Scripture Focus:

Write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive:

I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan. Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

Revelation 2:8-11 (NLT)

My grandfather’s name was Murdock Dunnam. For some strange reason, he was known in the family as Grandpa Mutt. He lived into his nineties. Near the end of his life, he began experiencing significant health challenges. First a blood clot in his leg. The doctors thought they would have to amputate because the arteries were so hardened they couldn’t remove the clot and were fearful the leg would “die” for lack of blood.

When he got out of the hospital my father was able to visit. They had a wonderful conversation. They talked about my grandmother Cora – we called her Grandma Corie or sometimes just Co-bell. She had died two years prior. Teary-eyed, my grandpa talked about how he missed her more every day. They had been married almost 70 years.

They talked about his life and faith. He knew he had come through a death-threatening situation and was still in a precarious situation. My father asked him what he thought about his close call and was he ready. His eyes twinkled and he smiled as he said, “I’ve been praying that I would live to be a hundred, but if I go tomorrow, it’s OK. The Lord has been good.”

As my father and grandfather visited, my dad asked his father to sing for him. That’s always been a part of our family visits – especially when my grandma was living. We would all sit together and sing the gospel songs that nurtured Co-bell’s and Mutt’s faith. This time Mutt sang a portion of two songs. One song, You Never Mentioned Him to Me, is about our failure to witness for Christ: “You passed me day by day, and you knew I was astray, but you never mentioned him to me.” The other was “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand.” A part of that song goes:

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye

To Canaan’s fair and happy land, where my possessions lie.

It was obvious that my grandpa was reflecting on how faithful he had been in living the Christian life and sharing Christ with others. He was also expressing his wistful longing to be reunited with my grandma in “Canaan’s fair and happy land.”

When I think about this story, I’m reminded of my grandparents’ tombstones that are in the little country church cemetery just up the hill from where they lived. Grandma Corie’s last words to my grandpa were, “I’ll meet you.” His response to her was, “I’ll be there.” Those words are etched on each of their tombstones.

When I think about my grandparents, I think of Revelations 2:10. “Be faithful even when facing death, and I will give you the crown of life.” It’s a fabulous oxymoron: faithful to death – crown of life. That’s what this yearlong devotional journey has been about – making us fit for this life as persons “in Christ,” Kingdom people now, and fit for the eternal Kingdom.

Not all of us will live until ninety with a prayer to go for 100, but we can have a twinkling eye – confident that if we go tomorrow, all will be well.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian during the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich. From the beginning he sensed the evil of this rise of Nazi power and risked everything in his fight against it. In 1943 he was arrested and imprisoned in Berlin and later in Buchenwald. From prison he wrote letters that still define and call us to courage and hope. In one of his letters, he shared this prayer: “Give me the hope that will deliver me from fear and faintheartedness.” He was given that hope, which delivered him from fear and faintheartedness, and empowered him to face execution with courage.

Whatever happens, faithfulness and hope give us the confidence that God is alive and is sovereign. The resurrection of Jesus provides that confidence and hope. And it’s the resurrection of Jesus that gives ultimate meaning to our celebration of the birth of the Messiah Jesus. For the very reason God became human in Jesus was that ultimately death might be defeated, and we might have life, and have it abundantly.

My grandma and grandpa are singing the songs of faith and hope in their eternal home. And my family continues to sing them here. As you pray and fast this week, anticipating welcoming the birth of our Savior, the Messiah Jesus, I pray that this devotional journey we’ve shared during 2024 has helped you clarify the song of your life and given you the confidence to sing it.

Scripture Focus:

O Lord, you will hear the desire of the meek; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth may strike terror no more.

Psalm 10:17-18 (NRSV)

Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

Psalm 37:10-11 (NRSV)

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Jesus (Matthew 5:5, NRSV)

The fruit of the Spirit we’ve been studying during this year have a wonderful parallel in Jesus’ Beatitudes found in Matthew 5. The third of these, “Blessed are the meek,” is Jesus’ affirmation of people who have the fruit of gentleness growing in their lives. The Greek word translated gentleness in Paul’s list of fruit of the Spirit is prautes. Of all the words in Paul’s list, this is the most difficult to translate. Some have suggested that the Greek adjective praus can help us understand. This word is used to describe an animal who has been tamed and brought under control. For the Christian, it means submission to the will of God.

