Week 15 Quiet Times

You Exalted Me Above My Foes

Psalm 18

• Pray the words of Psalm 18 to God, changing or adding pronouns when needed to make it a personal prayer, from me to you, God. Go as far as I have time for in one sitting and resolve to come back to it later today if I can't finish and stay focused with all my heart because of limited time.

18:46-49: The psalmist is acknowledging God as the one who is acting on his behalf now, today, in the present tense, and saving him from the enemies he's facing today. Then he declares to God in his prayer that he knows that God had clearly rescued him before, at some point(s) in the past. The NASB reads, "Surely you lift me above those who rise up against me; you rescue me from the violent man." Looking up the original Hebrew here, it seems to me that the word man could just as well be translated "the violent one (or violent things) in opposition to me." 1 This short passage is a great inspirational outline for a personal testimony!

• Have I got a 2-minute testimony ready to share with someone I might meet today? If it's not crystal clear in my mind, take time to write out a concise declaration of how God has saved me from my enemies, lifted me up and rescued me from everything that was opposed to me and which was trying to destroy me (myself included!). I won't worry about writing it beautifully; I'll just write down the feelings and facts honestly which give glory to God. 2
• Do I feel like anything is rising up against me today? What's likely to oppose my joy, my faith, my discipline, my love -- any of the Holy Spirit gifts from Galatians 5:22 -- today?
• Thank God for the undeniable victory he's already won for me, and claim the same victory in prayer against all of today's enemies!

1 Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Serch for 'iysh (Strong's 376)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. 15 May 2011. www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H376&t=NASB

2 I always knew God was real, and good, and that everything in the Bible was true. When my father died (I was 12) I knew that eternal life had to be a possibility. I didn't have great character as a young adult; I was controlled by fears and other people's opinions of me. I lost myself and got involved in relationships that were addictive and sexually immoral. No one had ever spoken to me about abstaining from sex before marriage, but I knew that's what the Bible taught, and it was what I had always longed for in my heart. I wound up depressed but I didn't know it at the time. I believe God has always been working in my life but I knew I was not connected to him. At that point I really think he intervened miraculously, when four people in one day that I hardly knew suggested to me that I should move to Boston. I did move and it was there -- after six years -- that my boyfriend met some people who were just "Christians," all of whom were deeply committed to living out the Word of God. I had never seen that before, though I'd met a lot of believers. I was extremely skeptical but the Bible answered all my questions and I was finally baptized into Christ at age 25.

3 Today it feels like what's likely to oppose me is probably just me: I have several appointments and a lot that I'd like to accomplish today -- two Bible studies with people who want to get right with God; discipleship time at lunch with my good friend; a student ministry meeting with dinner and a friend staying overnight. I usually stop enjoying my life when I think of all the other things I feel like I need to do which I will not have time to do today (a list of phone calls that need to be made, emails to be answered, papers on my desk to be filed, and the endless list of household chores, etc). I can be my own worst enemy and make myself miserable by focusing on the things that are not done rather than being grateful for the things God allows me to do. Today I want to pray about my schedule, give my whole heart to the activities of the day, submit to God’s plan for my day (week, month, year!) and be content no matter what the outcome, trusting God to straighten my paths where they are crooked (Prov 3:6)!

Compassion, Great Affection

Matthew Chapter 9

9:36 "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

• Pray for Jesus' attitude of compassion, for great affection, for my friends, relatives, colleagues, fellow students, who need to get to know God more intimately. Think about how difficult life is without a real relationship with God and what they may be experiencing as they face daily challenges.

9:37 "Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.'"

• Do I have Jesus' conviction, that the harvest is always plentiful? How would it change my conversations today if I went through my day believing that people all around me are yearning for the kind of relationship with God that I have been given? If I knew that they were suffering (harassed), needing someone to help (helpless), and were seeking God? Pray for myself to have the conviction to be a faithful worker today and do what I can to bring in the harvest! What could I do to bring in the harvest today? Pray for God to put people who are seeking in my path; pray for enough compassion for others to open my mouth and initiate conversations wherever I can; decide to be friendly to everyone; leave some extra time in between appointments to be able to talk to people; look for needs that I can meet and offer to meet them; pray for people with whom I could offer to study the Bible, for opportunities to make that invitation and the boldness to do so at the right time.

Drive Them Out 4

Matthew 9:38

"Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." The phrase "send out" means to force, or drive out. 5 It's the same word used to send demons out of a person, expelling or repelling them out.

Matthew 8:16; Matthew 10:1; Matthew 10:8

In each of these verses, the original language is the same as in Matthew 9:38: "sending out" takes place in the sense of driving out, forcing out, compelling.

• Am I willing to allow Jesus to drive me out into the harvest field? Make a list of what holds me back, and a list of convictions that should inspire me to go out as a grateful worker into my Lord's harvest field today.

4 Thanks to Terrie Fontenot for these wonderful insights! These have come from lessons I've heard her teach recently on "The Harvest is Plentiful" and "Raising up Leaders."

5 Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Serch for ekball? (Strong's 1544)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2011. 20 May 2011. www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1544&t=NASB

Fig Trees Wither and Mountains Move

Mark 11:12-24

I jumped into the middle of Mark today with a new Christian friend of mine. We had our quiet times together, and I decided to read what she was reading. Here was her burning question from what she read:

• Why did Jesus curse the fig tree, when it wasn't even the season for figs? I've always felt the same way my friend Mare did, when I've read this passage: that seems kind of harsh! Poor tree, it wasn't even the season for figs! What's wrong with Jesus here?
• Assuming Jesus is still full of the Spirit of love and self-discipline at this monent (2 Tim 1:7, and 1 Corinthians 13:4), what was really going on? Who was Jesus with? What was he doing with them? What did Jesus say after they saw that the fig tree had withered?
• Write down a description of a mountain that I wish would move. Pray about it, share about it, and wait patiently for God to move it. It's a sad testimony about my heart, that God moves mountains for me and I forget that he's done it. I really need my faith renewed daily, even though I've seen God move mountains and drop them into the sea. (I think about church plantings, for example...we move somewhere, wehre there is nothing and now, looking back, twenty years later, there are dozens of churches and thousands of disciples; our kids become Christians, in spite of us and all our mistakes; somehow, God gets me to open my j=mouth and, however clumsily, invite someone to something and they actually study the Bible, decide to follow Jesus, repent, and get baptized, and stay faithful; people I never ever thought would turn around, people who vigorously opposed the church, have surrendered to God and become great disciples! Today, I need to believe that God still wants to move all those same mountains. Nothing's changed. God is the same God. It's my faith that needs renewing. The mountain I'd like God to move into the sea today is (as I guess it's always been) me: I want to be God's instrument. I want to want what he wants and not what I want. I weigh myself down with burdens God wouldn’t want me to carry (his yoke is easy and his burden is light, Matthew 11:30) – my todo list, for example. Still too many of my own tasks on it, not enough of his, and probably not in the right order. I need to let go, let God take this mountain I carry around of stuff I think I stubbornly insist on doing and chuck it into the sea, so I can be free to do His will.