God Keeps His Promises
I will also bring them back from the land of Egypt,
And gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon,
Until no more room is found for them.
Zechariah 10:10 (NKJV)
Zachariah is sharing prophecy with Israel as they learn to adjust to life on the other side of exile. It’s actually been 70 years since God delivered them, but over those 70 years since returning to Judah, it’s been anything but easy. In fact, it’s been such a hard 70 years that it causes Israel to wonder if God is going to fulfill His promises, including making of Israel a new nation, with a new Jerusalem.
Through several visions, the prophet Zechariah is trying to encourage the people to remain faithful to God. Seventy years of hardship is not easy, particularly after enduring painful captivity. And it’s even more difficult trying to feed excitement and stoke spiritual loyalty when there’s been nothing but hardship since being delivered.
It’s hard to keep one’s focus in such circumstances. It’s understandable that doubts are rising and hope is waning and discouragement is dominating. It’s understandable that spirituality appears anemic and worship is at such a low pitch. There is very little talk of deep abiding trust in the God who delivered them from captivity.
Zechariah therefore shares his visions to encourage the nation: Remember the covenant you share with God. Stay faithful to living devoted to God. Don’t give up on it. Don’t let the struggle of the times make you forget the strength of God, which is always at work in your lives.
The prophet’s message is: For God’s glory and always for your good, don’t forget the promises that God has released to you. Regardless of the time delay and the circumstances and the emotions, we must never lose sight of the truth that can sustain. And that truth is this: God keeps His promises.
God always guides history towards His purposes. Creation is always responding to God’s ultimate will, even when obstacles and conundrums stand in our way. Zechariah’s message is clear: Stay faithful to the covenant. God will keep His promise to you. This was the prophet’s message to Israel then, and it is God’s message to us today.
God has not forgotten His promises to you and He will be faithful to bring them to pass. So don’t lose heart. He is at work, even when you don’t see it.
Do Something!
The kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and
delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another
one, to each according to his own ability.
Matthew 25:14-15 (NKJV)
Jesus told the parable of a man who went away after entrusting money to his servants to invest. The first servant was given five talents, which he turned into ten. The second servant likewise doubled the talents he was given. But the third servant buried his one talent in the ground and did not realize any return because he didn’t use what he was given to produce more for his master.
This third servant just let the season of time pass, allowing any potential to sit dormant. He sat on what he was given. Fear of losing it, fear of failure, and maybe even fear of succeeding all motivated him to do absolutely nothing. Worse than attempting and failing, this man did nothing at all.
He ends up being reprimanded by the owner, and that which was entrusted to him is taken away. Moreover, he loses the confidence of the owner as it relates to his capacity and ability.
Are we like that third servant? We may wrestle with discerning what God wants us specifically to do with our lives. We may live every day trying to fully understand our call and to appropriate our spiritual gifts. We may struggle to find the obedient place of surrender that helps us to fight the flesh and to surrender our lives to the Spirit. We may even be slow to exercise fully the disciplines of the Spirit.
What this text teaches us is that all of that is OK as long as you don't ever settle for doing nothing: No attempt to better your life or its position. No attempt to understand the reason God wired you. No thought of what your gifts are and how God intended for them to be used in the world. No attempt to feed the spirit or the brain. No desire to put away childish things in pursuit of godly things.
There is no guesswork here. The one thing there is no excuse for is doing nothing to better your life, to honor God more faithfully, or to understand more of His will for your lived experience.
No life is meant to be lived burying the gifts given to it. Not when these gifts have come from such a gracious God. All He wants you to do is try. And even if your five don’t produce another five, then so be it. Or if your one produces ten, then so be it. But you’ll never see what your faith is able to produce if you don’t activate it and put it into play.
Don’t sit around. Do something for the Lord!
Transitions
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God
and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a
towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’
feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
John 13:3-5 (NIV)
What captures my attention as strongly as the image of Jesus wrapping the towel around His waist and taking the basin in His hand is what Jesus does prior to that.
The image of the towel and basin is so strong to teach the power of servanthood—that the greatest among us is the one who serves. It’s a lesson in humility and service to God and to each other. The image of the towel and the basin is so powerful.