“Blessed are the meek,” is talking about the kind of person who is faithful and submissive to God even in the midst of trial, which means the meekness, or gentleness, that’s blessed by Jesus isn’t weakness; it’s strength. Meek people know their strength but submit that strength to Christ in a ministry of love and caring for others. Martin Luther described this kind of person as “the most free lord of all.”

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul talks about a “worker approved by God,” one who has no need to be ashamed.

A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth.

2 Timothy 2:24-25 (NLT)

This description illuminates specific aspects of meekness. One, respect for others: “must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone.” The gentle meek don’t have to prove themselves. They don’t build themselves up by tearing others down.

Two, purposeful but person-centered: “be patient with difficult people.” The gentle meek have a purpose, a life-agenda that’s clear, but they value persons more than process or prowess. They’re willing to move more slowly if necessary to express value for others.

Three, certain and confident but not arrogant or proud: “Gently instruct those who oppose the truth.” The gentle meek know who they are and are strong in their convictions, but they don’t used their strength to intimidate others.

Years ago, the actor Peter Ustinov was reflecting on the images that actors have to live with and made this profound observation: “It’s a sad state when the man looking at you in the mirror is more important than the man looking into the mirror.” The meek aren’t caught in that bind. Because they don’t pretend, they don’t have to prove anything. They don’t have to worry about their image.

The meek also know their need for God, and they never forget their story. I’m reminded of Eleanor Boyer. Back in the late 1990’s Eleanor won the New Jersey state lottery. Her story was reported by USA TODAY because she secretly and suddenly gave all the money away. Explaining her generosity, she simply said, “I have my pension and Social Security. I have everything I need. Why let the money sit in the bank till I die?” After her big win she waited only three weeks before donating more than $5.9 million to her parish, The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Somerville, New Jersey. Keeping her generosity mainly local, she also gave to various charitable organizations, needy persons in her neighborhood, and three nephews who were her only close relatives. Even with the huge gift to her church, the interest on Eleanor’s winnings – $10,000 a month – was coming in faster than she could give it away. She was deluged with letters and requests and each one got personal attention and an immediate decision.

While she always expressed a desire to remain private, there was a great deal of publicity associated with Eleanor’s generosity. Lottery officials and experts across the nation at that time knew of no one who gave away such a great amount, so quickly and so fully. Despite all the publicity, however, Eleanor Boyer’s life changed little. She remained in Somerville in the same gray Cape Cod-style house where she was born. And the church remained her focus as it had all her life. She sang in the choir, taught religion classes, and counted the Sunday offering. She continued to attend Mass daily, driving her 1969 Chevy Malibu. She continued to rise early for prayer and drop her weekly envelope in the collection plate.

Eleanor Boyer knew her need for God. She knew her story and never forgot it. To be meek, we must remember our story and be ever aware of our need for God. No matter what happens to us, how successful we are, to what level accomplishment we may rise, we remember the soil from which we have grown, those who have made us who we are.

As you pray and fast, reflect on how well you know who you are. How secure are you in that? To what degree do you know your need for God? Do you remember your story? Do you stay in touch with where you came from?

I will be praying that you would claim the gentle strength of meekness – cultivating a respect for others and an awareness of your purpose. That you would experience a certainty and confidence that comes when we know we have nothing to prove because we recognize our need for God and never forget the soil from which we have grown.

Scripture Focus:

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:1-11 (NLT)

Earlier this year, we talked about faith as one of the three “theological virtues.” This month we’re thinking about faith and faithfulness, faithfulness as a fruit of the Spirit.

William Stringfellow was a well-known lawyer, theologian, and author who used his legal skills to defend the poor. He was an outspoken opponent of all forms of oppression and considered by many to be one of the most outstanding lay theologians of the 20^th century. In 1974, he served as defense lawyer for eleven women who were irregularly ordained to the Episcopal priesthood. It was a case that opened the way for the official recognition of the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church.

