THE POWER OF OUR LIMITS

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

THE POWER OF OUR LIMITS

READ:  Exodus 4:10-12

Go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you

what you shall say.  Exodus 4:12

When God called Moses to serve, he replied, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10).  The language used here suggests that Moses may have had a speech impediment.  Perhaps he stuttered.

The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth?  Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind?  Have not I, the Lord?” (v.11).

Our weaknesses cause us to seek God and rely on Him, they actually help us instead of hinder us.  In fact, they become the best thing that could happened to us, because our growth in courage, power, and happiness depends on our relationship with the Lord and how much we are relying on Him.

Three times the apostle Paul pleaded with the Lord to remove his impediment, but the Lord answered, “My grace is sufficient” (2 Corinthians 12:9).  Paul then gloried in his limitations, for he realized that they did not limit him.  As he put it, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (v. 10).   DHR

God uses weakness to reveal

His great sufficiency;

So if we let Him work through us,

His power we will see. -Sper

God’s strength is best seen in our weakness.

A CALL TO LEAVE

A Call to Leave

At once they left their nets and followed him.

Matthew 4:20

READ MATTHEW 4:18–22

As a young woman, I imagined myself married to my high school sweetheart—until we broke up. My future yawned emptily before me and I struggled with what to do with my life. At last I sensed God leading me to serve Him by serving others and enrolled in seminary. Then the reality crashed through that I’d be moving away from my roots, friends, and family. In order to respond to God’s call, I had to leave.

Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee when He saw Peter and his brother Andrew casting nets into the sea, fishing for a living. He invited them to “Come, follow me . . . and I will send you out to fish for people” (Matthew 4:19). Then Jesus saw two other fishermen, James and his brother John, and offered them a similar invitation (v. 21).

When these disciples came to Jesus, they also left something. Peter and Andrew “left their nets” (v. 20). James and John “left the boat and their father and followed him” (v. 22). Luke puts it this way: “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:11).

Every call to Jesus also includes a call from something else. Net. Boat. Father. Friends. Home. God calls all of us to a relationship with Himself. Then He calls each of us to serve.

By Elisa Morgan

REFLECT & PRAY

Loving God, help me understand what I might need to leave in order to respond to Your call.

How could God’s call to follow Him also call you from something else? In what ways can you trust Him with what you may be leaving?

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Jesus appointed twelve men as His apostles: “Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot” (Luke 6:14-16). All of these men left something or someone behind to follow Jesus (Matthew 19:27). We know from Matthew 4:18-22 that brothers Simon Peter and Andrew and brothers James and John all left their nets. But what about the others? Simon the Zealot was either a member of an extremist political group who fought against the Roman occupation of Israel or a member of the religious group noted for zeal for the Law. He no doubt left his extreme views behind. But the only other disciple we’re told about specifically was Matthew (Levi). Jesus told him, “Follow me,” and Matthew got up and left his “tax collector’s booth” (his lucrative career) to follow Christ (9:9). Alyson Kieda

DAILY PRAYERS & BLESSINGS - MARCH 1

MARCH 1

Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and 

edify one another, even as also ye do.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Bless those who mentor, model, and cheer me on, Lord, urging me toward goals I set, applauding as I reach them, and nourishing me to try again when I don’t.  Remind me to be a cheerleader.  I plan to say thanks to those who are mine.

OUR LIFELINE

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

OUR LIFELINE

READ:  Psalm 91

He is my refuge and my fortress; my God,

in Him I will trust.  Psalm 91:2

In his book The Fisherman and His Friends, Louis Albert Banks tells of two men who were assigned to stand watch on a ship out at sea.  During the night the waves from a raging storm washed one of them overboard.  The sailor who drowned had been in the most sheltered place, while the one who survived was more exposed to the elements.  What made the difference?  The man who was lost had nothing to hold on to.

What a picture of the way some people are affected by the trials of life!  When life is peaceful, they are very self-sufficient; but when the going gets rough, they are swept off their feet.  Because they have refused God’s help and have nothing to hold on to, they are easily overwhelmed.

People who cling to the Lord, though, can weather the fiercest storms of adversity.  They are often heard to say, “I don’t know what I would do without the Lord.”  They know that the heavenly Father is always with them to strengthen, guard, and protect them.

Those who have put their hope in God have Someone they can rely on in every circumstance of life.  They can say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust” (Psalm 91:2).  Can you?   RDH

He  cannot fail, your faithful God,

He’ll guard you with His mighty power;

Then fear no ill, though troubles rise,

His help is sure from hour to hours. Bosch

God has not promised to keep us from life’s storms,

but to keep us through them. 

A GOAL AND A PURPOSE

A Goal and a Purpose

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.

