Time Out! Devotions

(by Max Lucado from UpWords Ministry)

Water. All Noah can see is water. The evening sun sinks into it. The clouds are reflected in it. His boat is surrounded by it. Water. Water to the north. Water to the south. Water to the east. Water to the west. Water.

He sent a raven on a scouting mission; it never returned. He sent a dove. It came back shivering and spent, having found no place to roost. Then, just this morning, he tried again. With a prayer he let it go and watched until the bird was no bigger than a speck on a window.

All day he looked for the dove’s return.

Now the sun is setting, and the sky is darkening, and he has come to look one final time, but all he sees is water. Water to the north. Water to the south. Water to the east. Water to the …

You know the feeling. You have stood where Noah stood. You’ve known your share of floods. Flooded by sorrow at the cemetery, stress at the office, anger at the disability in your body or the inability of your spouse. You’ve seen the floodwater rise, and you’ve likely seen the sun set on your hopes as well. You’ve been on Noah’s boat.

And you’ve needed what Noah needed; you’ve needed some hope. You’re not asking for a helicopter rescue, but the sound of one would be nice. Hope doesn’t promise an instant solution but rather the possibility of an eventual one. Sometimes all we need is a little hope.

That’s all Noah needed. And that’s all Noah received.

Here is how the Bible describes the moment: “When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf!” (Gen. 8:11 NIV).

An olive leaf. Noah would have been happy to have the bird but to have the leaf! This leaf was more than foliage; this was promise. The bird brought more than a piece of a tree; it brought hope. For isn’t that what hope is? Hope is an olive leaf—evidence of dry land after a flood. Proof to the dreamer that dreaming is worth the risk.

Don’t we love the olive leaves of life?
“It appears the cancer may be in remission.”
“I can help you with those finances.”
“We’ll get through this together.”
What’s more, don’t we love the doves that bring them?
Perhaps that’s the reason so many loved Jesus.

To all the Noahs of the world, to all who search the horizon for a fleck of hope, he proclaims, “Yes!” And he comes. He comes as a dove. He comes bearing fruit from a distant land, from our future home. He comes with a leaf of hope.

Have you received yours? Don’t think your ark is too isolated. Don’t think your flood is too wide. Receive his hope, won’t you? Receive it because you need it. Receive it so you can share it.

Love always hopes. “Love … bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:4–7 NKJV, emphasis mine).

From A Love Worth Giving
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2002) Max Lucado

Psalm 25:15 (NCV)

My eyes are always looking to the Lord for help. He will keep me from any traps.

John 1:12 (NCV)

But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God.

John 7:38 (NCV)

If anyone believes in me, rivers of living water will flow out from that person’s heart, as the Scripture says.”

Acts 15:9 (NCV)

To God, those people are not different from us. When they believed, he made their hearts pure.

Romans 4:1-5 (NCV)

So what can we say that Abraham, the father of our people, learned about faith?² If Abraham was made right by the things he did, he had a reason to brag. But this is not God’s view,³ because the Scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.”⁴ When people work, their pay is not given as a gift, but as something earned.⁵ But people cannot do any work that will make them right with God. So they must trust in him, who makes even evil people right in his sight. Then God accepts their faith, and that makes them right with him.

Romans 4:18 (NCV)

There was no hope that Abraham would have children. But Abraham believed God and continued hoping, and so he became the father of many nations. As God told him, “Your descendants also will be too many to count.”

Romans 10:4 (NCV)

Christ ended the law so that everyone who believes in him may be right with God.

Romans 11:20 (NCV)

Those branches were broken off because they did not believe, and you continue to be part of the tree only because you believe. Do not be proud, but be afraid.

1 Corinthians 2:5 (NCV)

This was so that your faith would be in God’s power and not in human wisdom.

1 Peter 2:6 (NCV)

The Scripture says: “I will put a stone in the ground in Jerusalem. Everything will be built on this important and precious rock. Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed.” (Isaiah 28:16)

2 Corinthians 1:24 (NCV)

We are not trying to control your faith. You are strong in faith. But we are workers with you for your own joy.

Ephesians 6:16 (NCV)

And also use the shield of faith with which you can stop all the burning arrows of the Evil One.