Stringfellow died in 1985 at the age of fifty-six. Three days after his death, friends and family gathered at his island home to celebrate his life. Daniel Berrigan, a Roman Catholic priest, poet, and peace advocate, gave the eulogy. The magazine Sojourners reprinted part of what he said:

For thousands of us, he became the honored keeper and guardian of the word of God; that is to say, a Christian who could be trusted to keep his word, which was God’s word made his own. To keep that word close, to speak it afresh, to make it new…

He could act honorably and courageously on occasion, in the breech, because he lived that way, over the long haul. In public and private, in good times and ill, in health and sickness, he kept his word.

And that word, which he kept and guarded and cherished, it now keeps him. That is the way with the Word, which we name Christ. The Covenant keeps us, who keep the Covenant. [1]

That’s the picture of faithfulness: “The Covenant keeps us who keep the Covenant.” Because our faith is in God’s faithfulness, we can be faithful.

Days like ours call for faith and faithfulness: faith in the One who, in all grace, died for our sins, and died that sin and evil might die; faithfulness to our experience of redemption, and the promise that, by Jesus’ power, “we are no longer slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6).

Days like ours call for faithfulness. Political problems which are baptized with evil and energized by institutional selfishness are complex, some would say unsolvable. Human problems such as poverty and starvation are so monumental that we’re tempted to throw up our hands. The strong forces of evil have their work recorded in daily news stories of crime, pornography, violence, racism, human beings being exploited and their dignity trampled. The word of Paul that sin abounds is an understatement. But Paul didn’t stop with a partial diagnosis. Sin abounds – but grace abounds even more. It’s hard to see. So very hard to see. And that’s the reason the fruit of faithfulness is so desperately needed in our day.

We’ve entered the season of Advent, a time of preparation for the most mind-boggling yet life-giving indication of God’s faithfulness – The Word becoming flesh to dwell among us. As you pray and fast in the coming days, reflect on the truth that the most meaningful things in life – our relationship to God, friendship, opportunities – these things often come as a result of decisions we have made, steps we have taken. Where are you in life as a result of the steps you have taken? What role have faith and faithfulness played?

I will be praying for you! That you would live out the truth that the Covenant keeps those who keep the Covenant.

[1] Daniel Berrigan, Sojourners Magazine, May 1985, p33.

Scripture Focus:

A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all. The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life. In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls, but those who would preserve their life stay far from them. Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Proverbs 22:1-6 (NIV)

In rural Tennessee where I grew up, I often heard people described in this way: “He’s a good-for-nothing ***.” That last word was always colorful expletive, but even without it, this description was always hard and had a terrible put-down impact. It’s an illustration of the strange way we use words. But it’s descriptive. We can be good for something or good for nothing.

There’s a more serious problem with the word good in our current American English usage. We’ve made it an almost meaningless word in our vocabulary. In this culture we don’t think seriously about goodness because we don’t think seriously about morality. Everything is relative. Everyone decides what’s good in their own eyes. It’s another witness to how words lose their power.

Good, however, is a powerful word in scripture. Proverbs 22:1 teaches, “A good name is more desirable than great riches.” Another book of biblical poetry also proclaims, “Better a good name than costly oil” (Ecclesiastes 7:1, NJB). Commenting on this verse. Rabbi William Silverman once wrote:

Good oil flows downward, while a good name ascends. Good oil is transient, while a good name endures forever. Good oil is spent, while a good name is not spent. Good oil is bought with money, while a good name is free of cost. Good oils is applicable only to the living, while a good name is applicable to the living and the dead. Good oil can be acquired only by the rich, while a good name can be acquired by the poor and rich. The scent of good oil is diffused from the bedchamber to the dining hall, while a good name is diffused from one end of the world to the other. [1]

We need to recover the rich meaning of the word “goodness.” The Greek word for goodness is agathosune, which is a strictly biblical word. It’s not used in secular Greek. Paul uses it in Romans 15:14 – “I myself feel confident about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another” (my emphasis). He uses it again in Ephesians 5:9 – “For the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true” (my emphasis). He uses it in his prayer for the Thessalonians – “To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith” (2 Thessalonians 1:11, my emphasis).

