand? Remember, they need and deserve your support and love expressed in practical ways.]

¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, we are asking you to warn those who don’t want to work. Cheer up those who are shy. Help those who are weak. Put up with everyone. ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back one wrong act with another. Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Give thanks no matter what happens. God wants you to thank him because you believe in Christ Jesus.

[Our joy, prayers, and thankfulness to God should not fluctuate with our circumstances or feelings. Obeying these three commands - be joyful, keep praying, and be thankful - often goes against our natural inclinations. When we make a conscious decision to do what God says, however, we will begin to see people in a new perspective. When we do God's will, we will find it easier to be joyful and thankful.

We cannot spend all our time on our knees, but it is possible to have a prayerful attitude all the time. This attitude is built upon acknowledging our dependence on God, realizing His presence within us, and determining to obey Him fully. We then find it natural to pray frequent, spontaneous, short prayers. A prayerful attitude is not a substitute for regular times of prayer, but should be and outgrowth of those times.]

¹⁹ Don’t put out the Holy Spirit’s fire. ²⁰ Don’t treat prophecies as if they amount to nothing. ²¹ Put everything to the test. Hold on to what is good. ²² Stay away from every kind of evil.

[We shouldn't make fun of those who don't agree with what we believe, but we should always check their words against the Bible. We are on dangerous ground if we scoff at a person who speaks the truth. Instead we should carefully check out what people say, accepting what is true and rejecting what is false.]

²³ God is the God who gives peace. May he make you holy through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept free from blame. May you be without blame from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes. ²⁴ The One who has chosen you is faithful. He will do all these things.

(bracketed text from The Life Application Bible – Living Bible edition)