Acts 20:24

READ ACTS 20:17–24

In 2018, endurance athlete Colin O’Brady took a walk that had never been taken before. Pulling a supply sled behind him, O’Brady trekked across Antarctica entirely alone—a total of 932 miles in 54 days. It was a momentous journey of dedication and courage.

Commenting on his time alone with the ice, the cold, and the daunting distance, O’Brady said, “I was locked in a deep flow state [fully immersed in the endeavor] the entire time, equally focused on the end goal, while allowing my mind to recount the profound lessons of this journey.”

For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus, that statement might strike a familiar chord. It sounds a lot like our calling as believers: focused on the goal of walking through life in a way that glorifies (honors) God and reveals Him to others. In Acts 20:24, Paul, no stranger to dangerous journeys, said, “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

As we walk on in our relationship with Jesus, may we recognize what we know about the purpose for our journey and press on to the day we’ll see our Savior face to face.

By Dave Branon

REFLECT & PRAY

Dear heavenly Father, as we walk through life, help us to honor You in all we do. And may we encourage others to journey with You.

How does your relationship with Jesus affect your walk in life? What can you do today to reveal to others your love for Him?

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Ephesus was the Roman capital of western Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and home of the temple to the goddess Artemis—a temple that’s listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Artemis was considered the fertility goddess and was honored in an annual festival called the Artemisia, celebrated in the month of the Artemision (March-April). The festival involved athletic competitions and theatrical events and was also a popular time for men and women to choose their marriage partners. As a result, this event attracted a large crowd of visitors. Paul’s gospel ministry saw people abandoning the worship of Artemis to follow Jesus—resulting in the riot described in Acts 19:23-41. Bill Crowde

TROUBLE WITH PEOPLE

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

TROUBLE WITH PEOPLE

READ:  Psalm 56

In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?  Psalm 56:11

Was David paranoid?  Did he think the whole world was out to get him?  You might get that impression as you read through some of his psalms.  Look at a few of the statements he made:

“Strangers have risen up against me, and oppressors have sought after my life” (Psalm 54:3).

“There are many who fight against me” (56:2).

“They lie in wait for my life; the mighty gather against me” (59:3).

Of course, during this time David was being hotly pursued by Saul and his men, so it’s easy to see why he felt as he did.  Nonetheless, his observations about people may echo the way we feel on occasions when others criticize and oppose us.  Perhaps it’s those with whom  we work.  They seem to disagree with us no matter what we do or say.  Maybe it’s family members who apparently enjoy irritating us.  Or people at church who seem to be critical and faultfinding.  We just feel as if everyone is against us.

If this describes your situation, it’s time to do what David did  He declared, “In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?” (56:11).

When you have trouble with people, turn to God.   He understands.  DB

God is stronger than our strongest foe.

THE SECRET

The Secret

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.

Philippians 4:12

READ PHILIPPIANS 4:10–19

Sometimes I suspect my cat Heathcliff suffers from a bad case of FOMO (fear of missing out). When I come home with groceries, Heathcliff rushes over to inspect the contents. When I’m chopping vegetables, he stands up on his back paws peering at the produce and begging me to share. But when I actually give Heathcliff whatever’s caught his fancy, he quickly loses interest, walking away with an air of bored resentment.

But it’d be hypocritical for me to be hard on my little buddy. He reflects a bit of my own insatiable hunger for more, my assumption that “now” is never enough.

According to Paul, contentment isn’t natural—it’s learned (Philippians 4:11). On our own, we desperately pursue whatever we think will satisfy, moving on to the next thing the minute we realize it won’t. Other times, our discontent takes the form of anxiously shielding ourselves from any and all suspected threats.

Ironically, sometimes it takes experiencing what we’d feared the most in order to stumble into real joy. Having experienced much of the worst life has to offer, Paul could testify firsthand to “the secret” of true contentment (vv. 11-12)—the mysterious reality that as we lift up to God our longings for wholeness, we experience unexplainable peace (vv. 6-7), carried ever deeper into the depths of Christ’s power, beauty, and grace.

By Monica La Rose

REFLECT & PRAY

Father, help me to surrender my attempts to secure my own happiness in exchange for embracing the gift of each moment with You.

How have you experienced mysterious peace when you least expected it? What desperate longings or fears might you need to lift up to God?

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Paul truly did know how to find contentment in all situations. Born a Roman citizen, he came from an inherited privilege. As “a Hebrew of Hebrews” (Philippians 3:5) who studied under the highly respected rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), Paul enjoyed a strong religious heritage as well. Yet he endured intense hardships. Second Corinthians 11 outlines the litany of travails he experienced, including imprisonment, beatings, floggings, stoning, shipwrecks, hunger, thirst, and sleeplessness (vv. 23-28). Keep these ordeals in mind as you hear Paul say, “I can do all this [remain content] through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). Tim Gustafson