We need to recover the richness of this uniquely Christian word. It’s a goodness that is “good for something” and is the fruit of the Spirit in the life of a Christian. New Testament scholars remind us that the goodness Jesus expressed was both prophetic and pastoral. Jesus expressed agathosune, goodness, in cleansing the temple and driving out the money-changers. His goodness is expressing itself prophetically, demanding a change, requiring a response, bringing the fruit of the Spirit to fruition.

Jesus expressed chrestotes, kindness, to the woman who crashed the party at Simon’s house and anointed Jesus’ feet. In this understanding, goodness is prophetic and kindness is pastoral. What a challenging way to think about it.

How often do we think of goodness as prophetic? As confrontative truth demanding a response, calling for change? Goodness, which is Christian, does that. We see a good person, one whose profession and performance are in harmony, and we take note. I’m challenged by friends who over the years have consistently taken young teenagers into their home because they were in hopeless situations. This family’s goodness shows. It’s good for something. They’re putting their commitment to “the least of these” into concrete expression.

Goodness is prophetic. We need both goodness and kindness. It’s been said that Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. We need the kind of life that has such integrity in relation to Christ that those around us who are comfortable in their apathy, unconcern, and insensitivity will be afflicted by our very presence, and those who are afflicted by the pains and problems of life will be comforted by that same presence.

As you pray and fast this week, bring to mind someone you know whose simple goodness is a challenge to you. What is it about them that exudes goodness? Think about your own life. Would anyone who is comfortable in apathy, unconcern, and insensitivity be afflicted by your presence?

I will be praying that you will have the kind of life that has such integrity in relation to Christ, that those around you who are comfortable in their apathy, unconcern, and insensitivity will be afflicted by your very presence; and those who are afflicted by the pains and problems of life will be comforted by that same presence.

[1] William Silverman, Rabbinic Stories for Christian Ministers and Teachers (New York: Abingdon Press, 1958), p75.

Scripture Focus:

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT)

In our passage for today, Jesus describes his yoke as “easy.” The Greek word for this is chrestos. It’s the same word that is sometimes translated as kindness when talking about the fruit of the Spirit. It’s also sometimes translated as gentleness. I believe this points to the importance of integrating our inner character and the outward expression of our lives as we grow in the full stature of Christ. We are to become patient and kind, good and gentle.

Another interesting use of the word chrestos is to describe old wine – old wine is mellow. Christ’s yoke is chrestos – it’s mellow. It doesn’t chafe or hurt. It fits, it’s easy. There’s a significant connection here. We’re called to a particular style of relationship with others. We’re to be with them in the same way Christ is with us – making their way easier because we’re yoked together. Our kindness is an expression of Christ’s presence within us. It’s a way of being with others that gives the strength and power they need to go on.

Years ago, I heard a story about a young woman whose husband was a doctor in India during World War II who died from a tropical disease of some sort. The shock of it sent her into despair. She lost all interest in life, not caring whether she live or died. She booked passage on a ship back to the United States and on that ship she met the survivor of another tragedy – a seven-year-old boy, whose missionary parents had been killed in the fighting in Burma. The little boy was attracted to the woman. A seven-year-old needs a mother, especially under those circumstances. But she would have nothing to do with him. In fact, she scheduled her time on shipboard to avoid him. She couldn’t get outside herself and her sorrow long enough to comfort a little boy. “I have my own problems to deal with” is how she described it.

One night the ship was torpedoed and began to sink slowly. The woman came out on deck, preparing herself to go down with the ship. She had no will to live and decided not even to seek an escape. But on the deck she saw the little boy, shivering with cold and fright. He saw her, ran over, and clung to her. Something came over her. She led him to one of the lifeboats; they both got in, and, for the next several days, until they were rescued, she held him. Looking back on the incident, her friends said they didn’t know whether the woman saved the boy or the boy saved the woman.

Kindness – yoked together in a fashion that makes the way of another easier. Why are we so blind that we fail to see kindness as the salvation needed by so many? Men, women, young, old. People need to have someone with them in the fashion that Christ is with us, making their way easier because we are yoked with them.

