Monday: Exodus 2

Tuesday: Luke 8

Wednesday: Psalm 24-26

Thursday: Ephesians 1

Friday: Exodus 2, Luke 8, Psalm 24-26, Ephesians 1

Monday, Exodus 2

God rescues Moses through the faith of his parents and events that only He could have orchestrated. Not only would Moses be saved and later raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter, but his very own mother would be allowed to keep him for the formative years of his childhood. Not only would Moses be one of the few male babies of his day that was not killed, but he would become a leader among his people. And God would use Moses mightily in His redemption plan for His people. Even when things look bleakest, dear one, God is holding you, protecting you, carrying you to safety. He has mighty plans for redemption.

Can you think of a time in your life that can only be explained as God’s providence and sovereignty?

Is there a situation in your life that looks bleak right now? Spend some time today surrendering this situation to the God who uses all things and who always carries us through.

Tuesday, Luke 8

The true Gospel profoundly affects and changes the lives and hearts of those who truly receive it. I long to be good soil, to allow the Gospel to sink deeply into my heart and have its way and yield its fruit. This good fruit looks like the faith of the sick woman who risked being ostracized by the crown to touch Jesus’s robe – and was healed. This good fruit looks like the faith of the father who came desperate for Jesus to heal His daughter and watched his own child resurrected from the dead. Gospel faith believes the impossible.

In what way can you let your light shine this week? Who can you share the love of Christ with?

Is the fruit of your faith visible in your life? Can you take a risk on someone this week? Can you pray a prayer that is “too big” of an ask, believing boldly that God can answer?

Wednesday, Psalm 24-26

The one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame – what a promise for those of us who put our trust in the Lord! Let’s make this our prayer this week:

Make known to me your ways, O Lord;

Teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me,

for you are the God of my salvation;

for you I wait all the day long.

Lord, may it be!

Thursday, Ephesians 1

Let it sink in deep – you were chosen. You aren’t just one of a bunch of people God made, you are intentionally, specifically made and fashioned by the God of the universe who wanted you. Not just people, specifically you. Why? For His glory. The God who created the universe, who made the stars in the night sky and the colorful sunset over the horizon to display His beauty to all creation also formed and fashioned you specifically to show His glory and goodness to the world. You are his dazzling masterpiece.

How does it feel to know that you were intentionally created by God for this time and place to bring Him glory?

How would you live differently if you deeply believed that and carried it throughout your days?       

Friday Reflections

I keep thinking of the demon-possessed man… so far gone, utterly dehumanized, naked, filthy, cut-up from breaking out of his shackles. This is who I am left in my sin, apart from Jesus.

And Jesus says, What is your name?

I imagine this man healed and restored, clothed and cleansed, sitting at the feel of Jesus. Because when we realize how far He has brought us, what else is there to do?

Jesus, who looks into our eyes, Jesus who calls us by our names, Jesus who cleanses us from all sin, Jesus who utterly turns our lives around… Surely, He is worthy of all of our worship.

And I keep thinking of the woman with the issue of blood, worn out and beaten down, searching for answers until her resources and her very soul are exhausted. She’s chasing after Jesus, reaching out to Jesus, in a crowd that she isn’t even allowed to be a part of due to her “uncleanliness.” Her desperation has driven her into the world that would say she is a hopeless outcast, to the feet of Jesus because she believes that He has what she needs, and He does.

And I, too, apart from Jesus, am just like the woman with the issue of blood, except I am the woman with the issue of sin, hopeless and desperately in need of a Savior to wash me clean.

I am chasing after Him, reaching toward Him, longing just to touch the hem of His robe. And He is not far off. He turns toward me the way He turned toward her, the way He turned toward the demon possessed man. He kneels down, cups my chin in His hand.

“Daughter,” He says.

Can you hear Him?

And His words to us are the same as they were to the woman. 

“Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

Hallelujah! He has made us well and He has given us peace! We are healed from our depravity, our iniquity, our wickedness. We are given peace from our struggling, our striving, our hurt. He loves us like that.

I keep thinking of the sick little girl, her daddy, frantic, falling at Jesus’s feet and imploring Him to come, knowing that He alone might be able to save His daughter. I imagine the overwhelming sorrow and incredulity as the servant delivers the message that the father shouldn’t trouble Jesus any longer because his beloved daughter is now dead.

And again, Jesus looks into the hurting, desperate man’s eyes. Do not fear.

And I am the father, frantic, troubled, longing for the Lord’s good in my life and the lives of my children and loved ones, often incredulous when I cannot see it. Wondering what He is up to and why He has “delayed.” Do not fear, He assures me. All will be well.

And the sick little girl, now the dead little girl, is taken by the hand. 

“Arise,” Jesus says, and her life is restored and it’s true of us, too – He calls us to arise, breathing new life into us and taking us from death in our sin to life in Him.

Jesus’s power is showcased in His compassion. Jesus sees us in our sin, our sickness, our mess, and He is relentlessly calling us out of it, healing, restoring, and breathing life into our tired and weary souls.

Can you feel His loving gaze on you, dear one? The way He reaches to you with tenderness? You who are dead in your sin, you who feel trapped or stuck, you who long for a different story, you who feel desperate?

Can you hear His gentle voice calling your name? Singing over you, Do not be afraid, my beloved. Your faith has healed you. Go in peace.