Devotions « MikeOharaLive

11Aug/110

Favor

"And the king granted these requests, because the gracious hand of God was on me." Nehemiah 2:8 (NLT)

Nehemiah took on the seemingly impossible task of rebuilding Jerusalem's walls. Extraordinarily, Nehemiah wasn't a political, religious, or military leader; he was a cup bearer. Yet he experienced God's favor. Here are some thoughts why Nehemiah experienced the favor of God (taken from Nehemiah 1-3):

• He prayed: prayer recognizes that favor comes from God. In Jewish culture the recipient of favor and blessing would be on his knees. The giver of the blessing would stand over the recipient and place his hand on the person. When we pray we "bend our knee" and recognize that favor comes from God who is stronger and higher than us. Nehemiah's prayers also came with a deep realization of his own sinfulness followed by repentance.

• He was scared: Nehemiah says he was "badly frightened." I don't know too many men who would admit that. Approaching the king Artaxerxes could mean death for Nehemiah. Protocol demanded that one must be summoned to have an audience with the king. Breaking protocol meant death. I think favor and fear go hand-in-hand. That is, we ask for favor because the situation is fearful. If you think, How is this going to happen? or Failure seems just around the corner or I don't know how this will turn out, then let the fear you feel prompt you to pray for favor.

• He asked: Nehemiah asked for favor from God (1:11), but he also needed to ask Artaxerxes for favor to be released to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. Favor means we take action. Nehemiah didn't sit back and wait for God's favor. He needed to ask the king. Asking for favor is the first step in a series of action steps we need to take. We ask for God's favor in prayer, we experience God's favor by taking action.

• He wasn't about "me": Nehemiah experienced God's favor as he set out to rebuild Jerusalem's walls. I think we experience God's favor when there's a greater cause. Favor comes into our lives to bless others, it goes beyond a "bless me" mindset.

• He told others about God's favor: Nehemiah wasn't bragging, he was celebrating. However, notice how his testimony inspired others to get involved in the work. Favor is attractive. Favor will attract people to the mission. Using favor to attract people to oneself is offensive to God and is idolatrous. Celebrate the "wins" in life to show how great God is.

Tagged as: favor, fear, nehemiah No Comments

3Oct/10Off

I love you

Jeremiah 2:25, “I have fallen in love with these foreign gods, and I can’t stop loving them now!”

There’s a common philosophy that if you love someone, or something, then your love makes it OK. That is, love becomes the highest good. In the verse above, Judah justified turning away from God because of her love for other gods.

Practically, this philosophy is often seen in sexual relationships, both hetero- and homo-. People will justify going outside of God’s parameters for healthy sexual relationships based on the love they feel for the other person. “I love him/her, so it must be OK.”

GOD IS LOVE AND HE WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY

You will often hear people say that God is love, therefore, he wants me to be happy. In other words, Why would a loving God deny (forbid) the love I have for the other person, regardless of what his word says? “I know the Bible forbids adultery, but I love him so much, he makes me happy, and he “completes” me, so it must be OK to divorce my husband and leave my kids.”

This kind of thinking makes our love the ultimate measure of morality. And since love is subjective, that measuring line will move with each person. What’s important to remember is that GOD is love. His love is perfect, our love is imperfect. In fact, our hearts our deceived, darkened, and easily led astray.

God’s ultimate goal is not our happiness, it’s our salvation. Yes, salvation from sin, but more specifically salvation from looking to people and things for our salvation, which is idolatry. Love is a good thing, but when we turn it into an ultimate thing, it becomes an idol.

When we truly begin to realize what God did for us through Jesus, the direction of our love begins to shift off of ourselves and what we want, and begins to shift more and more to God. That God did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves in offering salvation through Christ alone, by his grace alone, through faith alone, begins to fill us with love for God which shows itself in obedience.

In the end, it’s not about my love, it’s about HIS love.

Tagged as: Gospel, idolatry, love Comments Off

26Apr/100

Bad to Good

I love how God takes a bad thing and uses it for good.

This morning I was reminded of this when reading in Judges 6 the Lord's instruction to Gideon to use the wood from the Asherah pole he just cut down to burn an offering to the Lord. The pole, used to worship the goddess Asherah, was converted to offer the Lord worship and bring him glory.

This should remind us of the Lord's saving and redemptive work in our lives. On a large scale, God took our lives broken by sin (a bad thing) and saved and redeemed us through Christ in order to honor and worship him (a good thing).

But even in our day-to-day lives we should be conscious of the redemptive potential in every situation. Pastor Matt Chandler says we should look for shadows of the Gospel in our daily lives.

Here's a question: If the Lord is in the business of taking bad and using it for good, then what's my part?

Maybe it's praying for a situation, or offering forgiveness, or showing kindness, or taking a risk on someone or something, or obeying that prompting from God, or spending more time with family, etc.

Whatever it is let's participate in God's work of taking bad and using it for good.

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." (Genesis 50:20) Joseph to his brothers after they sold him into Egyptian slavery.

Tagged as: Gospel, Jesus No Comments