We talk about random acts of kindness. When those acts happen it brightens everyone’s day. But kindness as a fruit of the Spirit is hardly random. It’s an aggressive and assertive kindness – always reaching out for easy yoking.

As you pray and fast this week, think about this definition of kindness: yoked together in a fashion that makes the way of another easier. Are you yoked together with anyone in that fashion? Is there anyone you need to be yoked together with in that way but are not? I will be praying that if there is such a person in your life, that you will begin to cultivate kindness toward them, yoking yourself in a way that makes their way easier.

Scripture Focus:

I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Psalm 108:3-4 (NLT)

You are my rock and my fortress. For the honor of your name, lead me out of this danger. Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me, for I find protection in you alone. I entrust my spirit into your hand. Rescue me, Lord, for you are a faithful God.

Psalm 31:3-5 (NLT)

United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Great Britain Prime Minister Winston Churchill were at the Yalta Conference with Joseph Stalin from Russia in 1945, trying to settle issues between nations following World War II. When Roosevelt said that he hoped that the conference would only last five or six days, Churchill responded, “I do not see any way of realizing our hopes about world organization in five or six days. Even the Almighty took seven.”

One of our biggest problems is that we’re always in a hurry. We live in a fast-food, quick-fix, instant-replay world. The amazing advancements in technology have dramatically improved our lives, yet we can’t wait even a couple of seconds for the video to load or our computer to boot up. It reminds me of the story of a man who prayed earnestly one morning for grace to overcome his impatience. A little later, he missed his train by half a minute and spent an hour stomping up and down the station platform in furious irritation. Five minutes before the next train arrived, he suddenly realized that his prayer had been answered! He had been given an hour to practice the virtue of patience but had missed the opportunity and wasted the hour fuming.

The fruit of the Spirit, especially patience, can’t grow if we’re always in a hurry. This fruit of the Spirit, Christian patience, is dependent upon our belief in a sovereign God who is in control, who is at work in the world, and who will not forget any one of us. The psalmist sang about this in our Scripture passages for today. But not only in the Psalms, the witness is throughout the Bible: Our sovereign God is in control. God is at work in the world and will not forget any one of us. The prophet Isaiah put it this way, in one of the most haunting words in the Old Testament’s record of God speaking of his people:

Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Isaiah 49:15-16 (NLT)

We demonstrate our impatience most irreverently when we question God’s timetable. How often and in how many ways does it happen? We expect God to act now. When we don’t perceive signs of God’s acting, we give up looking for God’s activity in our life; even specific answers to prayer go unnoticed.

We also show the limitation of our patience when we’re impatient with another person’s weaknesses. This is one of our most glaring failures. We’re quick to see the “speck” in another’s eye and disregard the “beam” in our own. An antidote for this is to constantly remind ourselves of God’s patience with us. Psalm 92 reminds us that it is good “to declare [God’s] steadfast love in the morning” (v2). If we keep reminding ourselves that God is committed to us, that our welfare is close to God’s heart and that God will not withhold or even modify one single promise, then we can show patience with another person’s weakness. If God is patient with us, constant in lovingkindness, we certainly owe the same to others.

Finally, when we’re in a hurry, we can’t pray. Prayer demands time, attention, silence, waiting. When we’re in a hurry, we miss much of the beauty and meaning of life. In “Infirmity” the poet Theodore Roethke talks about seeing in a different way: “the deep eye sees the shimmer on the stone.” If we’re in a hurry we miss that – not only the shimmer on the stone, but also the glimmer on the grass, the yellow-breasted finch, first violets of spring, the beauty of the weeks, the dancing shadows of wind-motioned pines.

Roethke makes another suggestive statement in “What Can I Tell My Bones.” He says, “I recover my tenderness by long looking.” Impatience blocks us from tenderness because there can be no long looking if we’re always in a hurry.

As you fast and pray this week, reflect on several questions. Have there been occasions recently when you have been impatient with God?

Are there people in your life that you are impatient with because of their weakness? How do you think God might want you to change in relation to those people?