But to me, it is equally as strong to read that prior to that, Jesus took off His outer robe. I think that image teaches boldly the necessary transitions we all must accept in life. This is how we grow and mature. This is how we move to places of increased power and purpose and all things spiritual. It's how we focus on gifts, and honor the ministry, and live to respect the calling. It's how we get over hurts and grow past our pains. This is what we do when we make those very critical transitions in thought and action and attitude and duty.
It's not always difficult to pick up what God requires, but it's extremely difficult at times to take off what we have learned to wear so comfortably: the mindsets and patterns and self-identities, the things that are easy and protective and safe and reliable. To take those things off and pick up what will change the way we think about and do things, it can be extremely difficult.
What things in your life have you thought or believed or protected or relied on or practiced or settled into or become convinced that if you have to take it off, it will be too difficult for you? Are there things that you've grown comfortable enough in that you’d rather keep on the dysfunction than to take it off and chase the adventurous ride that comes with faith in Jesus Christ?
What has kept you covered and comfortable, that you will have to take off in order to feel reliant on a sovereign God? What has defined you so much that to even consider casting it off is scary, causing you angst and fear and doubt?
This passage is a reminder that all acceptance of the next requires a disrobing of sorts. Are you prepared to take off the robe of what’s comfortable in order to receive the role of servanthood God has planned for you next?
Feed Yourself the Word of God
When your words came, I ate them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty.
Jeremiah 15:16 (NIV)
If you anchor your life in meditation and contemplation of the God who has given you redemption and graced you with salvation, you don’t need anybody else to tell you that you have capabilities, capacities, and abilities. No. When you meditate on God, you get up from meditation feeling like you can leap over walls, living as more than a conqueror, anointed and gifted to get the job done, fully capable of doing all things through Christ who gives you strength. You feel like you live with the entire force of heaven behind you and a great cloud of witnesses who are cheering you on, like your faith makes all things possible and attainable and achievable.
Care enough about your life to feed it more than what will pass and fade away. The grass will wither, and the flowers will fade, but the Word of our God shall abide forever.
You know how a person cares for himself, what he thinks about himself, and what he feeds himself by what comes out of him—how he speaks about the things that are relevant and important to his life, what he thinks of others, and how he treats other people.
• It’s not about his accumulation—but is there any evidence of generosity?
• It’s not about what he criticizes—but does he live extending mercy and grace?
• It’s not about what he holds as a grudge, but can he forgive since he lives forgiven?
When we feed ourselves the Word of God, we stay sane in a crazy world. For many of us, the only thing that’s keeping us from going crazy as well is that we are seated in God’s presence and clothed in His righteousness, in perfect peace because our mind is stayed on Him. The only reason you don’t go off when somebody hurts your feelings, or respond by giving evil for evil, is because God has done inside renovation though the meditation on, memorization of, and practice of His Word.
Care enough about your spiritual health, and be aggressive enough to protect your graced place in life, that you feed yourself the Word of God.
A Little Does a Lot
He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
(Luke 17:6 NIV)
If you can trust God with just a small prayer, a small idea, a small sacrifice, He can turn it into something that has kingdom-size impact and blesses many. You may start with just a small desire…
• To get off of drugs.
• To get out of an abusive situation.
• To go back to school.
• To try and make a difficult call.
• To take one small step.
It doesn’t matter how seemingly insignificant that desire may be—you can trust God for the rest. He can make up the difference. He can cover the space. He can answer the prayer. And He can put His anointing on it.
This is what is required of you: to trust God so strong, so heavy, and so deep that you will testify, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength,” knowing in your heart that with men things are impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Those seemingly insignificant things can make significant impact, because if you give God something small, He can turn it around and make it something cataclysmically big. Little becomes much when you place it in the Master’s hands.
I’ve done that with my bills. I’ve done that with my dreams. I’ve done that with my faith. I’ve said, “God, all I have is a little. This is all I have to negotiate with.” And He said, “That’s all I need. All I need is faith the size of a mustard seed. Let Me prove it to you.”
Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and minds have not conceived what great things God has in store for you. Don’t you let go of that dream. Don’t you let go of that thought. Don’t you let go of that small little discipline. I don’t care if all you have is a tiny idea—you keep churning it and you keep praying about it. You keep offering it to the Lord and you keep making it your sacrifice unto Him.
I promise you that God can take that tiny bit and use it to prove to you that He can radically change your world.
It is through Jesus that we are empowered to do great things. So confess to Him that your belief is small. He will help your unbelief, because His grace is sufficient!