Hebrews 10:22 (NCV)

Let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

Hebrews 10:38-39 (NCV)

Those who are right with me will live by faith. But if they turn back with fear, I will not be pleased with them.” (Habakkuk 2:3–4) ³⁹ But we are not those who turn back and are lost. We are people who have faith and are saved.

Matthew 9:28 (NCV)

After Jesus went inside, the blind men went with him. He asked the men, “Do you believe that I can make you see again?” They answered, “Yes, Lord.”

Mark 9:24 (NCV)

Immediately the father cried out, “I do believe! Help me to believe more!”

(this devotional article from guideposts.com)

Having trouble remembering everything you’d like to pray for?

Try this simple solution.

By Lisa Biedenbakc, Hamilton, Ohio

People are always asking me to pray for them, and I always say yes. I mean, how do you say no to prayer? But with so many requests from coworkers, family and friends, colleagues and fellow parishioners—not to mention my own prayers—sometimes I lose track of all their prayer needs. I’m on prayer overload.

One day I was chatting with my friend Sister Bridget, an Ursuline nun. I mentioned my prayer-overload problem to her. “I can’t remember who and what I’m supposed to be praying for!”

“Try a prayer bowl,” she said. She told me that she keeps a small bowl in her home, and whenever she gets a prayer request she writes it down on a slip of paper and drops it into the bowl. “A couple of times a day I put my hand into the bowl and read through a handful of requests.”

I’ll have to give that a try, I thought.

Several months later, on a trip to Assisi and Rome, I found the perfect bowl, carved out of an ancient olive tree, full of beautiful swirls in shades of olive and brown.

I bought it and brought it home, and put it on my desk at work where I can see it every day.

Now, whenever I receive a prayer request or hear of someone in need, I write it on a slip of paper and put down the date. Then I drop it in the bowl. Lord, I pray, please remember everyone in this bowl. May your will be done, I add.

Some of the prayers have been, “Katie’s son in Iraq,” “Judy’s breast cancer” or “the sale of Bob’s house.”

My bowl is always full. But I never feel overwhelmed anymore. Just the opposite. After a month or two I take out the slips of paper and see how many of those prayers have been answered, and I add one more prayer of my own:

Thank you, Lord.

(from – http://www.ourprayer.org/DailyGuideposts/?p_storyid=1317767) “We saw the Nephilim there. . . . We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Numbers 13:33 (NIV)

I’m a giant . . . at least to the hummingbird and the butterfly. Last summer, a male Anna’s hummingbird laid claim to the feeder in our backyard in Southern California. He perched on a branch a couple of feet above the feeder in a carrotwood tree and chased away all others that got near his food supply. He even flew at me a time or two, wings whirring, when I got too close. There was also a brown and yellow mourning cloak butterfly who claimed our backyard as his private domain. Bold as can be, he charged at the hummingbird when the two encountered each other. And twice he determinedly fluttered around my head to warn me that I was in his territory. Each little creature was bold enough to stand up to someone hundreds and thousands of times his size. Like the hummingbird and the butterfly, I had to contend with a giant. My wife Carol and I loved Southern California and our friends and church there, but after eight years the longing for family in the Northeast won out. Selling one home and buying another in the midst of a less than favorable real-estate market would be a giant undertaking. We turned to one of our favorite Bible verses: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9, NIV). Holding on to that promise, we faced our giant, sold our house and moved East to begin looking for a new home. Lord, give us boldness to challenge the giants we face. By Harold Hostetler – OurPrayer.org

Hebrews 2:17 (NIV)

¹⁷For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

You’ve barely dipped a toe into Matthew’s gospel when you realize Jesus hails from the Tilted-Halo Society. Rahab was a Jericho harlot. Grandpa Jacob was slippery enough to warrant an electric ankle bracelet. David had a personality as irregular as a Picasso painting – one day writing psalms, another day seducing his captain’s wife. But did Jesus erase His name from the list? Not at all!

Why did Jesus hang His family’s dirty laundry on the neighborhood clothesline?

Because your family has some too. The dad who never came home. The grandparent who ran away with the coworker. If your family tree has bruised fruit, then Jesus wants you to know, “I’ve been there.”

The phrase “I’ve been there” is in the chorus of Christ’s theme song. To the lonely, Jesus whispers, “I’ve been there.” To the discouraged, Christ nods His head and sighs, “I’ve been there.”

(by Max Lucado from his book, Next Door Savior)