How about your prayer life? Do you have difficulty giving God your focused attention in prayer?

I pray that you would begin to cultivate a “deep eye” and “long looking,” remembering that you are written on the palm of God’s hand – he will never forget you.

Scripture Focus:

Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love. Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!

Micah 7:18-19 (NLT)

This month we’re focusing on three fruits of the Spirit – patience, kindness, and goodness. Today we’ll start with patience.

A first-grade teacher was having an unusually difficult day. It was raining and the kids couldn’t go out for recess. As the day wore on, the kids got more and more restless. The teacher could hardly wait for the end of the day.

About 15 minutes before the bell rang, she saw that it was still raining so she decided to start getting everyone ready for dismissal. She sorted out their boots and raincoats and began helping get them on. Finally, they were all ready to go with the exception of one little boy whose boots were just too small for his feet. There were no zippers or snaps, and it took every last ounce of strength she had to get them on.

When at last she had them on, she straightened up with a sigh of relief. But the little boy looked down at his feet for a moment and said, “You know what? These boots ain’t mine!”

She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but being the good teacher she was, she smiled bravely and started taking them off. They were even harder to get off than they were to put on! She yanked and tugged and tugged and yanked. Finally, the boots came off. And you’ll never guess what the little boy said, “They ain’t my boots, but they’re my sister’s and I gotta wear them!”

It happens daily: Our patience is tried.

The Greek word is makrothymise and is translated “patience” and “forbearance” as well as “long-suffering.” To grasp the meaning of patience as a fruit of the Spirit, it’s best to begin by thinking of the patience of God with us. God suffers long, bears with us in all our sinning and rebellion, all our apathy and unconcern. God doesn’t draw back when we spurn God’s love.

In our Scripture for today, the prophet Micah provides a marvelous picture of this patient, long-suffering God. Pardoning our guilt, overlooking our sin, delighting in showing unfailing love. This is who God is, and Jesus reveals this patient, long-suffering God as the Shepherd who never gives up on a lost sheep, as a Father who waits and prays and prays and waits with outstretched hands and heart to receive the prodigal son back home.

As you pray and fast this week, think about the things that try your patience. Why do these situations get to you? Is it a matter of time? Is it a control issue – you’re not in complete control? Are feelings of threat involved? Reflect on why you become impatient in these situations. I’ll be praying that you would remember the depth of God’s patience with each one of us. That he never gives up and always waits with an outstretched hand and heart.

Scripture Focus:

If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live… I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

John 14:15-19, 25-27 (NLT)

There is no ongoing peace apart from keeping our mind stayed on Jesus.

I’ve spent much of my adult life studying scripture, reading theology, writing sermons and books, preparing for worship, praying, seeking to lead others, caring for persons in need, and in the process receiving a lot of love and affirmation. Yet, there are times when I feel an absence of peace. A subtle franticness sets in, and I become uneasy, uncertain, unproductive. I lose my sense of centeredness and go into a “funk.” Sometimes this gloom and absence of peace is short-lived. Sometimes it’s for a day even a week.

The time is determined by how long it takes me to realize I’ve taken my eyes off Jesus. My mind isn’t stayed on Christ. When I discover what priority has replaced Christ as the priority in my life, then through prayer and commitment, I recover peace.

This is the first way to cultivate the certainty of God’s presence, and thus receive the by-product of peace – keeping our minds stayed on Jesus.

In his classic book Brother to a Dragonfly, Will D. Campbell tells the story of a woman who transparently kept her mind stayed on Jesus.

And about Mrs. Tilly a little Methodist woman from Atlanta, who never weighed more than a hundred pounds in her life, who looked about eight years younger than God, joined forces with a group of forty thousand women in the thirties and forties in what they called the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching. She was then active in advocating the desegregation of public schools and got a lot of obscene phone calls, calling her everything but the gentle woman she was. She had an engineer hook her telephone to a phonograph and when someone called her late at night the answer they heard was some deep-throated baritone singing The Lord’s Prayer. The calls soon stopped. [1]

What an imagination! But also, what confidence in the Lord! No wonder Mrs. Tilly knew peace. She kept her mind stayed on Jesus.

Then there’s a second realization. The Christian’s peace is the companion to knowing and doing God’s will. If we’ve been given marching orders in a particular area or relationship of our lives and have refused to follow, then we can’t know peace. If we pray, “Lord, what do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? How do you want me to act?” and the Lord responds with direction that we consciously refuse to follow, we won’t know peace. Faithful obedience is the environment essential for the fruit of peace.

It sounds presumptuous, but we’ve got to give God “elbow room” in our lives. We have to make room and be willing to allow God to move in our lives as God pleases. However intimately we may know God, we never know God well enough to predict when and how God is going to act and what God is going to demand. Obedience must be our ready response.

I saw this stance of obedience and thus a peace that passes all understanding in the life of my family’s friends, Abel and Freida Hendricks. Abel was a Methodist preacher in South Africa. He fought the battle against apartheid and stood with the poor and oppressed at great cost. At one point, he had been imprisoned by the government for his courageous opposition to oppression. My father had a telephone conversation with him the day after his release. Though my father didn’t know until later, Abel was on the verge of nervous collapse; he had suffered so much physically and emotionally. He was very emotional as they talked on the phone, even crying at times. But his words were strong and confident: “We’re going to be all right. They can put us in prison; they can close our schools; they can continue to deny human rights and try to reduce us to animals. But they cannot take away our peace and joy in Christ.”

Where is the secret of Abel and Freida’s joy and peace? Keeping their minds stayed on Christ and knowing and doing the will of God.

As you pray and fast this week, reflect on these questions. Would those who know you say you are peace-filled? Are you resisting some call, failing to respond to what you know is God’s will? I will be praying for you! That you would claim the promise and live in the confidence that God will keep in perfect peace those who trust in him.

[1] Will D. Campbell, Brother to a Dragonfly (New York: The Continium Publishers Corporation, 1995), p137.

Scripture Focus:

In that day, everyone in the land of Judah will sing this song: Our city is strong! We are surrounded by the walls of God’s salvation. Open the gates to all who are righteous; allow the faithful to enter. You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

Isaiah 26:1-4

Peace is the product of the certainty of God’s presence despite the circumstances. That’s important enough to repeat:

Peace is the product of the certainty of God’s presence despite the circumstances.

We’ve probably all witnessed this truth at some point. Someone we know is walking through the darkest valley of the shadow of death, yet radiating peace. Another is living in horrendous circumstances that would drive others to madness yet move through the clamor and confusion with quiet strength. And another is pulled in ten different directions – demanding work, a sick spouse, a rebellious teenager. You wonder how they keep from “flying to pieces,” and then you discover why. You know they’re being kept in peace because their mind is stayed on God.

We have a family friend, a Methodist minister’s wife, whose life is the most powerful witness I know of the peace that is the product of the certainty of God’s presence despite the circumstances.

On New Year’s Day, 1991, she and her ten-year-old daughter were headed home from celebrating the Christmas holidays with friends. She missed a turn and decided to take the next road, though it wasn’t familiar to her. She topped a hill to be greeted by a stop sign. She was going too fast to stop and went through the intersection and under the trailer of an eighteen-wheeler. Her daughter survived with minor lacerations and a mild concussion, but our friend’s spinal cord was injured and she was paralyzed from the neck down. There were broken ribs and a punctured lung. In the first week, she had three surgeries. In the beginning, she could only move her eyes.

The doctors told her husband that she would be better off dead; that if she lived, she would be bedridden, ventilator-dependent, and a vegetable. The doctors even told her husband that he was too young to be saddled with an invalid wife and offered “some solutions.” But her husband chose life for her.

The initial few years after the accident were full of pain and struggle, hospitalization, and surgery after surgery. Yet, over time, she was able to graduate to a wheelchair and a neck brace, and with a splint on her wrist she can use a telephone, a computer, and feed herself. A newspaper carried an article about her activity – her speaking in church and ministering in all sorts of imaginative ways. In a letter to my father, she described her life:

My family is like any other family. We shop, go to movies, eat out, and take vacations. I’m still a quadriplegic. But by God’s grace I’m also a pastor’s wife, a mother, a registered nurse (inactive), a Certified Lay Speaker in our church, a Sunday school teacher, and an active member of United Women in Faith. I continue to pray for physical healing, but I’m also aware of the great spiritual healing God has done in me and through me. His hand has been in my life throughout this journey. I know because I hold on to it and “walk” with God every day.

How aware are you of God’s presence in your life? As you fast and pray this week, bring to your mind a time when you felt forsaken or alone or abandoned – maybe it was an illness, or the death of a loved one, or a failure or loss of a friendship or job. In reflecting on that experience, did you feel God’s presence? How did you experience God’s presence? Even though, then, you may not have felt and acknowledged God’s presence, are the signs, in retrospect that God was there – present and working?

I will be praying that you would cultivate a keen sense of God’s presence and that you would experience the peace that comes from the certainty that God is with us despite the circumstances.

Scripture Focus:

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening, accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, a harp, and the melody of a lyre. You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done. O Lord, what great works you do! And how deep are your thoughts. Only a simpleton would not know, and only a fool would not understand this: Though the wicked sprout like weeds and evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever. But you, O Lord, will be exalted forever.

Psalm 92:1-8 (NLT)

Last month we focused our attention on joy, one of the fruits of the Spirit. This month we turn to peace. As we do this, we must remember that the fruit of the Spirit aren’t isolated from each other; they overlap in meaning and expression. Some have special connections. That’s the way it is with joy and peace – they go together. Neither is dependent on circumstance. Both are by-products of obedience.

Just as joy is dependent on abiding in Christ’s love, so peace is dependent on keeping our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 says, “you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Just as the source of our joy is the fact of our salvation and the confidence that all our needs will be met, it’s the same with our peace.

In his now classic book, How to Live the Christian Life, Selwyn Hughes told of a preacher friend’s encounter with the receptionist at a doctor’s office. During the preacher’s appointment with the doctor, he invited the receptionist to visit his church. He was stunned at her response. She said that when she saw so many of his church members waiting for their weekly supply of sedatives at the doctor’s office on Monday morning, she really wondered what the church had to offer.

There were tears in the minister’s eyes as he told Hughes the story, concluding, “It hurt so much because it was true.” Reflecting on that experience, Hughes wrote:

If as Christians we claim to have abundant life, how does it happen that so many of us give so little evidence that this life is superior? We say that God is our Father and is quietly arranging all things to work to our good, yet we fly into a panic at the first approach of trouble. We claim Christ is Lord of our lives, yet when someone tramples on our rights we show by our actions who is really in command. We talk piously about peace, but when tragedy strikes, our peace goes into pieces. We preach forgiveness, but let someone injure us and see what happens. [1]

Hughes wrote those words decades ago and so much in our world has changed since then. But it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The gap must be closed – the gap between what we profess and how we live. Peace is the result of our acceptance of God’s forgiveness in our lives. If that’s true – and I absolutely believe it is – then we must keep that awareness alive, and we must practice forgiveness in all our relationships.

A friend of mine told me about a misunderstanding she had with her sister over the matter of a disputed family will. The misunderstanding led to bitter estrangement between the two. She confessed that her resentment darkened through the passing years and something beautiful died within her. She wasn’t only hurting her sister; she was injuring herself. Then on a Sunday, words of Scripture in the worship liturgy took hold of her mind and heart: “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15).

That afternoon she wrote a letter to her sister, a letter that breathed love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. She said, “When I dropped that letter into the mailbox, it was like a thousand ‘alleluias’ singing inside me. The world was beautiful again and I felt alive for the first time in years.”

Peace and joy!

As you pray and fast, bring to your mind the most peace-filled person you know. As you know and have observed this person, what is the source of their peace? Thinking of your own life in relation to this person, what is missing from your life that perhaps is robbing you of peace? I’m praying that you will experience God’s peace, which is greater than you can ever imagine. And I’m praying as well, that His peace would guard your heart and mind as you live in Christ Jesus.

[1] Selwyn Hughes, How to live the Christian Life (New York: Seabury Press, 1982), pp14-15.